CIS Ombudsman Offers Help to Derivative I-485 Applicants

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If you are a derivative spouse or child of a principal applicant whose I-485 has been approved, but yours is still pending, you may now ask CIS Ombudsman to look into your case. His office will investigate whether your cases have been separated incidentally.

Usually dependents’ adjustment of status (green card) applications are approved together with the primary application, or within a short period of time. Sometimes, however, there may be a significant delay of several months or more. This could be caused by additional processing of RFE, prolonged security checks, etc. If this is the case there is not much you can do rather than waiting.

However, sometimes the delay is caused by the separation of your AOS application from your spouse’s or parent’s I-485. In this case you really want to contact USCIS and bring up the matter with the service center.

The CIS Ombudsman is now looking into this issue. In an update posted today, the Ombudsman asks that if 30 days have passed after a principal’s I-485 was approved, and your derivative I-485 is still pending, you may send a request to his office for investigation. To do so, you should submit the following evidence to [email protected]:

  • DHS Form 7001,
  • A scanned copy of the principal applicant’s I-485 approval notice,
  • A scanned copy of the Form I-485 receipt notice for the derivative,
  • A scanned copy of the I-140 immigrant petition approval notice (if employment-based), and
  • Any other evidence that is pertinent to the case.

In your email, please note in the subject line: “Unapproved Derivative I-485.”

If the Ombudsman does help you obtain I-485 approval, please leave a comment below or send us an email.

10 thoughts on “CIS Ombudsman Offers Help to Derivative I-485 Applicants”

  1. TO WHOM MYCONCERNT
    MY WIFE WAS APROVED ON 3-3-2010
    I AM DERIVATIVE STILL PENDING
    [case info deleted by IR_Blog]

  3. Thank you, thank you, thank you. After i send all required documents to Ombudsman i got my Green card in 1 month!!! (my husbands GC was approved 2 month early)

  5. Hi Anna
    Congrats on getting your card. Could you pls let me know what is the process to raise a request to the Ombudsman and what documents are required

    thanks
    Sidharth

  6. Sidharth,

    I don’t think Anna is still reading this post since it was almost two years ago when she got her green card. You can just go over to the Ombudsman’s website and download the form 7001. You can find more instructions there. I also listed some required documents right in the post. Good luck.

  7. Hi,

    Can this be applied to cases where the derivative’s case is pending RFE review?

    My case was approved more than 30 days ago (while the cut-off date was still May’2010), but we received an RFE for my spouse to submit birth certificate. A simple RFE which could have been approved much sooner, had the dates not retrogressed back to Aug’2007. My priority date is in Dec’2007.

    Would it make sense for us to file this?

    Thanks!

  8. You can certainly gave it a shot but I don’t know if the Ombudsman’s inquiry (if he decides to make one) will get to USCIS in time. How long has it been since you sent the RFE response to USCIS? You might want to put pressure on USCIS directly to hopefully get the case processed before May.

  9. Hi,

    I am the principal applicant and received by green card 14 months ago. My wife’s I -485 is still pending. Today we received and RFE as the USCIS mistook her to be principal applicant . Can Ombudsman’s inquiry on this help us.

    Thanks,

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