APRIL 2018 AOS FILERS

[AZSunshine78 437]

A Bit Anxious

 

Our 485 was received the first week in April.

 

Processing is complete and status changed to: Interview was Scheduled.

 

We are in AZ so I’m assuming Phoenix is our interview center.

 

I just checked the processing times and it says 14 to 26 months for 485.

 

I’m certainly not complaining but how is it possible that we are at “interview scheduled” at 6 months?

 

Am I correct to assume a letter with the interview date and time should be arriving shortly?

 

 Thank you.

[George & John 52]

Hello folks! To add to the record, we had our green card interview yesterday in Albany, NY. It lasted all of about 10 minutes and involved no questions except confirmation of the details on the application (including my husband's date of birth, which was really the only test-like question). The officer didn't read through any of our evidence or check our photographs, and approved us on the spot.

 

It is worth mentioning that he highlighted our case as giving him "no concerns" from the outset, so it would have been different had there been some red flags. 

 

We waited 183 days from submission to interview, and four months for our interview to be scheduled after the status changed to "Ready". Our EAD was also produced about a month ago. We got very lucky and I'm really sorry to those of you who are still waiting.

 

Good luck everybody!

[George & John 52]

25 minutes ago, AZSunshine78 said:

A Bit Anxious

 

Our 485 was received the first week in April.

 

Processing is complete and status changed to: Interview was Scheduled.

 

We are in AZ so I’m assuming Phoenix is our interview center.

 

I just checked the processing times and it says 14 to 26 months for 485.

 

I’m certainly not complaining but how is it possible that we are at “interview scheduled” at 6 months?

 

Am I correct to assume a letter with the interview date and time should be arriving shortly?

 

 Thank you.

This reflects our experience in NY - you should indeed be receiving a letter soon with your interview date.

 

It varies considerably but, generally, green card interviews are coming along a little faster than they used to in many locations. This is because the NBC is prioritizing them over EADs (last I heard). You can disregard the timelines provided by USCIS.

[Kat1111 45]

On 10/18/2018 at 5:13 PM, emekus94 said:

Your case being ready to be scheduled for interview simply means NBC (the general office for everybody) thinks ur case is fine

It now goes to ur local office. how soon you get your interview is based on how backed-up ur local office is.

 

So to answer ur question simply-

Local offices schedule the interview based on the date of filing

BUT someone from a faster office is more than likely to get their "ready to schedule interview" after u AND get their interview scheduled before you.
 

You seem to be in the LA office
I think that wait is about a year from when you filed. Good luck!

I filed I-130 in April 2018 (PD: 04/18/2018, and filed AOS at the end of August, the PD for I-485 stays the same as 04/18/2018. Will my local office schedule the interview based on my PD or the filing date, which is August 28th? 

 

Thank you so much!!!!

[AZSunshine78 437]

12 hours ago, George & John said:

This reflects our experience in NY - you should indeed be receiving a letter soon with your interview date.

 

It varies considerably but, generally, green card interviews are coming along a little faster than they used to in many locations. This is because the NBC is prioritizing them over EADs (last I heard). You can disregard the timelines provided by USCIS.

Thanks Gents!

[emekus94 1,125]

22 hours ago, Kat1111 said:

I filed I-130 in April 2018 (PD: 04/18/2018, and filed AOS at the end of August, the PD for I-485 stays the same as 04/18/2018. Will my local office schedule the interview based on my PD or the filing date, which is August 28th? 

 

Thank you so much!!!!

Ur local office will schedule ur interview when it is ready

If NBC has not told u your case is ready for an interview, it means that you could still get an RFE. an RFE will delay ur case.

 

So to answer ur question- it depends

Typically, local offices will schedule cases as they arrive from NBC- not taking into account when you filed because someone can file the same time but take a longer time to reply an RFE so their case gets to the local office later.
 

Ur case is also a little bit different with the I-130 so am not sure I can answer it correctly.
hope that helps!

