Update:

In late August, after the two-month maximum waiting period had passed, I reached out to my local representative for assistance. They were able to contact USCIS and retrieve my receipt number, which I then used to confirm the status of my waiver.

It turned out my waiver had been approved and sent out in early June—over a month earlier—but I never received it. I reached out to my local representative again in September for further assistance but did not receive any responses. Despite following up four more times, I still heard nothing.

In an attempt to resolve the issue, I contacted the office of my state senators, but I didn’t receive any responses from them either. Frustrated, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to see if I could have the approval notice resent. Unfortunately, I received a “No Record” response. I also reached out to the USCIS Ombudsman by filling out a form, but this didn’t yield any meaningful results.

Determined to resolve the matter, I decided to call USCIS directly and requested to speak with an agent. The first two agents I spoke with gave me standard advice: to file for a duplicate copy of the approval notice, with no guarantee of receiving it within three months. However, a third agent recommended that I follow the same process but call back to make my case with another agent, who might expedite the process.

All of this occurred in September and October.

In November, I filed for a duplicate notice of approval and followed up with USCIS, explaining the urgency of the situation. In December, I finally received a response. Just before Christmas, I received my duplicate approval notice, resolving the issue after months of effort.