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villages/hispanic/ AP Headlines Update Page
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Study on Hispanic issues to be
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Embattled Puerto Rico senator to seek
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Latinoamericanos sin suerte en Maratón de
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Daddy Yankee domina listas de
ventas con "Talento de barrio'' |
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'La Misma Luna' sweeps Imagen
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villages/hispanic/ AP Headlines Update Page
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New opportunities section added
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Ice on Immigration:
Keep Copies of all Payments and Correspondence with “Immigration”
By L. Patricia Ice, Featured
Columnist
Question: I
recently submitted an I-485 Application to Adjust Status and and an
I-765 Application for Employment Authorization along with the required
filing fees to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
Chicago Lockbox. Yesterday, I received a rejection notice from USCIS
saying that I did not submit the filing fees with the applications. I
did not receive the applications back with the rejection notice. I am
sure that I attached the filing fees to each application, so I do not
know what happened to the checks. What should I do?
Answer: If you have photo copies of the checks, you should send a
letter to USCIS along with the copies and the rejection notice
explaining that you submitted the proper filing fees. An alternative
would be to contact the USCIS Customer Service Line at 1-800-375-5283
and explain the situation to the operator, who can then check on the
problem. A second alternative is to contact an immigration attorney
and ask her to help resolve the situation for you. Be prepared to pay
an attorney fee for that service.
I
suggest that an applicant write his name and alien registration number,
if available, in the lower left corner of all checks or money orders and
to make photo copies of the checks or money orders submitted to USCIS.
All forms of payment should be paper clipped to the first page of the
application, which should ideally be a cover letter or immigration form
G-28 if the applicant has a lawyer. The checks or money orders should
be immediately visible and on top of the stack of documents when the
USCIS worker opens the application envelope. That way, the worker will
not make the mistake of thinking that the filing fees are not included.
Finally, please be advised that USCIS filing fees will increase
dramatically on July 30, 2007. Any application that arrives at any
USCIS facility on or after July 30, 2007 will have to have the new
filing fee, or the application will be rejected and returned to sender.
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L. Patricia Ice
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Featured
IMDiversity Immigration Columnist L. Patricia Ice is an attorney and counselor who has taught
immigration law at Mississippi College School of Law
in Jackson, and also contributes regular immigration advice stories
to La Noticia and The Jackson Advocate. A
practicing attorney, Ms. Ice has recently taken on a two-year role
as an Equal Justice Works Katrina Legal Fellow, focusing on
immigrant employment issues as fair labor standards, and wage and
hour problems, in areas around the Gulf Coast. She is also
dedicated to immigrants rights advocacy, and serves on the Board of the non-profit
rights education group,
MIRA: The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance at
www.yourmira.org.
Articles in this column are Copyright 2006 L. Patricia Ice.
All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce further without
seeking the permission of the author.
IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view.
However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of
the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or
employees at IMD.
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