So we enlisted the help of our senator – who got an answer from USCIS the next day after contacting them! Our file and related documents have essentially been archived and there is no hope of fixing the mistake in the ways the USCIS officers assured us would work. Rather we need to submit the N-600 and supporting documents. This is not a big deal and it would have been a lot simpler if USCIS had just told us this back in January. Because of all the hassle, our senator’s representative will be hand delivering our application to the congressional liaison to USCIS, who will be hand delivering the application to USCIS headquarters and requesting they waive the fee. Whether we have to pay or not, I am finally feeling confident that this will be resolved. The senator’s office also told us she could arrange for us to go in person and apply for a passport without having to turn in Nik’s Kaz passport (which contains the IR-3 visa and the only proof of his immigration status we have).
We heard from the senator’s representative today and need to get the N-600 packet to her tomorrow. Since we first thought we might have to submit this application back in January, the passport-type photos that we had of Nikolai were way too old to use. So I attempted to take a quick digital picture that would work. I found the series of resultant photos funny:
