velnoure

EADs can never be expedited because of a job offer. Processing is expedited in extreme cases only including life-threatening situations of an immediate relative, or if your case is off the regular processing time.

Grats! I received the same e-mail today for a 10 year green card.

They are requesting those to make sure that the documents aren't fake, and that you still have the originals. It's normal practice for all interviews to bring originals, as well as copies. Don't assume anything. They can deny your application if you refuse to follow instructions.

They will probably ask for proof that you can work legally - SSN, photo copy of your visa/EAD/green card. If they don't ask for any of those, then I would question the validity of the company, and worst, you may not get paid for your work. It's very risky business.

Hmm.. Wouldn't you say that having a bank account/credit card/phone is a normal transition for anyone? We would have applied for those whether or not they were required on the interview.

But, anyway, I'm glad that our journey is right at the finish line.

I'm glad you're happy with your attorney. I've had a couple of legal issues where I ultimately prevailed, and I also credit the brilliant and diligent work of my attorney. What I'm saying, and still stand by, is that your lawyer is not the reason your case was processed quickly. USCIS would not have moved any quicker even if F. Lee Bailey had submitted your application. There are no secret "tricks" that only lawyers know that will make an application with USCIS move faster. Ultimately, you're at the mercy of the bureaucratic machine. Conversely, however, there are a number of mistakes that anyone (including an attorney) can make that will slow things down considerably.

That said, it sounds like you got excellent personal service from your attorney, and you should certainly be grateful to your attorney for that.

I have to disagree with your other statement, though. Specifically, that it's possible to gather "enough evidence" in only a month. That would be true of a marriage that was only a few months old, but not in a marriage of five years. If the bulk of your evidence consisted of what you had gathered in the final month before filing, and you had very little to show for the five years of marriage prior to that, there's a good chance you'd be denied. On the other hand, if you walked into the interview with a pile of photo albums, souvenirs, keepsakes, maybe a few affidavits from friends and family, and other stuff you'd accumulated over the five years of marriage, and virtually none of the third party evidence like joint bank accounts or bills, you'd still have a pretty good chance of being approved. As I said, the IO understands that an immigrant who doesn't have a green card, EAD, or Social Security number, is pretty limited in how much of that financial evidence they are able to acquire.

What I'm saying is that your approval doesn't hinge solely on proving co-mingling of finances. The IO would obviously expect to see this evidence if they knew it was possible to have obtained it, but they're not going to automatically deny you if it wasn't possible to get it. They're looking at the whole package of evidence.

Aside from two pages of a joint bank statement, new cell phone line, and less than a month old credit card statements, we handed no additional paperwork during the interview. We had no joint assets, or even insurance. Aside from those, we brought in 50 pictures printed on paper and a wedding album (I do some graphic design as a hobby, so I made the extra effort in designing the album, and the officer's smile was cheek to cheek after that). Our lawyer's advice definitely kicked in with the pictures, and it will be a disservice to him to reveal how the pictures were prepared. The officer was even familiar with my lawyer's name and took quick, machine-like routine as if we already know what's coming. The officer did note of my lawyer's absence during the interview, as if she expected him to come.

I guess I can go on with the questions that were asked, but I made a quick review in my timeline, and the rest of our interview experience seem normal.

Thanks for your response, Inky 

After we figured out that she meant I-94 instead of I-129F as she said, we saw on VJ that we need to wait for the EAD befor applying again. Luckily we've got all of that rolling already.

How can they just let it sit until it expires? I'm thinking of filing a formal complaint.

Most people apply for SSN with at least an EAD at hand. SSNs aren't too useful until then (can't use it to work, difficult time in the DMV, etc). After a short period of time (about 90 days... IMO, it's fairly short), you'll get the EAD/green card and just forget about the headache. Your SSN woes may also affect or delay your AOS application.

Your lawyer had nothing to do with the amount of time it took from the petition filing to the interview. If you wish, you can credit your attorney with not getting an RFE which would have made it take longer, but your attorney can't make USCIS move any faster. It would have been just as quick if you'd filed the papers yourself.

You can't manufacture evidence of a five year marriage in the month or so prior to the interview. I think it may have been a bit naive of you to think you could have gotten persuasive evidence in the time between receiving an EAD and the time of the green card interview. I think you should look back over your five years together and see what you've collected over that time that shows you've been a married couple.

I'd like to elaborate a bit more about our lawyer. This guy is truly a life saver. He's been our lawyer 2 years before we filed anything. We could have filed in 2009, but we didn't. So our lawyer knows our situation well. Our lawyer definitely took the extra step during the process. He's not the average lawyer who files his client's paperwork, get paid, forget about it, maybe make a mistake or two and ask for more payments somewhere in the way.

As I've written in the other post, it is possible to gather enough evidence, given a month of timeframe. We both planned way ahead of time, and took action as soon as I got the EAD card.

I don't think there's much, if any, to doubt in our marriage - we have similar background in parent's nationality (biggest difference is my spouse being a U.S. citizen, and I'm not), lived in my country for over 10 years, speak the same non-English language, same age range, knew/met far before in advance with any plans to marry (not your average dating>k-1 visa>married>2 year green card process).

I want to update you guys on the results:

I received a card production notice today, Aug 5th for a 10 year green card.