[antipasti7 14]

Quick question about Driver License

 

so I went to DMV on Oct 9 to renew my DL, but DMV had to send my information to USCIS for secondary verification (I used my EAD to prove legal presence).

 

Until now I still don’t have my DL. How long did it take you guys before you get your Drivers license?

[tammyjb 136]

 

If anyone has filed from SLC, UT, i’ve created a separate thread for AOS filers so we can get an idea of timelines etc 🤗

[Sierra_297 7]

So as of last week, my case is outside of normal processing times. So we and our lawyer submitted an SR regarding our case. Can't believe my case status is 'Received'. I'm considering in contacting my congresswoman to help shake the tree a bit. Has anyone ever experience this before?

 

Thanks!

[Matiela 98]

just had our interview! it went well and the lady that interviewed us was very nice, but I had formed the impression that this would be super quick and it didn't feel like that so much... she took her time and went carefully through lots of stuff asking a lot of questions. it was OK. when she decided she'd recommend approval she really helped us by warning to be very careful with not missing the date limit for submitting the removal of conditions application (in about 2 years from now) and that we keep accumulating evidence for that time because things are getting tougher and tougher. also that once we do that it'll take an additional year and a half for that process to be completed. she seemed very sympathetic towards us immigrants and was sad about people who hired online attorney services that end up getting their application rejected and wasting a huge amount of time and money as apparently happened to a couple that came before us.

 

other interesting info: only one person in that office had ever seen / was familiar with the particular variation of the DS-3025 that they handed me over in Argentina and kind of implied if that hadn't been the case they would have made a fuss and maybe asked me to do a new medical. also, soon the rules will change and if for new cases the AOS application isn't filed WITHIN TWO MONTHS of the overseas medical, a new one will be required. she didn't seem happy about this sort of thing. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ does any of you know where else I should post about this on VJ? people who are at that stage might find that info useful! or someone might want to update the K1/AOS guide when that happens.

 

best part of the day: when, after everything was done we got back to the car and I see a voicemail in my phone: "hello, we're from USCIS, we regreto to inform you that your interview... [suspense] was cancelled due to problems with water in the area and the building will be closed (???????), do not show up, we'll send you a new appointment letter" (they did have problems with water, our officer was very annoyed - also the case tracker now says that the interview TOOK PLACE so we're not that worried that this supposed reschedule overwrites what happened today in the database LOL... you know it's not a paranoid thought knowing how everything works there!). we never ever ever had an interaction with USCIS that didn't involve some sort of mix up (usually more than one at the same time) and the feeling "they said things were OK but they're not giving me 100% reason to trust they're OK". go figure.

 

close second place 🥈: had to update our address for the 3rd time because neither the online address change form and the customer service phone call for that purpose had any effect on their database.

 

[QED 21]

6 hours ago, Matiela said:

just had our interview! it went well and the lady that interviewed us was very nice, but I had formed the impression that this would be super quick and it didn't feel like that so much... she took her time and went carefully through lots of stuff asking a lot of questions. it was OK. when she decided she'd recommend approval she really helped us by warning to be very careful with not missing the date limit for submitting the removal of conditions application (in about 2 years from now) and that we keep accumulating evidence for that time because things are getting tougher and tougher. also that once we do that it'll take an additional year and a half for that process to be completed. she seemed very sympathetic towards us immigrants and was sad about people who hired online attorney services that end up getting their application rejected and wasting a huge amount of time and money as apparently happened to a couple that came before us.

 

other interesting info: only one person in that office had ever seen / was familiar with the particular variation of the DS-3025 that they handed me over in Argentina and kind of implied if that hadn't been the case they would have made a fuss and maybe asked me to do a new medical. also, soon the rules will change and if for new cases the AOS application isn't filed WITHIN TWO MONTHS of the overseas medical, a new one will be required. she didn't seem happy about this sort of thing. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ does any of you know where else I should post about this on VJ? people who are at that stage might find that info useful! or someone might want to update the K1/AOS guide when that happens.

