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Isabel&Will

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  1. Received my notice that they received my application in the mail yesterday 02/28/2024 and received another notice today 02/29/2024 that they are reusing my biometrics! First win I've had through this whole process I feel like, lol. I think it's too soon for any other updates at this time but I'm thankful to not have to do the biometrics again because my closest USCIS office is now 3-4 hours away
  2. I decided to submit my N-400 today, will update if anything happens 😅 I had my biometrics back in Feb 2022 so I have a feeling they will want another one.
  3. Yep I feel that. The prediction for mine has been inching sooner (allegedly August 2023) but I'm not holding my breath since mine ended up going to Potomac where it seems applications go to die 😥 I ended up getting a new job so there's a part of me that doesn't want to have to go in for an interview until August anyways because the closest service center is now 3-4 hours away and I don't want to have to take time off during my probationary period, but I'm nervous that nothing will happen for a long while after that...
  4. Received my 48 month extension a week or so ago, expiry date on my physical card is 03/18/2022 and they issued the new extension on March 6. I'm really thankful, we moved states so this confirmed that they updated my address correctly and also prevents a 3-4 hour trip one way to get the stamp for at least a little while! We're at Potomac so....who knows how much longer I'll be waiting 😥
  5. I'm glad you found a way to make it work and good luck with your application! I believe PQ is the French abbreviation for Quebec (shorthand for "Province du Québec") so I think it would have made it there either way, but from what I've read they stopped using that regularly in the 90s so it's interesting that the system hasn't been updated
  6. I had to apply for a new Canadian passport from the US since I changed my last name when I got married. I just sent it off a couple weeks ago so I don't have information on whether or not it was successful unfortunately, but they did process my payment 😅 I will try and update once I know more but the processing times are pretty long. I went the Walgreens route, mainly because there were no recommended photographers near me. Keep in mind that the people working there when you go may not be knowledgeable about non-US passport photos and you will (probably) have to cut your own photos. They also had a photo paper shortage for a while so you may run into that as well 🙃 Their passport computer screens had a walkthrough on how to take and crop passport photos from many different countries, but I had to help walk them through it because they'd never done it before. I'd definitely recommend bringing the official "Examples of acceptable and unacceptable passport photos" with you and comparing if you can, especially since the photos themselves can be somewhat pricey. I think the resulting photos were acceptable but they are only valid for 6 months rather than what I believe is the usual 12 when applying from Canada (passport application requirements, not because they were taken at Walgreens). I sent my application via USPS and was required to fill out a customs form. The address given for applications from the US didn't have a street number or PO Box (it's literally just "Passport Program", City, Province, Postal Code) so you may not be able to fill in some of the fields on the customs form, so just be careful with that. I put "Passport Program" as the business name and skipped the street number fields and it seems to have gotten where it needed to go. The USPS clerks unfortunately didn't have any insights or advice and told me they don't know how Canadian addresses work so I kinda just had to cross my fingers and hope for the best. Definitely get some form of tracking, especially if you have to send any original documents.
  7. Hello! Just wanted to post an update in case anyone was curious: We ended up filing as early as possible (took it to the post office on December 18) and we received my extension NOA1 on January 3. They didn't end up waiving the Biometrics appointment but thankfully our move was postponed until March and it's scheduled for a weekish before we move, which is actually great because this service center is only about half an hour away vs. 4+ hours to the closest center where we will be moving (or worse if I had to come back to Virginia). Long story short: it's often better to just do things right away than to wait it out 😅 This has been the case with everything so far because we've run into so many situations where we'd be in a huge pickle if we had waited
  8. We hadn't checked the mail since Dec 27 or 28 but our NOA was in there today with notice date of 12/22/2021 (Received 12/20/2021), 24 month extension. Our's has the same thing and the printing on the notice is faded at the top too 😓
  9. Added my info to the spreadsheet a couple days ago but figured I'd post it here as an update as well: Sent it USPS Express with signature on Dec 18 (earliest possible day to file) and it was delivered Monday morning (Dec 20 at 9AM). I received the text notification on Dec 23 and the check showed up in the account as cashed on Dec 24. Husband will be checking the mail on the way home, but I assume it's too early for the notice to have arrived yet especially with the holidays. It also went to Potomac so...guess we've got a long wait on our hands haha We put our packet in a manila envelope inside the Express envelope and wrote the address and return address on it just in case it got separated somehow. Packet page order was: 1) G-1145, E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance 2) Intro letter explaining what the petition was for and what we included 3) Check 4) I-751 form 5) Documents requested (copies of permanent residence card) and other identification documents that weren't asked for (copy of US citizen spouse's passport and extra copy of marriage license) 6) Evidence Made sure to use extra paper clips to secure the check since our original K1 petition was rejected because the check fell into the envelope and they didn't check for it
  10. Just sent our I-751 off, "guaranteed delivery by Monday 6PM", so hopefully they'll confirm delivery before Christmas but I'm assuming there will be delays through until after New Years. I keep getting waves of panic at the thought that I may have forgotten something 😅 hopefully that'll pass soon.
