Leasel7

Thanks for sharing the detailed description of your interview experience, and congratulations on being approved pending the dreaded namecheck. I hope it comes through quickly.

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you...it almost sounds like a case of mistaken identity, i.e they got your medical file mixed up with someone else's. Whether it is worthwhile to try and fight it is another story; from what I've read, they have the right to arbitrarily demand another medical examination despite their own rules and guidelines. I'm wondering if this is starting to be a trend for CSC transferees, because the same thing just happened to KikiDoug.

I was stopped by the police (not for doing anything wrong) and was asked for ID.. I showed him my DL and he then asked for my Greencard... guess he knew I was not American by my accent... he did say if I had not had it with me I would have been taken to the Station to have my status confirmed by USCIS.....

I am so glad I followed the rules on the letter and carry it with me at all times...

Kezzie

Kezzie, I'm sure the accent probably had a lot to do with it...as I wrote below, my Australian mother has been in the US over 40 years and never bothered to carry her green card or passport around. She has been stopped by police at various times (once for driving too slow, LOL) and was never asked to show proof of legal presence. Of course, she has no accent at all now.

My mother has a Scottish friend who has also been in the US over 40 years but still has a strong accent....I wonder if she carries her green card at all times? I have a feeling that any police officer who asks Flo to produce a green card might get more than he bargained for -- she's not backwards in coming forward!

But your experience is making me rethink my position on whether hubby should carry his green card around...he doesn't have his driver's license yet, but once he starts driving, I guess maybe he'd better have his green card in his wallet in case he gets stopped for some reason. I just wish I could superglue it to his forehead, because he has a bad track record with losing wallets! Maybe I need to start checking into the process for replacing a lost green card....

Interesting question. My mother is a registered alien -- citizen of Australia -- but does not carry her green card or passport with her. She does carry her driver's license, of course. But since she has been in the US so long, her accent is gone, so anyone who talks to her will think she is American. In her 40 plus years in the US, I don't think she has ever been challenged on her legal presence in the US.

My husband, on the other hand, is obviously a Pacific Islander and has an accent. He has a penchant for losing things, especially his wallet. During the two years we corresponded while he was in college, he lost his wallet three times, and he admits that when he packed up to move from one dorm room to another, he found about five formerly lost student IDs! So I am very nervous about him carrying his passport or green card around. I don't think the passport is necessary now that he has his green card, but I think we may just make a nice color copy of his green card for him to carry around and leave the real thing at home.

Perhaps the FBI name checks haven't cleared yet, though I don't know why they would be so mysterious about that. Unfortunately we have many people in this forum who were approved at their interviews but are waiting for the FBI name checks to be completed.

Congratulations, you should be seeing a green card in the mail soon!

"Congratulations" sounds like an approval to me....so congratulations!!!

Unfortunately there seems to be a number of people who went through the K1 medical examination and for whatever reason weren't give a copy of the DS-3025, which has the vaccination information. (I-693A is only used for AOS, so that's not the form you are missing.)

Lucky for us, my husband was given a copy of all the paperwork from his medical examination, and this from a newly appointed panel physican doing his first K1 examination and in a third world country to boot! We went to a civil surgeon to get I-693A filled out for AOS, and my husband needed three more shots, so we ended up paying $180.

A few suggestions:

1) You say the doctor isn't responding, but have you tried calling on the phone (vice email)? Seems like it's a little harder to hide from a phone call. Surely he has a receptionist or nurse who can check into this for you.

2) Do you have copies of whatever vaccination records were used at your medical examination to show that your had all the needed shots? If so, I would think the civil surgeon could use them to prepare I-693A.

3) If all else fails you can have a titre done to see what vaccinations can be detected in your blood. Not sure how much that would cost though.

Congratulations, I hope your green card shows up soon!

"Only 19 months"? I'm glad you have a sense of humor about this, that is an awfully long time to wait, especially that almost one year gap between the cancelled interview and the rescheduled one. I hope you at least get the 10 yr green card out of this out of that long wait, if you've already been married two years. Congratulations, and I hope that green card shows up in the mail SOON!

Congratulations and thanks for sharing! I think I've read that the Orlando office is backed up big time, so it's probably a good thing you got sent over to Jacksonville, even it is a bit of a drive.

Congratulations!!! I know how you feel....my husband's AOS package was also transferred to CSC and approved within about two months. I was thrilled, but on the other hand I feel guilty because so many people here have been waiting a long time for AOS to come through.

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary! I hope that green card arrives soon, you've waiting long enough.

If you filed I485 & I765 you will have 2 Biometrics Appts.

Not always -- we filed for I485 and I765 but were only scheduled for one biometrics appointment to cover both! As stated in my prior post, this was clearly by design, since the biometrics appointment notice listed receipt numbers for both cases (AOS & EAD).

For us the green card arrived one day after the welcome letter. But then, the first notification we received that AOS was approved was the email stating that a card is being prepared. The email about the welcome letter came a few days later. So perhaps our case was a bit unusual.

Congratulations!!

We applied for both I-485 and I-765 but only had one biometrics appointment. I just took a look at the appointment notice for the biometrics appointment, and it specifies the case type as "I485 I765" and lists the receipt numbers for both AOS and EAD under "Application Number". Interesting that some are getting two biometrics appointments; perhaps this varies by the local Application Support Center.

