Please help - File in 04/2015 and still nothing

[KennyJ 10]

Can somebody please advise me on what to do. My wife filed to remove her condition on 04/2015, she did the biometrics and since then nothing has happened. We contacted the USCIS and we got this response

"We have placed your case on a processing hold because the required security checks remain pending. Until we receive the results of these security checks, we cannot move forward on your case. We require the results of security checks before we make a decision on any pending case."

What should i do now? I heard there is a memo that USCIS is forced to approve if they takes longer than 6 months to do the check. Is that memo still in affect? Please let me know what to do

Thanks all

[SM & EF 41]

I haven't had to do this myself, but from what I've read here you can do two things:

1. Make an appointment at your local USCIS office and get her passport stamped for additional time on her extension. Make sure this is completed before her 1-year extension ends.

2. After getting the second extension, apply for her citizenship. Apparently this forces them to adjudicate her ROC in order to work on naturalization.

Again, these are things I've only read here, so you might confirm it with others who have been in the same boat and come out the other side.

Good luck!

[NickD 202]

When I first joined our military, first leave, all my neighbors told me two FBI agents came over to ask them all kinds of questions about me, nobody came here to check on my wife and her daughter. Wife used her attorney in her home country to go their courts to get documents that they were crime free.

When my wife first received her SS card, we could finally open a bank account, and can guarantee you it wasn't for 25 million bucks, did a security check on her. Took all of two minutes. Longer when I purchased a new hunting rifle. had to fill out a long form, that took ten minutes.

Heard the same thing from the USCIS about long delays for security checks, for the AOS, ROC, and even citizenship, but the last was not that long.

For whatever reason at our DMV, wanted to see their green cards and some kind of letter addressed to them for proof of their address. Was only good until their condition cards expired, had a heck of a time explaining what a one year extension notice was about.

Have over 11 million illegals here wanting to give them amnesty. Wonder how they got by, Also read the USCIS was handing out green cards to Cuban refugees, proposed to my wife I put them on a raft and call the Coast Guard to pick them up. But trying to do all this stuff legally, was extremely stressful and time consuming, also extremely expensive.

[EM_Vandaveer 2,370]

Apply for citizenship 90 days before the "3 years from Residence Since" date on your wife's GC. This will force USCIS to finally adjudicate the I-751 as well as the N-400.

Include a copy of the NOA1 for your I-751 with your N-400 packet.

Edited March 11, 2016 by EM_Vandaveer

[KennyJ 10]

Apply for citizenship 90 days before the "3 years from Residence Since" date on your wife's GC. This will force USCIS to finally adjudicate the I-751 as well as the N-400.

Include a copy of the NOA1 for your I-751 with your N-400 packet.

Thank you EM_Vandaveer. Is NOA1 for i751 the biometric appointment letter? That is the only thing we got from them

[EM_Vandaveer 2,370]

Thank you EM_Vandaveer. Is NOA1 for i751 the biometric appointment letter? That is the only thing we got from them

No, it's the first letter you are supposed to receive after filing. It contains the 1-year extension of the GC.

[NickD 202]

Thank you EM_Vandaveer. Is NOA1 for i751 the biometric appointment letter? That is the only thing we got from them

You didn't get that one year extension letter? We received that separate from the biometrics appointment letter. Wife had to carry her expired green card along with that extension letter.

In frustration, we also applied for US citizenship at the earliest time, so had to send in a copy of her expired green card, copy of the extension letter, and she also had to bring in her foreign passport book with their I-551 stamp in it. That was another 450 mile trip for that because her one year extension letter also expired.

Up to us to keep ourselves legal, she finally received her ten year card three weeks after her citizenship interview, only to give it back one week later at her oath ceremony, that wanted that ten year card back.

Wasn't too bad, because we also included her daughter with her I-751 as she was a minor at the time, but did receive her ten year card at the same time. She needed that to apply for college and to get a part time job. She also turned 18 one week before my wife's interview, so could not become a US citizen with her. Wonder if the USCIS planned it this way. If she had her interview one week and a couple of days earlier, would have been included.

So for us meant another 1,350 miles of driving, another 700 bucks, and another two years of waiting.

[Cathi 5,624]

You didn't get that one year extension letter? We received that separate from the biometrics appointment letter. Wife had to carry her expired green card along with that extension letter.

In frustration, we also applied for US citizenship at the earliest time, so had to send in a copy of her expired green card, copy of the extension letter, and she also had to bring in her foreign passport book with their I-551 stamp in it. That was another 450 mile trip for that because her one year extension letter also expired.