  11. Hey! I remember you from the K1 process, glad to see you've made it here as well! Best of luck to you too!
  12. I was confused too but I'm assuming that this user had to pay 2 biometrics fees instead of just 1 (1 for petitioner, 1 for their son since it seems that both are conditional residents?) if anyone can clarify to make sure
  13. My window isn't until Dec 18 so I'm excited but nervous since it feels like time is flying. Our 2020 evidence is a bit lacking since we weren't really going anywhere other than work and were in survival mode but I'm hoping there's enough there to show we were still together through that period of time. I'm hoping this will be enough since we don't have much else to show, but I've seen some people send entire textbook-thick stacks. I've seen a lot of people submit another copy of their marriage license so we'll be submitting that along with the copy of my green card just in case along with: - Copy of our original lease agreement (2019) and lease addendum that extended our lease into 2022 - Copies of joint power bills in both names - Copies of water bills sent via email addressed to both of us at the same address - Copy of recent joint bank account statement, and some earlier statements including the first one from when we first set up the account in early 2020 - Copy of a selection of [husband]’s Leave and Earnings Statements showing a dependent spouse - Copy of 2019 and recent health insurance with both our names - Copy of [husband]’s life insurance policy with [me] as a beneficiary - Copy of 2019 and 2020 jointly filed tax returns - Copy of title to jointly owned vehicle (purchased in early 2020) - Copy of previous and current auto insurance policy in both names - Selection of photos from date of marriage until present day including major events with friends and family (they only took 10 from our massive album at the GC interview so I included a few that they didn't take from 2019/early 2020 including some wedding photos, plus a selection from 2020 and 2021) - Copy of "future tenant agreement" for a potential apartment we are trying to move to near [spouse]’s hometown that we have jointly applied for (our lease agreement expires in March so I figured this would help explain that) - Copy of a bill showing both of us as members of [husband]'s family's phone plan (we still pay for it but the benefits were too good to pass up, plus my husband was already on it so they just grandfathered me in)
  14. Thank you for the advice, I'm thinking I'll get closer to the date before I make my final decision on when to file since I'll probably have a more solid idea of the details of the move by then. I'm getting everything ready as if I'll be sending it on December 18 anyways and I'll just add on anything extra if we end up waiting a bit Thank you! Yeah that sounds like what I'll probably end up doing, and why I'm also leaning towards waiting until we move so that I can just put the new address on the form I didn't know they could possibly reuse existing biometrics so that's good to know! I realized that I've never travelled domestically by air so I always associate air travel with my passport, thank you both for letting me know!
  15. My green card will be expiring in March, so my husband and I were originally planning to file to remove conditions as early as possible in December. However, my husband is getting out of the military, and it looks like we will probably be moving out of state in January (from VA to FL), but the timeline is not set in stone (we're moving back to his hometown regardless, we just don't know the exact timeline since we're waiting on the military to hit the "go button", and we're still on waitlists for an apartment that will hopefully be available in January so we can't really move until we secure a place to live). I was originally thinking we could still file in December, keep our physical address the same, and change the mailing address to either a PO box near where we plan to live, or have it sent to my husband's grandparents who live there (who could open the mail on our behalf and let us know what the contents are?), but then I remembered that there is a biometrics appointment and a chance we may receive an RFE or an interview request. It would be extremely difficult for me to travel back to Virginia to do this once we move (especially since Covid hit when I was trying to change the name on my passport, so it's still in my maiden name), so I was thinking we may have to just wait until we move, but I'm worried our move may end up being delayed (we won't really be able to postpone our stay in Virginia longer than February, but we may have to find a way if we can't secure an apartment in time). Plus I feel like having addresses in 2 states may be a red flag for USCIS. Would it be better to just file as soon as possible, submit a change of address when we move, sign up for mail forwarding, and hope it gets sent to our new address in Florida? Or would it be likely that they will still try to set me up with appointments in Virginia? I'm currently leaning towards waiting until we move to submit, since the holidays will probably delay the process into January anyway (earliest we can submit is December 18), but then again I'm worried about our move being delayed and not having enough time to submit. I read a couple stories of people being able to just go to their nearest USCIS office once they move if they receive an appointment for their previous location, but the closest one in-state is 4-5 hours away from where we plan to live, so we can't exactly pop over real quick to have it sorted out unless there's a good chance that it will work. The closest one is 3.5 hrs away but is in Alabama and I'm not sure if I can go to a different state for this as it may be out of their jurisdiction? I tried searching for forum posts but most stories are either from several years ago, or the people involved are moving close to where they used to live. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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