Why do they keep asking for the same stuff again? Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United State out of our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. I had a very angry potential client talking to me on the phone the other day. He wasn't angry at me, he was mad at USCIS. And he wanted to know, "Jim, I just sent them all these documents and all this information when my I-751, why are they asking for it from me all again?"
And I totally understand the frustration, you would think that a government agency could keep track of the documents. But the fact is you need to submit everything necessary for every possible immigration benefit. What do you mean? Well what I mean is that you can't rely on prior submissions to satisfy the requirements of your new case. So, for instance just because you submit a birth certificate when you're trying to get a new Green Card, you still have to submit another copy of your birth certificate in your naturalization case.
So, many times we will do what's called a freedom of information act request on a file and when you go through the freedom of information act request, the response, you get multiple copies of birth certificates, multiple copies of marriage certificates, and you get multiple copies of the applications themselves. Things end up in those files that would really surprise you.
And so you can't just rely on things that you submitted earlier. And I know it's frustrating, and I know even sometimes we get asked in one particular case for stuff that we've already submitted. And that's just because they're being difficult and trying to make your life harder. But in this scenario, I don't think that's the case. Generally when they're asking you to submit the documentation to prove that you're eligible for the benefit that you're trying to get, you can't just rely, you can't say, "Oh, they already have my birth certificate," or, "Oh, they already have my marriage certificate."
Now, you might show up in an interview and they might find it in some other part of the file, but you can't rely on that. It's your burden, it's your obligation to satisfy them and to give them all the documents that they need. So, if you have questions about what to submit, or if you think you made a mistake in what you did submit, feel free to give us a call, 314-961-8200. You can email us at [email protected]. You should join us on our Facebook group, that's called Immigrant Home. And also if you like this video please subscribe to our YouTube Channel so that you get updates whenever we make videos like this one. And be sure to share it out on social. Speaking of social we do have a new Instagram account, and it's called Hacking Immigration Law LLC is our username. Thanks a lot, have a great day.
