Chapter 4 Dealing with Paperwork, Government Officials, Delays, and Denials

• Library: U.S. Immigration Made Easy (Nolo) (2023 Ed.)

CHAPTER 4 Dealing With Paperwork, Government Officials, Delays, and Denials

A. Getting Organized

B. How to Obtain and Prepare Immigration Application Forms

1. Where to Get the Forms You'll Need
2. Some Applications Can—Or Must—Be Filed Online ("e-Filing")
3. Making Sure You're Using the Most Recent Form
4. Reading the Instructions That Come With the Forms
5. Paying the Appropriate Filing Fees
6. Use a Typewriter, or Fill in the Form by Hand?
7. Inapplicable Questions
8. Telling the Truth
9. What's Your Name?
10. Being Consistent

C. How to Obtain Needed Documents

1. Translating Non-English Documents
2. Substituting for Unavailable Documents
3. Creating Substitute Documents

D. Before You Mail Anything.

1. Make Complete Copies
2. Mail by a Traceable Method
3. If You Want It Back, Don't Send It

E. Dealing With Delays and Other Issues

1. Preparing Yourself to Deal With USCIS
2. When Should You Start Inquiring About Delays?
3. USCIS Time Estimates for Application Approval
4. Delays Beyond USCIS Time Estimates
5. Emergency Attention
6. Dealing With Delays at the NVC
7. Dealing With Delays at the U.S. Consulate
8. Incomplete or Lost Portions of Your Application

F. Attending Interviews With USCIS or Consular Officials

1. Who Must Attend an Interview?
2. Preparing for Your Interview
3. Procedures for Consular Interviews

G. Procedures for USCIS Interviews

1. Arrange for an Interpreter
2. What the USCIS Officials Will Do and Say

H. What to Do If an Interview Is Going Badly

I. What to Do If an Application Is Denied

1. Denial of Initial Petition
2. Denial of Visa or Green Card

J. When All Else Fails, Call Your U.S. Congressperson

K. How COVID-19 Might Affect Your Case

Remember the application bog that we discussed early in the book? No matter what type of visa, green card, or other immigration status you apply for, your application process will involve a lot of paperwork—forms that you fill out, birth certificates and other documents that you collect, filing fees, and more. Then you'll have to wait while your carefully prepared application gets shuffled along with hundreds of thousands of others through a maze of government offices. You might also need to meet in person with government officials. In order to prevent any or all of your work—and your hopes—from getting mishandled, misunderstood, or lost, you're going to have to:

• set up a system for organizing your personal paperwork (see Section A, below)
• make sure that all your forms and documents are of a type that USCIS and the consulates will accept (see Section B, below)
• locate and (if necessary) translate some of the documents that you'll need to support your application (see Section C, below)
• protect your application before you mail it from being lost by the U.S. government (see Section D, below)
• track your application's progress and write letters or perform other follow-up in case of delays (see Section E, below)
• prepare to present yourself and your case to a government official (see Section F, below, regarding consular interviews, Section G regarding USCIS interviews in the U.S., and Section H on how to handle interviews that go badly)
• know your options when an application is denied (see Section I, below), and
• know how to contact a U.S. Congress-person for help (see Section J, below).

This could be the most important chapter in this book for you to read and understand.

A. Getting Organized

Start by setting up a good system to keep track of all the forms and documents that you'll need during your application process. There is no feeling worse than being in front of an impatient government official while you desperately go through piles of stuff looking for that one vital slip of paper. And sometimes the government might even lose documents you send, in which case you'll be asked to provide copies.

If you're working with an attorney, they will hopefully keep good copies of all materials submitted to the government. However, you'd be wise to ask for copies of everything your attorney submits to the relevant agency on your behalf. That way, you can keep a backup set of copies on your own.

We suggest using manila file folders and keeping them in a box or drawer. Another idea might be to keep your documents organized in a number of large envelopes and in turn place all the envelopes in an "accordion file." Label one folder or envelope Original Documents, for things like your birth certificate, marriage certificate, and USCIS or consular approval notices. Keep this file in a secure place (such as a safe deposit box at your local bank). Be sure to remember to retrieve your originals in time to take them to your interview.