Up to us to keep ourselves legal, she finally received her ten year card three weeks after her citizenship interview, only to give it back one week later at her oath ceremony, that wanted that ten year card back.

Wasn't too bad, because we also included her daughter with her I-751 as she was a minor at the time, but did receive her ten year card at the same time. She needed that to apply for college and to get a part time job. She also turned 18 one week before my wife's interview, so could not become a US citizen with her. Wonder if the USCIS planned it this way. If she had her interview one week and a couple of days earlier, would have been included.

So for us meant another 1,350 miles of driving, another 700 bucks, and another two years of waiting.

NOA1 is the extension letter

[nitehero 6]

Thank you EM_Vandaveer. Is NOA1 for i751 the biometric appointment letter? That is the only thing we got from them

Hey KennyJ,

I am also in the same boat. I filed April 2015 and I have heard nothing so far. I haven't even bothered calling yet,I am waiting for them to update the processing time for VSC (currently March 30, 2015) before I start bothering them.

[KennyJ 10]

You didn't get that one year extension letter? We received that separate from the biometrics appointment letter. Wife had to carry her expired green card along with that extension letter.

In frustration, we also applied for US citizenship at the earliest time, so had to send in a copy of her expired green card, copy of the extension letter, and she also had to bring in her foreign passport book with their I-551 stamp in it. That was another 450 mile trip for that because her one year extension letter also expired.

Up to us to keep ourselves legal, she finally received her ten year card three weeks after her citizenship interview, only to give it back one week later at her oath ceremony, that wanted that ten year card back.

Wasn't too bad, because we also included her daughter with her I-751 as she was a minor at the time, but did receive her ten year card at the same time. She needed that to apply for college and to get a part time job. She also turned 18 one week before my wife's interview, so could not become a US citizen with her. Wonder if the USCIS planned it this way. If she had her interview one week and a couple of days earlier, would have been included.

So for us meant another 1,350 miles of driving, another 700 bucks, and another two years of waiting.

Hello all,

We receive blue letter asking for more documents to prove our marital bona fides. We both have a child together. At the time of filing my wife was 7 months pregnant, now our son is 10 months old now. Does our son birth certificate the strongest evidence and only document we need to send? I don't really know what else to send. The first package we sent including utility bills, bank statements, pictures, letter from landlord, insurance cards...Please advise me what to do

[Pitaya 2,577]

Hello all,

We receive blue letter asking for more documents to prove our marital bona fides. We both have a child together. At the time of filing my wife was 7 months pregnant, now our son is 10 months old now. Does our son birth certificate the strongest evidence and only document we need to send? No, not necessarily, that is only ONE piece of evidence (according to USCIS). I don't really know what else to send. The first package we sent including utility bills, bank statements, pictures, letter from landlord, insurance cards...Please advise me what to do

Did you send ALL of your available marriage bonafides since the inception of the marriage. Here is the Form I-751 instructions listing 4 out of the five examples of types of evidence that USCIS wants:

Evidence of the Relationship

Submit copies of documents indicating that the marriage upon which you were granted conditional status was entered in “good faith” and was not for the purpose of circumventing immigration laws. Submit copies of as many documents as you can to establish this fact, to demonstrate the circumstances of the relationship from the date of the marriage to the present date, and to demonstrate any circumstances surrounding the end of the relationship, if it has ended. The documents should include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

1. Birth certi cates of children born during the time of this marriage, if any;

2. Lease or mortgage contracts showing joint occupancy and/or ownership of your communal residence;

3. Financial records showing joint ownership of assets and joint responsibility for liabilities, such as joint savings and checking accounts with transaction history, complete joint Federal and State tax returns, insurance policies that show the other spouse as the bene ciary, joint utility bills, or joint installment or other loans. If applicable, submit copies of military Leave and Earnings Statements showing receipt of Basic Allowance for Quarters (BAQ) with family members and/or Form DD-1172 for military family member identi cation cards;

4. Other documents that you consider relevant to establish that your marriage was not entered for the purpose of evading U.S. immigration laws; and

REF: page 5, Form I-751 instructions, https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-751instr.pdf (emphasis added)

Lately, the USCIS adjudicators have seemed to become very fixated on the volume of marital bonafides evidence...... My advice: Shower them with paper. That's what we ended up doing.

Good luck on your immigration journey.