Where are you Green Card?

I moved from Canada to Colorado almost three years ago. When I first arrived in the USA, I was admitted into the country as a "Conditional Permanent Resident". That means that I married an American and we hadn't been married long enough for the US Government to believe that I didn't just marry him for the green card. The "conditional" status of my permanent residency could be lifted after two years once I provided proof on paper that we were still married, living together and sharing assets.

Time was approaching for me to start submitting the paperwork to have the "conditional" status removed. I gathered every single piece of paper I could think of. When I finally had it all together, there was probably a good 50 pages worth of "proof" my marriage was legitimate. The only thing that I was worried about was the fact that the application required a copy of my green card. I never received that first green card...

See, when I first entered the USA, I gave them all my address information on my declaration papers. It was the correct address. I have copies of those pages to prove it. However, the person that entered my address in the USCIS system mixed up two numbers in my zip code. I received a letter from USCIS shortly after arriving in Colorado, which is when I discovered the error, and I called to correct it immediately. Two months passed, and I still hadn't received the card. I called to let them know and they said they would flag it as a "non-delivery" and to expect the card soon. As each month passed and I still hadn't received the card, I would call and the same thing would happen. After six months I started pushing harder on the phone. Only then was I told that there was a tracking number. That was when I figured out that when I received that first letter shortly after arriving in Colorado, the card had already been produced and was sent in the mail. I didn't even have a chance to correct the zip code error before it was too late. The incorrect zip code had the card being sent to a completely different city. Why I got the letters with the wrong zip code and not the card with the wrong zip code, is beyond me. USCIS said that it wasn't returned to sender, so I spent the next year trying to get the card replaced. In the end, it was just a bunch of wasted time. It didn't matter what I sent to them, or who I talked to. I just had to submit the $450 application to replace my lost card, which I was never willing to do considering I didn't receive the card due to an error I did not make. At that point, I was six months away from having to renew my card anyway, so when I asked about that, I was told that I might as well just wait the six months until my card needed renewal.

So there I was, papers all in order to submit for the removal of my "conditional" status. I was freaking out so bad about not having a green card to copy that I went to an immigration lawyer to see if it would be a problem. The lawyer helped me a lot. She told me that it's not an issue, and to just submit an explanation for why I don't have a copy of the card to submit because it obviously wasn't my fault. Done.

The wait time for that paperwork was about four months. Finally, on February 26/14, I received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The subject was "Notice of Removal of Conditional Basis of Lawful Permanent Residence". What a huge relief! They accepted all my paperwork, they believe that I actually married my husband because I love him and the letter said my new green card will be coming in the mail within 60 days. They had the correct address this time, I had been getting all the mail they were sending me, so there was no way I wouldn't be getting this green card this time.

Well I was wrong.

Three weeks after receiving that letter, I thought I should check on the status of this card. I went to the USCIS website, put in my case number, and there was a tracking number... but it said it had already been delivered on March 3. I checked the tracking number on the USPS website and again, it was apparently delivered on March 3, 2014 at 12:29 PM. Well that didn't make any sense because it was way past March 3 now and my husband and I check the mail regularly. Our mail box is even locked. Only my husband and I have the key. So how could the green card have been delivered? It was never in our mailbox! Our neighbors didn't receive it accidentally either. We live in a building with four apartments and our mailboxes are inside in the foyer of our building. If our neighbors didn't get it. there's not really any other place that it could have gone.

I called USPS, and they "investigated". That resulted in getting a letter five days later saying that according to the tracking number, it was delivered, but if I say I didn't receive it then it must have been lost in the mail and they can't find it.

Thanks...

I learned from my first experience with my lost green card, that once you have a tracking number, USCIS doesn't help you. They tell you that this is the tracking number, USCIS sent it out so they did their job, now take it up with the Post Office if you didn't get it.

Now I'm backed into a corner. I'm not getting anywhere with USPS or USCIS. My only option left is to submit the $450 application to have the card replaced. I already paid $600 to renew my card! I'm not rich. I can't just pay my way out of problems. Replacing the card means that I would also have to get my fingerprints redone, pictures retaken (in another city where the official office is) and waiting another six months, with no guarantee that it will actually make it to my mailbox again.

I did a quick google search:

"Green card lost in the mail" 149,000,000 results.
"Green card lost by USPS" 291,000,000 results.

This is obviously a huge problem. So if it's such a common problem, then why is the Government sending such an important card through the regular mail? More importantly, why are these cards being sent without requiring a signature for delivery?! Especially, if not receiving it means forking up $450 to replace it. Not everyone has that much money at their disposal at all times. I want to know what happened to my card. How can USPS enter in their system that something has been delivered, when it never actually was? Who is in charge of that?

Awareness is the first step to change. My purpose in sharing my story about Immigration is to find others who have had this happen to them. There is so much focus on what illegal immigrants can or cannot do. What about those of us who took the time and spent the money to do things the right and legal way? We are here too, and we are simply being bullied into a corner, forced to keep paying more and more money to fix a problem that we didn't cause. Somewhere out there is a card with my picture and my fingerprint on it and nobody seems to know where it is. That's a major security issue! We need to be protected from that possibility! Send the card and don't deliver it unless you have that person physically present to sign for it and accept it.

