January 2018 AOS Filers

[lez 32]

helnazedain here. Had to make a new account because it wouldn't let me log in anymore.

 

Anyway, I am pleased to say we got approved! Interview on Apr 3 went smoothly. The IO was so nice but she didn't approve us on the spot as well as other people she interviewed. We were so disappointed after not getting an approval on the spot as we planned to celebrate over lunch. We ended up eating cheap tacos and ice cream instead. Ha! 

 

I called USCIS the next day though (since my case status could not be tracked) and asked for an IO to give me a callback. 2 hours later, I got a call and was told that we got approved on the day of the interview, so I assume the lady who interviewed us is one of those IOs who like to review and approve at the end of the work day. But yeah, hooray!

 

Before I walk you through the interview experience, I would like to share something I discovered recently. I found out that making an account at https://myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov and tracking your case through there is different from (and better than) the USCIS tracker we've all been using. I can track my AOS case status on this page and it says it was approved on April 3. I can also see that my AP was denied on the same day, probably because it's no longer necessary. No update on the EAD, though, which is odd. Anyway, I tried to track these cases again on the app and on https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus (logged in, too) and those new updates do not show plus my AOS case number still gives an error. So yeah, give the dhs link a try.

 

And now for the interview. Our appointment was at 9:15 am. We got there around 8:30 am which gave us enough time to park and check in. Was at the lobby by 9 am. There were more than 10 applicants before us but we only waited around half an hour for our turn. Those who were called before us did not come out until 30-45 mins later.

 

When we got to the IO's office, she opened our file and introduced herself. We did the oath thing and the fingerprint thing, and then she started looking at our papers. First, she verified some info on the I-485 like my name, address, social etc. then proceeded to the 99 no/no/no/no/no questions. This part took so long (about 10 mins) that even she got sick asking those long a** questions. She would mark each question after I answered, which I assumed meant that my answers matched. When we were done, she asked if we had filed our taxes for 2017 and when we said yes, she asked for a copy of the income tax return and the W-2s. She also asked for our passports and photocopied them (I brought copies but I don't know why I didn't stop her from making her own copies lol). She also asked if I had a state id/license and I said no, which wasn't a problem at all. Then, she asked if there was anything else we wanted to submit as she was flipping through the rest of our papers and I handed her a copy of our Report of Marriage. She wanted to know what this was for and I said that it was proof that we reported our marriage to my country, the Philippines. She took the paper and then asked for our marriage certificate + a photocopy, then continued flipping through the papers. She confirmed that she has our bank statements and payslips and asked if our joint account was checking or savings. I didn't see her look at any of our photos and she didn't ask to see the ones I brought, so I thought maybe she was already convinced that we're for real. Finally, I wanted to make sure we wouldn't have problems with my medical records so I asked her to confirm that she got my vaccination paper and I didn't need to get another medical exam. She said yes and that it's all good.

 

After putting the papers back in her folder, she asked me to step out of the room so she could interview my husband first. 15 mins later, she called me back in the office as my husband walked out. My husband was smiling so I figured it went well. She interviewed me for only 5 minutes as she had to wrap it up because the next couple assigned to her was already at the lobby. She said "You're good. Let me get your husband back here." I for sure thought she was going to stamp my passport, but instead, she gave us the paper that says case not yet approved with the first box checked. It said the case is in review and nothing else is required for now, and that we should receive the decision in the mail. She asked us if we had any questions but I was so stunned that I couldn't find the words to ask "WHY DID WE NOT GET APPROVED ON THE SPOT? DID WE SAY SOMETHING WRONG?". @_@ Instead, I shook my head no, smiled, and wished her a good day. I remember her saying something as she handed me the paper, but my disappointment was so deafening that I didn't hear a word she uttered. As soon as we hit the elevator, my husband and I were like, "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY". :'D 

 

But hey, we got approved the same day so that's good. The anxiety won't keep me up at night anymore. Thank you all for your support and I hope your interviews go smoothly as well and you get an on-the-spot approval!

 

I'll end this very long message with the interview questions. The IO asked me almost the same questions she asked my husband. Very easy!

 

QUESTIONS SHE ASKED BOTH OF US:

-When, where and how did you meet?

-What did you do the first time he visited you? What happened after he left?

-Did he meet your parents? When?

-Do you have siblings? How many and what are their names?

