November 2018 AOS Filers, Part 2

[aosfilerdb 1]

1 hour ago, Pat Argen said:

Day 257 here too. I’m thinking of calling tomorrow just for an update. They said to wait for 15-30 days. We’re way past 15 days for the SR for our AP. I’m just too tired to be hearing the same thing repeated all over again if I call tomorrow. I don’t want to be waiting until September for this  The wait is gruelling and I’m thinking of contacting our senator and congressperson too this week if we don’t get any useful update soon. Do you think contacting the senator helps the case at all? 

I'm at 255 days as well and all I've received is a request for initial evidence 5 days ago.  I can't even fathom why it took USCIS 9 months to send a request for initial evidence.  I'll find out what they're asking for when I get the letter.   I've heard a request for initial evidence resets the clock back to day 1?  Can anyone actually confirm or deny this?  Either my lawyer screwed up or USCIS is asking for something that they already have.  Either way my wife and I are the ones who are paying the price.  I can't even believe the disfunction that's going on.  We've paid good money to lawyers and to USCIS to receive benefits that we're entitled to and I haven't received anything but emptied out bank accounts and financial hardship from trying to live for the past 9 months without any means of earning an income.  

[dr01d3k4 21]

11 minutes ago, aosfilerdb said:

I'm at 255 days as well and all I've received is a request for initial evidence 5 days ago.  I can't even fathom why it took USCIS 9 months to send a request for initial evidence.  I'll find out what they're asking for when I get the letter.   I've heard a request for initial evidence resets the clock back to day 1?  Can anyone actually confirm or deny this?  Either my lawyer screwed up or USCIS is asking for something that they already have.  Either way my wife and I are the ones who are paying the price.  I can't even believe the disfunction that's going on.  We've paid good money to lawyers and to USCIS to receive benefits that we're entitled to and I haven't received anything but emptied out bank accounts and financial hardship from trying to live for the past 9 months without any means of earning an income.  

I had 2 RFIEs for 3 pieces of evidence, 2 of those were due to my lawyer: not including my DS2019 to prove I'm not subject to the 2 year home rule of the J1, and not getting proof of citizenship of joint sponsor. The other piece was due to USCIS being super strict on financials, hence why we added a joint sponsor and got that 2nd RFIE for the citizenship proof.

 

As for resetting the clock, I've heard mixed things. Getting a straight answer from a lawyer isn't easy, and I've seen different things on visa journey. What I do know is that USCIS gives themselves a 60 day window to process your response once they receive it. After that day, if you've heard nothing, you can send a service request and start the next 30 days.

 

My wife and I are currently at 47 of those 60 days. We got "ready to schedule interview" at about 35 days but nothing on the EAD/AP. Going on 291 days total now!

 

My lawyer sent a service request anyway last Wednesday, but I've had no update since then. I don't know whether you get case status updates at all like "your service request has been assigned to an officer" like I think you do for expedite. I'm probably going to call USCIS tomorrow and ask what the hell is going on.

[K1visaHopeful 2,679]

1 hour ago, aosfilerdb said:

I'm at 255 days as well and all I've received is a request for initial evidence 5 days ago.  I can't even fathom why it took USCIS 9 months to send a request for initial evidence.  I'll find out what they're asking for when I get the letter.   I've heard a request for initial evidence resets the clock back to day 1?  Can anyone actually confirm or deny this?  Either my lawyer screwed up or USCIS is asking for something that they already have.  Either way my wife and I are the ones who are paying the price.  I can't even believe the disfunction that's going on.  We've paid good money to lawyers and to USCIS to receive benefits that we're entitled to and I haven't received anything but emptied out bank accounts and financial hardship from trying to live for the past 9 months without any means of earning an income.  

RFIE for which application?

RFE/RFIE's usually come at the beginning of the process for I485 but at the very end of the process and right before approval for I765 and I131.

Nothing is reset.

The clock is paused for all of your applications until the RFIE is cleared up.

[aosfilerdb 1]

12 hours ago, K1visaHopeful said:

RFIE for which application?

RFE/RFIE's usually come at the beginning of the process for I485 but at the very end of the process and right before approval for I765 and I131.

Nothing is reset.

The clock is paused for all of your applications until the RFIE is cleared up.

