ROC in 6 weeks

[sun flower 3]

I have a friend who was a conditional green card holder; she sent her i-751 package the last week of june/13. After one week, she received the first NOA, and after 30 days, she received the letter saying that her case was approved and in 60 days she’ll receive her 10 years green card. She received yesterday the card. The process was 1 month and 2 weeks. No biometrics.

She married her husband in Guatemala in 2009, wait for the visa in her country and came to USA in 2011 with the visa approved. And once in USA she received a conditional green card.

My question is if anybody knows if the process is different (and also the processing time) for a person who comes with an approved visa and another who comes in K1 or somebody who overstays the visa or adjust status from any other nonimmigrant visa.

[Cheezees 1,514]

I have no idea. I was in the US on a student visa since 2001 when I married my husband in 2011. I filed in May 2013 and am still waiting. Am I at an advantage? Only time will tell but I don't know why some cases are processed much faster than others.

[Christi85 86]

I have a friend who was a conditional green card holder; she sent her i-751 package the last week of june/13. After one week, she received the first NOA, and after 30 days, she received the letter saying that her case was approved and in 60 days she’ll receive her 10 years green card. She received yesterday the card. The process was 1 month and 2 weeks. No biometrics.

She married her husband in Guatemala in 2009, wait for the visa in her country and came to USA in 2011 with the visa approved. And once in USA she received a conditional green card.

My question is if anybody knows if the process is different (and also the processing time) for a person who comes with an approved visa and another who comes in K1 or somebody who overstays the visa or adjust status from any other nonimmigrant visa.

Congratulations on your friend for such a fast approval!

As far as I know, the requirement to remove conditions applies to everyone, including people who come in on a K1 visa and those who successfully adjust status from other visa categories. They all receive a 2 year conditional green card, which they need to apply to make permanent 2 years later. The only people exempt from this requirement are the spouses of US citizens who, at the time of entering the country, have been married to their petitioning spouse for over 2 years. Those people are granted a permanent green card upon entry and do not have the burden of removing conditions further down the road. Everyone else who comes as/adjusts to a permanent resident needs to go through ROC.

Processing time for ROC currently averages 4-6 months and it's the same for everyone. Some people get approved much quicker (for example I was approved at 3 1/2 months and other VJ members have been approved in 3 months). Your friend's 6 weeks though is an exceptionally quick turnaround time and rather a lucky "glitch" than the norm.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Christi85

[Karen_and_Jay 2]

Processing time for ROC currently averages 4-6 months and it's the same for everyone.

What about those of us who have been waiting for almost exactly 1 year? Any advice for us?

[Mithmeoi 29]

What about those of us who have been waiting for almost exactly 1 year? Any advice for us?

Have you made an infopass appointment? If not, I'd do that and get the stamp for your passport.

[Christi85 86]

What about those of us who have been waiting for almost exactly 1 year? Any advice for us?

Apart from what mithmeoi said (which you should do, because it's your only proof of legal status), anyone who hasn't heard in over 8-9 months is considered beyond normal processing times, therefore you should call them and ask to open a Service Request. I'm surprised you waited that long without contacting them for an update. Maybe they did send you an RFE or something and it got lost in the mail. I would call them asap to find out.

Also, if you are interested in becoming a citizen, apply for citizenship. If married to the same US citizen through whom you obtained your green card, then you are eligible to apply for citizenship already. This will either speed up processing of your ROC or they will by pass that completely and just process the citizenship application which takes about 3-4 months. Many VJ members have successfully done that.

But do call them today as a matter of urgency. I hope I'm wrong, but a year is way too long and I wouldn't be surprised if they sent an RFE some time ago. If it got lost in the mail you never got it of course, but RFEs have a 90 day deadline for a response and if no response is sent in that period of time, a petition is considered abandoned. Remember that they have no way of knowing whether something they sent got lost in the mail. Call them asap to find out what the status is.

[Karen_and_Jay 2]

Have you made an infopass appointment? If not, I'd do that and get the stamp for your passport.

No. I called the NCSC and filed a service request on July 15. A week later we recieved a letter that said "Your petition/application is still pending consideration and has been relocated from the Vermont Service Center to the Newark Field Office for interviewing and processing. We regret that we are not able to give you a timeframe for when we will complete the review of your petition/application."

That's good advice about the InfoPass for the I-551 stamp.

Apart from what mithmeoi said (which you should do, because it's your only proof of legal status), anyone who hasn't heard in over 8-9 months is considered beyond normal processing times, therefore you should call them and ask to open a Service Request. I'm surprised you waited that long without contacting them for an update. Maybe they did send you an RFE or something and it got lost in the mail. I would call them asap to find out.

We filed the I-751 on August 12, 2012, received an RFE on March 25, 2013, responded on May 2, and filed a service request by phone with the NCSC on July 15. The letter we received was very vague as outlined above, with no timetable and with our case transferred to the Newark Field Office with no way of contacting them there. At this point, I want to find out a timetable and I am sick of waiting!

Here's a more detailed thread outlining this problem:

www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/446966-after-11-months-case-transferred-to-newark-field-office-what-to-do-about-no-timetable

[Christi85 86]

No. I called the NCSC and filed a service request on July 15. A week later we recieved a letter that said "Your petition/application is still pending consideration and has been relocated from the Vermont Service Center to the Newark Field Office for interviewing and processing. We regret that we are not able to give you a timeframe for when we will complete the review of your petition/application."

That's good advice about the InfoPass for the I-551 stamp.

We filed the I-751 on August 12, 2012, received an RFE on March 25, 2013, responded on May 2, and filed a service request by phone with the NCSC on July 15. The letter we received was very vague as outlined above, with no timetable and with our case transferred to the Newark Field Office with no way of contacting them there. At this point, I want to find out a timetable and I am sick of waiting!

Here's a more detailed thread outlining this problem:

www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/446966-after-11-months-case-transferred-to-newark-field-office-what-to-do-about-no-timetable

Oh ok, I thought you had had no updates at all this whole time. So there was an RFE and now an upcoming interview. I totally understand feeling sick of waiting. Won't be long now though. Best of luck!