syntaxkid

She received her green card today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks guys so much for your help and suport...A + B, I will check that out for sure!

My wife was approved 1 day shy of 6 months, keep hope alive guys!!!!

a hubby and a puppy is all you really need !!! after we got that 6 month delay letter we were preparing to travel to Thailand to visit with my wife's family with the combo AP card...I'm glad we waited a few extra weeks to buy tix because I wasn't looking forward to a hassle like yours....But your back now so that's the important thing!!! I looked through the AOS stats for our month and looks like 17-20 people have been approved from our filing month...that doesn't include all those not on visajourney, so our month is officially moving....you may hear something very soon, i'll keep my fingers crossed for you, your hubby, and your puppy!!! Thanks for response

My wife's received the letter that her green card is approved, and has been sent to our home address!!!! No RFE's, no interview and we too received that letter sent to everyone about the 6 month delay on top of original processing time. But it was approved 6 months, pretty much exactly, from the date the AOS was filed! I have updated my timeline if anyone wants to check it! Thank you everyone for all your help, support, and generosity in offering your experiences, points of advice, etc over this past 17 months.

We got one today too, AOS submitted at the end of February

I found some people on here who list philadelphia as their local office and are in the process of AOS from K1 just like us. It seems most of them that applied at the same time, and even later than us have gotten biometrics appointments and EAD quite some time ago. This is pretty discouraging. The wait time for EAD is 3 months. So I don't know how to interpret this. What else can we do to check up? We've tried the Service Request, and we've called back at all the increment times they ordered us to. Is there a way to contact the local biometrics office? Or should we try for an infopass appt? Or just keep waiting as we've been instructed? Thanks so much for your help.

Colin

Thank you for clearing that up for us. I didn't realize that they have to wait the full 90 days for biometrics before they can move forward in giving EAD. That would make sense because the AP has been approved for some time now but never moves to the card production. Perhaps the adjucticator put it aside to wait the 90 for a biometrics appointment for the EAD. Thanks!

Hello,

My wife and I submitted her AOS and EAD/AP application and our NOAs were issued on March 25, 2013. Since then, we have receieved nothing further. My wife contcted USCIS on May 1, 2013 to inquire about the biometrics letter. The representative told her he would submit a request for further information but that if she didn't recieve a response to the request in 15 days, to contact USCIS. On May 15, 2013, my wife contacted USCIS again. Customer service told her he submitted the service request and provided a confirmation number. She then spoke to a Tier-2 representative who told her that the Biometrics Fee had been cashed out days earlier, and that she would recieve an appointment in the next two weeks. We waited 4 weeks and still, we heard nothing and did not recieve an appointment or a response to the service request. On June 15, my wife contacted them again. Customer Service told my wife that the biometric center is delayed and that the May 15 Service Request overrides her ability to submit another request.

We are approaching the 90 day wait for EAD. What's worse is that she has been unsuccessful in obtaining a PA state ID/Driver's license because the state is unable to find her in the SAVES system. She can't drive or work. Also, to be eligible for an Interim EAD, she must provide an ID to prove her residence.

For whatever reason, her AP has been approved online but hasn't moved to card production and no change in EAD other than acceptance.

Can anyone explian if the biometrics fingerprinting (or at least an upcoming appointment) is necessary for EAD? I know the EAD/AP connected to the I-485 are supposed to be adjucticated together to reduce visits to biometrics, and it seems she has only been approved for AP. Also, the representatives who we have spoken with seem to pointing toward the Fingerprinting as being the hold up. If anyone knows more about this, I'd appreciate your thoughts on everything.