 

best part of the day: when, after everything was done we got back to the car and I see a voicemail in my phone: "hello, we're from USCIS, we regreto to inform you that your interview... [suspense] was cancelled due to problems with water in the area and the building will be closed (???????), do not show up, we'll send you a new appointment letter" (they did have problems with water, our officer was very annoyed - also the case tracker now says that the interview TOOK PLACE so we're not that worried that this supposed reschedule overwrites what happened today in the database LOL... you know it's not a paranoid thought knowing how everything works there!). we never ever ever had an interaction with USCIS that didn't involve some sort of mix up (usually more than one at the same time) and the feeling "they said things were OK but they're not giving me 100% reason to trust they're OK". go figure.

 

close second place 🥈: had to update our address for the 3rd time because neither the online address change form and the customer service phone call for that purpose had any effect on their database.

 

Congratulations! Goes to show not everyone buys into this bullcrap and fear these guys are peddling. A lot of folks are decent people still hanging in there, probably waiting to ride out this ugly storm. They keep changing the rules, making it harder all the time, but those at the front lines will continue to be empathetic in doing their jobs. Believe that. 

[Lsthorpe1 129]

UPDATE!

 

My case has changed to “interview scheduled”  (Detroit field office)

 

EAD/AP still on case recieved as of April 2nd! Haha if I wasn’t laughing, I’d be crying. 

 

Praying that this all gets sorted soon! There finally seems to be light at the end of my tunnel. 

[mysticdolphin95 431]

16 hours ago, Matiela said:

other interesting info: only one person in that office had ever seen / was familiar with the particular variation of the DS-3025 that they handed me over in Argentina and kind of implied if that hadn't been the case they would have made a fuss and maybe asked me to do a new medical. also, soon the rules will change and if for new cases the AOS application isn't filed WITHIN TWO MONTHS of the overseas medical, a new one will be required. she didn't seem happy about this sort of thing. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ does any of you know where else I should post about this on VJ? people who are at that stage might find that info useful! or someone might want to update the K1/AOS guide when that happens

 

Conversely, medicals will now be valid for a full 2 years instead of 1, which I think is an improvement.  My husband and I were well within the 2 month medical-to-AOS filing window so I'm hoping that if they try to make him get a new medical (I'm at a veeeeery slow field office), we can argue that it would still be valid under the new policy.  

Edited October 23, 2018 by mysticdolphin95

[George & Roth 1,485]

On 10/21/2018 at 8:01 PM, antipasti7 said:

Quick question about Driver License

 

so I went to DMV on Oct 9 to renew my DL, but DMV had to send my information to USCIS for secondary verification (I used my EAD to prove legal presence).

 

Until now I still don’t have my DL. How long did it take you guys before you get your Drivers license?

 

My wife was able to get DL right away, they do it using any of the following:

 

-They can give you 60-90 day DL based on I-94 date

-They can give you 6-12 month DL based on NOA 1 for AOS

-They can give you DL based on EAD 

 

She did the second one, and we renewed under the 3rd one already. 

 

I made a thread about my misadventures with the NJ motor vehicle commission. Each NJ location gave me different answers, I found on with answers I like and got the DL. (One office said we need to wait for green card lol)

[antipasti7 14]

3 hours ago, George & Roth said:

 

My wife was able to get DL right away, they do it using any of the following:

 

-They can give you 60-90 day DL based on I-94 date

-They can give you 6-12 month DL based on NOA 1 for AOS

-They can give you DL based on EAD 

 

She did the second one, and we renewed under the 3rd one already. 

 

I made a thread about my misadventures with the NJ motor vehicle commission. Each NJ location gave me different answers, I found on with answers I like and got the DL. (One office said we need to wait for green card lol)

Well when I renewed my DL, they gave me a temporary DL that is valid until Jan. I was just wondering when I could get the physical card.

 

How long did it take for your wife to get the actual DL?