Hi Everyone,
I thought of writing this post about my experience so it is helpful to anybody who encountered the same problem and it's resolution to it. My driver's license was support to expire of 29/Feb/2016 and I went to MVA(Maryland) to get my license renewed. I went to MVA on 8/Jan/2016 to get it renewed. MVA asked my documents and I submitted my I-797, My existing Maryland Driver's license, Passport. What MVA or any agency like this usually does is they submit our information in a system called as SAVE where they verify our immigration status and it's expiry. Though my H1B which was approved along with I-94 was valid until Apr, 2018. This is my second H1B which was transferred by a new employer. I had H1B with old employer which was valid until 29/Feb/2016 and the I-94 was valid until 10/mar/2016.
MVA wrote a case number and asked me to check back after 5-7 business federal days. I kept going to MVA to renew my license but no luck. Each time they said the same thing. Being tired, I tried to dig into the issue myself and tried to check the status online and found that they verify our existence in this country through a system called SAVE and when I check the case number it said 'Additional Information Required' I tried to check more about it but it was a dead end. I tried calling the numbers provided to check with USCIS but no body could understand the issue and no body helped me. after digging more I found that we could verify our status online by our self through a system called as 'SELF CHECK' where you enter your Fullname, SSN, Address, I-94 or Alien number. To my surprise I see that it showed me an error as 'Mismatch information' and generated a case number because my transferred H1 information was not updated in one of their databases. I followed up with that case too with USCIS SELF CHECK customer care. They asked me what information was a mismatch but as nothing was clear in the message nobody could help me. They kept me rolling in rounds with different departments and also asked me to check this with Department of Homeland Security(DHS) and Customs Border and Protection(CBP). I visited CBP to see if my I-94 was not updated which came along with my H1B approval copy. The officer said they'll only be able to update their system in case I went out of the border and came back.
I contacted my company's Attorney to help me out with this. He asked me to visit a local immigration office to get this resolved. I went to Baltimore field office twice(Feb 24th and Mar 25th) but the staff is so dumb that they do not even understand or know what this SAVE, SELF CHECK, DHS, CBP...was. I kind of lost hope. It passed 2 months and my driver's license is already expired. I requested MVA to give me a temporary license so I can survive. They said usually the case shows 'pending' and that is when they're allowed to give a temporary license upto 8 months, but my case was showing in progress. MVA generated one more case to check if something works but no luck.
Having lost hope, I wrote an email to Howard County Senator explaining my issue. The Senator said that they cannot do anything about it as it is related to federal and forwarded my request to Congressman of my area. Nobody got back to me. Meanwhile, I figured out the actual cause and where exactly our information is located. Usually, When a company files your new H1B or Transfers H1B- the attorney will file 2 copies of H1B packets.Upon H1B approval- one copy is sent to Kentucky Consulate Center(KCC) which Scans and updates our approved information into 55 fields into the database known as PIMS database in a week's time after approval. To contact either KCC or PIMS only USCIS is the authorized entity which can instruct and check about us. Our information is fed to all the systems DHS, SAVE, SELF CHECK, CBP, US Consulate, etc. If the PIMS database is not updated no system can verify your information. Candidates who go out of the country and get stuck with reasons is one of these because US consulate cannot verify your approved information.
And I decided to go visit Congressman's office myself. I visited and the staff of the Congressman asked me to submit all the documents. She scanned all my documents PASSPORT, LICENSE, MVA Case number, H1B I-797... A week passed but I still did not hear anything. I called the Congressman office and followed up but she said we will work on it. Finally I received an email from MVA on Apr 9th mentioning my DHS verification passed through and asked me to renew my license. I finally went to MVA and got my License renewed today the Apr, 11th.
I thought of writing this post about my experience so it is helpful to anybody who encountered the same problem and it's resolution to it. My driver's license was support to expire of 29/Feb/2016 and I went to MVA(Maryland) to get my license renewed. I went to MVA on 8/Jan/2016 to get it renewed. MVA asked my documents and I submitted my I-797, My existing Maryland Driver's license, Passport. What MVA or any agency like this usually does is they submit our information in a system called as SAVE where they verify our immigration status and it's expiry. Though my H1B which was approved along with I-94 was valid until Apr, 2018. This is my second H1B which was transferred by a new employer. I had H1B with old employer which was valid until 29/Feb/2016 and the I-94 was valid until 10/mar/2016.
MVA wrote a case number and asked me to check back after 5-7 business federal days. I kept going to MVA to renew my license but no luck. Each time they said the same thing. Being tired, I tried to dig into the issue myself and tried to check the status online and found that they verify our existence in this country through a system called SAVE and when I check the case number it said 'Additional Information Required' I tried to check more about it but it was a dead end. I tried calling the numbers provided to check with USCIS but no body could understand the issue and no body helped me. after digging more I found that we could verify our status online by our self through a system called as 'SELF CHECK' where you enter your Fullname, SSN, Address, I-94 or Alien number. To my surprise I see that it showed me an error as 'Mismatch information' and generated a case number because my transferred H1 information was not updated in one of their databases. I followed up with that case too with USCIS SELF CHECK customer care. They asked me what information was a mismatch but as nothing was clear in the message nobody could help me. They kept me rolling in rounds with different departments and also asked me to check this with Department of Homeland Security(DHS) and Customs Border and Protection(CBP). I visited CBP to see if my I-94 was not updated which came along with my H1B approval copy. The officer said they'll only be able to update their system in case I went out of the border and came back.
I contacted my company's Attorney to help me out with this. He asked me to visit a local immigration office to get this resolved. I went to Baltimore field office twice(Feb 24th and Mar 25th) but the staff is so dumb that they do not even understand or know what this SAVE, SELF CHECK, DHS, CBP...was. I kind of lost hope. It passed 2 months and my driver's license is already expired. I requested MVA to give me a temporary license so I can survive. They said usually the case shows 'pending' and that is when they're allowed to give a temporary license upto 8 months, but my case was showing in progress. MVA generated one more case to check if something works but no luck.
Having lost hope, I wrote an email to Howard County Senator explaining my issue. The Senator said that they cannot do anything about it as it is related to federal and forwarded my request to Congressman of my area. Nobody got back to me. Meanwhile, I figured out the actual cause and where exactly our information is located. Usually, When a company files your new H1B or Transfers H1B- the attorney will file 2 copies of H1B packets.Upon H1B approval- one copy is sent to Kentucky Consulate Center(KCC) which Scans and updates our approved information into 55 fields into the database known as PIMS database in a week's time after approval. To contact either KCC or PIMS only USCIS is the authorized entity which can instruct and check about us. Our information is fed to all the systems DHS, SAVE, SELF CHECK, CBP, US Consulate, etc. If the PIMS database is not updated no system can verify your information. Candidates who go out of the country and get stuck with reasons is one of these because US consulate cannot verify your approved information.
And I decided to go visit Congressman's office myself. I visited and the staff of the Congressman asked me to submit all the documents. She scanned all my documents PASSPORT, LICENSE, MVA Case number, H1B I-797... A week passed but I still did not hear anything. I called the Congressman office and followed up but she said we will work on it. Finally I received an email from MVA on Apr 9th mentioning my DHS verification passed through and asked me to renew my license. I finally went to MVA and got my License renewed today the Apr, 11th.
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