You only have to pay for biometrics once, so when applying concurrently for I-485 and I-765, include the biometrics fee with the payment for I-485 and just pay the base fee of $180 for I-765.

First of all, a little anecdote....my mother is Australian and married a US citizen while living in Bermuda, where they also drive on the left side of the road. When dad moved her to his hometown in Arkansas, mom was forced to start driving because they lived out in the country. So she started practicing on the dirt roads near their home. One day while practicing she came across her husband's elderly uncles approaching from the opposite direction in their vintage truck. Seeing that they were on the "wrong" side of the road, Mom stayed in her lane, trusting that they would move over. But the two old codgers were in fact driving on the right side of the road and knew she was in the wrong, so they proceeded, waiting for her to move over. This game of chicken finally ended when, as my great uncle put it, "Foot, I took to the ditch!" Mom was mortified and begged him not to tell anyone, but the story soon became family folklore, and my great uncle used to tell the story every time we went back to Arkansas for a visit!

My experiences with driving on the left side of the road in Australia:

1) Tendency to drive too close to the curb on the left.

2) Turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal because they are on opposite sides of the steering column from what I am used to.

3) I turned right at an intersection and ended up on the right side of the road...once. It was scary, but luckily easily corrected because I was on a quiet residential street with no median.

4) Those %^&$ roundabouts -- I'm not used to them and had to hesitate before jumping in, which made the drivers behind me really impatient. (This was in the Melbourne area; seemed like drivers in the countryside and also in Canberra were a lot more tolerant of confused tourists!)

I also drove on the left in the Solomon Islands while visiting my then fiance. Traffic there is laid back compared to Australia; but there were no traffic signals or signs whatsoever, just more &^%* roundabouts and lots of potholes when you get off the main road. But the fun part was I had a car with a manual transmission, which I am used too, but it felt really weird to be shifting on the left.

Advice for your wife -- practice in quiet residential areas or on country roads outside the city, because dealing with heavy traffic and driving on the other side of the road can be a daunting combination. Also when I was learning to drive, my dad used to take me to the mall parking lot on Sundays when they were closed. An empty (or near empty) parking lot might also be a good place for her to get comfortable with the controls on the car and practice making turns.

Congratulations!

This is a fun topic! My husband grew up with English as his 3rd language. He actually speaks English pretty well, especially having gotten his college education in the US, but there are funny phrases that come out of his mouth now and then, just the way colloquial English is spoken in his country. One example is the use of "laters" instead of "later".

Can't think of anything else at the moment, but I wanted to recommend this site to you:

My sister and I visited a friend living in Japan last year, and one of the pure delights of being there was finding all the creative use of English on T-shirts, signs, and many other products, affectionately called "Engrish". It seems that it is desirable to have English on products as part of the design for a modern, cool look, but often the meaning or content is not important, so not a whole lot of checking for correct spelling or grammar. The results can be hilarious!

(No offense to any Japanese posters, while there I met many Japanese people who speak beautiful English, it's just that some of the advertising and product design people have no desire to get their English perfect, and rhe results can be soo funny!)

After the all the excitement wore off over receiving my husband's green card a few days ago, I took another close look at it and discovered a teeny tiny mistake -- they misspelled the name of his country. How they managed that I do not know; one would think they select the green card holder's country from a pull down menu rather than typing it in. The mistake is minor though; instead of

the card says

(extra letter highlighted in red!)

Since we're just talking an extra "S", and the country is clearly identifiable, I'm inclined to think we shouldn't bother having it corrected. My feeling was reinforced when I read the I-90 thread and found that we would have to send the green card back, file yet more immigration paperwork (I-90), possibly pay a fee (up to $260), and wait a month or two....or more....to get a corrected card. Ugh.

Thankfully they managed to spell his complicated Polynesian middle and last names correctly, got his birthdate right, and the other dates are right.

Any thoughts?

Just checked my status online. It says that AOS was approved in August 10, and that they ordered a card for me

Congratulations!!!

(I never got an e-mail, which is kind of strange).

Did you check your junk folder? My spam filter has been sending all emails from CRIS to the junk folder.

Second how long does it take from when they order the card until I get it??

In our case, it was six days between the online case status update notifying us that a card was being prepared and when it actually showed up in the mailbox. So the green card actually arrived six days after AOS was approved.

Congratulations!

My fiance just arrive in USA and i am a little confused with her SS and EAD. i read somewhere in this forum that with the passport and the 1-94 form in the passport she is already authorized to work and to get a SS number?

Apply for the social security number ASAP, they won't let you do it after the I-94 expires, so then you have to wait until after her green card arrives. (Not sure if you have to be married before applying for the SSN while her I-94 is valid, but I believe some K-1 fiancees have gotten it prior to marriage.)

About being authorized to work...from what I've read, this may technically be true until the I-94 expires, but employers will probably (or should) insist on seeing an EAD, a green card, or some immigration document verifying that your fiancee is indeed authorized to work. And even if she did get hired, her authoration to work would expire with the I-94, and she would have to stop working until she gets an EAD or green card. So best thing to do is get married, then file for AOS and EAD as soon as possible. That's if you are anxious to get her authorized to work.