Visa denied; Filing a motion to reopen.

rum

New Member
We submitted an I-485 and I-130 in November 2002 and it was processed at INS in March 2005.
We moved to a new address in June 2004 and reported the address change to INS by phone.
However, we did not receive any additional mail from INS such as the EAD which we submitted in Oct 2003 (We still have not received it yet).
We made additional calls to INS reporting the change in address 5 more times over the next 2 years.

Finally, we missed an interview on June 23, 2005 because we did not receive the notice. We believe it was sent to our former address.
We received their decision letter on July 1, 2005 which states that they sent us a notice on June 8, 2005 which we also still have not received.
We called the INS Service Center and were then told that by failing to appear at the interview, our case had been denied. And also, we were told for the first time that we were supposed to mail our change of address.
They said that might be the reason we never received the notices.

The decision letter came to the right address 3 days after the postmark, but the other mail we were supposed to receive from them has not arrived.
We would like to file a motion to reopen for this denied case for the reason above - mail sent to the wrong address costing a delay in the delivery of critical notices from INS. We have never received their correspondence in a timely fashion, even prior to moving. We were never informed of the requirement to mail in an address change. We had no chance to appear for our appointment or contact them.

Do we need a lawyer for this motion?
What specific documents do we need to submit?
What's the best way to proceed in this case?

Any information will be helpful.
Thank you.
 
Sorry to hear about denial. You should immideately contact a good immigration lawyer to avoid further complications in your case. Do not waste your time and do it ASAP.
 
rum said:
We submitted an I-485 and I-130 in November 2002 and it was processed at INS in March 2005.
We moved to a new address in June 2004 and reported the address change to INS by phone.
------------------- did you file form AR11???? did you also informed NCSC 1800??? did you wrote a letter to service center where I-485 was pending to update the address?
However, we did not receive any additional mail from INS such as the EAD which we submitted in Oct 2003 (We still have not received it yet).
We made additional calls to INS reporting the change in address 5 more times over the next 2 years.

Finally, we missed an interview on June 23, 2005 because we did not receive the notice. We believe it was sent to our former address.
We received their decision letter on July 1, 2005 which states that they sent us a notice on June 8, 2005 which we also still have not received.
We called the INS Service Center and were then told that by failing to appear at the interview, our case had been denied. And also, we were told for the first time that we were supposed to mail our change of address.
------------- that is correct, you need to file form AR11 for address change but the form AR11 does not change your address on pending petitions, you need to update USCIS service center/local USCIS office where the I-485 is pending
They said that might be the reason we never received the notices.

The decision letter came to the right address 3 days after the postmark,
----------- how did they had the correct New address for sending decision letter ??? I think you updated the NCSC 1800 and they sent your update info to the USCIS office very late

but the other mail we were supposed to receive from them has not arrived.
We would like to file a motion to reopen for this denied case for the reason above - mail sent to the wrong address costing a delay in the delivery of critical notices from INS. We have never received their correspondence in a timely fashion, even prior to moving.
We were never informed of the requirement to mail in an address change.
----------- why they will inform????? you or your lawyer must know that you need to report the change of address
We had no chance to appear for our appointment or contact them.

Do we need a lawyer for this motion?
What specific documents do we need to submit?
What's the best way to proceed in this case?
------------------ go to good lawyer
Any information will be helpful.
Thank you.
 
..

MTR should be filed within 30 days of denial. Get a good lawyer. You can win your case if you can prove that you informed the INS about address change but they screwed up. INS always screws up address changes but the onus to proof is upon us, not them.
 
Get senator involved

I feel you should get your local senator involved. My wife's visa case was in a big and very complicated mess. Senators helped greatly to get it resolved.
(This is just my opinion. Consulting an immigration lawyer should be the best thing to do)
 
Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your opinions.

We called the INS Servise Center as soon as we moved and asked them how we can report for the change of address.
They told us that they can accept that by phone and they said
"Ok, I've just changed the information of your address now" after they asked us our new address.
That's why we believed our report has been accepted right then.

We have never informed about AR-11 even we had talked and questioned to them for more than 5 times about the change of address.
That's what we mean of "never informed".
We receive other forwarded mail from an old adreess so we believe our report to a post office has been functional.

We don't know how we can proof of non-received notice for our interview.
And also, how can we proof of the misinformation we followed was happened by the conversational give-and-take between us and INS which was made by the phone (verbally).

Does the INS Service Center record all conversations with callers?
And can they go through their record and find our conversations in the past?
That might help... because we can proof of the information we were supposed to get from them was never delivered to us.

Sorry about my English.

Thank you.
 
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