Laid off before 140 approval

AmericanDreams

Registered Users (C)
Hello everybody,

I am new to the forum and wanted inputs on options going forward.

I had filed I140 and I485 concurrently in Feb 04. Was laid off before 180 days and was able to take up another job without any gap. I understand that I have got a RFE today (as per the standard email notification - and yet to receive the RFE). What are my options going forward? Are there options other than discussing with my previous employer? My details are:

EB3
I140/I485 nd 2/10/04
EAD and FP done in 4/04
I485 LUD 10/27
I140 LUD 11/10 and 11/17
 
depending on if your previous employer will support you to reply the RFE and what type of RFE it is. EVL RFE is easlier as long as your previous employer is willing to provide. Paystubs will be more difficult. You may need to transform it into future GC application. If it's ability to pay, it comes down to if you think your previous employer can safely proof ability to pay. If not, your next step would be to use new employer and send in AC21.
 
Since I-140 belongs to the employer, you will have to somehow convince your ex-employer to respond to RFE and hopefully you get the approval after that. The RFE would go to the attorney on file. Talk to the attorney and see what the RFE is about. There can be a situation wherein you might not even need anything from your employer (if the RFE is something to do with your W2s, Edn Eval etc).

Let us know how it goes...Good Luck
 
Thanks for your inputs GCforall2003 and Whorl1quote. Really appreciate it.

I would certainly take a chance with my previous employer and see as to where it goes. But in the meantime, would you have any idea (even from hear say) about the realistic chance of this getting through in the event that my previous employer does not support?? Have you ever come accross somebody who was in such a situation as mine and got cleared?
 
Hi Whorl1quote,

One of the options you mentioned that could be explored is the AC21 with the new employer. While my new employer will be more than willing to help, am not sure if there is any realistic chance of a positive outcome, as my140 is not approved. Would you be able to comment on this? While I would take a fair shot with my previous employer, I am not sure of the direction it will move.......

As I am new to this forum (hoping that you have been contributing to this forum for quite a while), do you recollect any similar instance that might have got approved?

Thanking you in advance for your time.
 
I have worked on this issue for a while (4 months now). There have been one case in TSC who used AC21 with a pending I140 and he got approval. There are also a couple cases replying RFE with AC21 but I haven't heard any new development from them.

In my personal opinion, you will get chance to get approval with pending I140, howerver the risk is there before any offical announcement from the CIS. Many people have ran into similar situation as mine/yours because our I140 takes more than 6 months. Anything that happens between pass six months and approval falls into the gray area, I called it.

Your best bet is still to get support from ex-employer. Anything else will be more complicated. The good thing is that you can usually expect an approval within one month of replying RFE.
 
Hello Whorl1quote,

Just taking a chance - would you have any idea about this case you are referring to? Possibly, some of the other regular contributers to this forum like United Nations, may know about this case you are refering to?

My attorney has not yet recd the RFE and so is not in a position to comment anything. Will have to wait till Mon/Tue

United Nations (if you happen to read this) - would you be aware of any case similar to mine ie - laid off before 140 approval, RFE issued and the case being approved?
 
Thank you UnitedNations for the detailed inputs and time. Appreicate it.

Speaking with the lawyer, understand that they have yet to recieve the RFE and can comment only after receipt. Will inform the developments as they happen.
 
Unitednations, pls help.

Hi UN, I read a few articles posted by you and I believe you are knowledgeable to answer my question -
I have the following situation
I-140 RD- March 2002
1st RFE responded July 2002 (Company's financial)
2nd RFE responded May 2003 (All my W2s)
485/EAD/AP RD - Dec 2002
EAD& AP approved - June 2004
I-140 and I-485 - Pending.
Filed for 8th year H1B extension.
Now it is more than 975 days my I-140 is pending.
Recently I found another company who is willing to process my GC and I agreed to work for the new employer as soon as he can get me the EAD with an approved I-140. Now I would like to know whether it is possible to associate my pending I-485 (which probbaly would have been approved quite some time back had my I-140 was approved) with the new approved I-140
from the new company. So that CSC can process my I-485 and hopefully approve it.
UN please let me know your opinion and oblige.
Thank you.
 
to UN

Thanks UN for the quick reply. Yes my attorney keeps sending querys but the standard answer that we get is that they are waiting for th eoriginal labor from the US consulate in chennai. My attorney is trying to get a duplicate from DOL. I am not sure how does that work. They also contacted AILA but nothing is working in my case.
 
