DC/Baltimore AOS

[huko 10]

Hi everybody, 

 

My spouse and I currently live in DC metro (local office is Baltimore) and are processing my AOS here. We would love to connect with other people in the area who are doing the same thing - either waiting for an update from AOS application, or if you have gotten your green card already  

 

anyone from the area want to chat and share stories?

Edited May 3, 2017 by huko

[huko 10]

I'm a December 9th filer; so far I've gotten my EAD/AP combo card and I-485 is "ready to be scheduled for an interview". 

 

My spouse is unemployed and I'm currently working but risking losing my job because in order to stay employed, I will soon need a security clearance that only USC and GC holders can obtain... 

 

Has anybody made an expedite request for their AOS before? I'm not sure if I meet the criteria for an expedition...

[piff 46]

5 minutes ago, huko said:

I'm a December 9th filer; so far I've gotten my EAD/AP combo card and I-485 is "ready to be scheduled for an interview". 

 

My spouse is unemployed and I'm currently working but risking losing my job because in order to stay employed, I will soon need a security clearance that only USC and GC holders can obtain... 

 

Has anybody made an expedite request for their AOS before? I'm not sure if I meet the criteria for an expedition...

We applied in October and still waiting... 

[huko 10]

8 minutes ago, piff said:

We applied in October and still waiting... 

Baltimore seems to be processing AOS so slow compared to most other cities in the country  

[oncoming traffic 21]

oh hey - we're processing from a temporary visa but i figured i'd pop in and say hello to fellow vjers from baltimore regardless : ) we sent our concurrent 130/485 in late february and without any rfes we received notice that our case is ready to be scheduled for interview a few days ago. now how long that will take... who knows lol

[huko 10]

31 minutes ago, oncoming traffic said:

oh hey - we're processing from a temporary visa but i figured i'd pop in and say hello to fellow vjers from baltimore regardless : ) we sent our concurrent 130/485 in late february and without any rfes we received notice that our case is ready to be scheduled for interview a few days ago. now how long that will take... who knows lol

well hi!!!!!

 

we filed mine in early december, no RFEs, and have been ready to be scheduled for interview since january 20th lol...

 

I was looking at the Baltimore processing time chart on USCIS website: by the end of february they were still processing cases from last march... so it seems like a 11mo difference. hopefully we won't have to wait that long.

 

btw i read thru another thread on VJ and someone (can't remember the username) was saying that they were told by their infopass appointment officer that we shouldn't be taking the processing time charts on USCIS website too seriously because it's usually behind. 

[piff 46]

I simply cannot believe that there is no one else from MD doing AOS because MD field Office is packed!

[huko 10]

1 minute ago, piff said:

I simply cannot believe that there is no one else from MD doing AOS because MD field Office is packed!

hahaha seriously! maybe people already know MD filed office is crazy slow and just don't care to check on status anymore

[yuna628 9,530]

Hi there, we finished AOS last year, via Baltimore. But the fact is where we thought the case was actually at Baltimore it was not. It was moved elsewhere to be handled by a different state because of Baltimore's backlog. So just a heads up.. you may think your case is sitting in Baltimore, but.. there's also a chance it might not be. We had no idea until endless waiting and an RFE for the medical. You can see by the timeline how long it took. You won't be able to get anyone to really move on looking at it until outside of processing time, and even then you may need a senator to bug them.

[huko 10]

1 minute ago, yuna628 said:

Hi there, we finished AOS last year, via Baltimore. But the fact is where we thought the case was actually at Baltimore it was not. It was moved elsewhere to be handled by a different state because of Baltimore's backlog. So just a heads up.. you may think your case is sitting in Baltimore, but.. there's also a chance it might not be. We had no idea until endless waiting and an RFE for the medical. You can see by the timeline how long it took. You won't be able to get anyone to really move on looking at it until outside of processing time, and even then you may need a senator to bug them.

omg thanks for the comment! that was really helpful lol 

 

so I've got a question about RFE actually... so far I haven't gotten any RFE yet and my status has been "ready to be scheduled for interview" for a little over 3 months. is it still likely that I will get an RFE later on? 