-Does he have siblings? How many and what are their names?

-When did you arrive in the USA? Was it your first time?

-When did you get married? Who were your guests? What did you do after? Which restaurant did you go to?

-Do you live in an apartment or a house? How many bedrooms do you have?

-How did you get here today? What kind of car does your husband have?

 

*QUESTIONS SHE ASKED MY HUSBAND BUT DIDN'T ASK ME:

-How much money do you make per month? How often do you get paid?

-Where do you work? What were your previous jobs?

-Where do you go to school? What course are you taking?

(My husband's interview was longer than mine because when the IO found out that my husband is studying to be an airplane mechanic, she started talking about her relative who is in the aviation industry as well. :D)

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by lezahennaid

[lez 32]

On 4/2/2018 at 6:47 PM, Stt said:

Well That's if a mail was even sent out. They wouldn't even transfer me to teir 2 said due to high call volume they're not taking any more calls and that someone would call me bk or I should try again tomorrow one rep transferred me but the wait time was 120 mins long i eventually gave up and hung up and if course the persons I spoke to had the same error message as me so they were of no help. I'm not worried I'm just taking it as something good is coming my way😁 regardless of what it is at least I know that my case is being looked at and not just sitting in a pile.

No matter what time you call, the call volume will always be high and the wait time long, especially since more and more people are asking for tier 2 reps (probably due to this tracking glitch). Of all the times I called, I was never directly transferred to an IO. It would always be that automated message that says there's a wait time of xx minutes. If you listen carefully, though, it'll tell you to press 1 if you want to schedule a callback. It would then confirm your number and have you say your name. I ALWAYS got a callback. It wasn't always within the provided time frame, but I always got a callback from an IO.

 

[CopperChem 328]

I suspect we may have the interview letter in the mail today. Something from USCIS showing in informed delivery for the day. Fingers crossed, would love to have her get the green card before the EAD/AP gets finished. I know she would like to be able to start hunting for a job here with the spring graduates.

[CopperChem 328]

Confirmation, Interview May 9th. Now for the minor freak out and making sure we have all our papers in a row. The one good thing is her interview for the K1 was back in November so her medical from that should still be good for this round. Meeting with the lawyer next week to go over everything and make sure we are ready for everything. Sad part is he said they used to waive the interview for a K1 Visa but stopped recently.

[spike198 506]

3 hours ago, CopperChem said:

Confirmation, Interview May 9th. Now for the minor freak out and making sure we have all our papers in a row. The one good thing is her interview for the K1 was back in November so her medical from that should still be good for this round. Meeting with the lawyer next week to go over everything and make sure we are ready for everything. Sad part is he said they used to waive the interview for a K1 Visa but stopped recently.

Hi friend!!!  Congrats on such a quick interview appointment!  I hope you guys are doing well and your wife is adjusting to life in the states  

[Aklaus 0]

Hi All! March filer here, hoping someone here has gone through rescheduling their biometrics appointment - received husband's biometrics appointment letter today, but OF COURSE it is scheduled for the one day he can't actually make it (he will be out of town for a family thing) - the letter says to mail the notice back if we want to reschedule, back to Virginia, but I am worried this will seriously delay his case... I have seen some posts online about just showing up at a different time, any ideas if this is acceptable? Or should we just send the notice back to reschedule...(we are in southern California, not sure if location makes a difference)

 

thank you!

Edited April 7, 2018 by Aklaus

[JahRyl 87]

15 minutes ago, Aklaus said:

Hi All! March filer here, hoping someone here has gone through rescheduling their biometrics appointment - received husband's biometrics appointment letter today, but OF COURSE it is scheduled for the one day he can't actually make it (he will be out of town for a family thing) - the letter says to mail the notice back if we want to reschedule, back to Virginia, but I am worried this will seriously delay his case... I have seen some posts online about just showing up at a different time, any ideas if this is acceptable? Or should we just send the notice back to reschedule...(we are in southern California, not sure if location makes a difference)

 

thank you!

Hi! 

I did ny biometrics 1 week before the schedule and they allowed me without questions asked. 

Maybe you can try to have his on an earlier date as well.