Label the other files or envelopes according to which sets of forms or documents they contain. If you're applying for a green card within the United States, for example, you might label one folder I-130 Petition; another Adjustment of Status Packet; another Interview Materials (containing copies of the documents you'll want to take to your interview); and another Old Drafts/Copies. Similarly, if you're applying from a country outside of the U.S., one folder might be labeled I-130 Petition, another Mailed to the NVC, another Affidavit of Support and Financial Documents, another Interview Materials, and the rest as described above.

Also keep a separate file for correspondence from USCIS or the consulate. Include your handwritten notes on any phone conversations you've had with USCIS or consular personnel. Don't forget to write the date on your notes, so you can refer to them later in further correspondence.

When you've finished filling a folder or envelope, take out some of the old drafts or items you've decided not to use and move them to the Old Drafts/Copies folder, so as not to clutter up the materials you'll take to your interview. You might want to write something like "final copy, mailed xx/xx/20xx" (you fill in the date) on the top of the copy of the application or petition document you've mailed to USCIS or the NVC.

B. How to Obtain and Prepare Immigration Application Forms

The first step in virtually every immigration application process is to fill out a government form. We haven't included copies of these forms in this book, because the government revises them frequently and you'll want to get the latest version. The forms are free and easy to download from or fill out on the website of the relevant government agency (the most likely one being USCIS; just enter www.uscis.gov/forms to get an idea).

1. Where to Get the Forms You'll Need

The forms you'll need will come from up to three sources:

• USCIS, which produces the forms for any application being sent to a USCIS service center, district office, or other U.S.-based office
• the U.S. State Department, which produces the forms for any application being handled by a U.S. consulate in another country, or
• the U.S. Department of Labor, which produces the forms for certain parts of the application for an employment-based visa or green card.

How Nightmarish Can It Get?

Maybe you'll turn in your application and everything will go like clockwork: USCIS and consular files all in order, approval received on time. Educating yourself about the process and preparing everything carefully certainly improves your chances. But we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't warn you about how the government bureaucracy can chew up and spit out even the best-prepared application.
Every immigration lawyer has favorite horror stories. For instance, there was the client whose visa petitions were lost by USCIS—so after many months of inquiries, the lawyer filed new petitions and canceled the checks. But USCIS then found, and tried to cash, the "lost" checks—and to collect the bank charges from the client when the checks bounced.
Then there was the woman who waited over six months for USCIS to approve her work permit—only to have it finally send her a work permit with someone else's name and photo. By the time that got straightened out, the work permit had expired and USCIS forced her to apply, and pay again, for a new one.
And let's not forget the woman who nearly got stuck outside the United States because USCIS refused to renew her Refugee Travel Document on the nonsensical grounds that she hadn't provided a valid address in the application. (She had, and it was the same address that USCIS had been using to correspond with her for years.)
What can you do about such absurd and Orwellian horrors? Mostly, just know in advance that they might happen to you, leave time to deal with them, and keep copies of everything.

TIP

The government, your immigration lawyer, and others often refer to forms not by their name or title, but by the form numbers. For example, if you apply for a family-based green card, you'll start the process with a form entitled "I-130, Petition for Alien Relative." However, this form is usually called simply the "I-130." If you don't see the number in the title, you'll probably see it at the bottom of the form.

USCIS application forms usually start with the letter "I" (such as in Form I-129 or I-130). Other USCIS forms start with "G" (general matters) or "N" (naturalization-related matters). Most USCIS forms can be downloaded from its website, at www.uscis.gov/forms.

USCIS no longer mails forms or has them available for pickup at local offices.

Also know that some USCIS forms may be "e-filed," as described below.

State Department forms usually start with the letters "DS," for "Department of State." Immigration-related State Department forms are submitted online through the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC), https://ceac.state.gov.

Department of Labor forms usually start with the letters "ETA." They can be downloaded from its website at www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/forms. However, virtually all Department of Labor forms used as part of a visa process (whether Labor Condition Applications for H-1B workers, Prevailing Wage Determination requests, or PERM...