Constituent Services
Our office assisted a constituent from Bay Ridge whose wife of 20+ years had received I-130 approval from USCIS but was unable to travel from Russia. She was originally scheduled to return to Moscow for an interview, but in December 2021 the National Visa Center notified her that her appointment location had been changed to Warsaw, Poland.
Our office assisted an elderly constituent caring for his wife who suffers from dementia in securing their owed tax return. After a six month delay due to a discrepancy in IRS’ system, we intervened and worked to ensure the refund was properly processed and issued via direct deposit, providing more than $11,000 in much-needed financial relief that helped cover critical monthly obligations during an especially challenging time for their family.
We recently had a local educational institution reach out to our office at the end of September after they did not receive their Employee Retention Credit (ERC) checks because they were not processed by the IRS.
After contacting our office, we confirmed that they received all five checks totaling over $4,700,000.
Our office recently assisted a constituent who had been unable to collect Social Security benefits for over two decades due to a missing original birth certificate.
After taking on the case in mid-August, our office worked closely with the Social Security Administration to confirm identity and ensure all documentation necessary was properly processed. Fortunately, the constituent has now received the full back pay they were owed — totaling more than $575,000.
A local small business recently reached out to our office for assistance with delayed federal Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After following up with the IRS, we received confirmation that the final outstanding claim was processed, resulting in over $200,000 being returned to the business. Our office remains available to help other Staten Island and Brooklyn businesses experiencing similar federal delays.
Our office recently assisted a constituent, originally from Armenia, whose citizenship application was stuck in red tape, pending approval by USCIS. After taking the citizenship exam in 2024, she was waiting in limbo for two years and subsequently contacted our office for assistance in August. We were able to get her application reviewed, and upon approval, her oath was scheduled for this month.
We congratulate our district’s newest citizen and wish her well as she continues pursuing her American Dream!
A local small business contacted our office about six months of payments from a third-party food-delivery app that were not received. We reached out to the service platform, and they initiated an investigation which discovered the merchant’s email was likely phished by an unauthorized third party who changed the bank account on file, causing some payouts to be sent to the wrong place.
The app restored the restaurant’s account and reimbursed the small business over $16,000, helping them recover nearly all impacted payments.
Our office assisted two constituents who realized that their U.S. passports were expired and had plans to travel a week later. It would normally take 4-6 weeks which would gave caused them to miss their vacation.
Within one day of contacting our office, our office secured appointments for them to apply for U.S. passports directly at the New York Passport Agency. As a result, they were able to successfully obtain their passports and proceed with their scheduled travel.
Our office recently had a constituent contact us after Social Security inadvertently stopped her payments for two months and she was unable to resolve the issue on her own. With our office's assistance, the two months of payments were direct deposited into her account and her benefits are now back on schedule.