It's an rfie on my I-485 and my wife's I-130 petition.   On the I-485 they are requesting a long form birth certificate,  which was never issued in Canada at my time of birth.  I ordered one last night. They also want my travel records.  (proof of lawful entry).  I entered at a Canada/US land entry and I'm sure my lawyer sent in my I 94.   On my wifes  i-130 petition they are basically requesting proof of financial ties and proof of our intenet of have a life together.  My lawyer didn't send in any evidence of our bona fide marriage with our original package.   I didn't understand this, but I trusted that they are an immigration lawyers office which should know what is required by USCIS. I guess I figured proof of bona fide marriage would be addressed in our interview at the field office.  Apparently not.   We own a house and have been living together for the past year and have all the evidence,  but now I just feel that my case has been mishandled by my lawyer.    I'll be speaking with him today about why these requests weren't sent with our initial application. 

 

I'm glad to hear about the clock not being reset at least.   I just wish I was getting my work permit now instead.  My field office is Seattle, which has a 12 - 24 processing time for interviews  so an interview before work permit would be highly unlikely. 

[JMCKNG 156]

16 hours ago, Pat Argen said:

Day 257 here too. I’m thinking of calling tomorrow just for an update. They said to wait for 15-30 days. We’re way past 15 days for the SR for our AP. I’m just too tired to be hearing the same thing repeated all over again if I call tomorrow. I don’t want to be waiting until September for this  The wait is gruelling and I’m thinking of contacting our senator and congressperson too this week if we don’t get any useful update soon. Do you think contacting the senator helps the case at all? 

From our experience, it sounds like the Tier 2 officers can't even touch or review the cases until the 30 days passes after submission of a SR. I have 2 Senators I believe that are calling on it. One called a few weeks ago who just emailed and told me "I was in the normal processing time" then the next one called yesterday after mailing us a letter saying they will be calling on our case. She stated that they can see the case, reassured us that it is not lost, apologized for the time, and told us that we have to call on Day 30 which is this Friday. So I'm not sure if it "helps" but I hold onto the hope that if enough people are bugging them about a particular case that they will eventually get annoyed and just approve  

[K1visaHopeful 2,679]

15 minutes ago, aosfilerdb said:

It's an rfie on my I-485 and my wife's I-130 petition.   On the I-485 they are requesting a long form birth certificate,  which was never issued in Canada at my time of birth.  I ordered one last night. They also want my travel records.  (proof of lawful entry).  I entered at a Canada/US land entry and I'm sure my lawyer sent in my I 94.   On my wifes  i-130 petition they are basically requesting proof of financial ties and proof of our intenet of have a life together.  My lawyer didn't send in any evidence of our bona fide marriage with our original package.   I didn't understand this, but I trusted that they are an immigration lawyers office which should know what is required by USCIS. I guess I figured proof of bona fide marriage would be addressed in our interview at the field office.  Apparently not.   We own a house and have been living together for the past year and have all the evidence,  but now I just feel that my case has been mishandled by my lawyer.    I'll be speaking with him today about why these requests weren't sent with our initial application. 

 

I'm glad to hear about the clock not being reset at least.   I just wish I was getting my work permit now instead.  My field office is Seattle, which has a 12 - 24 processing time for interviews  so an interview before work permit would be highly unlikely. 

Then scratch what I said.

I was referring to the K1 AOS process.

[Pat Argen 15]

25 minutes ago, JMCKNG said:

From our experience, it sounds like the Tier 2 officers can't even touch or review the cases until the 30 days passes after submission of a SR. I have 2 Senators I believe that are calling on it. One called a few weeks ago who just emailed and told me "I was in the normal processing time" then the next one called yesterday after mailing us a letter saying they will be calling on our case. She stated that they can see the case, reassured us that it is not lost, apologized for the time, and told us that we have to call on Day 30 which is this Friday. So I'm not sure if it "helps" but I hold onto the hope that if enough people are bugging them about a particular case that they will eventually get annoyed and just approve  

Just spoke to a representative just now and waiting for a call back from a Tier 2. Hopefully they call back soon. I’m way past the point of getting my hopes up though. A lot of Jan-Feb-March 2019 filers are receiving their AP & EAD and we don’t even know where we’re at. Did you ask your senators to expedite your case for you??? I am thinking of contacting our senator but I don’t think my reason is valid (except that we’re just really way way way WAY out of processing times)

[rrobin0609 387]

On 8/5/2019 at 3:21 PM, rrobin0609 said:

Green Card interview is tomorrow morning! Already pumped for it! I don't think either of us are nervous, at least as of right now.