We were able to bring compelling evidence of our marriage, and we were only given a month of preparation. I did not have an SSN or allowed to work before the interview notice. I think it was very crucial that I had no criminal record, no trail of illegal employment (I have never worked until I received the EAD, a few days AFTER the interview).

If you were in the same situation as I am, with no job, out of status, and still need to find paperwork, but have an EAD card before the interview, what we did were:

-apply a joint credit card. Spouse should have a reasonable credit score for this.

-add a new cell phone line with our names in it.

-apply for a new bank account, then add spouse for a joint bank account

Other than that, we have bills showing both our names in the same address, loads of pictures printed on paper, joint tax returns for 3 years (and other original documents required for I-485)

they may or may not scrutinize the fact that all the presented/joint documents (except for the pictures - we have a significant amount) are new. Again, I had no SSN and never worked illegally, so I guess it was understandable to the officer that we may not have a lot of paper trails to show.

Also, we did hire a lawyer to advise us with the evidence.

$325 is very steep. I only paid $160 for mine, and in 2009 I remembered it only costing less than $100 in California from one clinic.

It's very odd that you got away without an I-693, unless that form was/included a G-235A.

Got my EAD notice by e-mail today!

Congrats! I was eying on your timeline for a while now, since we filed at almost the same time. But, since I didn't come from a K-1, we had to get an interview before a GC.

Glad that you two can breathe well now.

I am sorry to hear that your marriage isn't working too well... We had our problems too like any other married couple will have eventually, but we are working on it. Stay strong and be positive. Sort all your problems out one by one, starting with the smallest ones.

I have a squeaky-clean criminal record. None committed in my life.

As for children, we planned not to have any until I get a job (I've never worked illegally/without documents). If we were to have kids then neither of us could pay for the lease/bills/etc for a while. Both my younger brothers are born in the U.S.A. and we treated one of them like our son. My youngest sibling was 3 years old when me and my spouse married and he was pretty much our "child"

I knew her way back from my country of origin on my 7th birthday, so we have a strong background together, and knew each other for a long time. We married 3 months after I turned 18 y/o, but because of family issues (her parents are financially dependent to her, and retired) we couldn't file until this year when she was promoted to a better-paying job. We didn't want to deal with co-sponsorship either so we waited until she met the 125% required income for 2011.

H-4s last for two years. Mine expired in 2004. In September this year I would have overstayed for 7 years.

BTW, I know my timeline is weird. I came from an H-4 visa back when I was a minor, 14 years old when I came the the U.S. and overstayed for 6 years.

They received my packet on April 20th and NOA1 was sent on April 21st.

It paid off to hire a competent lawyer for cases like this, but I didn't expect such an early interview notice. It's both a blessing and curse right now. My birthday is two weeks after the interview date.

I just received an interview notification from e-mail today. I have not even received the EAD, which I was hoping to get first before the interview so we can sign up for insurance/phone bills. The interview date is July 15th 2011, and we sent our packet on April 20th.

I'm so nervous right now. We have a lot of things to prepare for our 5-year marriage.

Very good post. Congrats on the successful interview! This should help some of us who'll have interviews soon. (Honestly most of our pics are of things we eat when we go out... lol)

https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=CIV

Enter the right ZIP code. BTW, I live in California too and seems like the I-693 fee is generally cheaper here compared to other states based on my own experience.

Please excuse my ignorance, but, you've been married for 8 years, so you've been in the US for at least that many years. Why don't you have a SSN? Are you currently a Lawful Permanent Resident or a Green Card Holder? If you are, I am pretty sure you will need an SSN when applying to adjust your status.

No, you do not need an SSN to fill tax forms. There are many people who don't have SSNs and have stayed in the USA for decades.

To answer the OP, you will at least need an ITIN to fill up tax forms/returns together with your spouse. Everyone who enters the USA lawfully with a visa can apply for an ITIN before the visa expires.

On the first day of I-693, they will give a vaccine shot for the TB skin test, then vision/height/organs, then blood test for HIV. Two days after, came back to see results for TB/HIV and receive a sealed I-693 envelope.

From what I've seen around the forum, the USCIS is very picky about the medical tests, and they prefer the I-693 be performed in the USA whether or not you had the right shots and tests taken somewhere else.

Maybe you'll find a good, honest doctor who will transcribe what you have, but since I only had to pay $160 for the whole test, we just coughed up the money and get it over with. Also, my shots were taken in the USA when I was in high school.

Yeah our filing fees were high up there too.

Odd, I'm not sure what my lawyer did to our packet, but knowing him, he probably made a cover letter to help our case, since our case is quite unusual according to him. What probably helped us the most is our last three joint tax returns, which are co-signed by me and my spouse. You should talk to your lawyer and ask him/her how the packet was prepared and what kind of extra touches were done to help your case

When filing for a 10-year GC you will also need the I-130 along with I-485. That's what we did, but the time it took us to receive a NOA1 was the same as everyone else (about a week after receiving the packet).

Our stories are sort of the same... We knew each other at a very young age (I was 7, she's 8) and became good friends at first.

Good luck with your application

pictures, utility bills, (joint) bank accounts/credit cards. If your bank accounts are not joint at least make sure they're on the same address, same with the bills. Proof of joint ownership on a car/house will also help.

If you don't have utility bills, the easiest to cover up is a cell phone bill, and maybe health insurance (depends on where you apply, it could be difficult to apply without an SSN/ITIN/green card).

Since you guys are only married for 4 months they won't look for a whole lot of things.