I applied to renew my AP in Jan 2005 and my daughter applied in Feb 2005. My I-131 got transferred to Cleveland, even though I live in MA. Since my father is to undergo a surgery on March 30 and we have already bought my plane tickets, we went to the local Boston office with - receipt of I131, previous AP, passport, I-94, emails from my father asking me to come home, emails from my sister regarding the date of surgery, the doctor's prescription on his letterhead recommending surgery, plane tickets, copy of I-485 receipt, 2 photos, our entire immigration file that weighs 5 lbs. The officer F. Torres was very unhelpful. he said they will have to get our files (I-485, I-131) from Columbus, OH and then he can issue an AP. he didn't know how long that will take. The other option is that we file a new application with new fee and 2 photos today and he couldn't guarantee that we could get the AP today. He was very rude. I asked for 2 things, a fee waiver since we already paid $165 each and a date and appointment when I could come and pick up the AP since I needed to take a day off to do that. He said he couldn't do anything about it. I asked to see his manager. He referred me to his manager. The manager called us an hour later. She at least listened. I showed documentary proof that the USCIS has our new address (USCIS sent me letters at the new address) but transferred our I-485 to Cincinnati, OH, I-131 to Cleveland, OH and now it seems every thing was in Columbus. She went and made a few phone calls and sent some emails. After some more wait, she said she would get the files from columbus by the end of the week. then she could approve the APs. meanwhoile to make sure that we had an emergency AP, just in case the files from columbus didn't arrive (or got lost), we filed new I-131 with fee ($165 each) and 2 photos. The emergency AP will be for one trip only. There is no provision for fee waiver. Although the manager of Boston District Office promised to get us either our real AP or the emergency AP by next week, we are very upset that we had to pay $660 for 2 APs and will have to make a second trip to collect it. Now if we were still living in columbus, none of this would have happened. We would have walked-in and shown my father's paperwork supporting his health problems and the Columbus office would have adjudicated (approved) our I-131 right away since they have our files with all our applications (I-485, I-131, I-765). If you know for sure that your application is in the local office, then you can get the emergency AP, but if it is in another office, you might want to take some other steps e.g. talk to your representative/congressman.
PS: I did talk to my congressman's caseworker, but he wasn't aware that my files need to be in the local office.
PS: I did talk to my congressman's caseworker, but he wasn't aware that my files need to be in the local office.