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Ice on Immigration: Tracing Notice of Action Approval Notices 

By L. Patricia Ice, Featured Columnist

Question:  My US citizen brother filed an I-130 Petition for alien Relative on my behalf several years ago.  During that time, my brother moved.  He did not change his address with US Immigration.  Recently, I learned that the I-130 petition has been approved, but my brother never received the I-797-C Notice of Action Approval Notice.  How can my brother obtain a copy of the Approval Notice?

Answer: The quickest and most efficient thing your brother can do is to file an immigration form I-824 Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition with the filing fee of $340.00.  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will then issue a duplicate Notice of Action Approval Notice.  Additionally, your brother can file an immigration form G-639 Freedom of Information/Privacy Act (FOIA) Request with USCIS and request copies of his entire immigration file including the Notice of Action Approval Notice.  There is no filing fee for the G-639 form, but the waiting period to receive his documents via a FOIA request can be a year or more.  Also, there is no guarantee that the Notice of Action Approval Notice will be included in the documents sent.