US Immigration from Germany

Hi all,

My wife and I recently got married and we are standing before a major decision. Should we do the green card process in the U.S. (AOS) or my home country Germany (consular processing).

Even though we would prefer AOS, the issue we have with AOS is the long waiting time for the work permit (I-765).

I am currently in the U.S. on a J-1 without work authorization and my personal funds are coming to an end very soon. My wife wouldn t be able to financially sustain both of us because she pays a lot for student loans. So we cannot wait 5-7 months until I would potentially receive the work permit.

If we move to Germany while waiting for the green card, I would be able to work and financially maintain both of us. However, we are not pleased with the long wait times for consular processing either (up to 2 years). Our goal is to live in the U.S. together, not Germany.

Do you have any suggestions or recommendations?

My wife has listed her assets in her savings account with Bank A in the I-864 for my AOS. We view them as supplemental as she earns more than the required amount to qualify as a sponsor, but figured it would make her case stronger and included proof of those assets (account statement issued by the bank).

Now that we're married, we would like to restructure our finances, and move our savings from Bank A to Bank B (which offers higher interest, and is our joint bank account). Do you think we should hold off on that transfer until my AOS is approved?

Hi all,

we had our AOS interview from my K1 visa two weeks ago, and it went pretty well. At the end the officer told me he would just have to verify that my medical was less than one year old at the time of filing (which I know it was) and then he would approve me.

Since that interview my status on the USCIS website has been sitting at "Interview was completed and my case must be reviewed". At first I thought it would change to approved as soon as the officer verified the date of my medical. After a few days I figured maybe there is no in between status from this one until card was issued, which it would surely change to within a few days. Now that almost two weeks have passed I'm starting to worry if something went wrong. Am I just overreacting? Is this the normal status before being issed a GC, and how long does it usually take to get a GC these days? My employment authorization document will expire in August, so if this status means that they really are doing some further review of my case I think I need to file for an extension soon so I don't have to quit my job. It never ends lol

I would appreciate you guys' experience with this status, is it routine or am I in some kind of post interview review process? Any idea at what point I can expect to hear something?

Thank you for your advice!

I have searched the forums and a few people have posted about similar issues, however my situation is slightly different so I wanted to hear what other users would advise.

In Germany, middle names are legally all first names, which is why I have 3 first names and one last name. The three first names come out to 19 characters with spaces, like so: ABCDE EFGHIJ KLMNOP

It seems USCIS can only process 18 characters for the first name field. So on my hardcopy NOA, the very last letter of my 3rd first name is missing (the "P" in the example above, so the name stated reads: ABCDE EFGHIJ KLMNO).

This has already confused the DMV as it is the only place my name is written with that letter missing. My passport, my visa, my SS card, everything shows my name correctly but this newest letter from USCIS. I am worried that USCIS will actually do the same for my Green Card and other documents in the future.

Should I call them or file an e-request for a typographical error?

Should I try to change the 3rd first name into my middle name?

Other options?

Thanks for any advice on this!

Hi all,

I've been scouring the forums since we submitted our application for AOS and I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what evidence to bring to the interview.

Obviously we need to bring originals of evidence that we submitted with our application in March (Birth certificates, Marriage certificates, passports, DLs, lease, etc.).

Should we also bring copies of evidence previously provided? For example, we submitted bank statements and utility bills from the day we moved in together until filing, should we bring copies of those to the interview or will updated bills and statements SINCE filing suffice?

Thank you!