August 2022 - AOS Filers

[slavaskii 885]

Any more non-expedite updates? Approaching 7 months of silence, curious as to why as I didn’t think our FO was particularly slow. A bit nauseated imagining having to do an inquiry in 2 months if nothing comes through.

[EatBulaga 254]

1 hour ago, slavaskii said:

Any more non-expedite updates? Approaching 7 months of silence, curious as to why as I didn’t think our FO was particularly slow. A bit nauseated imagining having to do an inquiry in 2 months if nothing comes through.

July filer here. Going on 8 months waiting for AOS.

Atlanta FO wait time has increased to 35 months.

At this point, I'm hoping for the 10-year GC since we will have been married over 2 years by then.

[slavaskii 885]

7 minutes ago, EatBulaga said:

July filer here. Going on 8 months waiting for AOS.

Atlanta FO wait time has increased to 35 months.

At this point, I'm hoping for the 10-year GC since we will have been married over 2 years by then.

Thanks for your insight! Unfortunately the GC times going up across the country appears quite standard nowadays. DC went from 15 - 18 months iirc, and I checked a few other places and it seemed similar. I'm not sure where the resources are going to if not the EAD / AP / GC front.

Edited March 3, 2023 by slavaskii

[slavaskii 885]

Has anyone from this group seen any movement on anything in the last 20 days? I'm honestly disheartened looking at the online tracker and seeing the groups associated with August having almost no movement whatsoever. Reminiscent of the I-129F debacle for us March 2021 filers. It looks like there's a far greater chance to get the I-485 approved first, the way things are going.

 

I saw on Reddit a comment that USCIS is prioritizing more recent family-based applications. Is this an official statement? Because it's now awfully quiet for those pre-December 2022.

[noobjections 12]

Hi guys, my I-130 got approved today. I didn’t send my medicals initially so just waiting for either an RFE or interview notice. Just wanted to give an update! 
 

My PD is 8.10.2022

[slavaskii 885]

Maybe some hopeful news here - looks like today was a fantastic processing day, perhaps not for August filers but most certainly for those pre-2023. The 09-148 group had almost 600 approvals, which I've absolutely never seen before. Of course, this was dwarfed by the 09-19x groups having well over 1,000, but at least USCIS is turning back to the earlier filers.

 

Best wishes to everyone here; it can be frustrating to feel left behind, but if it's any consolation, the approvals here are largely selection bias as those who I've talked to off the forums haven't gotten anything at all, either. 

[noobjections 12]

Just wanted to say that I got approved on the 22nd of March! My journey is over, just waiting on my card now.

 

I wish y’all the best and hope you all receive your GC’s soon! 

[EatBulaga 254]

Hello August filers,

We got the infamous I-693 courtesy email. See the entire email at

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/798091-request-for-form-i-693-courtesy-email/

 

 

[slavaskii 885]

16 hours ago, noobjections said:

Just wanted to say that I got approved on the 22nd of March! My journey is over, just waiting on my card now.

 

I wish y’all the best and hope you all receive your GC’s soon! 

Were you adjusting from a K-1? 

[noobjections 12]

11 minutes ago, slavaskii said:

Were you adjusting from a K-1? 

No, F1. 

[EatBulaga 254]

Greetings August 2022 AOS filers,

 

After going to see the Civil Surgeon for the I-693 medical, we got an email from USCIS, "We have taken an action on your case", but we have yet to submit the sealed envelope.

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/798091-request-for-form-i-693-courtesy-email/

Our case status shows case is updated to April 7, 2023, but the message is still "Case Is Being Actively Reviewed by USCIS".

 

I have a few conjectures of what might be happening.

One, the Civil Surgeon inputted our I-693 medical case to their USCIS system, which updates the whole USCIS system. I remember this happening during the overseas medical when we saw the CEACStatTracker update the process date but the message stayed as "Ready".

Or two, Atlanta FO has really taken action and we should see some updates soon. Some who reported the same message got their GC approval soon after.

Or three, some others have reported this message as a glitch in the system, and are still waiting.

 

In any case, if you go read our courtesy email post, we still plan on submitting our I-693 medical.

