Recommended for Approval at Interview - Now USCIS Says Five Months for Green Card???

[mushroomspore 3,043]

56 minutes ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

That is super helpful.  He has an InfoPass appointment this week, so we will bring his flight itinerary.  We plan to play it really safe by waiting until the green card to travel outside the country, but if the stamp triggers green card production, that is well worth it.  Thank you for the advice!

Actually reading your posts again, you are very likely to receive the GC when they give your husband the stamp since your travel date is in a few weeks. After the card goes into production, it only takes 7-9 days on average to reach your mailbox.

[GEOntificator 271]

5 hours ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

My husband had his green card interview on 10/3/18 (one month ago).  At the interview, the officer told us he was recommending us for approval and printed out an approval letter.  A few days ago, my husband called USCIS to ask when he could expect his green card.  This is what they said:

 

Husband: My interview was a month ago and I was approved.  I was wondering how long it might take to get my green card.

USCIS Employee: You weren't approved.  You were recommended for approval.  Your case was passed to someone else's desk; they will look over it and decide whether or not you are approved.

Husband: Do you know how long that will take?  My wife and I bought tickets to visit my family in Canada for Christmas and I need the green card so I can travel outside the country.

USCIS Employee: You are still in the 15-20 month processing window for interviews.

Husband: I think you might be misunderstanding me.  I have already had the interview.  When can I expect the green card?

USCIS Employee: You are still in the 15-20 month processing window.  We have five months to make a decision about your approval.  If you do not have your approval notice in five months, you may contact us because you will be outside of normal processing times.

Husband: WHAT?????

USCIS Employee: 15-20 months is normal processing time.  When we make a decision about your case, we will send you an approval letter.  After that, it will be an additional 2-8 weeks to process your green card and mail it to you.

 

We have never heard that it could take up to the 20-month mark to make a decision about an interview.  The officer told us he was recommending us for approval and even printed out an approval letter for us.  As far as we know, everything is in order and we are not under review.  Everything we have read online says that USCIS has 120 days to make a decision from the date of the interview, not five months.  We are completely and totally perplexed.

 

My husband made an InfoPass appointment.  He is going in this week, so we'll see what they say.

I had similar situation. Approved at the interview but did not hear anything for a month. I called USCIS but they give generic answers which doesn't help.

 

Make an infopass if you can and inquire in person (in my case this was not an option since my field office only makes appointment through calling the USCIS center so they did not think I had a valid reason). Also, reach out to your congressman and senator and put in inquires that way. I received a decision literally 2 days after I made congressional inquiry (could have been senator too. I am not sure since I reached out to both). 

 

Good luck!

 

 

[K & R 343]

17 hours ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

My husband had his green card interview on 10/3/18 (one month ago).  At the interview, the officer told us he was recommending us for approval and printed out an approval letter.  A few days ago, my husband called USCIS to ask when he could expect his green card.  This is what they said:

 

Husband: My interview was a month ago and I was approved.  I was wondering how long it might take to get my green card.

USCIS Employee: You weren't approved.  You were recommended for approval.  Your case was passed to someone else's desk; they will look over it and decide whether or not you are approved.

Husband: Do you know how long that will take?  My wife and I bought tickets to visit my family in Canada for Christmas and I need the green card so I can travel outside the country.

USCIS Employee: You are still in the 15-20 month processing window for interviews.

Husband: I think you might be misunderstanding me.  I have already had the interview.  When can I expect the green card?

USCIS Employee: You are still in the 15-20 month processing window.  We have five months to make a decision about your approval.  If you do not have your approval notice in five months, you may contact us because you will be outside of normal processing times.

Husband: WHAT?????

USCIS Employee: 15-20 months is normal processing time.  When we make a decision about your case, we will send you an approval letter.  After that, it will be an additional 2-8 weeks to process your green card and mail it to you.

 

We have never heard that it could take up to the 20-month mark to make a decision about an interview.  The officer told us he was recommending us for approval and even printed out an approval letter for us.  As far as we know, everything is in order and we are not under review.  Everything we have read online says that USCIS has 120 days to make a decision from the date of the interview, not five months.  We are completely and totally perplexed.

 

My husband made an InfoPass appointment.  He is going in this week, so we'll see what they say.

Sorry to hear about this! We had our GC interview on 10/31/18. We were told we were approved and given info about ROC and told it would be 2-3 weeks before recieving my husbands green card. He also printed a paper that we both signed acknowledging that the officer explain ROC etc. is that the printed paper you are referring to? You shouldn’t have gotten I-797 at the interview. Also, have you checked your case status online? Ours changed to “card is being produced” the next day and then “case approved” the day after that. Still no card mailed for us. I know it’s been said a lot but it’s alwsys important with immigration stuff to not book unless you have card/visa in hand. Good luck!

[MapleLeaf29 247]

17 minutes ago, K & R said:

Sorry to hear about this! We had our GC interview on 10/31/18. We were told we were approved and given info about ROC and told it would be 2-3 weeks before recieving my husbands green card. He also printed a paper that we both signed acknowledging that the officer explain ROC etc. is that the printed paper you are referring to? You shouldn’t have gotten I-797 at the interview. Also, have you checked your case status online? Ours changed to “card is being produced” the next day and then “case approved” the day after that. Still no card mailed for us. I know it’s been said a lot but it’s alwsys important with immigration stuff to not book unless you have card/visa in hand. Good luck!

The letter did not have anything to do with ROC.  It basically said when we had our interview and that our case was being recommended for approval.  It was not an I-797, but the officer called it an "approval letter", which is why we were confused.  

