sarah86

Praise the Lord - Proof that good things even happen to 'The Knife':
 
New Card Is Being Produced
CSC, NOA1=6/13/16
Will let y'all know when card is in hand.
 
Jim

no you don't have to update this on SS. 
The only time you would have anything to do with SS is if you're first ever card said eligible for work with EAD only, in which case you might want to update your card to have that statement removed, but even that isn't an absolute necessary i don't think.
So for your case there is nothing that needs to be done as far as SS updates.
 

Hi All,
 
A bit late to share the news as I haven't had the chance to get back on this and post - but hopefully the late news is still helpful to some still waiting.
 
While on vacation in Cancun, I received e-Notifications that my card is in production on 5/09 Came back on 5/10 through JFK - same secondary inspection process, but noticed that the officer wrote "LPR" on my passport instead of the usual "ARC" on my stamp. Came back home and found the hard copy approval letter date 5/01 - assuming I received it as early as 5/05. Received e-notifications on 5/11 that my card was in production and finally received my 10Y GC on 5/15 356 days later. I waited a little to apply for citizenship, then got caught up with other things. But was able to send out my package on 5/24 and received a PD of 5/25. 
 
Glad that this process is over, and on to the next. But thought I'd share a few things here before moving on. My case was fairly straightforward, filed for AOS from an H1-B while I had a employer sponsored application started already. Our AOS was filed a few months shy of our 2Y anniversary - in retrospect, should have waited the extra few months before filing to avoid this whole debacle, but had some time to put the app together and went for it. By the time the ROC rolled around, we were married for almost 4 years and had a 1YR old son. So our app was really around that - added some new travel pics to the AOS material that we had already submitted with some baby pics. From a financial perspective, submitted joint bank accounts, insurance coverage for the family, and retirement accounts showing my wife and son as beneficiaries, which were all AOS material, simply updated. So I think in our case, it was just a matter of getting an officer to review to docs and make a decision. Glad VSC caught up a little towards the end, still took almost 12 months. 
 
Another thing I will mention as it does come up quite often is travelling while ROC is ending. I travel internationally quite often and dreaded being in a position of having to convince an ill-informed airline employee to let me board with an NOA. So about 4 months after applying I made an INFOPASS appointment and asked for a I-551. The Officer I spoke to was an older Jamaican lady - and she was very nice. She was quite adamant that I would have no problems coming in with CBPO. I explained that the CBPOs aren't my concern, but the airline agents were, and after a short conversation she was happy to stamp my passport. I will say that the stamp made boarding flights into the US much easier. Doesn't really help at CBP as you'll need to go to secondary regardless. I made over 5 trips with the stamp at JFK, ATL and MSP.
 
JFK, is the worst experience - as you're usually in there with 15-20 other people, some looking quite unsavory. Takes about 30-45 mins to be processed, however the last time I landed a number of flights from Korea had landed. There were a lot more people in the secondary and it took over 2 hours to clear. Officers are quite rude, due to the volume and the types of people they have to deal with. 
 
ATL is slightly better than JFK, officers little less rude and there is lower volume going into secondary despite it being a bigger airport. processing time was also 30-45mins.
 
MSP was by far the best - I was literally the only person sent to secondary - they even allowed my wife and baby come wait in there. Officers were genuinely nice - and actually apologized that I had to go to secondary.
 
Glad  won't have to do that again, and can go back to using my Global Entry. The secondary was by far biggest the inconvenience of this process - hated being treated like a criminal in JFK. Par for the course I guess, but felt bad there were some old people that couldn't speak English and get sent to secondary just to get barked at by officers there. 
 
Lots of things to complain about in this process, but really there's no point as many of you know it's simply a waiting game. Since my process is over, I'll indulge in a little bit of complaining. Given that these are Federal benefits, it shouldn't matter where you apply, processing times should be the same. The fact that CSC was breezing through apps while it took VSC 3-6 months longer was unjust. Of course we now know the government's solution to that was to slow down CSC instead of trying to cut down processing times at VSC. Regardless, the uneven processing times are not ideal. I foresee myself complaining about my N400 process as NYC is month or two behind Newark which is less than a couple of miles away. And NYC's oath process is different, so someone in Newark can potentially get naturalized 3-4 months earlier than a NYC applicant. Seems the process needs some improvement. Anyway - enough complaining for now.
 
For those of you that haven't gotten an approval yet, I wish you all the best and hope for an expedited approval. To all others, hope to see some familiar faces in the N400 forum.
 
Cheers!
 

no you can't cause the whole point of the stamp is to extend it one more year after the NOA1 extension has done its service. 
Even with the NOA1 and you go in there 1.5 2 months before your GC date is expired, they refuse to stamp it because its too early from the 2nd expiration of the green card. 
 