Colin

This letter is expansive and over-inclusive to a degree that the author will appear mentally unstable and perhaps manic. I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune, but immigrations will not read anything past the 90 days. I hope you and your fiance see this through and that you both have a healthy and happy ending to this.

someone help, pleassssseee

Hello Everyone,

If someone could shed some light on my issue I'd appreciate it...I am the US citizen petitioner for my fiance, who is currently living in Toronto, Canada as a Live-In Caregiver. She holds a temporary worker visa and an open work permit, but is a citizen of Thailand. Our petition was approved in the beginning of November. We were awaiting packet 3 and then, I received this email yesterday from the IV Division of the Montreal Consulate. The email was addressed to her but sent to my email:

CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Montreal, Canada

Immigrant Visa Unit

Date: 19 Nov 2012

C*****A D*******L

103 ******** AVENUE

TORONTO, ON

M4* ***

Dear D*****L, C*******A:

Please be informed that we have received your K1 (fiancé/e) visa file.

In order to continue processing your case, please scan and send by replying to this message, the following document:

Proof of your Canadian Citizenship or your legal immigration status in Canada

We thank you for your cooperation and look forward to receiving your response soon.

Sincerely,

Immigrant Visa Unit

U.S. Consulate General Montréal

Case Number: MTL**********

Name (P) : D*****L, C*******A

In response to their email, I sent scanned images of her visa, her work permit, her work contract, driver's license, and health insurance card. These documents weren't required in the I-129F and we know other couples with the same circumstances (Thai citizens living as temporary workers in Canada with Canada PR applications pending). There is only one issue that I can imagine could have triggered this problem. Two months ago, my fiance realized the birthplace on her Thai passport read "Bangkok" when her true birthplace is "Nonthaburi", the city on her birth certificate. She reported the error to the Thai Consulate in Ottawa and they issued her a new passport, which reflected the accurate birthplace. My fiance specifically inquired with CIC to clarify if she needed a new temporary worker visa placed into her new passport, and she was assured that the visa would remain valid according to the expiration date of the visa and the old passport. She was also issued an open work permit without an issue after this, validating she is still legal in Canada. However, her old passport and her new passport do have different numbers. I am wondering if the IV division was unable to verify her legal immigration status because their search turned up her new passport, which technically does not have a work visa/work permit attached to it..............

I found an old thread with someone similar but I can't find anything else http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/297634-rfe-please-help-montreal-consulate/

Could someone please help advise me!!!

Thanks guys for all the support

NOA-1 was 5/9/2012 and NOA-2 is today 11/2/2012. 5 months and three weeks. Good luck to everyone, especially May filers...your approval should be along soon!

I think this post is excellent in that it highlights many issues. The first is that different people tend to take their own experiences ( which are helpful no doubt) and generalize those outcomes to other scenarios which may seem on the surface almost identical. There are a few issues with this. First, all laws, particularly those pertaining to immigration, are often complicated. Take a look at the CFR code pertaining to immigration. It is circuitous, sometimes leaving loopholes that are beneficial, and other times present plain old loops and black holes that can only be settled through the individual consulate or judge, using evidence, their personal experiences with similar cases in the past....and by their own judgment. A quick look at all immigration laws will consistently, and explicitly leave space and legal protection to these individuals when exercising their judgment to call the final shots in all cases. This leads me to another point, which is especially important to anyone trying to safely exit whatever gray zone they may find themselves in. If your case legitimately warrants legal services, you should realize that "doing it yourself" by looking at websites, message boards, or even CFR codes, is insufficient. If your lawyer is experienced with immigration laws (has seen how cases play out in reality, given varying circumstances, and is current on immigration case outcomes...and you trust him...and you've given him the opportunity to clarify his rationale...you should seriously consider understanding his advice and take his advice. Experience and knowledge with many, different cases, will always outweigh what one can learn independently by way of message boards, government websites, and reading laws that are in the public domain. Rather than taking a poll of people's experiences, I think you ought to focus on settling your ambivalence about trusting your attorney. He may be paranoid, or he may cautious and vigilant, based on his EXPERIENCE with cases over a period of time, over which laws, perceptions, and decision making may have changed or evolved. If I were playing devil's advocate, I will prove to you that The Department of Homeland Security has internal memos that are only available to the public after it leaks or is proven to be beneficial to the safety of the nation. I won't argue that these things ought or ought be open matters to the public. My personal belief is that to protect an entire nation, at least some portion of their activities cannot be immediately and widely open to the public. Here are some useful links when considering your lawyer's advice:

http://www.murthy.com/2010/10/21/foia-request-reveals-uscis-monitoring-social-networking-sites/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/10/new-foia-documents-reveal-dhs-social-media