Edited April 9, 2023 by EatBulaga

[LA1234 6]

Hi, just had a question regarding the timeline it takes to obtain a green card with a K1 visa after submitting I-484 AOS. I know a few people who have went the I-130 route and were married in their own country and when the spouse came to the US it took them at most 90 days to obtain their Green Card and social security number because USCIS considers a married spouse an "immediate family member" and a Green Card is guaranteed compared to other categories that have a Green Card annual quota limitation. From what I have read on the USCIS website once a Fiance comes with a K1 Visa and gets legally married in the US than USCIS considers that as a spouse and falls in their "immediate family member" category. After this why isn't the process similar to a I-130 filer where a Green Card is guaranteed to the spouse and delivered within a short timeframe. For those that have submitted their I-484 AOS and havent received their approval / Green Card yet do you know if SSA sends the spouse a social security card while waiting for the approval of the AOS and what that time frame is? During this whole process of waiting for AOS approval can the spouse work, get a drivers license, get health insurance? It seems ridiculous that a legally married spouse has to wait two years based on some of the processing times I m reading on this thread to obtain legal status to participate in the society. Something doesnt add up about some of these long processing times and I am not sure if the USCIS processing times are looking at all visa categories grouped together and not based on specific visa cases.

[BreakTheDistance 4]

45 minutes ago, LA1234 said:

Hi, just had a question regarding the timeline it takes to obtain a green card with a K1 visa after submitting I-484 AOS. I know a few people who have went the I-130 route and were married in their own country and when the spouse came to the US it took them at most 90 days to obtain their Green Card and social security number because USCIS considers a married spouse an "immediate family member" and a Green Card is guaranteed compared to other categories that have a Green Card annual quota limitation. From what I have read on the USCIS website once a Fiance comes with a K1 Visa and gets legally married in the US than USCIS considers that as a spouse and falls in their "immediate family member" category. After this why isn't the process similar to a I-130 filer where a Green Card is guaranteed to the spouse and delivered within a short timeframe. For those that have submitted their I-484 AOS and havent received their approval / Green Card yet do you know if SSA sends the spouse a social security card while waiting for the approval of the AOS and what that time frame is? During this whole process of waiting for AOS approval can the spouse work, get a drivers license, get health insurance? It seems ridiculous that a legally married spouse has to wait two years based on some of the processing times I m reading on this thread to obtain legal status to participate in the society. Something doesnt add up about some of these long processing times and I am not sure if the USCIS processing times are looking at all visa categories grouped together and not based on specific visa cases.

Hey, I literally just received an email regarding an update on my AOS.

 

They have scheduled my interview and a confirmation will be sent to my address.

 

I think a lot of people who have applied years ago are still waiting and the people who have recently applied (months ago) are having their applications approved etc..

 

Does anyone know what the interview consists of? Will my spouse and I both be interviewed together? What kind of questions will they ask? Etc 

 

thank you

[slavaskii 885]

On 4/8/2023 at 8:08 PM, EatBulaga said:

Greetings August 2022 AOS filers,

 

After going to see the Civil Surgeon for the I-693 medical, we got an email from USCIS, "We have taken an action on your case", but we have yet to submit the sealed envelope.

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/798091-request-for-form-i-693-courtesy-email/

Our case status shows case is updated to April 7, 2023, but the message is still "Case Is Being Actively Reviewed by USCIS".

 

I have a few conjectures of what might be happening.

One, the Civil Surgeon inputted our I-693 medical case to their USCIS system, which updates the whole USCIS system. I remember this happening during the overseas medical when we saw the CEACStatTracker update the process date but the message stayed as "Ready".

Or two, Atlanta FO has really taken action and we should see some updates soon. Some who reported the same message got their GC approval soon after.

Or three, some others have reported this message as a glitch in the system, and are still waiting.

 

In any case, if you go read our courtesy email post, we still plan on submitting our I-693 medical.