Interview went good!

 

Interview time was at 10:30am but we arrived before 10. Airport like security was fine. Sat in the waiting room for maybe 15-20 minutes before we got called back.

 

Interviewer had us stand, raise our right hands and promise to tell the truth. Once we did we sat down and he said "Welp, I dont anticipate this being too long since your file looks great! I'm not going to grill you like they show at the end of The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds." We laughed at that and I mentioned how my mom had asked me if that was what it was going to be like and I told her probably not. He went though the application just to make sure nothing had changed. He added that Matt is now working at Best Buy and that he's gotten (and paid off) a speeding ticket. He also asked us if we liked Blue Springs and said one of his sons lives there. He asked Matt our anniversary, which he got wrong and I stared at him with daggers. The Interviewer laughed and said he always likes asking the husbands that since he can see the panic in their eyes and then joked that he tells his Amazon Echo to remind him of his anniversary.

 

He asked if there was anything we wanted to add to the file so we gave copies of our joint car insurance, our lease, utility bills with both our names, and a joint bank statement. He said that since our file is good he'd reccomend Matt for approval, but if they did need anything else they'd sent us a letter. Just as we were about to go, he saw that we had brought a photo album and asked if he could look through it. We of course said yes and he flipped though it; he mentioned seeing pictures of relationships are the best part of his day. He liked that we had photos at castles and churches in the UK and from trips here as well. Some of his favorites were us at Worcestershire cathedral, at castle ruins in Wales, Matt in front of the Ellis Island National Museam, Matt at a KC Royals game, my dad walking me down the aisle at our wedding, and my whole family and Matt wearing KC Chiefs shirts. He said that later this month there is an oath ceremony before a Royals game and they are trying to get about 500 people sign up to do their naturalization oath at it. He said they've done them at Sporting Kansas City soccer games as well.

 

Anyway, since he said he was gonna approve us we're just waiting on the app to update. He was thinking it should be by the end of tomorrow if they didnt find that they were needing anything additional. But they app has been playing up so who knows if its updated now or not. Matt's permanent residence card should be here in 3-4 weeks if not sooner!

[Tavira87 30]

On 8/5/2019 at 2:35 PM, JMCKNG said:

For all those still waiting, we are at Day 257. I feel like we could be making some progress with the calls in on a daily basis but I'm not sure. I have had our Senator calling who was able to clarify that the app isn't "lost" or any issues, just in the system still. Once you submit an inquiry for outside of processing times, no matter "Tier 2" officers cannot see into the case anymore until the 30 day period has expired so know that when you do submit one that yes it will go to a different Team and reviewed but they won't be able to guide you along where it stands in the meantime. Our 30 day waiting period is up this Friday for AP so we will call then. The Tier 2 officer actually offered to have a higher up officer call my husband back to inform him that "all is well" so fingers crossed..........

Thanks for this, it' really helpful. I do often wonder whether they've lost my application it's taking that bloody long! My 30 days are up on Thursday so I'll call them then, fingers crossed!

[kanderson101 131]

EAD card is being produced!! Day 256. Finally. We are obviously over the moon - but I know there are plenty still waiting so my thoughts are with you all ❤️ 

 

We actually spoke with an immigration lawyer (free consultation) yesterday, prior to being notified that the card was being produced. She was very friendly and helpful, and was also puzzled by the long processing time. She said it's possible that our requests a few months ago for expedited EAD slowed things down - maybe up to a month. She explained that each time an expedite is requested, the documents change teams and/or offices, which inevitably slows things down. This is NOT what USCIS told us. She recommended that we discontinue contacting USCIS at all until after August 8th, which was the date USCIS said we would likely hear back regarding our inquiry about out of processing times AP. I don't know if any of this is helpful, but thought I would share it just in case. 

[Pat Argen 15]

10 minutes ago, kanderson101 said:

EAD card is being produced!! Day 256. Finally. We are obviously over the moon - but I know there are plenty still waiting so my thoughts are with you all ❤️ 

 

We actually spoke with an immigration lawyer (free consultation) yesterday, prior to being notified that the card was being produced. She was very friendly and helpful, and was also puzzled by the long processing time. She said it's possible that our requests a few months ago for expedited EAD slowed things down - maybe up to a month. She explained that each time an expedite is requested, the documents change teams and/or offices, which inevitably slows things down. This is NOT what USCIS told us. She recommended that we discontinue contacting USCIS at all until after August 8th, which was the date USCIS said we would likely hear back regarding our inquiry about out of processing times AP. I don't know if any of this is helpful, but thought I would share it just in case. 

