How Many USCIS Agents Does It Take To Collect Fingerprints?

The ordeal with my wife's green card continues. Last week, on April 1st of all days, I received an email from Representative Roby's office notifying me that they had received a status letter on my wife's case. The woman that emailed me said that she was sending a copy of the notification to my wife. This was just a notification from USCIS notifying my wife that they had received the latest application. (the third application since March 2014 by the way, but I digress)

The reason this is going through our Rep's office is just to have some assurances in case another card gets lost in the mail. I'm not sure what course of action can be taken if it does get lost, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Regardless, since the card will ultimately be sent to that address, all correspondence is going there as well.

So yesterday, April 6th, 2015, I received another email from the Rep's office with an attachment. The attachment was a poorly scanned image of another notification from USCIS. The notification was for an appointment they had made for her to come to Birmingham to once again collect biometrics. The only biometrics in this case is the collection of fingerprints. The Birmingham office is 173 miles from our house according to Google Maps, so it is roughly 3 hours one-way to conduct an appointment that lasts about 10 minutes. We know that it takes 10 minutes because we just went to this very office in March of last year, when they successfully collected my wife's fingerprints.

This brings me to a few questions: Why would an agency collect fingerprints? What would one expect might become of these fingerprints once they have been collected? One might assume that they would be kept on file somewhere for possible future reference, or what would be the point of collecting them in the first place? Yet here we are 13 months after the most recent collection of the fingerprints, and we have been given another appointment to drive 173 miles to do it again. Wouldn't it be more effective to simply check to ensure that the fingerprints from last year were still on file? After all, this most recent request was sent to USCIS with the documents showing that they had approved the request from last year, so it must mean that the fingerprints were successfully collected.

Part of the $450 fee sent in with this request included $80 for the biometrics, so if it was a matter of money, this should have satisfied any financial reasons for not using the other set of fingerprints for this case, since I was refunded the original fees by Chase Bank. Certainly this isn't the reason, and I don't suspect that USCIS even knows that we were refunded the original fees.

But none of that matters. It would be more cost effective for them to use the old fingerprints anyway. They wouldn't have to take the time to schedule the appointment, have the agent physically collect the prints, and store them, etc. The work has already been done. Simply verify they are still in the system, and no other work is required, other than printing the new card and mailing it. Of course, this could have been done months ago when we sent in the second application notifying them that we never received the card, but apparently the law does not allow this sort of common sense to ensue.

To top all of this off, the attachment that I received via email looks as though it was scanned with an old mimeograph machine. The woman that sent it to me also mailed the original to our home, so hopefully it will arrive on time, since this document is required at the appointment. Getting a piece of mail seems like a rather simple thing to hope for, but lost mail is the reason we're at this point in the first place. But the attachment is incredibly poor as I've said. I'll attach a few portions of this document to illustrate the poor quality of the attachment:

Zoomed 300%

Original size

I am going to print this as a back-up plan for the appointment on Tuesday, but hopefully we won't have to resort to using it. It would be rather embarrassing. I just can't fathom how anyone could scan something and think this is high enough quality to send...and coming from a Representative of Congress' Office on top of that?

Hopefully Tuesday will bring good news. I'm hoping that the office in Birmingham will extend the expiration of my wife's now expired green card. Last March when we were there, they put a sticker on the card that extended it out several months. I'm still hopeful of going on a cruise in September with some friends of mine from Desert Storm, but until this mess gets straightened out, we can't really make plans.

And so we wait...

USCIS termination notice

As I mentioned in my USCIS Timeline post, I contacted USCIS on February 20th, 2015 after learning that my wife's second I-90 Application had been terminated. I requested the termination letter that USCIS claims they had already sent. Up until today, they were batting .500 on the pieces of mail they claim they sent to my address. We received two previous notices, but failed to receive the green card, and also this termination notice.

This is a copy of the termination notice that was lost on the first attempt.

