BlogEnglish

I-551 – No InfoPass appointments online anymore?

We have to renew the I-551 stamps in our passports. The processing time for the removal of conditions for our Green Card now takes at least 3 YEARS!!!
Actually we invested into the US economy by helping to build a hotel in New York but that doesn’t seem to count nowadays.

Our temporary Green Card did already expire twice because the whole process is now lasting several years which is in no way our fault.
To be able to stay in the US and to travel abroad we therefore need a valid I-551 stamp in our passport. Otherwise we are at least not able to travel to Europe where we are from.

Just recently the USCIS offices changed their policy. Now you cannot do walk-ins anymore and you are not able to schedule an InfoPass appointment online which was possible and convenient in the past.

You have to call the USCIS (1-800-375-5283), wait at least 15 to 20 minutes, and then they actually don’t know what to do. The USCIS help line lady who answered my first call had to ask other officers how to proceed.

After several muted breaks she told me to wait for a call back from the USCIS in 48 to 72 hours, because she couldn’t help us with getting an appointment.
Nobody called us back!

Right now I’m trying to call the USCIS again after waiting for 3 days for nothing. My wait time will be again 15-20 minutes. A recorded message just told me that the best time to call is from Wednesday to Friday. Today is Friday but the wait time is as long as on Tuesday.

Finally I got someone on the phone. The lady told me that they tried to reach me this morning but my phone was busy, which could be correct. Now I have to wait another 72 hours for a second attempt. If they will not be able reach me again, because I’m using the bathroom or my phone, the procedure starts from the beginning. Which means I have to call the USCIS again and wait for another 72 hours – and that this can go on for months…

I got no second call from the USCIS but an email that they couldn’t reach me and that I have to call them again!

If you have similar experiences please post it here!!

I-551 – No InfoPass appointments online anymore?

Timeline – or how I spend my life:

1. Call USCIS – 1-800-375-5283 – wait time 15 to 20 minutes – 06/17/2019
2. Call USCIS – 1-800-375-5283 – wait time 15 to 20 minutes – 06/21/2019
3. Call USCIS – 1-800-375-5283 – wait time 25 to 30 minutes – 06/24/2019
The USCIS called back in less than two hours but I was helping my wife with some homeschool math and left my phone unattended for likely 5 minutes…
The officer left a message that he will call back in approximately two hours. Now I’m waiting in front of my phone like a snake in front of a mouse hole…

4. I had a phone call with a USCIS officer from Washington D.C.. Unfortunately he told me that he is not able to schedule an InfoPass appointment right now. The renewal can not take place earlier than 30 days before the expiration date (in 33 days!!) of my current I-551 . Which means that I have to call the USCIS again next week.

5. I tried it again on July, 3rd, waited another 25 minutes on the phone. Entered all my stuff again, explained my situation again, got muted several times again. Finally I got told that the USCIS will likely not call me back before July 5th or later because nobody will call me on July 4th (= Independence Day – for all people not living in the USA).

6. On a Saturday evening (July 6th) an unknown number called me at around 5:30pm. We just came home from a tennis tournament and I was not in the mood to argue with a SPAM caller. Which wouldn’t have been the case because it was the USCIS. They tried to call me twice in maybe 10 minutes. Then I got an email that they couldn’t reach me. Oh wow! How is that even possible??? Now I have to call them again on Monday.

7. Monday, 10th of July, next call at the USCIS office, wait time 25 to 30 minutes. The background music BTW is really terrible. They might think that it will calm people down but when you call the nth time you just wanna throw your f***ing phone out of the window. Then there is this recorded … guy telling me all the time that I can ask “Emma” online and she would know most of the answers. I have some questions in my mind that I would like to ask her… but it’s better not to write them down here. But…, hey Emma, do you know how much fun it is to wait on the phone for days or weeks to get an appointment? If yes, please press 1, then 2, then enter your ZIP code, then 1, then something and then enter a very long number, just for no reason, but I want to make you just a little more submissive.