They received our application on the 10th and I believe by the 14th we had the NOA1 so even if it takes a little longer than that you have nothing to worry about. You should get it max within a month and you have plenty of time. 

It seems   Asia  men sponsor women more, Africa  just the opposite,  South America I think the women sponsoring men only have a slight lead and Europe seems to have the most even balance ( although they are probably the worst for adjust from VWP or overstaying )   Middle East seems to be a lot like Africa. 

Come May 10th, I will be religiously checking my mail box for my husbands approval letterz everyday 😂 I see CSC has started with June filers so thats awesome news ! Congrats to all that got approved. I'very been stalking April and may threads, April vsc filers are get approved left and right and I get so excited for them 😏😏. I don't think there should be that many April filers from vsc still waiting, there definitely shouldn't be any from CSC that's still waiting. May is moving I'm both departments as well so we are veerrryyy close to the finish line in the roc battle ya'll. 

It appears that the CSC has come to a halt in terms of processing Removal of Conditionals applications - I751.  Our NOA1 date is June 17th, 2016 - I thought we were getting so close but then saw the processing dates constantly get pushed back or stand still.  So frustrating!  My question is this: should my husband's Removal of Conditions not be approved prior to his current NOA1 expiration date that extended his Conditional Residency status by one year, what happens? His NOA1 expires on June 17th, 2017.  I would assume they would account for their processing woes and allow those who are still waiting for their 10 year Green Cards to remain fully legal.  We also talked to an officer at an InfoPass appointment prior to my husband traveling back to Turkey a couple months ago and she said should processing times on your 10 year Green Card lapse with when you're eligible to apply for citizenship, you can still apply for citizenship (this is for people who grew from a K1).
 
What a cluster!  

Hey VSC filers, here are the latest stats.  Nothing scientific here...I just scrolled through the self-reported Visa Journey data and counted on my fingers.  OK, I lie.  I have a pad of paper here....
 
There are thirty-three (33) I-751 February filers at VSC with Visa Journey timelines.  Of those 33, 20 of them have been approved.
There are thirty-five (35) I-751 March filers at VSC with Visa Journey timelines.  Of those, 6 have been approved, all in the first week of the submission month.
 
That's a 60% approval rate for February 2016 VSC filers so far and a 17% approval rate for March 2016 VSC filers.
 
I did see one "approval" box ticked "NO" from February.  Don't know if that was a mistake or a disappointment.
 
I'm betting that we VSC filers will NOT get our cards by the NOA1 one-year anniversary date.  However, I believe we ALL will get our cards (barring some horrible RFE) by our GC one-year-extension expiration date.
 
Most of the people submitting I-751s via IR-1/CR1 in this timeframe went through the I-130 meltdown.  I hope we have better luck this time around.
 
Sukie in NY

Thank you

Simple wills and MPOA are cheap and easy. You dont generally need a lawyer and can get them online. Our wills cost us $20 and an ice cream cake. ($10 for the wills, $10 for the notary for two wills, and an ice cream cake for a friend who witnessed that and a bunch of other items.)

Yeah we had the same situation. Apparently you need to specifically ask for your name to appear on the bill. You are probably listed as an "authorized" user of the account. Explain that you asked to be put on the account but PSE&G did not put you on the bill.
For what it is worth, you can download a will from many online resources (cheap), fill it out, take it with two friends to your bank and have it notarized. Good luck.

I suggest to explain lack of those common documents in the cover letter. They might think you forgot and they will send RFE.
We don't have utility bills cause we lived with my husband's parents. We explained this in our cover letter, we also attached a letter from husband's parents confirming our statement.

You are fine to send to the regular Vermont address via UPS.
(I sent mine fedex next day so I speak from first hand experience)

You can take out a small / inexpensive life insurance policy and list him/her as beneficiary, make wills, power of attorney, all good
to have in life.

I sent by USPS Priority Mail Express. Tracking, insurance, delivery proof, you can request signature upon delivery for free.

I also live in NJ and requested mine online. In maybe less than a week I had them. It came quicker than I anticipated.

You're welcome! A long time ago I learned my "google" lesson. But the tax transcripts (official IRS documents proving you filed and it was accpeted) versus tax returns (printouts of what you claim you will file via an accountant, attorney, Turbotax, H&R Block, snail mail, etc.) is not as intuitive. At first I thought they were the same.

I had no idea what tax transcripts were when I filed for my ROC. So I used HR block tax return printouts. I was approved without any RFE. So the answer is "no" they are not absolutely necessary. But since you are filing to Vermont Center, which is taking forever, you shouldn't risk for an RFE and further delay your case. Just wait couple more days, they arrive in 7-10 days. or as you say just find your local IRS office and get printouts.

$1995 for a lawyer? That is more than enough to fly to Turkey again, meet him, take lots of pictures together and it will look good on the petition as well. You might even come back with some extra change to pay for the process and do it yourself...You don't need an ambulance chasers for sure.

