M&Y_2019

Yeah - the N-400 factor in possibly speeding up ROC cases does make this even harder to predict. I do want to research and understand the reasoning behind the I-751 process at some point. I'm not aware of any other countries having a "conditional" permanent residence prior to the "real" one. For example, in Japan, you apply for PR when eligible and you get it. There's no "intermediary, conditional PR". Temporary permanent residence is almost an oxymoron. It seems like the US Congress and USCIS just imposed this extra administrative burden on themselves for little reason. Unfortunately, due to Japan's rules on citizenship, my spouse would be automatically deprived of Japanese citizenship upon obtaining US citizenship, making N-400 a complete non-starter. We will just have to wait out ROC with no N-400.

I think for now, we are inclined to wait out the ROC, and then consider moving with the 10 year GC in-hand to reduce the risk of separation. The processing time for a Japan residency application would be unlikely to exceed 6 months, and certainly not a year. That said, I thought a re-entry permit typically allowed the green card holder up to two years outside of the US without abandonment?

Indeed. We have been thinking this over for an extended period and it is quite difficult to decide. They have re-used prior biometrics for this case. Also, I believe the LIN service center is one that tends not to do interviews (from what others have reported here) or at least it is very unlikely, having adjusted from K1 and interviewed for AOS. That said, if we needed to return for either of those things we could. Though, it would problematic if the interview occurs during my Japan residency application. My spouse would be able to leave Japan, but I (the USC) would not without canceling the Japan-side application. The application should take at most 3-5 months according to an immigration attorney. Where would they send the interview notice, or the green card itself if approved? We would have to change our address, but would they mail to a foreign address?

Good morning all, I do apologize for making two threads, but the topics are sufficiently different than it didn't make sense to include both in one. We are considering leaving the US and moving to my spouse's home country as soon as August, but have not decided on this. That said, we are not sure the move would be long-term. We may want to (or have to) come back depending on how the visa process works out in that country. If my residency application is not approved for example, we would be coming back to the US within a few months. In order to apply for the particular visa we are looking at, I'm required to be physically present in Japan - it cannot be done through an embassy here in the US. It would be several months before I'd find out if I'm approved and can remain in Japan. My spouse has pending ROC filed last year January 2023 and has the 48-months extension letter. I've tried to research this, but there is very little info on how pending ROC works if we leave the country. This is the main the reason I'm interested in ROC approval estimates for LIN as the Nebraska Service Center seems to be quicker than others. If we go by USCIS processing time estimates, our application could be approved around July of this year. VisaJourney is estimating February 2025. If anyone can assist with the following questions, it would be much appreciated: If we do move prior to approval and file an address change with USCIS and include a foreign address, will that result in the ROC being denied or cancelled? I assume we cannot use a relative's US mailing address, as we would not be physically present there - or can we? Do we simply have to withdraw the ROC if we move out of the US and then have my spouse file for IR-1 if we ever move back? This would be extremely problematic if my residency in Japan is not approved (unlikely, but possible) as it would result in us being separated. What if we apply for a re-entry permit during ROC? At this point, we are really stuck on whether we should just wait out ROC approval, apply for a re-entry permit first, and then consider leaving. Some days we want to wait it out, and other days we question whether to keep putting our lives on hold for USCIS, as we could potentially be waiting years for ROC approval by what some on this forum have described. Others have suggested using N400 to "speed" up the process, but that is not a consideration for us as Japan does not allow dual citizenship.

Not expecting either to be very accurate. Although I will say, the VisaJourney prediction turned out to be quite accurate for both our K1 and AOS. I believe it was approved the same week. That said, @powerpuff I'm still confused why VJ is showing only two service centers on this page https://www.visajourney.com/times/ Those two service centers also have different dates next to them as well, so it seems there is some filtering being done based on service center, contrary to what was stated. I-751 is processed by five different service centers.

Thanks! Just trying to get a sense of whether it was USCIS or VisaJourney that's more accurate. Wouldn't it make more sense for VisaJourney to average based on approval time by service center, instead of by averaging approval time across all? With the wildly varying processing times between different service centers, that would seem more appropriate.

We currently have pending ROC with LIN (Nebraska Service Center). The USCIS processing time for this service center shows 80% of cases approved with 18 months. This is the quickest of all service centers I checked as some are almost double that. There are also many recent data points on this site showing approvals 14-16 months post-receipt date for LIN. That said, I keep receiving emails from VisaJourney stating that our approval estimate is late February 2025, which puts us at 25 months. What is this data based on? Is it drawing on data from all service centers and thus not factoring that LIN is faster than the others? In addition, why does the https://www.visajourney.com/times/ page only show CSC and VSC for I-751, when there are many other service centers?

