Receipt Number

R

RC2

Registered Users (C)
I finally had my checks cashed after 4 months of waiting. I received an alert yesterday from my bank informing me of the large withdrawal of funds. That gave me a chance to look at the back of the check for my case receipt number.

The receipt number is there, but several of the numbers are impossible to decipher because of another stamp which they placed over the top of the receipt number. I can see it begins with "WSC" and I can make out half the numbers, but it would be a waste of time to try and guess the rest.

Anyway, the question I really want answered is this: If I filed through my attorney, will the receipt number get mailed to me or the attorney? I would have expected all mailings to go to my home address, but when the USCIS sent an RFE for the new medical form a few weeks ago, they sent it to my attorney only. This would be fine if I could rely on my attorney to forward stuff to me, but he recently came down with cancer and has been hospitalized ever since.
 
Regarding RFE

RC2,

Yes if u get a RFE and if your case was filed thru an attorney, it's a normal practice that the RFE would be sent to the attorney. Same thing happened in my case but as far as the notices from USCIS are concerned, one copy will go to the attorney and the other will come to you.

Not too many attorneys are experts to tell u the truth. My attorney never sent my last tax returns so that's why we received RFE. He should have reviewed all the paperwork, double check everything before filing my paperwork. Also, when he sent my RFE using regular mail, USCIS never received it for 2 weeks but when I sent it using certified mail, my status was updated in less than a week.

My advice to you is, since your attorney is sick and hospitalized, stay in touch with the attorneys office and talk to his paralegal or secretary and let them know to inform you right away if they receive anything in the mail for you.

Good luck.
 
Okay, thanks. I am glad to know that I will be receiving copies of future notices. Once I have the receipt number in hand, I should be able to stay on top of my case online.
 
Online

RC2 said:
Okay, thanks. I am glad to know that I will be receiving copies of future notices. Once I have the receipt number in hand, I should be able to stay on top of my case online.
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Please don't trust this USCIS online status thing. It may or may not give you up to date information. Your case might be approved but it may still say that the case is pending, so u never know.

Stay in touch with the attorneys office and watch your mail regularly. If it takes too long for your case to move, you could visit your local DO and do an inquiry by making an infopass.
 
It was already paining me to see how much money was spent by so many applicants in lawyer's fees on immigration filings, but it makes me even more sad when I read about it getting in the way of people missing out on their case's progress. I have read about delays in forwarding important notices, and lawyer's mistakes causing other delays, sometimes unknown for weeks to the applicants, and I don't think one ever gets refunds on the thousands of additional dollars invested.

I am not saying that going through an immigration attorney is always useless, but I believe it should be limited to exceptionally difficult cases and immigration court appearances, which one should definitely not do without legal counsel.
All of the information needed is available on the internet, mostly on the USCIS website, and with a little bit of research, not only can one clearly think through their application at their own pace, but also learn a lot for themselves. Additionally, this forum provides the help needed to assist with more specific issues.

I apologize if I offended some of you. I am sure many have your own reasons for using attorneys for your applications.
I just want to make sure that people really evaluate the benefits of using one, and don't simply assume that filing an application is over their heads without researching the field a bit. (The USCIS fee increase from last year is certainly a good motivator).
 
rein021d said:
It was already paining me to see how much money was spent by so many applicants in lawyer's fees on immigration filings, but it makes me even more sad when I read about it getting in the way of people missing out on their case's progress. I have read about delays in forwarding important notices, and lawyer's mistakes causing other delays, sometimes unknown for weeks to the applicants, and I don't think one ever gets refunds on the thousands of additional dollars invested.

I am not saying that going through an immigration attorney is always useless, but I believe it should be limited to exceptionally difficult cases and immigration court appearances, which one should definitely not do without legal counsel.

All of the information needed is available on the internet, mostly on the USCIS website, and with a little bit of research, not only can one clearly think through their application at their own pace, but also learn a lot for themselves. Additionally, this forum provides the help needed to assist with more specific issues.

I apologize if I offended some of you. I am sure many have your own reasons for using attorneys for your applications.
I just want to make sure that people really evaluate the benefits of using one, and don't simply assume that filing an application is over their heads without researching the field a bit. (The USCIS fee increase from last year is certainly a good motivator).
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I agree with you. I just wish I had the wisdom I have right now back at the time when I filed the case.

The problem is that a lot of people do assume the application process is too difficult to manage on their own, and so they go straight to an attorney without a second thought. This is what I did. I mean, afterall, why would immigration attorneys exist if the application process was something any random Joe could do?

I cannot express how much I regret using an immigration attorney for this case. I started out back in February with a big smile and a lot of hope. My attorney assured me I would receive a receipt number within two weeks. As the weeks and months passed, I became more and more upset about the lack of activity. It was only then that I started to do my own research (by coming to forums like this one), and I was surprised to see how many people had filed their own applications. I started to wish I had done the same.

Through my own research, I determined that my attorney had sent my application to the wrong place. If I had done my research from the beginning and filed my own application, then I would have known the application was supposed to go to the lockbox in Chicago. However, my attorney sent the application (for EAD and GC) to the California Service Center, as he claims he does for all his cases. This ultimately resulted in my case being delayed by more than three months.

Because of the ridiculous delay, I then discovered that a new medical form had been issued during the time my application was lost in limbo. So when the application was finally opened, I had to submit the new medical form before the process could continue.

As of yesterday, my checks finally cleared the bank. This is where I should have been after just two weeks of filing, but instead it took four months, and all thanks to the attorney.
 
I am truly sorry to hear that. That is definitely going to far. Have you confronted his firm with this yet? You definitely should be entitled to a partial refund. If not, you might want to engage in some legal action on grounds of malpractice...Even in the past, before one had to file at the Chicago Lockbox, those AOS were filed directly at the DO... (at least in the case of an USC's immediate relative application, which I assume is your category)
 
I don't intend to go after the attorney on this one. I am just glad the case is finally being processed. I mean, the guy has cancer, so I don't think it would be right to present him with a lawsuit or even demands for a partial refund. I have seen his health go way downhill in the past few months, and in fact I haven't seen him or heard from him at all for several weeks.

What's done is done, but now I just want to have as much control over the progress of my case as possible.
 
New question: I just received my NOAs today, so I now have three clearly-printed receipt numbers. The problem is that none of them work when I try to get case status online. Is it too early to expect any case status to be reported? How long into a case does it usually take before the online system can be queried?
 
RC2 said:
New question: I just received my NOAs today, so I now have three clearly-printed receipt numbers. The problem is that none of them work when I try to get case status online. Is it too early to expect any case status to be reported? How long into a case does it usually take before the online system can be queried?
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Just keep trying but like I told you, you can't really count on it. May be you wanna wait till u get done with your biometrics (FP).
 
Roger. I won't count on the information I see there, but I'm still curious to check it out.
 
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