****** The discussion on the validity of VAWA ends here, this is not your political soap box. Give the Op constructive advice on her questions, or do not post. ******

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that she probably wants to find a way to stay in the US.

We all know this sort of stuff happens all the time. I don't agree with this practice, but I don't think the USCIS will necessarily ask nor with the OP tell about working in the US prior to EAD issuance.
The 'company', which is really a small-time operation that is not required to use I-9, will not pay her "under the table". Many people use this phrase, but I guarantee you, the employer is NOT willing to pay income tax on the money they are paying someone else. They may pay in cash and not withhold any taxes from the pay, but when they prepare their own income tax return at the beginning of the next year, they are saying 'holy cow! How do I add more expenses??? Oh wait, this net income is way too high!! I need to deduct the pay I was giving to so-and-so!!" So the go back to their accountant (or Turbo Tax) and they find that they cannot deduct the pay until they file a Form 1099-MISC (if the gross pay was over $600 for the year). They look in their file, pull out the copy of the SSN that says, "NOT AUTHORIZED TO WORK WITHOUT DHS PERMISSION" (or something like that) and BOOM! now we have reportable income!!
The person who was thinking they were getting paid under the table gets their copy of the Form 1099-MISC and they either disregard it because they think that "under the table" means no tax or they take it to a person and they find out that they need to pay at least 15.3% of self-employment tax (medicare and social security tax) on this income IN ADDITION to their regular income tax. So they tend to try to forget about it.
Well, the next step, is typically, they file a tax return with their spouse and often report a refund. YAAY!!! Life is good because now the MFJ standard deduction really reduces taxable income! So things go normally until two years after filing that tax return when the IRS sends a notice that there is unreported income. They include the previous 'under the table' income, calculate the new income tax, self-employment tax and add back any refundable credits (additional money that increases your refund) to the new balance due.
Now the SSA knows you were working without authorization, but that's probably two years down the road when the new tax is assessed and you may be well on your way to ROC. Will you be deported? Probably not. Will this cause a problem for later immigration processes? Maybe, but then again, maybe not. But I say all this to say - you may be able to evade immigration and labor laws - but there ain't hardly a way you can evade tax laws on this.

As someone who has been through this personally, I would recommend that you not pursue any endeavor to have her removed from the USA. Granted, in my case there were no police reports and she never actually filed a VAWA claim, but she certainly threatened to do so. As others mentioned that you should do, I retained legal counsel and divorced her immediately. I did everything I could to facilitate and maintain separation from her. Once the divorce was final I simply moved on with my life and let her have hers. She ended up going back home because life was too difficult here for her; with no education, no work experience and when all of those so-called "friends" who convinced and helped her pull off her scam (and yeah, she took tons of stuff from my house too, including titles to my cars, etc. - and the officer to whom I reported the incident merely laughed at me) had scattered to the wild wind, what *else* was she gonna do? Short of finding some clod to latch onto, she had little choice. This woman sounds like she has more of a support network established here than mine did, but I'd suggest that you don't let that bother you either. It is what it is.
The primary point I'm struggling to make is that I recommend that you forego your quest to do anything about her presence in the USA. As others have mentioned, there isn't much you can do anyway and it will simply cause you grief for the next however-long until you finally do move on. I recommend that you re-focus on protecting yourself against any type of charges that might come up, though without proof, that's unlikely. Then simply find a way to be ok with her obtaining her goal of being here, even though she used you to do it. Be ok with merely getting away unscathed in the end, as unfair as that sounds/is. Given the way our system works, those who wanna play it like a fiddle can do so quite easily; and that playing can involve some serious repercussions for you. So I'd recommend just being glad that it didn't. Let it go, live your life, find happiness elsewhere. And the time to do that is now.
Just my $0.02. Take it FWIW.

Seems that she wants to maintain the relationship, but you NEED to get away. You are not responsible for sending her back, and she probably won't go anyway. You are being stalked by a scammer, who is also toying with your emotions, and you need to act accordingly.
Wives and girl friends trying to escape abusive relationships are encouraged to find a new place to live and keep it secret from their former mate. I'd recommend you do the same, right after you call USCIS and explain that you wish to withdraw all affidavits of support regarding any processes!
Check on your lease situation. Hopefully it is up soon. If you get a new job some distance away from your home that can be grounds for terminating a lease early, but check on that. Put your stuff in storage ... shack up with a buddy for a while ... rent a trailer in an RV park ... something. Just GET AWAY from her ASAP.
She can ask her boy friend for money to fly home if she finds herself homeless. THAT is not your problem. You owe NOTHING to someone that has lied to you and mistreated you so much. File a restraining order against her if you have to.
Fortunately, the divorce should be simple and inexpensive since it has been such a short period of time.