My understanding from reading about this prior so that Global Entry does not update anything based on extension letters - not until you get your 10 year green card. While the I-751 is pending, our belief was you can attempt to use the kiosk (some have reported it works regardless) but will probably have to have the officer manually admit you in the global entry line by showing the expired green card and extension letter. I expected we’d have to talk to the officer. What I didn’t expect was the extreme frustration and seeming characterization as a liars trying to enter without actually having global entry. I don’t see why they couldn’t see his global entry based on his expired green card.

Very poor experience arriving back at SFO with global entry (which both of us have) and I-751 pending, expired GC and extension letter. My spouse tried to take his picture and scan his expired green card at the global entry kiosk and it just flashed “see officer”. Went to the officer who was extremely rude and impatient. He seemed to think my spouse was lying about having global entry, as he said “it isn’t showing up in the system.” I explained that we used it just four months earlier before the green card expired with no issues, to which he continued to act frustrated and implied we were lying about having my spouse having it. He seemed to think I was the only who had it and I was trying to bring my spouse along. It was just then that I remembered we brought the global entry cards (the ones that they say you “don’t need” to carry with you), which my spouse showed the officer. That seemed to finally get him to believe us. I’m so glad we brought those just in case, turned out to be very useful. After that he said “you need to have global entry update your information as it does not show in the system” but he let us through. I don’t understand what he means - I didn’t think global entry updates anything based on extension letters. Did they really “unregister” his expired green card from his global entry profile to the point that *nothing* shows up when they scan it? It was an awful welcome back to the US after a two week trip abroad in my spouse’s home country. I don’t understand why they have to be so nasty about everything.

Unable to find delete option - editing this post

Very poor experience arriving back at SFO with global entry (which both of us have). My spouse tried to take his picture and scan his expired green card at the global entry kiosk and it just flashed “see officer”. Went to the officer who was extremely rude and impatient. He seemed to think my spouse was lying about having global entry at all, as he said “it wasn’t showing up in the system.” I explained that we used it just four months earlier before the green card expired with no issues, to which he continued to act frustrated and implied we were lying about having my spouse having it. He seemed to think I was the only who had it and I was trying to bring my spouse along. It was just then that I remember we brought the global entry cards (the ones that they say you “don’t need” to carry with you), which my spouse showed the officer. That seemed to finally get him to believe us. I’m so glad we brought those just in case, turned about to be very useful. After that he said “you need to have global entry update your information as it does not show in the system” but he let us through. I don’t understand what he means - I didn’t think global entry updates anything based on extension letters. Did they really “unregister” his expired green card from his global entry profile to the point that *nothing* shows up when they scan it? It was an awful welcome back to the US after a two week trip abroad in my spouse’s home country. I don’t understand why they have to be so nasty about everything.

We now have a 24 month extension letter and a 48 month extension letter. Can we leave the 48 month letter at home and travel outside of the US with the 24 month version, or does the 48 month letter invalidate the previous one? Given that this paper is so flimsy yet so important, I’d rather it be the 24 month version that gets lost or damaged first. I doubt we’d ever lose it as we are very careful but would rather be safe than sorry. We still have 20+ months remaining before expiration of the 24 month letter. I suppose another option is to travel with both letters, but each in separate locations. In the event one of them is lost, then the other could be used for re-entry. That said, not sure this is a better approach.

I'm frustrated that we didn't submit our application just a couple weeks later than we did, although we couldn't have known. Our receipt date (January 11, 2023) was a couple weeks before the 48 month letter was announced, so we received the 24 month letter. We know a couple who have been going through the ROC process for several years now. Their extension letter expired (back when it was a 12 month version) and they never received any updated extension letters in the mail from USCIS when it became 18 or 24 months. I know USCIS claims they will be sending out the 48 month extension letter to all pending ROC applications, but what are the chances of this actually happening? It seems like it has not happened for all applicants in the past when extension letters were extended further.

I found this post on the topic - also I read a few anecdotal reports in other threads indicating that MSC means that the case is very likely being routed to your local office for an interview (after they take it from National Benefits Center). Non-MSC prefixes mean that it is more likely (but as I understand it, not guaranteed) to receive an interview waiver. Those applying after a CR-1 tend to get MSC because they did not have an interview through I-485.

Mailed ROC packet on 1/9/2023. USCIS picked it up and signed for it the next day. $680 charge on CC appeared yesterday on 1/11/2023. Just today we received the electronic notice via text and the case # begins with LIN. It's a little bit of a relief to not have the dreaded MSC prefix on the case #, although I guess MSC was unlikely as we are from the K1 process and already had an interview for I-485. Crossing fingers that ROC interview is waived. I thought that it would be WAC (California Service Center) and not LIN (Nebraska Service Center) handling cases for Washington State as I had read online - but I guess this is old information.