Putting aside the fact that they are giving me 33 days from January 22nd (which is February 24th) to file a motion to reopen the case...and that date was twenty days ago, this letter is a load of crap.

The short story is "We mailed it. It never came back. You can't prove anything. Send another $450 and we'll try again".

I would entertain sending in the $450 at this point to just put in in the past...get this over with. But the thing is, there is no guarantee that it will come this time. I have asked about sending the card with a signature required, but USCIS refuses to do this. They suggested I get a Post Office Box, or send it to a more secure box. This still doesn't provide a chain of custody. I simply can not take the chance that it will get delivered this time, and I am certainly not willing to risk $450 to find out.

A USCIS frustration

I am writing this in hopes of finding someone to tell our story:

The short story: My wife has tried to get a renewal for her I-551 (Green Card). We had to pay $450 and never received the card. USCIS sent the card via USPS, but we never got it. They insist that we pay another $450. (and hope for the best this time around I suppose). Our position is, the actual value of the card is very little, and the required  work has already been done. We have an approval notice for the application that was submitted in March 2014. The card that was sent was never received by us, so we were instructed by a USCIS Agent to submit another application without a fee. We received another notice shortly after submitting the second application, and the notice had a Balance Due of $0.00.

The problem: USCIS has insisted we send another application with fee. They sent this position through my Representative Martha Roby after I asked her office for help in resolving this matter. USCIS simply washes their hands of the problem because they have a USPS tracking number that shows the card was delivered to our home. (we never possessed the card) Rep Roby's office accepts this position apparently, since I have received two letters from her suggesting that we should pay the $450 fee again.

The solution: As suggested in this Center for Immigration Studies column, one would think it would not be very difficult for someone at USCIS to check my wife's biometrics, and simply issue another card.

The timeline: Click for timeline

YouTube Video: 

USCIS Timeline

The following is a timeline of mine and my wife's attempt to obtain her green card...a document that the government requires her to possess. Spoiler alert: As of 12 March 2015, she still doesn't have it.

A video with much of this timeline explained: YouTube Video

10 March 2014: Went to appointment in Birmingham, AL office for I-551 renewal appointment and fingerprints. She was given an extension of her I-551 through January 2015.

24 October 2014: An I-797 was mailed with an Approval status in the "Notice Type" block and information that the card would be mailed and should arrive within 30 days. I'm not 100% sure of when we actually received this notice, but I believe it was the following week.

December ??, 2014: Early in the month, we contacted USCIS about the card, informing them that we did not receive it. They gave us the tracking number for the USPS "delivery". I contacted the Post Office immediately, and informed them that we did not receive the mail. After speaking with the Postmaster in the town where I live, I immediately called back to USCIS to ask what my next action should be. The agent on the phone told me to fill out another application and be sure to indicate that the card was lost or stolen, and that I would not have to include a fee.

December 8, 2014: USCIS received the second application.

December 11, 2014: An I-797C, Notice of Action was mailed giving us notice that the I-90 Application had been received. On the notification, there is a printed $0.00 Total Balance Due.

January 31, 2015: My wife's I-551 expired.

February 20, 2015: Did an inquiry online about the case and saw the action was "terminated". Called USCIS to inquire about this. The agent informed me that a termination letter had been sent, but was unable to tell me what it meant for our case, or what "terminated" meant. He told me that I could go online and request a copy of the termination letter if I did not receive it by February 21, 2015. Instead of waiting until the very next day, I went online and requested the letter, which was to be sent via email. After completing the request online, I received an email notifying me that I should receive the letter via email by March 14, 2015. I was given a request ID number of: SR10511503868MSC

Not wanting to wait until March 14, I contacted Representative Martha Roby's office in Dothan, AL. I spoke with Barbara Light, and she told me that she would email me a Privacy Act release so they could work on my wife's behalf. We filled out the release and emailed the release and a fairly detailed explanation of everything to Barbara that Friday afternoon. (20 Feb 15) Barbara frankly told me that nothing would get done until the following Monday.

