Green Card still processing, EAD expiring, being screwed by my lawyer?

What is the name of your state? WA (application started in CA however)

I am in somewhat of a bad situation and do not know what to do anymore. I am currently using an immigration attorney paid for by my previous employment in California. They started a marriage based Green card (I-485) a little over year ago at the San Francisco office and also applied for an EAD and Advance Parole (for travel).

Since then, i have changed jobs and moved on to Washington state in the Seattle area. But now there is several problems.

1) I am not sure my attorney ever did a proper change of address, or at least not until ~2 months ago when they received a homeland security request to confirm my mailing address.

2) My EAD expires in 5 weeks, but they have yet to submit a I-765 for renewal. They said they started the process but they are still trying to figure out where my case file is (they do not know if the address change caused the file to be forwarded to Seattle). But 4-6 weeks later, they still do not have an answer from the San Francisco office.

3) Tried calling the USCIS custommer service. But they essentially tell me that marriage cases are handled by local offices and that they don't have any information. They in essence tell me i am screwed and that i can only get the info by either going to the local office or writing to them). Which will be pointless since i am out of time.

4) Seems that for a renewal at San Francisco, you need to file at least 30 days prior. But browsing around, the general rule is that you should apply 4-6 months prior to expiration.

So now i am stuck, being the only income of my family and wondering if i'll still be able to get paychecks next month. HR is already breathing down my neck for some update. I've already yelled at the law firm's owner saying that they should have started all this earlier and that i will hold them liable if i lose any income.

I am stressed out and wondering if i'll be able to make my motgage payments next month. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Sebastien St-Laurent

[ImmigAttyLana]

This is, indeed, very unfortunate and you definitely need to continue to check with the lawyer to see when they file the EAD extension as it may take up to 90 days to get it issued by the local office. As for the transfer of the case, that also should have been done as soon as you moved so as not to impede the processing of your petition.

At this point, you need to maybe change attorneys or at the very least verify where your case is and submit the EAD request to that office ASAP.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if I may be of assistance to you in this matter.

As it stands, i know my attorneys have requested from the San Francisco office to see if the file is still there but two requests and 5 weeks later, no response. I have tried calling the national service center but they are far from useful.

Seems like my current lawyer went on the assumption of "oh, it usualy only takes about four weeks in the SF office" without realizing that the fact that i had moved may have complicated things. In addition i don't think that assuming four weeks when the official CIS rule states 90 days is a professional thing to do.

At this point in time i would gladly drop this attorney but since we're in the middle of things, i would rather hope that they can fix the situation. If they can't well i cannot be paid and will likely have to sue them for damages. But in the meantime, i would rather just the solution gets resolved.

The HR dept at work is looking into some backup plan (such as pushing me into a H1-B) in case things don't work out and would have to be taken off payroll.

[Jezebelle]

Could you perhaps write to the Director of your local INS office? My lawyer mentioned in conversation that atleast in the case of advance parole if a situation is extreme (death of family member abroad and so forth), one could write to the Director to try and get an advance parole issued immediately without having to wait through the ceremonious 90 day period. Perhaps if you could explain your situation to them and the hardship that it would cause for you to be out of payroll being that you are head of household they could maybe make an exception? You should consult with a different lawyer and see if they can issue such a request on your behalf. It's worth a try. I doubt you would be able to get an H-1b through your work at this point, from my understanding the H-1b visas have met their cap for the year...

Thank you for all the answers i have received so far.

Thought a quick status update would be in order. After pressuring my lawyers, they have finally decided to put some pressure on the CIS to determine what is going on. Turns out that the ones that seriously messed up is actually the CIS themselfs.

My initial application was in the San Francisco office but since I moved to Washington state a few months later, my attorneys have filed a change of address with that office. Turns out that some idiot there decided that Washington state was Washington DC and transfered my file there. This explains why I received a notice from the Norfolk, VA office a few months ago to confirm my maling address. My attorneys verified with the DC office to confirm that me file has been forwarded to the proper office after verifying my address. As it stands, my file should either be in the Seattle office or in transit (they havn't been able to confirm this yet). At least this explains why this green card has taken over a year so far (when i was told that it generally took 6-8 months).

So I have scheduled an appointment with the Seattle CIS office next week and i have prepared a new I-765 and I-131 and will bring the email from my attorney explaining the situation. There is a possibility that my file has not made it to the Seattle office yet but I am hoping that considering the situation they will be able to grant me a new EAD and Parole on the spot.

If not, then i have to hope that the HR at work can figure out something which can be done as a intermediate mesure. If i have to be taken off payroll, this will really bite as I am the only source of income and am not sure who i can hold responsible for this.

[Jezebelle]

I have found that the INS or CIS or whatever they are called these days tend to generally be unsympathetic until they mess up , and sounds like they royally messed up this time around. You might have a fleeting chance there. I wish you luck and keep us posted!

We are now about two weeks before my EAD expires...

I went to the local CIS office (in Seattle) about two weeks ago. Turns out that my file was still located in Washington DC for some reason. The CIS officer was nice and said she would request an "emergency transfer" of my case file and that it would take about one week. In addition, i've filed my EAD and AP renewals and she said that they would be processed as soon as my case file was recieved. Overall, she said i should hear back from them in about 2-3 weeks.

Since i have not yet heard anything and that the clock is still ticking, I have been trying to find out if at least my file has been transfered. Tried the 1-800 number but it turns out that they are just a bunch of script-reading idiots and i would have better luck talking to a wall.

So my option is to go back to the CIS office, the closest appt availible is Nov 29th (2 days before my EAD expires). So i have booked it but am planing on going anyways this week in hope that they will let me in (they only let you in on emergencies without an appt) and that i can at least get a status update.

Seems like no one there really want to understand the fact that i would already have my Green Card is they did not mess up and send my file to the wrong office (where it spent at least six months in limbo) and that in two weeks i will not be able to get paid (and consequently pay my bills) if they don't get moving.

[ImmigAttyLana]

Good luck with the local office. It may be helpful to have a letter from your employer, on letterhead, expalining how critical you are to the team/department and that you are working on essential projects which will suffer if you are not on them because your EAD will expire and you will have to be taken off payroll. This does not guarantee the quick issuance of an EAD, but it is often useful. I have done these in the past on behalf of my clients who have been in similar situations due to their own neglect in filing the EAD extension late or the neglect of other counsel, etc.

As for the transfer to the wrong USCIS office by the service center, this has also happened to my clients in the past and the only way to remedy this is to keep on them until it is transferred to the appropriate office. Sometimes, it takes a while and the transfers are completely illogical as to why they were sent where they were to begin with. But, don't despair, it will be fine eventually.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if I may be of further assistance to you in this matter.