Did you invite the NVC to your house blessing?

In Philippine culture, whenever a family moves into a new home, they invite friends and family over for the house blessing. A priest comes, offering prayers for good health, fortune, and happiness, and the owner of the house may throw coins, candy, and flower petals among the guests, to further enhance their good luck and fortune, or may open every door, cupboard, drawer, and put coins at the entrance.

If you have ever filed a petition on behalf of a relative (i.e. a brother, sister, adult child, etc.), and then moved to a new home, did you ever invite anyone from the National Visa Center (NVC) to your house blessing? If not, how do you expect the NVC to know that you moved, so that they could later send forms and other documents to you when the priority date on your family petition finally becomes current?

Ordinarily, a person files a family petition with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Once that petition is approved, it is sent to the NVC in New Hampshire for “storage,” until the priority date on the petition is almost current. For example, if a brother or sister is petitioned, the waiting time could be almost 25 years. The various USCIS offices where petitions are filed, will not keep the petitions at their facilities all those years. So, the NVC is basically a centralized storage facility for petitions where the cases are logged in, and the priority dates are monitored. 

Many years later, when the priority date is almost current, the case is “tickled,” and the NVC sends out notices to the petitioner that various forms need to be submitted and processing fees need to be paid. These notices will be sent to the last address that the NVC has on file for you. In addition, there is typically a one year deadline to respond to the NVC’s notices. Otherwise, the case will be terminated, and your family member will lose that priority date. 

If you moved many years ago, but did not inform the NVC, it will send the notices to your old address. If you are no longer there to receive the package, you probably would not respond to the notices within the allotted one-year time frame. Then you risk having the case terminated.

In addition, the law states that it is not the NVC’s job to locate or track you down. It is your job to notify the NVC of your change of address. Moreover, when the person moves and sends a change of address postcard to the post office, that will not necessarily be adequate to inform NVC of the address change. (This is because a change of address postcard to the post office is typically valid for about one year, and after that time, they will no longer forward the mail to you). You need to write directly to the NVC, and inform them of any address changes, so that you do not inadvertently have your case terminated because of your failure to respond to their notices.

Finally, if the priority date on your case has been current for some time, and you have not received any notification from the NVC (whether or not you have moved), I would suggest that you seek the advice of a reputable attorney, who can look in to your situation, determine the status of your case, and hopefully avoid having your case be terminated because of your failure to respond to NVC’s notices.   

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