 

i'm gonna try to call a USCIS tier #2 officer and hopefully see if they can verify whether my case is being processed by baltimore or not.

[yuna628 9,530]

1 minute ago, huko said:

omg thanks for the comment! that was really helpful lol 

 

so I've got a question about RFE actually... so far I haven't gotten any RFE yet and my status has been "ready to be scheduled for interview" for a little over 3 months. is it still likely that I will get an RFE later on? 

 

i'm gonna try to call a USCIS tier #2 officer and hopefully see if they can verify whether my case is being processed by baltimore or not.

Can't tell you about that... but I would say that if you've had a ready to be scheduled for three months.. it might be a good idea to track that down. Tier 2 or make an Infopass at Baltimore. You'd hate to be in the situation where they supposedly sent you a notification about the interview... but magically forgot or the USPS ate your mail. For us, our status never changed, we had no idea.. and since the case was sent off to another state (we don't know if it sat at Baltimore for a while before being moved, or if it was moved elsewhere directly) we were interview waived. I'd think if you have an interview ready then an RFE isn't happening, unless the officer requests something from you directly.

[oncoming traffic 21]

11 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Can't tell you about that... but I would say that if you've had a ready to be scheduled for three months.. it might be a good idea to track that down. Tier 2 or make an Infopass at Baltimore. You'd hate to be in the situation where they supposedly sent you a notification about the interview... but magically forgot or the USPS ate your mail. For us, our status never changed, we had no idea.. and since the case was sent off to another state (we don't know if it sat at Baltimore for a while before being moved, or if it was moved elsewhere directly) we were interview waived. I'd think if you have an interview ready then an RFE isn't happening, unless the officer requests something from you directly.

hey thanks so much for the info! i'm in the same boat as the other poster. we will be taking your advice and scheduling an infopass if nothing changes by 1 aug.

[huko 10]

well i just talked to tier #2 support finally... after a 40min wait lol maybe you guys already know all these information but i thought i'd still post it on here just in case

 

apparently our I-485 cases are always first being processed at MSC or 1 of the 5 service centres all the way until a specific interview date has been scheduled, and that's when USCIS moves the case to a local office, which for me is Baltimore.

so really, when your status is showing "ready to be scheduled for an interview", there's no point checking processing time on USCIS for your local office because your case hasn't reached there yet.

 

that tier #2 support guy told me that MSC is currently working on I-485 cases filed back in september 2016. my filing date is december 9th 2016, so his personal estimate is that i should be getting my interview date notice in the next 2-3 months.

 

this helps me feel better because i thought the entire time that my case had already reached Baltimore and therefore i've been checking Baltimore time chart religiously and they are still processing cases from march 2016. that's like a whole 6 months longer than the actual estimate for my case.

 

anyway... i just gotta keep telling myself patience is a virtue lol

 

P.S. well english is not my first language so i mean there is the possibility that i didn't understand customer support's response correctly.

[piff 46]

 

well i just talked to tier #2 support finally... after a 40min wait lol maybe you guys already know all these information but i thought i'd still post it on here just in case

 

apparently our I-485 cases are always first being processed at MSC or 1 of the 5 service centres all the way until a specific interview date has been scheduled, and that's when USCIS moves the case to a local office, which for me is Baltimore.

so really, when your status is showing "ready to be scheduled for an interview", there's no point checking processing time on USCIS for your local office because your case hasn't reached there yet.

 

that tier #2 support guy told me that MSC is currently working on I-485 cases filed back in september 2016. my filing date is december 9th 2016, so his personal estimate is that i should be getting my interview date notice in the next 2-3 months.

 

this helps me feel better because i thought the entire time that my case had already reached Baltimore and therefore i've been checking Baltimore time chart religiously and they are still processing cases from march 2016. that's like a whole 6 months longer than the actual estimate for my case.

 

anyway... i just gotta keep telling myself patience is a virtue lol

 

P.S. well english is not my first language so i mean there is the possibility that i didn't understand customer support's response correctly.

Very good job and input! I knew that it is at MSC (NBC) because this is where we mail it and where 765 & 131 are processed. Interesting on the estimate of 485s

[piff 46]

There should be processing time updates this month - hopefully they will update Baltimore properly  any updates anyone?