February 23, 2015: Received an email from Mrs. Light notifying me that a liaison in the Atlanta office was working on my case, and that we should hear something within 5 working days.

February 27, 2015: Received a letter signed my Rep Martha Roby regretting to inform me that we were given bad information, and that we would indeed have to pay an additional $450 for a replacement card. Enclosed was the short correspondence with the liaison. This enclosure suggested that we contact the Post Office and gave the tracking number. Of course, this was information that I provided to them through Barbara Light's office, so it was clear to me that they didn't understand my problem, or didn't want to. They also gave the instruction to file a third I-90 application and made sure to highlight "with fee" in bold text, lest I miss that instruction. They also said that I could fill out a Form I-912 to request a waiver if I was unable to pay the application fees.

I called the Dothan office and spoke with Mrs. Light once again, and voiced my frustration with the result. She seemed sympathetic, but offered no suggestions, short of those provided by the liaison. 

Later that afternoon, I called Chase Bank to ensure that I used the credit card to pay for this transaction. This card had been compromised, and I was issued a new card later in 2014, but since the account number had changed, I was unable to get historical statements online. Chase found the transaction, and I attempted to have the charge reversed. I spent some time on the phone with Chase Claims, and they even called USCIS and spoke with an agent. Ultimately, they put us on hold, and the automated message came on to notify us that the wait time was in excess of two hours. The Chase lady laughed, and regretted to inform me that she could not remain on hold with me. I stayed on the phone and was given the option by USCIS to get a callback from an agent. Several hours later, an agent called me back. He was sympathetic to our case, but his only suggestion was to file a Form I-912 to request a waiver.

March 2, 2015: Went online to download a Form I-912. (It was a 5 page PDF!) We clearly do not qualify for the waiver due to financial inability to pay. Rather than go this route, I drove to the office in Dothan of Senator Jeff Sessions. I was greeted at the front door by a security guard who informed me that nobody was in the office. I asked when he expected someone, and he said that they are there "sometimes on Thursday". I decided to call the office and leave a voice mail. 

On the drive back to my hometown, I decided to stop by Martha Roby's office in person, to ask if there was anything else that could be done to help me. I don't think Mrs. Light was happy with my desperate tone, and she got rather frustrated with me. She even suggested that the card can't be simply reissued, because of the possibility of people black-marketing the documents. When I asked her if she thought this was even a remote possibility in my case, she said something to the effect of "well, you are someone that needs this". I was unsure of what she meant, so I just thanked her and walked out.

I received a call from Senator Sessions' office while I was at a doctor appointment later that afternoon, but was unable to answer. I called back and got the voice mail again. Later in the day, a woman named Cecelia called me and I told her about the trouble we had been having. I also told her that I had a letter and Privacy Act Release ready to fax to her. She gave me the number, and I faxed the documents, including the Rep. Roby letter, both Form I-797 and I-797C and an explanation of my problem. (as of 10 March I have heard nothing back on this from Sen Sessions office)

March 9, 2015: Received another letter from Martha Roby indicating that she had made another inquiry on my wife's behalf concerning alternate delivery methods to ensure delivery of her green card the second time around. I suspect this was put in motion by my visit to Mrs. Light on March 2nd, because one of the points that I made to her was that there was no assurance that we would receive the card the second time, and if that one was lost, we'd simply be out another $450. The letter also had an attachment from USCIS that stated (among other things) that they will not send out the cards with a signature required since it: "...poses a problem for customers who are not available when their mail is delivered". 

USCIS acknowledged in this letter that we did not receive the card. This was the first time anyone had acknowledged this up until this date. However, the solution remained to complete a third application and a fee. They also suggested we have the card mailed to an alternate address, and suggested a Post Office Box. They also provided details about how to check for the status of our case, which we already knew and anyone that understood our problem would already know.

March 10, 2015: I called Chase bank again, and tried to get the charge reversed. They could not do this since it was over 180 days. They suggested I write to their claims office to attempt to have this matter resolved.