Derivative (son) green card application, never received fingerprinting notice??

S

sdpadres

Registered Users (C)
My mom, sister, and I came to US on visitor visas.

My mom married a U.S citizen, she applied the green card application for us when I was 11~12.

The problem is that I never received a notification for me to get my fingerprinting taken. This December the USCIS once again asked my mom to get her fingerprint taken, and again it did not state for me or my sister to go.

Is this normal?? I'm 17 now, could there be a problem with my derivative green card application??

Thank you
 
Find out if she filed a separate I-485 form for you and your sister. Maybe she only filed one for herself because she doesn't understand the process. At your age you should have been fingerprinted by now.

Do you have an employment authorization card for yourself? If yes, that means she filed your I-485.
 
My sister and I both have Social Security #'s, does this mean that the problem is with the application?
 
sdpadres said:
My sister and I both have Social Security #'s, does this mean that the problem is with the application?
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There are various ways to obtain SSN without applying for a green card. So having the SSN doesn't mean much. But you having an employment authorization card would be nearly impossible in her situation if she didn't file your I-485.

So, do you have an employment authorization card with your name and picture, or an I-485 receipt notice with your name on it?

sdpadres said:
I'm getting conflicting informations here, can anyone else verify??
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You aren't giving much information about your situation; can you answer my last question?
 
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No, I do not have an employment authorization card.

Whenever I asked her about our immigration case, she always replied with some kind of variant of "just let the lawyer do it", which is very troubling to me.


The only thing she has told me so far is that the lawyer has all of our documents.
 
Seems like your papers weren't properly filed.

Tell her you want to apply for an employment authorization card so you can apply for a summer job and apply for a driver's license. You will need a copy of the I-485 receipt to apply for the employment card. If she says "wait until summer", remind her that the card takes a few months to be processed so you have to apply for it soon.

If she won't give you the document, ask who is the lawyer, and then go to the lawyer yourself and ask for a copy of the I-485 receipt.
 
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Something seems very fishy here; I'm starting to doubt that her husband is a US citizen. It doesn't make sense that she would marry a US citizen and then her green card (and yours) is pending for 5-6 years. Especially since a lawyer is handling it ... 2-3 years ago the lawyer would have pushed for a Writ of Mandamus, which would have made the courts force USCIS to finalize the long-overdue case without further undue delay. Unless it was an unscrupulous money grubbing lawyer who deliberately allowed the case to sit idle for so long just so he can continue collecting money.

If he is a US citizen, maybe he wasn't a US citizen back when you first came to the US, and then he recently became a citizen. Or maybe she only recently hired the lawyer due to being fed up with the lengthy delay.
 
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No, he is a U.S Citizen, he came here back in the 70's and got his citizenship long time ago.

We started our application in 04-05 and got a lawyer in 06. He's been on our case ever since.

So I asked her and she presented me with a receipt that shows my A#'s and the fees that was paid for the I-485 filing.

However, I do not see a number that can be used in the uscis website to check my case status. There is no 13 letters/digit number on the receipt.

Back to the problem, is there any reason why the USCIS has not send a notice for me to get the fingerprinting done?
 
Should we pursue the Writ of Mandamus without our current lawyer?

When should we use the Writ of Mandamus?
After my mom's fingerprinting appointment?
 
sdpadres said:
No, he is a U.S Citizen, he came here back in the 70's and got his citizenship long time ago.
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Got citizenship long ago, or only got a green card? Some people use the terms interchangeably. Have you seen his US passport or naturalization certificate?

So I asked her and she presented me with a receipt that shows my A#'s and the fees that was paid for the I-485 filing.
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Was your name on the receipt (with nobody else's name but your own, because each I-485 is separate and unique to each individual, even children) and did the receipt look like this: http://www.immihelp.com/greencard/adjustment-of-status-notice-of-action.html

However, I do not see a number that can be used in the uscis website to check my case status. There is no 13 letters/digit number on the receipt.
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The receipt number is on the top left corner and starts with EAC, LIN, WAC, or SRC followed by 10 numeric digits. If it's not there, it's probably not an official USCIS receipt.
Back to the problem, is there any reason why the USCIS has not send a notice for me to get the fingerprinting done?
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Could be because your papers weren't filed, or weren't filed properly. Or it might be that they just forgot about you, because your case has been sitting so long collecting dust. Applying for an employment card might trigger them to wipe off the dust and schedule your fingerprinting.

Should we pursue the Writ of Mandamus without our current lawyer?

When should we use the Writ of Mandamus?
After my mom's fingerprinting appointment?
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File the Writ of Mandamus after contacting the USCIS Ombudsman and your Senator and/or Congressperson, and after waiting 2-3 months for them to take action. If you don't contact those parties for assistance before filing the WOM, the court is likely to throw out the WOM and tell you to contact them.

Find out why the lawyer didn't already file WOM or at least recommend WOM to your mother.
 
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Jackolantern said:
Got citizenship, or only got a green card? Some people use the terms interchangeably. Have you seen his US passport or naturalization certificate?
Click to expand...

Citizenship.

Was your name on the receipt (with nobody else's name but your own, because each I-485 is separate and unique to each individual, even children) and did the receipt look like this:


The receipt number is on the top left corner and starts with EAC, LIN, WAC, or SRC followed by 10 numeric digits. If it's not there, it's probably not an official USCIS receipt.
Click to expand...

The receipt that she showed me looked nothing like that, it looked more like a receipt that you'd get from a 99c store. It listed the other applications and their filing fees too.

Could be because your papers weren't filed, or weren't filed properly. Or it might be that they just forgot about you, because your case has been sitting so long collecting dust. Applying for an employment card might trigger them to wipe off the dust and schedule your fingerprinting.
Click to expand...

We paid the money, why would they "forget" my application? Is this how they operate??


File the Writ of Mandamus after contacting the and your Senator and/or Congressperson, and after waiting 2-3 months for them to take action. If you don't contact those parties for assistance before filing the WOM, the court is likely to throw out the WOM and tell you to contact them.

Find out why the lawyer didn't already file WOM or at least recommend WOM to your mother.
Click to expand...

She said she will talk to the lawyer tomorrow, I'm starting to think there is something up with our lawyer. If he has been on our case for a good 4 - 5 years, then our case like you said should have gotten a decision by now,
 
sdpadres said:
The receipt that she showed me looked nothing like that, it looked more like a receipt that you'd get from a 99c store. It listed the other applications and their filing fees too.
Click to expand...

Then it's not the official USCIS I-485 receipt, which you will need for applying for the employment card. What you saw was a fee summary of some kind.

We paid the money, why would they "forget" my application? Is this how they operate??
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Yes, the US immigration system is a bureaucratic and inefficient mess, and they let many applications sit idle for years and years if the applicant (and their lawyer, if any) doesn't push them enough to get it moving.

She said she will talk to the lawyer tomorrow, I'm starting to think there is something up with our lawyer. If he has been on our case for a good 4 - 5 years, then our case like you said should have gotten a decision by now,
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Good. If the lawyer was being more proactive, you and your mother and sister would have had green cards long ago, and probably all have citizenship by now.
 
OP, Since you are only 17, you are unable to do much as you legally cannot enter into a contract. I would wonder if the attorney is an actual attorney or is a paralegal doing paperwork. Help her check the attorney's credentials on the AILA website. This is for immigration law specialists. If he/she is not among their membership, suggest that your mother and stepfather terminate that relationship and find an attorney that is a member. There is a website called Martindale that makes it easy to find highly regarded attorneys.

The attorney need not be in your city since immigration law is federal rather than state practice. It is more important that they are an immigration law specialist in family based immigration.
 
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