F-1 married to USC, AOS EAD AP

[FinnAlb 0]

Hey everyone,

I thought I should post the list of documents and forms included to my AOS package. I found it very helpful when other people did this, so I want to contribute. For a background, I met my wife in Scotland back in 2005. We did long distance for almost a year, after which she moved to Finland for year and a half. Then we moved to the US in fall 2008, since we both went back to school. Now I am doing an OPT and we got married 01/01/2011. I filed my AOS package 02/01/2011 and you can find everything I included below. If you see something I've done wrong, please let me know, so I am prepared for problems Thanks.

Petition for I-485

Table of Content

1. Form I-485

2. Money order ($985 + Biometrics: $85)

3. Me:

- Copy of Birth Certificate and 2 passport-size photos

- Copy of Passport with I-94 and Visa

- Marriage Certificate

- Medical Examination Report in a sealed envelope(I-693)

- Form G-325A + attachment(ran out of space with work history)

6. Affidavit of Support (I-864)

- Form I-864

- Federal Income Tax Return (1040): 2008. 2009. 2010

- W-2: 2009, 2010

- Pay Stubs: From my wife's school

- Bank Statement showing the salaries paid to to my wife

- Letter from the employer: Verification of employment

7. Form G-1145: To receive e-notification of application acceptance

I-765

1. No application fee, since filed concurrently with I-485

2. Form I-765

3. Copy of my previous EAD

4. Two passport-size photos

I-131

1. Form I-131

2. Copy of NYS Driver License

3. Copy of EAD

4. Explanation of my qualification for advance parole document

Petition for I-30

Table of content:

1. Form I-130

2. Money Order ($420)

3. MY wife (Proof of U.S. citizenship)

- Copy of Birth Certificate

- Copy of Passport (all the pages)

4. Proof of Family Relationship

- Copy of Marriage Certificate

- Form G-325A with a passport-size photo (Wife)

- Form G-325A + attachment with a passport-size photo (Me)

- Evidence of Bona Fides of Our Marriage

-- Number of photos from the past years

- Our past two leases with both of our names on them

- Bank Statements showing our join account information

- Affidavit (Wife’s mother) letter confirming our relationship

Hopefully this will help someone! I just received my NOAs yesterday 02/12/2011.

[YuAndDan 153]

Adjusting status from a student visa, not a K-Visa. Moving to AOS from STUDENT/Work/Tourist visa forum...

[Maxximus1074 14]

Adjusting status from a student visa, not a K-Visa. Moving to AOS from STUDENT/Work/Tourist visa forum...

...phew long list of items here - but then again, that's the normality of filing for AOS, did a quick scan of your list and it looks all good to me - not sure if they would want to see more of your employment history (you mentioned you ran out of space), but in either case believe this is no "break it or make it" point, things like that can get an RFE but you can also if not requested prior to an interview brought to that appointment then in case the IO has a question.

Good luck on your AOS journey!!!

Maxximus

p.s. will look more in depth of your list later, am just about to leave the house right now

[juliava 80]

did you include a cover letter?

[Steven386 0]

thank you thank you thank you... this is exactly what i needed.

[FinnAlb 0]

@ Maxximus1074, Sorry, I was being unclear. I have had more employers within the past five years than there were lines on the form, so I included attachment where they can find all the employment history. Happy to hear it looks good after a glance

@juliava. This is another thing I should have mentioned. This actually is my cover page (except I took off all the personal information). So the line "Petition for I-485" starts the cover letter for the I-485 and the line "Petition for I-30" starts the I-130 cover.

@Steven386. You are very welcome. If you have any questions/or need help. Let me know.

I know it's a long list, but I wanted to type everything down separately, since I was told to make sure you treat both packages (I-485 and I-130) as their own entities. So, I wanted write down that I have everything twice basically you know...

[Little_My 463]

Thank you so much for this, it is really helpful! I am a Finnish citizen, currently in the United States on an F-1 visa. I graduate in May, and me and my husband have just gotten married here in NYC City hall, and are about to start our filing process. I opted not to do OPT but go straight for the residence permit and green card, since our wedding is going to take place in July anyways - we just had to do the legal civil ceremony here earlier, to be able to start the process now and hope to have my paperwork processed soon after the July wedding.

We are now in the process of filling out the forms and accumulating all the additional paperwork. I have just scheduled a doctor's appointment for next week, and things are starting to shape up..

One question I've been wondering about - I need to submit a copy (translated and verified by a notary, right?) of my birth certificate along with the application. I have it, but I was wondering if there ever is an issue in the U.S. with the Finnish birth certificate format - after all, all it really states is that my mother had a baby girl on my birthday, but of course it does not have a name or any other identification information in it. I know US birth certificates are very different from ours.. Do they usually require any additional proof of identity / nationality / citizenship?

Again, thank you for this very comprehensive list! Good luck to you, and I will let you know how our process goes

Btw - does anyone know the average processing times for concurrent filing of I-485 and I-130?

[FinnAlb 0]

One question I've been wondering about - I need to submit a copy (translated and verified by a notary, right?) of my birth certificate along with the application. I have it, but I was wondering if there ever is an issue in the U.S. with the Finnish birth certificate format - after all, all it really states is that my mother had a baby girl on my birthday, but of course it does not have a name or any other identification information in it. I know US birth certificates are very different from ours.. Do they usually require any additional proof of identity / nationality / citizenship?

Hey, nice to see other Finns here too:). Sorry, haven't been able to reply for a few days.

I had my mom go to register office (Maistraatti) in Finland and they mailed me a Birth Certificate in English. My mom never got one when I was born, so I had never even seen a Finnish version of it before. However, I did some research, and it seems that other people have been fine with it. As long as it has the original stamp from Maistraatti you should be fine.(Or if you got it from the hospital and got it translated).

I don't know about the processing times for sure, but based on other people's timelines, I would guess it'll take about 4 months to receive the CG.

Anyways, let me know if you have any questions and I can try to help . Good luck with the paperwork