Published by: Financial Express - January 8, 2026
https://www.financialexpress.com/business/investing-abroad-my-h-1b-approved-but-stuck-in-a-34-month-queue-attorney-shares-legal-fixes-for-missing-form-i-824-4100306/
Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv in the article:
Why getting a duplicate approval is so difficult?
According to the Virginia-based Immigration attorney Rajiv Khanna, the official route for a missing approval notice is Form I-824. The problem is the timeline. USCIS lists processing times for I-824 between 16.5 and 34.5 months. For someone who needs to work, travel, or complete basic documentation, that wait is not practical.
“As a practical matter, there are several alternative approaches. For cases that were filed under premium processing, we have been able to request and obtain duplicate approval notices by contacting USCIS via email. USCIS customer service can sometimes send a duplicate, though their responses are inconsistent; success depends on the particular officer handling the request. Contacting your local member of Congress is another avenue that can sometimes expedite a response from the agency. If all else fails, filing a federal lawsuit is always an option. In our
experience, the government will often settle as soon as a Complaint is filed or even credibly threatened. Finally, refilling the H-1B petition entirely remains a possibility, though this is an expensive option that most would prefer to avoid,” Khanna told Financial Express.
Khanna explained that the absence of a physical I-797 does not affect the legal validity of the H-1B. If USCIS approved the petition, the status exists in the system. The problem is practical, not legal. “Note that the legal status itself is not in jeopardy if the petition was genuinely approved. The approval is a matter of record in USCIS
systems. The problem is entirely one of documentation and proof,” Khanna told Financial Express.
What people in this situation do?
Khanna advised keeping records of every attempt to fix the problem, service
requests, FOIA filings, emails, and responses. Electronic approval records from a USCIS online account should also be saved and printed. While they are not always accepted, they can still help in certain situations. Most importantly, different options should be pursued at the same time.
“Given the inconsistency of USCIS responses, contact customer service, reach out to your local Congressman’s office, and, for premium processing cases, attempt the email route for a duplicate. Do not wait for one avenue to fail before trying another,” Khanna said.
According to him, if travel or visa stamping is involved, reaching out early to the consulate may help. When time is critical, and nothing moves, legal action may actually be faster and less costly than starting over.
In the end, the case is less about one missing document and more about a system that stops working the moment paperwork goes astray. As immigration attorney Rajiv Khanna puts it, “ this situation exemplifies one of the many broken processes in our legal immigration system. The employer has spent thousands of dollars on legal fees, filing fees, and often premium processing fees to secure this approval. The government has approved the petition. Yet the employer cannot start the worker because they cannot complete the Form I-9 without the physical approval notice. American businesses are left waiting, their operational needs unmet, while a document sits in some administrative queue. The formal remedy, Form I-824, takes up to 34.5 months. This is bureaucratic dysfunction that directly harms US employers and the economy they drive.”
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