How long does it take for the RFE to reach? As per the email noticifation I got on 17th Nov, RFE was issued on the same day. Spoke with the attorney today and they haven't yout got it.
 
AmericanDreams, i think because of holiday season, it might be taking a little longer. Give it 7-10 business days.
 
UN, I think you brought up a very interesting point to file a lawsuit that would cause USCIS to respond in an amazing speed and may be cheaper than starting over the entire process. Considering the time and energy being wasted in checking out this forum, having sleepless nights, I am more than willing to spend some money to file a lawsuit and get it over with. The lawsuit may also help a lot of people who wanted to use AC21 before I140 approval.

Taking I485 backlog as an example, the processing speed has been highly improved since maybe six months ago. I am not sure how much Rajiv's lawsuit has made an impact on this. I think it did make USCIS aware of the problem. <It was crazy if they did not recognize it was a problem to have three year backlog>.

How do you guys think about the idea to gather several people (maybe 2-5) who were highly impacted by not being able to apply AC21 on pending I140s to file a lawsuit. I think this case will be easier as compared to the current I485 backlog one, because it's hard to prove having the backlog is against the law. It's completely subjective and the law did not specify it.

However, I think USCIS is clearly violating the law of AC21 that premits job portibility after six month of pending I485.

Another thing I want to include in the lawsuit is the misleading JIT. I don't know which law it's violating, but I think USCIS is 'cheating' which has caused harm and loses to the applicants.

If filing a lawsuit is relatively easy, maybe it's the most effective. viable way to get USCIS to be aware of a problem, as compared to spending time trying to get just a tiny attention from the Senators or Congresswomen.
 
the new CSC JIT for EB2 I140 has moved to March 22, 2004 and my case is still stuck. On the day of JIT moving past Feb 10, which is my RD, only less than 10% of the I140 cases having the same RD were processed. I feel cheated and angry.

Just want to report what happened to my case. My lawyer opened an inquiry to CSC recently and is waiting for reply. I tried to renew my AP hoping to trigger processing of my case two weeks ago, but the application was returned because my pose on the picture was not correct (how picky). I mailed another application today.

I sent a letter to Ombudsman Case Problem in end of Octobor and got a surprise response yesterday. It said they have open a formal inquiry with USCIS on my case. USCIS is supposed to reply within 45 days. If they do not, the Ombudsman office will follow up.

With all these steps I have taken, I really hope my case will get approved soon. My LUD got changed on 11/18, which is three days after my lawyer initiated the inquiry. However, no more LUD change since then. Message stays the same. Oh well, I did another scan, and here is the stats of those I140s RD on Feb 10, 2004:

Case Status Count
----------- -----
Received 30
Approved 11
Transfer 0
Some RFE 6
Withdrawn 1
All Other 0
 
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thus as long as anyone who got a denial due the the unreasonable 'ability to pay' measurement file a lawsuit against USCIS, how USCIS is doing now can be overruled by the court. If this is true, I think anyone who has suffered from it should do that with the support financially and timely from those many people who will be facing the same problem. Instead of waiting for the injustice to determine your fate, you should take more proactive actions to correct that injustice and benefit many people down the road.

I also believe if more and more lawsuits are being brought against USCIS, they will take each rule more seriously. For example, it should not happen to issue a spontaneous memo without the input from all stakeholders, including the immigration community.

Are you aware of anyone who has gotten a denial due to USCIS's interpretation of AC21 being applied to pending I140?
 
Finally got the RFE details :

1. Ability to pay (the attorneys had not send 2003 company tax returns 2. Need my W2's from 2001 -2003 3. Educational background

I am meeting with my previus employer one of these days to discuss what best can be done wrt 1? If anyone has any idea's to go about this, please do post it.
 
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