Please share my story. Comment below. Let those who this has happened to come forward. Send me your contact information so I can keep track of my supporters. Together we can at least try to make a difference. If I can gain enough support and have enough people to back me, I plan on taking this to the Senators of Colorado and other States if necessary. I'm serious when I say I want to try to make a change happen.

Last Straw...

I'm sorry for mainly using my blog to vent these days. I really should be posting more happy things.. I dunno why I'm not. Maybe its because the things that bother me keep festering until I get everything off my chest and then have people validate it that I'm not crazy for getting so upset. I dunno... At any rate, my apologies for the following angry rant.

Where I last left off, my immigration woes had reached a climax. Here's the update. I've been able to figure out exactly what happened to my green card.

I was raking my brain trying to pinpoint where everything went wrong. Then it was like a giant light bulb went on in my head. The stupid zip code... When I first got here received a letter stating that everything was approved and to expect my card in this amount of time, blah blah blah. However, on that paper, they had the zip code of my address all wrong. They had flip flopped two numbers. I called them immediately and for that corrected. I received another letter confirming the correction.

Once I remembered all this, I went through my stack of immigration papers and realized that by the time I had caught that error it was too late. The green card had already been created and sent out with the wrong zip code. After talking to the people at the post office and waiting an extra day for the tracking number information to be retrieved from 'the archives' I was told that the package with my card was sent to this podunk little town an hour away from Colorado Springs because that's where this incorrect zip code told them to go to. Since my address clearly didn't exist there, they sent it back to where it came from and was received on January 3.

This whole ordeal was doomed before it even started. It was clearly immigration's fault since they entered five little numbers in the wrong order. I have all the papers to prove I gave them the correct information in the first place so they couldn't place the blame on me.

With renewed hope, I called the blasted immigration "Customer Service" line again to explain the situation that I figured out all by my lonesome.

It was like talking to a brick wall.

"Please file form I-90 to replace your lost green card as our records clearly indicate we have not received your card back in the mail."

I told them that I had the proof from the postal service that it was returned on Jan 3 but I got the same response. They have no record of it coming back to them. But I know the postal service isn't bs-ing me because I can pull up the tracking information online myself. But none of that mattered. They stood by what they said. Their computers didn't tell them what I was telling them.

I eventually got transferred to the unreliable tracking number people because I was told there might be a second tracking number issued if in fact it was received and remailed.....

NOPE.

After being dismissed by the immigration people I called back all fired up and this time wasted no time talking to the initial customer service person and ask for the tracking number people again. I explain everything all over again. This time, the person said he'd have people look for it and I should have it by April 10... Skeptically I said thank you and ended the call. April 10 came and went and guess what. Nothing but lies.

I've asked people what to do because clearly taking to someone about it does jack squat. I know exactly what happened and nobody is willing to own up to it and actually help me. I've been too frustrated to even think about this these last few days. However... Lately things seem to happen where everything that could go wrong does, and I can only take so much before I snap. I think I'm pretty much at that point now and its not because of anything that happened with immigration. I haven't reached out to them since this last guy bold face lied to me. I'm at my breaking point because of a stupid hair straightener.

A couple years ago I got a fancy CHI straightener from my parents for Christmas. It had lived its life and it was time to replace it. I checked on Amazon.com and found a brand new replacement for a huge discount. I ordered it and received it in a really short amount of time so I was very happy. I've had it for less than two weeks and it already crapped out on me. Some connection inside came.loose because now the only way it stays on is if I jam the cord into it. The thing doesn't stay on on its own. Less than two weeks. Seriously??? It took all the self control I had to not throw that thing into the wall... I emailed the person I got it from and I'm hoping with all I have left that I won't have to buy another one. Otherwise I'd end up spending more than one costs at a beauty supply store. Ugh...

But because of this, I'm spent. I'm tired of fighting. Part of me wants to just throw in the towel. Don't right the supplier for the straightener. Just fork up the money. Don't fight for the green card. Just fork up the money. I don't have any fight left in me. It's obvious nobody at immigration gives a crap to actually assist anyone. Even if I were to photocopy 30 or 40 pages worth of paperwork and send it to them, who's to say it'll amount to anything because who knows if they'll actually even look at it. It'll probably get tossed into some pile not any different from the pile that my returned green card got thrown into. So I'm stuck. I don't feel strong enough to fight anymore. Or do I just fork out the cash and forever hold a grudge against this whole process. I couldn't even get my social security card without having to reapply for it because it didn't get sent the first time.

But then, if you're like my mom, you'll be saying that I should just go back to Canada. They're not any better. I'm getting ripped off of two months worth of parental benefits because they forgot to switch me over from my maternity benefits when those ended. Apparently I can only be in their system for how ever many weeks. So because I was in their system and it took them that long to fix it once I noticed I wasn't getting paid and it wasn't just because they were late, the consequence is that I'm losing out on a significant chuck of change that I was otherwise entitled to.