 

[Stt 235]

30 minutes ago, Aklaus said:

Hi All! March filer here, hoping someone here has gone through rescheduling their biometrics appointment - received husband's biometrics appointment letter today, but OF COURSE it is scheduled for the one day he can't actually make it (he will be out of town for a family thing) - the letter says to mail the notice back if we want to reschedule, back to Virginia, but I am worried this will seriously delay his case... I have seen some posts online about just showing up at a different time, any ideas if this is acceptable? Or should we just send the notice back to reschedule...(we are in southern California, not sure if location makes a difference)

 

thank you!

I did both of mind a week early! Try having your  husband did a walk in! 

[Nouchigang 200]

17 hours ago, lezahennaid said:

helnazedain here. Had to make a new account because it wouldn't let me log in anymore.

 

Anyway, I am pleased to say we got approved! Interview on Apr 3 went smoothly. The IO was so nice but she didn't approve us on the spot as well as other people she interviewed. We were so disappointed after not getting an approval on the spot as we planned to celebrate over lunch. We ended up eating cheap tacos and ice cream instead. Ha! 

 

I called USCIS the next day though (since my case status could not be tracked) and asked for an IO to give me a callback. 2 hours later, I got a call and was told that we got approved on the day of the interview, so I assume the lady who interviewed us is one of those IOs who like to review and approve at the end of the work day. But yeah, hooray!

 

Before I walk you through the interview experience, I would like to share something I discovered recently. I found out that making an account at https://myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov and tracking your case through there is different from (and better than) the USCIS tracker we've all been using. I can track my AOS case status on this page and it says it was approved on April 3. I can also see that my AP was denied on the same day, probably because it's no longer necessary. No update on the EAD, though, which is odd. Anyway, I tried to track these cases again on the app and on https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus (logged in, too) and those new updates do not show plus my AOS case number still gives an error. So yeah, give the dhs link a try.

 

And now for the interview. Our appointment was at 9:15 am. We got there around 8:30 am which gave us enough time to park and check in. Was at the lobby by 9 am. There were more than 10 applicants before us but we only waited around half an hour for our turn. Those who were called before us did not come out until 30-45 mins later.

 

When we got to the IO's office, she opened our file and introduced herself. We did the oath thing and the fingerprint thing, and then she started looking at our papers. First, she verified some info on the I-485 like my name, address, social etc. then proceeded to the 99 no/no/no/no/no questions. This part took so long (about 10 mins) that even she got sick asking those long a** questions. She would mark each question after I answered, which I assumed meant that my answers matched. When we were done, she asked if we had filed our taxes for 2017 and when we said yes, she asked for a copy of the income tax return and the W-2s. She also asked for our passports and photocopied them (I brought copies but I don't know why I didn't stop her from making her own copies lol). She also asked if I had a state id/license and I said no, which wasn't a problem at all. Then, she asked if there was anything else we wanted to submit as she was flipping through the rest of our papers and I handed her a copy of our Report of Marriage. She wanted to know what this was for and I said that it was proof that we reported our marriage to my country, the Philippines. She took the paper and then asked for our marriage certificate + a photocopy, then continued flipping through the papers. She confirmed that she has our bank statements and payslips and asked if our joint account was checking or savings. I didn't see her look at any of our photos and she didn't ask to see the ones I brought, so I thought maybe she was already convinced that we're for real. Finally, I wanted to make sure we wouldn't have problems with my medical records so I asked her to confirm that she got my vaccination paper and I didn't need to get another medical exam. She said yes and that it's all good.

 

After putting the papers back in her folder, she asked me to step out of the room so she could interview my husband first. 15 mins later, she called me back in the office as my husband walked out. My husband was smiling so I figured it went well. She interviewed me for only 5 minutes as she had to wrap it up because the next couple assigned to her was already at the lobby. She said "You're good. Let me get your husband back here." I for sure thought she was going to stamp my passport, but instead, she gave us the paper that says case not yet approved with the first box checked. It said the case is in review and nothing else is required for now, and that we should receive the decision in the mail. She asked us if we had any questions but I was so stunned that I couldn't find the words to ask "WHY DID WE NOT GET APPROVED ON THE SPOT? DID WE SAY SOMETHING WRONG?". @_@ Instead, I shook my head no, smiled, and wished her a good day. I remember her saying something as she handed me the paper, but my disappointment was so deafening that I didn't hear a word she uttered. As soon as we hit the elevator, my husband and I were like, "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY". :'D 

 

But hey, we got approved the same day so that's good. The anxiety won't keep me up at night anymore. Thank you all for your support and I hope your interviews go smoothly as well and you get an on-the-spot approval!

