RFE

I'm sure this question has been asked before but I will try again. I filed my 485 (concurrently with my 130/765/131) I just checked my case status online on the USCIS website and on my 485 application it says that on July 9th, a Request for Evidence was sent out to me. I check my case status every day, and the last time I checked was Thursday. It did not say this then. It is now July 21st, and I have not received this letter they said they mailed me out. I am obviously now concerned because not only have I not gotten it yet and they only give you so long to give the evidence in, I thought my case was very straight forward to begin with. Has this happened to any of you? USCIS has mailed my all my receipt dates and my fingerprinting notice and everything, so it's not like they don't know my address.

The RFE is probably coming directly from your local office where your AOS will be adjudicated. They don't usually take long to receive, so it may be lost in the mail, or it may have been a mistake on the website. It happens. If you only had the message one day, and not again, it may have been wrong and there's nothing to worry about.

If you're really worried, make an INFOPASS appointment and go ask at the office if they have any information about an RFE for you.

It turns out that the letter was given to my attorney who didn't feel it was NECESSARY to contact me to tell me we had received an RFE. It was taken care of right away as it was just a request for my long form birth certificate. ( I had filed with my little one)

I am happy that my lawyer took care of it promptly because that is what I am paying for, but I am a bit pissed that A) They didn't call me just to tell me what was going on (they said they have been TOO Busy since I am sure they are facing a ton of applications this month) and B)They are only sending a copy of this stuff to my lawyer instead of one to both of us.

RFEs typically only go to the lawyer, if s/he was the one that filed.

It was wrong of course for them not to advise you. It goes to show how valuable the on-line monitoring service is.

By the way, if this had been an employemnt based AOS rather than marriage, you probably (a) would have been as ill-advised as you were this time, but (b) company lawyer probably would have let it fall thru the cracks, since you weren't paying the shot.

As rebas sez, these RFE takes a couple of days to get sent. Don't wait more than that to phone lawyer next time, they ahve really shortened the RFE response time, in ordert otry and deny as many pending cases as they can to shorten backlog.

Yeah. I saw that they shortened it to 12 weeks and that is why I started freaking out. My attorneys office is pretty good and they were bloody expensive so they better be good! lol. But I do trust them (for now) to take care of my stuff. They should inform me though. It only takes them 2 seconds.

When I called USCIS to ask why I had no received it, they told me "too bad" and "july 9th " is still the "day from when we are counting the 12 weeks". So if it doesnt get to you in 6 weeks, it's your fault. It's baffling really.

You would have signed a form letter stating that all your correspondence is to go thru your lawyer, when you retained his/her services. Ergo, all correspondence goes to their office instead of you. Common practice really, and they can't really do anything for you unless you sign that form.

Hm. I guess that must have been in the contract. What I don't understand though is that when I got all my receipt notices, I got one copy of each notice and so did my lawyer. I just assumed it would be the same.

Notices have a provision for USCIS to send "courtesy" copies to the petitioner and/or benficiary, if requested.

Not so for the RFE. It goes to the petitioner, or if a G-28 has been filed, their representative.

Ah haaa.Thanks for letting me know. I didn't know that. Makes sense now.

Just a note. I emailed my lawyer yesterday asking if she had received any kind of response yet to the RFE she "took care of". When I had called on July 23rd she said it was "already taken care of."

In the email she said she hadn't sent the RFE stuff out until July 24th. Should I be surprised she lied? haha I know they are really busy right now at the office because of lots of people filing before the July 31st increase, but USCIS did say they mailed out the RFE on July 9th so that was quite a gap where they could have taken care of my RFE but didn't until I called.