Found it necessary to cross evey T and dot every I and then make copies of every document sent to the INS. It was worth every penny spent to send them in a fashion where the package had to have a signature and a date.
The INS does make mistakes, but getting them to admit it takes an act of God. An Act of Congress is not good enough.
Sent documents to the INS, then the same documents to the State Dept. Then the INS office in the USA demanded the same documents. When asked about dupliciation and triplication, was told, "well they are stored and not available to us."
In one instance I was lied to by an employee of INS in their waiting room. When I asked to see the senior officer present, he said he could do nothing. Well my blood pressure was rising as was my voice. I told him he had better do something very quickly before I did something. His face got white and inquired what I was about to do. I told him that in about 30 seconds, I would be laying on the floor having a heart attack, but that wouldn't be the worst part for him. He meekly asked what would be worse. The "blipping" press conference that I or my family would be holding telling the entire world about the incompetence of the INS office that he was in charge of. You never saw a person move so fast in your life. They moved at the speed of light "for them." and all of our documents were handled properly. In addition to which, I am propably the only American to receive a standing ovation from a group of immigrants, in an INS waiting room, trying to become legal citizens of the USA.
What really makes me angry is that they make it so difficult for people trying to do it the legal proper way and then turn around and let illegals flock in without any questions at all.
Your story sure hit a chord with me! In our case, they kept changing their demands. We'd send all the paperwork and fees. They'd lose them and take six months to tell us we had to replace them. We'd send another set. Another six months and we'd hear, "Well, now we don't need ___ anymore; we need ___." More papers. More money. More days spent on hold trying to call, or trips to Buffalo and New York City. Weeks, months, years. Then we had to move to California, and it started all over again. Buffalo couldn't be trusted to ship the papers to San Francisco; apparently everything got lost and we were at Square One again. By then requirements had changed. All the money we'd spent for translation of her Brazilian documents (which we could've done ourselves for free, but NO, that wasn't good enough)? Had to be done again. All original documents from two countries to be replaced and notarized...again. Duplicates, triplicates...no! That was last week! This week, they have to be triplicates and duplicates! Drive to San Jose; wait four hours for appointment to find out it was cancelled. More fees. More pictures, since she'd outgrown the others. More waiting.
Finally took a letter from Sam Farr's office (our district...sighhhh...) and within two weeks, we had our final face-to-face. I don't credit Farr for this, but some nice person who works for him sent off a letter on our behalf. I often wanted to throw a hissy like you did, but with our luck we would've been arrested or something.
Of course, Sam Farr is Congresscritter-For-Life around here, and he wouldn't give a hoot what I think about anchor babies. But I feel like copying this whole thread and sending it to him.