I-130 Approval Notice is Incorrect, What Can Be Done to Correct It?

I-130 Approval Notice is Incorrect, What Can Be Done to Correct it?

I filed an I-130 petition for my husband who resides outside of the United States. I just received an I-797C approval notice. The approval notice states the following: “The above petition has been approved. The petition indicates that the person for whom you are petitioning is in the United States and will apply for adjustment of status. He or she should contact the local USCIS office to obtain Form I-485, Application for Permanent Residence. A copy of this notice should be submitted with the application.”

I believe Immigration made a mistake because all the papers that we sent to them stated that he resides outside USA. Could the person processing the application have mistaken him for another person or is it just a mistake that’s easily fixed? I also want to know if it’s going to delay our processing time since the mistake was done from their side. What’s the next step to do to fix this problem.
— Anonymous

I doubt that the officer who approved the petition mistakenly took your spouse for another person. If you have a copy of the I-130 you submitted, there is a place on page eight where the form asks if consular processing or adjustment of status is desired. The box indicating consular processing should have been checked, and the name of the consulate should have been entered. If this was properly filled out, then a mistake could have been made either in the generating of the approval notice, or in the computer entry of the type of processing desired. Either way, the remedy is to file a multi-purpose Form I-824.

The form can be prepared and filed in such a way as to request that the approved I-130 be forwarded to the consulate for processing. Any delay this may cause will be in the processing of the I-824. These processing times can be found at www.uscis.gov.

Your best bet would be to retain the services of a qualified immigration lawyer to do this for you in order to make sure you have the best chance of success in this matter. Good luck!

Michael Shane and Evan Shane, Immigration lawyers

Last Updated on 1/31/2020.