I-130 approved, I-824, change of attorney

S

SpiritOfLiberty

New Member
So here is a thing, I been waiting for I-130 for my wife abroad as permanent resident, not long ago I got citizenship and my attorney updated my case and requested to expedite it since my waiting time already more than 11 months; week after, I got notice from USCIS saying that I-130 is approved.

However, there was a note:
The above petition has been approved. However, you did not indicate on the petition whether the beneficiary intends to apply for an immigrant visa abroad
at a U.S. Embassy or a U.S. Consulate or will apply for adjustment of status in the United States. Therefore, USCIS has retained the petition
Click to expand...
Down below the I-797 it was basically saying that now I can either apply I-485 or I-824 (which is in my cases since my wife now is abroad).

I was all ok, until later I found out that if I-130 is filed in a certain way, then you do NOT need to do any I-824. Specifically, I found that on I-130 one could have indicated whether the petitioner will apply for visa abroad in a consulate or embassy. Which in case of I-130 is page 2, part C, Question 22.

My attorney today told me that its a fault of USCIS agent which did not process info properly and she (USCIS agent) supposed to do the I-130 status update properly knowing that my wife is abroad...

But I have my doubts... as I wrote above I feel that it is my attorney who was supposed to fill in the info properly or make sure that during case update this is properly communicated to USCIS (Afterall, that is why my attorney gets payed by me...).

Now I got following questions:

1) Can I change attorney at this point? its not gonna hurt anything now? What is procedure for changing attorney here?

2) Can this I-824 be expedited somehow?? If yes, then how? Can a new attorney for example somehow get USCIS contact and "FIX" this?

3) My attorney (current one...) told me that it should take 2 weeks as extra step for I-824 to get thru, but is it really the case? Cuz I see number like "90 days" online...

4) I hope I do have enough time to take action on I-824, correct? after I-130 approval its not gonna expire anytime soon, no?
 
I-130 is underlying petition and you need to clearly indicate upon its approval whether if beneficiary is present in US then you will file I-485 or if consular processing nearest US consulate where USCIS will sends petition thru NVC. Now if this is missed out indicating this or that course I believe you might have to file I-824 to request USCIS to send approved I-130 to nearest US consulate.
 
I am sorry I did not understand.. are you saying that people ALWAYS have to file I-824 or I-485 after I-130 approval?
So when you say "clearly indicate upon its approval" it means that it must be indicated AFTER approval? or during I-130 filling?

also what you mean by saying "Now if this is missed out indicating this" ?

I don't get it... are you saying that in my case it goes normal and I-824 is just another next step? or was there a way for me to have I-130 sent AUTOMATICALLY to nearest US Consulate for country of residence of my spouse?

I did not understand your answer at all
 
If your wife will do Consular Processing, your I-130 should have filled out the question about which consulate to do Consular Processing (Part 4 #62), and an I-824 should not be needed. An I-130 should always answer either the office to do AOS (Part 4 #61) or the consulate to do Consular Processing (Part 4 #62), but not both. It is incorrect to fill out neither. (The item numbers above are from the paper I-130; I don't know what they look like on the online I-130.)

Do you have a copy of the I-130 you filed? Were both of those items left blank?
 
I requested already from attorney to send me copy of what was filed... but my I-130 approval notice says: "

However, you did not indicate on the petition whether the beneficiary intends to apply for an immigrant visa abroad
at a U.S. Embassy or a U.S. Consulate or will apply for adjustment of status in the United States. Therefore, USCIS has retained the petition.

and then below the text it tells me I can either do I-485 or I-824...

May I ask you this, let's say attorney screwed up and left part 4 #61,62 blank, can an attorney get on a phone with USCIS agent and request to expedite and update that info somehow?
 
OK, so here is an update from me, I asked my attorney to show me copy of I-130 filed.

And in part 4, field 62, it was indicated my (and my wife's) home city and home country (62.a and 62.c with City, Country is filled properly, province is blank, not sure if province even applies in case of my homecity) so it is NOT blank!
And in that home city and country where she is now, there IS a US Embassy.

And now... im really puzzled...then why didn't my approved I-130 go automatically to NVC if field 62 WAS filled?
 
Yeah it sounds correct, if that was really what was filed. So if that's true, then it does sound like USCIS error. According to the July 8, 2022 email from the CIS Ombudsman, in such a case you do not need to file I-824, and if you cannot resolve it with USCIS, contact the CIS Ombudsman.
 
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