 

I'll end this very long message with the interview questions. The IO asked me almost the same questions she asked my husband. Very easy!

 

QUESTIONS SHE ASKED BOTH OF US:

-When, where and how did you meet?

-What did you do the first time he visited you? What happened after he left?

-Did he meet your parents? When?

-Do you have siblings? How many and what are their names?

-Does he have siblings? How many and what are their names?

-When did you arrive in the USA? Was it your first time?

-When did you get married? Who were your guests? What did you do after? Which restaurant did you go to?

-Do you live in an apartment or a house? How many bedrooms do you have?

-How did you get here today? What kind of car does your husband have?

 

*QUESTIONS SHE ASKED MY HUSBAND BUT DIDN'T ASK ME:

-How much money do you make per month? How often do you get paid?

-Where do you work? What were your previous jobs?

-Where do you go to school? What course are you taking?

(My husband's interview was longer than mine because when the IO found out that my husband is studying to be an airplane mechanic, she started talking about her relative who is in the aviation industry as well. :D)

 

 

Congratulations!! Great news and thank you very much for the detailed report, it will help us all. Enjoy not having to deal with patience lool

[Nouchigang 200]

1 hour ago, Aklaus said:

Hi All! March filer here, hoping someone here has gone through rescheduling their biometrics appointment - received husband's biometrics appointment letter today, but OF COURSE it is scheduled for the one day he can't actually make it (he will be out of town for a family thing) - the letter says to mail the notice back if we want to reschedule, back to Virginia, but I am worried this will seriously delay his case... I have seen some posts online about just showing up at a different time, any ideas if this is acceptable? Or should we just send the notice back to reschedule...(we are in southern California, not sure if location makes a difference)

 

thank you!

Like others said, have your husband try to do an early walk in, here is a post where you can see by state how it went for previous people when they walked in earlier for biometrics; I did my biometrics 10 days in advance with no issue:

Tell him to bring proof of the trip, just in case they ask for it but in most cases he should be okay, the time of the day he walks in is key.

 

Good luck

 

 

[bestofluck 129]

On 4/2/2018 at 4:16 PM, bestofluck said:

I saw a letter from USCIS through informed delivery this morning too! And when I was out getting lunch, I got an email from our lawyer saying she received my EAD and AP and green card appointment letter for May 3rd!!! I know USCIS will send a copy of everything they send to your lawyer so I’ll get the interview letter later today too. Good luck everyone still waiting I think this is a very good month! 

My USCIS online tracker just updated today saying my AP is approved, no change for EAD and interview date even though I already got them. Hang in there, they don't really update the website on time I guess.

[lez 32]

Status just changed to "card was mailed". Hopefully, I get it next week as my upcoming job interviews require me to bring the card. 

 

So happy that a lot of January filers are getting their interview letters as well. That "user-defined error" is more of a blessing tbh. Everyone who got the error got their interview sched soon after. Good luck, everyone!

[Stt 235]

3 minutes ago, lezahennaid said:

Status just changed to "card was mailed". Hopefully, I get it next week as my upcoming job interviews require me to bring the card. 

 

So happy that a lot of January filers are getting their interview letters as well. That "user-defined error" is more of a blessing tbh. Everyone who got the error got their interview sched soon after. Good luck, everyone!

Except me! I haven't gotten any interview date yet abd is going on two weeks now! Anyho I'm suit happy for you! Congrats again

[Itssimons 122]

Hello folks, it feels good joining this thread though I’m a February filer per my PD. Well, I’m joining this thread to find out from those having  the “user defined error” pop up message while checking their cases online if it was resolved or what was the outcome after the message. I witnessed the same issue since morning and it’s been like till now

Edited April 7, 2018 by simonvikih79

[GioRod 69]

4 hours ago, lezahennaid said:

Status just changed to "card was mailed". Hopefully, I get it next week as my upcoming job interviews require me to bring the card. 

 

So happy that a lot of January filers are getting their interview letters as well. That "user-defined error" is more of a blessing tbh. Everyone who got the error got their interview sched soon after. Good luck, everyone!

Just got the user-defined error Hope I get my interview next lol. Yesterday case tracker was fine today the error finger crossed