So its obvious that nobody is perfect, but come on... This is beyond ridiculous. I must have a target on my back or something. I feel like the only thing I can do now is cave..

Four Month Run-Around...

Oh boy... you know when you call customer service lines and they just give you the run around?? Well... Story of my life... Except this time it's not just a matter of inconvenience, it's a matter hundreds of dollars and legal status in this country...

I entered the US in the end of November and was told I would automatically be issued an actual permanent resident card within 60 days of my arrival. 60 days came and went, and all I got was a letter saying that they had registered my arrival and to anticipate the permanent resident card soon. Well it never came, so I called the immigration people to ask what was up, and all they told me was that as far as they could tell it had been sent to me and since they never had it returned to them that they would report it lost in the mail. Then I was to wait another two weeks to get further instruction in the mail. Eventually I got a letter that was the exact same as the one I first got shortly after I arrived here. It said the same thing. Wait 60 days and your card will come in the mail. Great. That same day I got an email from them stating the complete opposite thing. It said that since my card was lost in the mail, I had to fill out another form to get it replaced. I went to do that only to find out that it would cost me $450. NO FREAKING WAY. So I called immigration up again and I asked them what's what because I had two separate communications on the same day telling me to do completely contradictory things. Whoever I talked to said that I should just wait the 60 days. So the waiting begun. That would take me into April.

A couple days ago, I decided that enough was enough and I called immigration again to see if there was any progress on the card being sent. What I was told was that one was sent to me on December 6, and that if I hadn't already gotten it, since they never received it back, that it was up to me to file that form that cost me $450. So whoever told me to wait the 60 days was totally wrong. I've been waiting and checking the mailbox for nothing for the past 3 months. I told the person that I really can't just fork up the money to replace a card I never got and asked for her to help me figure out what happened. She ended up transferring me to another department to get a tracking number. Up until this point, I didn't even know a tracking number was available. Thanks people beforehand for leaving out that important tidbit of information... So I got this tracking number, checked it on the US Postal Service website. Invalid tracking number... Blood = boiling... I called immigration back, told them this supposed tracking number was bogus and what do I get in reply??? "Sometimes the Postal Service doesn't actually scan their mail. I've seen it happen before. So you're going to have to file that form. There's no other way." Oh. My. Gosh... I asked the guy if he understood why it makes me so upset that I'm being asked to pay all this money to replace a card that was never in my possession and that the Postal Service clearly never had it. His response was that it's all a matter of speculation whether or not it made it to the mail. So I repeat myself. I don't have $450 laying around that I can just whip out to replace a card I never got in the first place. He tells me that if I print out the form and submit it through the mail, I won't have to pay the fee. I'm sceptical, but I give in and hang up. I look up the form, read the instructions, and guess what. He was lying. He just wanted to say something to get me off the phone apparently. I'm totally expected to pay the fee because according to them, they sent the card, it's out of their hands, the Postal Service never returned it to them, it's not their fault.

Now my energy is focused on the Postal Service. I call their customer service line and after spending 10 minutes trying to navigate through their automated system to get to an agent, I'm told that the tracking number I was given isn't even a valid format. Blood = curdling... Now I have to call immigration back, find out if there's an actual tracking number or not. Finally I find out that whoever gave me that tracking number in the first place was way off base, and now I actually had something to work with. When I checked the tracking number online, it basically said that it was received in the Colorado Springs sorting facility on December 13 and nothing beyond that. To me that meant it got dropped on the floor or something because I DEFINITELY never got it in the mail. I spend another 10 minutes trying to get the blasted automated Postal Service lady to let me talk to a REAL person and they tell me that they opened an investigation to find out what happened. They'd call me back the next day to let me know what they figured out.

I get a call this afternoon from the Postal Service here in town. They call me to ask for a correct tracking number. I tell them they HAVE the correct tracking number, it's just really old. "Well why have you let it sit around for so long? Our system gets rid of that information after 30 days." Thanks... I only found out this stupid tracking number existed yesterday. I end up being told that since it's so old, there's nothing they can do. I have to ask for the card to be reissued. NOT ACCEPTABLE. I told them that to reissue the card is a significant chunk of change and I asked as politely as possible for their help. Then they said that they can request for the information to be retrieved but it takes another day so I have to call the Post Office tomorrow morning. Again... Thanks for being so willing of offer a solution before I have to beg for one... Yeah right... Then he started hassling me because I moved and I didn't put in a forwarding request. Give me a break here!!!! If the postal service has had my card in their possession since BEFORE CHRISTMAS and I moved IN FEBRUARY, it shouldn't have taken that long to get to me in the first place!

Ugh... I just feel like I'm being bullied around. Neither the immigration people or the Postal Service people are really willing to help me. I feel like they won't point me in the right direction unless I come up with the initial thought. All this could have been avoided if when I called the very first time after the initial 60 days was up and instead of telling me that they'll report it as lost, they COULD have asked me if I had a tracking number and checked it. But no. That was just the beginning of a long pointless wait that is making things a bazillion times more difficult now.

I really hope I wasn't this useless when I worked in customer service.......