Here is my situation: in 1997, I changed my status from F1 to F2, and then in mid 1998 I changed status back to F1. I have maintained legal status all the time. When we filed I-485 this year (me as the primary applicant), I couldn't find my F2 approval notice. My lawyer advised that although there is no gurantee, it's not very likely CIS will issue RFE to ask this notice because they are more concerned about my status in most recent 5 years. So we submitted 485 without that document.
To be safe, after the submission of 485, I filed I-824 to CIS to request a duplicate of an approval notice. In the form, I provided as much information as I could about that petition (change to F2). But today I received a notice from CIS saying that they were unable to locate my approval notice and asked me to submit the receipt or any other correspondence from CIS that has the receipt # or file # for that application. I've already turned my home upside down when looking for the receipt or approval notice for the F2 status and couldn't find any. So what can I do now?
I'm hoping that as my lawyer said, CIS won't pay attention to this when they review my I485. But if they do issue a RFE for this particular notice, the only way I can think of is to argue that I changed my status to F1 in 1998, and when filing application for that status change (F1), I had to show proof I was in a legal status at that time. In other words, my F1 approval in 1998 should indirectly prove that I had maintained legal status prior to the change to F1.
Does my argument make sense? Any suggestion? Please share your opinion or experience. Thanks.
To be safe, after the submission of 485, I filed I-824 to CIS to request a duplicate of an approval notice. In the form, I provided as much information as I could about that petition (change to F2). But today I received a notice from CIS saying that they were unable to locate my approval notice and asked me to submit the receipt or any other correspondence from CIS that has the receipt # or file # for that application. I've already turned my home upside down when looking for the receipt or approval notice for the F2 status and couldn't find any. So what can I do now?
I'm hoping that as my lawyer said, CIS won't pay attention to this when they review my I485. But if they do issue a RFE for this particular notice, the only way I can think of is to argue that I changed my status to F1 in 1998, and when filing application for that status change (F1), I had to show proof I was in a legal status at that time. In other words, my F1 approval in 1998 should indirectly prove that I had maintained legal status prior to the change to F1.
Does my argument make sense? Any suggestion? Please share your opinion or experience. Thanks.
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