US Citizen denied AOS for Mother

[jonathanch]

My wife, a U.S. citizen, asked for her mother and received 797 approval letter, but was denied adjustment of status. Received date and Priority date are the same.

We applied with the 130 the day my wife became a citizen, but decided against filing the 485 at the time because the mother's stay expired by literally few days beforehand - the stay expired, but her B1 Visa was/is still good. We didn't apply for a B1 extension because if it was denied she would of had to go back, which was no bueno due to a few reasons.

Is the best course of action to file the 485 along with the 797 approval letter? (apart from talking to an immigration attorney)

[S_R_E]

I think you need to provide a little more information for people to be able to help you.

You can receive an I-797 for many reasons and multiple times throughout the AOS process.

On what grounds was the petition for AOS denied‚ stating that may help people answer you question

[jonathanch]

I think you need to provide a little more information for people to be able to help you.

You can receive an I-797 for many reasons and multiple times throughout the AOS process.

On what grounds was the petition for AOS denied‚ stating that may help people answer you question

This is the crux of the letter they sent:
Case type: 1130 petition for alien relative
"Evidence indicates that he or she may not be eligible to file AOS application. This determination is based on the information submitted with the petition and any relating files... Because the beneficiary does not appear eligible to adjust status in the US, we have sent approval petition to NVC"

[scientist2016]

For AOS of immediate relatives of US citizens, it does not matter whether their status is valid at the time of AOS or not. The only condition is that they should have been inspected/admitted. So, expiry of your wife's mother's B1 does not matter. This is applicable only for immediate relatives of US citizens. Are there any other reasons for her ineligibility for AOS? If not, I would suggest verifying that AOS was indeed filed in the category of immediate family of US citizen.

[inadmissible]

I suspect she filled out her Form I-485 form wrong. Did she not correctly answer the details of her last entry? Part 1 questions 15 through 25

[newacct]

This is the crux of the letter they sent:
Case type: 1130 petition for alien relative
"Evidence indicates that he or she may not be eligible to file AOS application. This determination is based on the information submitted with the petition and any relating files... Because the beneficiary does not appear eligible to adjust status in the US, we have sent approval petition to NVC"

It seems like what you have is not an I-485 denial. You simply have the I-130 approval letter, saying that it was sent to NVC instead of USCIS. This is pretty normal for I-130 approval letters. It doesn't actually mean anything for her I-485 or eligibility to file I-485. If an immigrant believes they are eligible to file I-485, then they would simply file I-485, and USCIS will request the petition back from NVC; the actual eligibility for I-485 will be adjudicated when I-485 is filed. In your mother-in-law's case, you seem to say that she has already filed I-485, so she is all good. Her I-485 is probably still pending, and she will wait for that to process.