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/10/applying-citizenship-u-s-citizenship-and

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebooks-evil-interfaces

DHS exists to protect the nation, and they probably have internal agencies to monitor the ethics of privacy invasion, but ethics are gray and ultimately, the decision will be handled by a consulate, judge, or lawyer who can strictly or creatively interpret the law. My impression is that USCIS/DHS try wherever possible to be both an advocate for the individual and the nation, and almost no one, aside from a few sadistic jerks, enjoys being the bearer of bad news. Likewise, immigration lawyers tend to choose their speciality as a labour of love. Ultimately, those who become skilled are magicians, who can pull off stunts of unbelievable magnitude and are then able to command a high pay. Everyone must eat, I can't knock them for that.

My only advice to you is to resolve your feelings of mistrust in him. You can easily do this by sitting down with him and say, "you gave us advice to us that seems from my perspective, to be a little excessive...but I am not a lawyer, could you clear this up and explain your rationale, and possibly some other cases where facebook has proved detrimental?" Also, ask around about different lawyers reputation. Get a second opinion from a more reputable lawyer and weigh what he has to say. There is a lawyer here in philadelphia named ron klasko, whose website you can easily find. I am in no way affiliated with him personally or professionally, and I've never met him. But I know through other connections who I might have consulted if I wanted the best. If you look over his website, credentials, and ask around, I think you'll agree that he is of the caliber that you would want to seek given the outcome involves your loved one. Any high caliber immigration attorney will settle your concerns and possibly, your ambivalence regarding your attorney, in 1 or 2 meetings if you have the financial means to do it.

I am in the mental health profession. As a psychiatrist, I think the word "paranoid" is thrown around too loosely. I myself have training and it would take several visits to determine if someone is truly "paranoid." I would need to speak with family and friends, something you will not be able to do. Certainly, no on a message board can determine from afar if an immigration lawyer is paranoid or not. This is not to invalidate some of the above posters, they're experiences are valid...in their case, not necessarily yours! My only experience with lawyers is that my father was an attorney. I can tell you there instances where you'd want someone who is cautious, concerned, and vigilant based on real-life experience to help you. Just like the wonderful people on VJ, people want to help, but advice is limited to their first hand experience, second hand stories from others, but not an objective understanding from many cases where they had available, specific details of cases, and an understanding of current cases, internal memos, and other tools unavailable to you as a lay petitioner. My parting advice is not make decisions on the basis of others generalizations and perceptions of the process. Try to gain clarification of your lawyer's rationale, and seek a consult with a more esteemed immigration attorney to make the final decision about who you feel can be trusted if this is financially feasible. Good luck on your journey!

Hey guys,

I petitioned a K1 on May 7, 2012 and am about 4 months into the eternal Vermont wait. I moved at the end of May and successfully changed my address back then with USCIS. I am currently in a position where my current apartment is just too much for my budget and also too much space for just me. I would like to move, but don't want to delay the K1 with another address change or cause any issues with security checks, etc. My question is, when could I safely move after getting the K1 where it would cause the least issues? Immediately after getting the K1? Immediately after her interview? or after she arrives here, but before AOS? Which of those options would be safest and cause fewest issues? Thanks!