Interesting; this is the same experience I've heard from another Atlanta filer, I didn't think they actually went through with the Civil Surgeon but I guess they did. Theirs also says "Case is Being Actively Reviewed" with a more 'updated' date. One theory I had in mind - apparently, the overseas medicals are good for only 1 year. If the FO thinks the case will take far longer than that (for example, Atlanta is heavily backlogged per the USCIS site), they may just be issuing those medical deficiencies now. I've also heard that some people say "USCIS would've approved your application at the time of the medical deficiency notice but for the lack of medical," but that can't be right, as otherwise a slew of July 2022 Atlanta filers would've gotten approved in the last few weeks. That didn't happen; instead, only the K-1 adjustors got deficiency notice. 

 

What might've happened is that the notice was a sincere mistake, but it triggered a 'hold' on everyone's case. Visiting the civil surgeon let USCIS know the medical was completed, and that automatically triggered the update to active review as the medical was no longer deficient. That, or someone realized the mistake and waived it. But if that was the case, everyone would've gotten a notice of RFE recession or something to that effect ... very weird all around.

On 4/12/2023 at 11:52 AM, LA1234 said:

Hi, just had a question regarding the timeline it takes to obtain a green card with a K1 visa after submitting I-484 AOS. I know a few people who have went the I-130 route and were married in their own country and when the spouse came to the US it took them at most 90 days to obtain their Green Card and social security number because USCIS considers a married spouse an "immediate family member" and a Green Card is guaranteed compared to other categories that have a Green Card annual quota limitation. From what I have read on the USCIS website once a Fiance comes with a K1 Visa and gets legally married in the US than USCIS considers that as a spouse and falls in their "immediate family member" category. After this why isn't the process similar to a I-130 filer where a Green Card is guaranteed to the spouse and delivered within a short timeframe. For those that have submitted their I-484 AOS and havent received their approval / Green Card yet do you know if SSA sends the spouse a social security card while waiting for the approval of the AOS and what that time frame is? During this whole process of waiting for AOS approval can the spouse work, get a drivers license, get health insurance? It seems ridiculous that a legally married spouse has to wait two years based on some of the processing times I m reading on this thread to obtain legal status to participate in the society. Something doesnt add up about some of these long processing times and I am not sure if the USCIS processing times are looking at all visa categories grouped together and not based on specific visa cases.

You need to do the social security process fairly quickly after arrival, that's all listed on the K-1 AOS page. After 2 weeks you can apply for SSN, then you can update it to married name after marriage. If you don't do get a SSN before sending in the AOS package and especially before the 90 days are up, lots can be complicated. And SSN is really only tied to things like the driver's license, health insurance, etc. It has no bearing on whether you can work / travel, as that's controlled by the I-765 and I-131 forms.

 

I also don't really understand why it takes so long to get the I-485 approved when adjusting from K-1. Unless I'm not seeing things right, the whole IR-1/CR-1 process takes <2 years, which will include the green card. But adjusting status in the US (say, from any other visa that's not a K-1) that requires a I-130 takes roughly the same...? I don't understand why filing a single I-485 from a K-1 visa that's already been approved and executed takes roughly a year or more, with work permits sometimes / maybe / never being issued (and travel documents just not being done anymore). Anyway, the TLDR is that you're not seeing anything wrong here, the adjustment process is just really unfortunate due to how random it is. And as you can see from above, the fact people are getting issued deficiency notices from the FO when they are exempt also shows that this is just a really perplexing process.

Edited April 14, 2023 by slavaskii

[EatBulaga 254]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:59 AM, slavaskii said:

Interesting; this is the same experience I've heard from another Atlanta filer, I didn't think they actually went through with the Civil Surgeon but I guess they did. Theirs also says "Case is Being Actively Reviewed" with a more 'updated' date. One theory I had in mind - apparently, the overseas medicals are good for only 1 year.

After seeing more posts, I think the April 7, "We have taken an action on your case" notice is for everyone who got the Atlanta Courtesy Email, regardless if they went to see the Civil Surgeon or not.

As of now, there is still no update since April 7, and our status shows "Our records show nothing is outstanding at this time".

 

But as mentioned before, we went ahead and completed the I-693 medical and I'll post our report soon at

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/798091-request-for-form-i-693-courtesy-email/