Congratulations!! So glad you guys received yours, at least now you’ll be able to travel + work and not get stuck around the house. It’s been a hard wait on all of us. May i ask though... Did you file an expedite request or a case inquiry for both AP & EAD??? I filed for a case inquiry about 20 days ago and was planning on getting an expedite request but I got hesitant when I read your post. It’s just that things seem to be moving so slow 😕

[JMCKNG 156]

1 minute ago, Pat Argen said:

Congratulations!! So glad you guys received yours, at least now you’ll be able to travel + work and not get stuck around the house. It’s been a hard wait on all of us. May i ask though... Did you file an expedite request or a case inquiry for both AP & EAD??? I filed for a case inquiry about 20 days ago and was planning on getting an expedite request but I got hesitant when I read your post. It’s just that things seem to be moving so slow 😕

I as well am going to hold off from expediting because my senator and actually USCIS told us even with a case inquiry it goes to a new Team, so I don't want anything else prohibiting it from moving forward we are almost at the 30 day mark after the inquiry so I'm holding on hope to that day we can call after the time frame expires. I don't need any new team transfers in my mind at day 259 

[Allaboutwaiting 2,500]

19 minutes ago, kanderson101 said:

EAD card is being produced!! Day 256. Finally. We are obviously over the moon - but I know there are plenty still waiting so my thoughts are with you all ❤️ 

Guys! Those are AWESOME news! You have no idea how happy I am for you. I feel so relieved you're finally getting it. 

 

CONGRATULATIONS! 🙌

 

 

[kanderson101 131]

15 minutes ago, Pat Argen said:

Congratulations!! So glad you guys received yours, at least now you’ll be able to travel + work and not get stuck around the house. It’s been a hard wait on all of us. May i ask though... Did you file an expedite request or a case inquiry for both AP & EAD??? I filed for a case inquiry about 20 days ago and was planning on getting an expedite request but I got hesitant when I read your post. It’s just that things seem to be moving so slow 😕

Thank you!! Yes my husband is so excited about the idea of working, haha. To answer your question, if I remember correctly we filed a request to expedite EAD in May. We did not really have a valid reason, but tried on the basis of financial loss, since we'd heard that some people had success. We never heard back even after we sent evidence. So then we thought maybe the evidence got lost, and I re-faxed everything, which incidentally opened up a brand new expedite request. So if someone was to look at our account, there are 2-3 expedite requests (the third one was initiated by a USCIS officer, although they didnt tell us that that was what they were doing, since all we wanted was someone to check on the status of our FIRST request). The lawyer we spoke with assumed that each of those requests added time. 

 

I don't know if the inquiry (meaning the out of processing times inquiry) slows things down or not. That isn't clear to me. We did file an inquiry for both EAD and AP as soon as we could. If I were you, I would definitely do the inquiries but maybe not expedite.... that was the recommendation we had from this lawyer, anyway. I know how frustrating it is when all you can do is wait, but I'm also kicking myself now since the lawyer said we might have had our documents ~1 month earlier if we had left it alone. 

 

12 minutes ago, JMCKNG said:

I as well am going to hold off from expediting because my senator and actually USCIS told us even with a case inquiry it goes to a new Team, so I don't want anything else prohibiting it from moving forward we are almost at the 30 day mark after the inquiry so I'm holding on hope to that day we can call after the time frame expires. I don't need any new team transfers in my mind at day 259 

I would agree with this plan. I was really mad when I found out about this, because USCIS told us MULTIPLE times that requests did not affect processing times. Hopefully yours will be on the way soon ❤️ 

 

5 minutes ago, Allaboutwaiting said:

Guys! Those are AWESOME news! You have no idea how happy I am for you. I feel so relieved you're finally getting it. 

 

CONGRATULATIONS! 🙌

 

 

Thank you so much!!!! And thank you for being patient with my griping, angry posts. This community has been such a support, I would have lost my mind without it.  

[Luna3716 68]

Interview is today in Boston! Hoping everything goes well, can't wait for this to all be over (for now)!