 

We have been checking our case status online every few days, but it is still stuck at "ready to be scheduled for an interview".  When my husband called USCIS, there were times when the employee he spoke with seemed to think he was still waiting for his interview (I condensed their conversation in my original post), so we wonder if our interview has even been updated in their computer system.  This is one of the reasons we decided to make an InfoPass appointment.

 

I think one of our main points of frustration is that our field office is swamped, so it took 15 months to even get our green card interview.  We are discouraged by what seems to be another delay, concerned about my husband's driver's license status check, and sad that we may not be able to see his family at Christmas.  We are hopeful that the InfoPass appointment this week will get things moving.  We would also feel better if our online account reflected where we actually are in this process.  

Edited November 4, 2018 by MapleLeaf29

[Ketsuban 1,034]

Did you speak with tier 2 during that call? The people who pick up the call are customer service reps from a third party vendor whose job is to read the website and file service requests. Request tier 2 next time. Not sure if they're third party too, but they tend to hold more power and access to things. 

[MapleLeaf29 247]

1 minute ago, Ketsuban said:

Did you speak with tier 2 during that call? The people who pick up the call are customer service reps from a third party vendor whose job is to read the website and file service requests. Request tier 2 next time. Not sure if they're third party too, but they tend to hold more power and access to things. 

I'm pretty sure he spoke with Tier 1.  We will request Tier 2 next time.  Thank you!

[K & R 343]

14 minutes ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

The letter did not have anything to do with ROC.  It basically said when we had our interview and that our case was being recommended for approval.  It was not an I-797, but the officer called it an "approval letter", which is why we were confused.  

 

We have been checking our case status online every few days, but it is still stuck at "ready to be scheduled for an interview".  When my husband called USCIS, there were times when the employee he spoke with seemed to think he was still waiting for his interview (I condensed their conversation in my original post), so we wonder if our interview has even been updated in their computer system.  This is one of the reasons we decided to make an InfoPass appointment.

 

I think one of our main points of frustration is that our field office is swamped, so it took 15 months to even get our green card interview.  We are discouraged by what seems to be another delay, concerned about my husband's driver's license status check, and sad that we may not be able to see his family at Christmas.  We are hopeful that the InfoPass appointment this week will get things moving.  We would also feel better if our online account reflected where we actually are in this process.  

I’m sorry to hear all of this  I completely understand. Infopass is a great idea and the best step forward at this point.

 

have you checked your status on both the new and the old sites or the app? For some people the old site updates when the app and the new one don’t. Ours updates on the app and on the new site but on the old site it still says “Fingerprint Review Completed”. It’s worth a shot if you haven’t check all of them.

 

 

[MapleLeaf29 247]

29 minutes ago, K & R said:

I’m sorry to hear all of this  I completely understand. Infopass is a great idea and the best step forward at this point.

 

have you checked your status on both the new and the old sites or the app? For some people the old site updates when the app and the new one don’t. Ours updates on the app and on the new site but on the old site it still says “Fingerprint Review Completed”. It’s worth a shot if you haven’t check all of them.

 

 

Thank you for the advice!  We have been using the new website, but we will check the old website and the app.  We hadn't thought of doing that.  

 

Edit: The old case tracker says "My interview was scheduled", which means that it is more current than the new website.  We will be checking both from now on.  Thank you so much for the advice!

Edited November 4, 2018 by MapleLeaf29

[K & R 343]

48 minutes ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

Thank you for the advice!  We have been using the new website, but we will check the old website and the app.  We hadn't thought of doing that.  

 

Edit: The old case tracker says "My interview was scheduled", which means that it is more current than the new website.  We will be checking both from now on.  Thank you so much for the advice!

No problem! If you have any more questions feel free to PM me 🙂

[Carpe Vinum 2,310]

1 hour ago, Jaquelly said:

They weren't rude, they were confused. USCIS has a notorious reputation for being misleading, especially over the phone. They sought an answer to a confusing problem. Perhaps kindness should be a trait everyone needs to learn before posting on the forums.

Plus I think they have privilege and right confused. That ignore function is a handy feature sometimes)  Good luck to the OP...

[Rusty72 68]

Didn't they say the OP say they got their answer in the first post

They said

"You weren't approved.  You were recommended for approval.  Your case was passed to someone else's desk; they will look over it and decide whether or not you are approved."

That's your answer and you are in normal time range

 

[Ontarkie 13,915]

~~Inappropriate post removed along with one quoting. Post constructively or do not post.~~

[MapleLeaf29 247]

Thank you to everyone for your advice about our green card.  My husband had his InfoPass appointment today.  At the appointment, they said that the officer who conducted our interview forgot to click "approved" in the computer system.  Our file was moved to the storage room for approved cases, so if we hadn't made an InfoPass appointment, we don't know how long it would have been before someone touched our case again.  We are so glad we did not listen to the advice we received over the phone (wait five months and then open an inquiry), and that instead we made an InfoPass appointment.

 

We have tried to approach this process with patience and understanding (especially since we knew our case was being handled by one of the busiest field offices in the country), but we are also learning that we have to be proactive and seek answers if something doesn't seem right.

 

The InfoPass officer sent a memo to the officer who conducted our interview telling him to click "approved" in the system, so we are hopeful that we will see an update on our green card soon.  Thank you again for all of your advice.  

[MapleLeaf29 247]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks again for all of your advice and suggestions.  Eight days after my husband's InfoPass appointment, our online case status changed to "approved".  We also reached out to Senator Amy Klobuchar, so we're not sure whether the change in status happened because of the InfoPass or because Amy Klobuchar intervened on our behalf.  Either way, we are so happy to see progress!!!!!

[MapleLeaf29 247]

526 days after applying for AOS, my husband's green card arrived!!!!