I’m still waiting and I cannot do much because I need my full concentration to be awake when someone might answer my call… isn’t that the best way to spend your life? “You can also ask Emma!” says the recorded guy again and again and again… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I. C.A.N. N.O.T. A.S.K. E.M.M.A.! She doesn’t know sh*t. – And then they also tell you that you should have your paperwork prepared in front of you. – And if I need to go to a place where even EMMA goes alone? Should I take it all with me and use it for the urgently needed cleaning purposes? If yes, please enter the word “TOILET PAPER” on your phone, so that we can assist you better… Am I going crazy, right now? Yes, maybe, but likely not crazier than this world already is…

I hope some strange looking alien will find my website in 2000 years to understand better, how great life on earth has been – back in those good old days when humans invented rules to drive other humans crazy!!! We have to go extinct. Every simple screwdriver can achieve more things than humans do, and has a greater IQ anyway.

I just need a STAMP. I don’t wanna buy a politician or a president, which is btw for sure much easier… Now the phone is suddenly just quiet. No more background music from hell which feels kind of good, but there’s also no one on the phone… I’m waiting but nothing happens. Oh GREAT, the connection just suddenly ended. Can you imagine – after waiting for another 30 minutes on the phone????????????????????? Humans are more stupid than any other life form that has ever existed… If you agree, please press…, you know the procedure…

8. I just called them again and was so not in my Sunday morning at the beach mood… Did you know that those phone computers are not able to process more than like 50 random numbers? AT LEAST I know that now…

9. Next call, estimated wait time between 25 to 30 minutes. Emma’s recorded friend is back and I really begin to hate him… or at least his voice. It’s not his fault, but he is somehow part of the problem which doesn’t make him any more likable. … Right when I was writing this the voice changed but telling me exactly the same important stuff with a different voice… Did they just listen to what I’m writing here??? I should start drinking whiskey earlier in the day…

Some agent has just answered my call. I tried to explain her that this InfoPass appointment band-worm cannot go on and on and on… and I asked her if she knows how frustrating it is to call again and again just to get an appointment. She simply answered “Yes!” which is nice and honest but does not change the fact that I now have to answer the phone again during the next 48 to 72 hours – at any time. Then I have to tell the caller a case number which I will get tattooed on my forehead this afternoon… otherwise I could just lose that number and then it would all start from the beginning. That has to be prevented by any means, under every circumstances.

No, I will not go to the bathroom. I will not answer any other phone call. I will not eat, drink and sleep or write stupid stuff on my website. My life will not continue until I was able to get an appointment. I hope I’m doing it right! Can please someone let me know?

Greetings from insanity to the moon and back! Or so they say…

10. Approximately 30 minutes before the estimated wait time of 72 hours was over a very unfriendly USCIS officer called me. He told me three possible appointment dates for the next week. The problem was that I couldn’t say if I can make it, because my son would play a National Tennis Tournament and I would be traveling with him. I asked the officer if it’s possible to have the appointment one week later and he just flat out declined. Those are the dates I have available and nothing else, he told me – otherwise I would have to start the process from the beginning. He also did let me know that my daughter, she recently turned 19, has to call for her own appointment. She cannot come with us and I cannot make an appointment for her, the unfriendly officer told me. I also asked him if my wife could attend the appointment – instead of me. He said, yes, this is possible, but she has to call on her own then. My wife, was just around the corner, so I asked him to wait a second, so that she could talk to him. HE DECLINED TO DO SO! She has to call on her own, because the InfoPass appointment can only be made by the person that called for an appointment in the first place, not anyone else, not even my wife.

I really think all this is done on purpose! They don’t want you to get what you need. They want to annoy you. It’s absurd, ridiculous and humiliating.

The Land of the Free what have you become!

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” is written on the Statue of Liberty – and it’s so far from reality right now!

I-551 stamps – InfoPass appointment:

https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/temporary-i-551-stamps-and-mrivs

Schedule an InfoPass appointment:

https://my.uscis.gov/en/appointment/v2

 

71 / 100

One thought on “I-551 – No InfoPass appointments online anymore?

  • Tom Su

    Same situation like you.
    I worry about whether I can get I 551 stamp or not.
    I am Japanese.
    So, it also difficult in English.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.