I also petitioned in May; have a feeling we're in for a wait unless VSC pulls into the fast lane! Like others said above, I think we'll go nuts if we focus on the lucky CSC folks :-( Keep in touch

Listen Boiler dude, I am trying to help...I'm happy for you that your fiance isn't from a country that requires heavy secondary evidence...I wrote this post for people whose situation this applies to...Why are you so oppositional and defensive? If the post doesn't apply to you, surf elsewhere...some of our fiances are from the third world and are currently living in the first world without permanent residence or citizenship...this puts them in a grey area...stop acting like you went to law school and know the difference between primary and secondary evidence...most people's knowledge is an amalgam of information pulled from the uscis and department of state websites, and we are trying to make our evidence more primary than it is secondary...stop hating

No you're not butting in, you're the type of applicant I wrote the post for...I think I didn't clarify that my post pertains more to folks helping their fiance with "proof of ongoing relationship", not the first half of the K1 process where you only need to provide "proof of meeting." I would bring your computer to the geek squad at best buy or someone else who knows about computers who can create a backup of your hard drive. From there, I can help you with retrieving the evidence you're looking for. It may be recoverable, so don't worry just yet. Let me know after you've done this.

see below

screenshots containing html is better than cut and paste using excel; it may not be "primary" in the sense but it certainly seems more legit than B + W copy and paste...and original phone bills from the phone company are also better than extracting histories and exporting using excel...that is all

Was trying to be helpful to people attempting to retrieve skype and facebook messages or print them...there's no fuss, I posted this for someone else who pm'd me about printing skype...I thought people might want the head's up, especially if their fiance is canada and her phone bills are not helpful because of the privacy acts there...these topics have come up repeatedly and I thought people might want an official warning about it so that they can address it along the way rather than the day before the fiance interview

yeah, I have all of that, my post was more geared toward people relying on the above forms of evidence to make their case stronger...err, canada is right!!!

I recently petitioned a K1 visa for my fiance who is living in Toronto as a live-in caregiver, so my experience is limited. However, I think some of it may generalize for other countries as well and I've seen people on here struggling with some of the issues. So here we go:

1.) Phone Evidence- I started off with ATT which I would recommend as they provide inventoried billing with incoming and outgoing phone numbers and call length. The same goes for text. I thought I was slick for purchasing two unlocked Iphones for us in January. However, switching over to a pre-paid plan proved to be a bad move as T-Mobile doe snot provide detailed billing for its prepaid customers. I later learned this is rather ubiquitous and even ATT does not provide detailed billing for its prepaid customers. In short, stick with a post-paid plan with an unlocked phone if you want to maximize how much evidence you can retrieve later and still have the freedom of traveling with the phone. It's more expensive but this will save you a world of hurt when you are trying to use complex data query techniques to gather this information. There are third-party services online that allow you to retrieve your Iphone backup call histories but I'm not sure how secure this is, and in the end it isn't primary evidence if it doesn't come from the phone company.

2.) Skype- Skype does not store your call history or chat history on a server for your own protection, and with each new version, it has become increasingly difficult to print this data from the skype software. If you need to know, your skype chat history is located in a hidden folder on your computer locally. From here, you can print screenshots of your chats. Save yourself the agony, and take screenshots all along.

3.) Facebook- Facebook also does not save your chat history on its server in a fashion that makes it retrievable. It stores cookies on your computer locally and you can always retrieve later for screenshots. Again, taking screenshots along the way helps and will contain the html in it. Although it is still a picture of the chat, it is better than copy and paste and so this leans more toward counting as primary evidence. As with skype, remember that data is stored locally on your computer so try not to switch computers too much throughout your relationship unless you can later access that old computer.

4.) Pictures- Use a plan old camera with digital or oldschool time stamps if you want to play it safe. Iphones look amazing but those pictures aren't time stamped and unless you look different in the pictures or it is clearly a different season in your picture sets, no one would know that they weren't taken on only one trip (which is all that is required techinically within a 2 year timeframe.)

I hope this helps as I see many people asking at the last minute, "how in God's name do I print off skype, I have my interview tomorrow?!?" You now have an official head's up. Good luck to everyone!

I am planning to write a K-1 memo real soon warning people of this very issue, as well as others I encountered along the way when using computer and phone evidence...there are many obstacles and people should really know early on to avoid losing evidence or finding themselves in the position of having to retrieve evidence in a hurry...stay posted

I too was wondering the same thing as my mail has been unreliable in the past