martinleach

1. What questions did the officer ask you?

When and where did you make POE on the K1. Was it an easy process, what paperwork did you hand over and how long did it take.

How did you meet.

We had to wait 90 minutes before being called, for an interview lasting 10 minutes. I think they were backlogged and were trying to catch up.

2. Were you asked questions separately?

Not really. Even though we were in the same room, questions were roughly directed towards me, but nothing was mentioned about my wife not being allowed to answer.

3. Did they tell you whether your case is approved or not at the end?

Nope.

We were just told 'If everything checks out ok, then you'll receive a notification in the next few weeks'.

The case was approved after two days, and the card arrived after two weeks.

4. Was the officer nice?

Very. Not intimidating, but professional and doing her job. No emotions shown which could lead to us thinking the case was or wasn't going to be approved.

Hope this helps.

For what it's worth, although don't use this post as the facts, i'm just going on my experience....

When I had my K1 medical, I wasn't able to produce documentary proof regarding vaccinations. During the medical, I said i'd wait and get the vaccinations at a later date.I didn't have enough time to get them done in the UK between the medical and K1 interview, so left them until I was in the US. (I flew back from the US the day before my medical, and flew out a few days after the K1 interview)

I had the vaccinations done by our US family doctor, and he wrote a certified script saying what I had done.

My AOS paperwork was submitted without the vaccination suppliment, and I was never asked for it at my recent AOS interview. I was approved two days after, and never received an RFE for the form.

I guess some offices don't ask for them, and some do. I'm also thinking that my medical form could've been incorrectly filled out and they mentioned that I did have the vaccinations in the UK.

Odd.

Thanks for the congrats !

We only got asked the basic questions - Full name, Where I am living, date of birth, ssi number (handed over my card), and when I made port of entry into the US.

We only handed over the bare minimum of paperwork - joint bank account details from the last few months, health insurance details, and a vets bill (seemed to work !). Nothing else was asked in the oh so long 10 minute interview.

Now a nice long 18 month or so break from paperwork, until we have to file to lift conditions.

Whoo for the USCIS.

Only two days after having the initial AOS interview, the USCIS decided I was safe enough and gave me 2 year conditional legal permanent resident status.

I'll get round to posting our interview experience and updating our timeline soon !

Now, will the card contain any errors....

Martin

Hey there.

I would say wait until you file the 2005 taxes. Our initial AOS application was submitted before the tax year, but one RFE slowed things down, and it wasn't until after the tax deadline that our case was reopened, and they then required the 2005 return.

You could always file it now with the 2004 return, to just get things moving which gives you time to get the 2005 return done, incase they issue an RFE.

Hope this helps in some way !

Regards,

Martin

Hi there.

Our two AOS RFEs did affect the EAD processing. Each RFE put the AOS onhold until the RFEs had been processed. More info in the sig.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Martin

Plug time...

I'd also suggest looking at getting dogs from rescue organizations.

We do alot of work for a couple of Springer Spaniel rescue groups - English Springers - http://www.springerrescue.org/ (my wife is the Ohio State coordinator)

Brittany Spaniels - http://nbran.org/

I've forgotton what Nbran adoption fee is, but Esra charges $250, but includes neutering, vet fees and such like. Looking at our invoices for the past year, that's pretty much the average vet bill, although some have been alot more.

The dogs in foster care come from many sources -some are strays, some are shelter pulls, and some are owner relinquishments, but all the dogs are pure bred, and generally have full medical records.

Some of the dogs we get are in really poor condition, but after awhile in foster care, their personalities really come out and they're a new dog. It's these dogs which are very hard to say goodbye to.

Plug over

Oh, we have quite a few puppies available....

Personally speaking, after our experience with rescue dogs and seeing other people's experiences with 'breeders' and petstores, we now tell people to avoid them and intead get a dog from a rescue organisation

Hope this helps people.

Martin

I went through Cincinnati, Oh (well, really kentucky..).

From what I can remember, it was a busy flight, so had to wait in line for roughly 30 mins.

I handed the infamous envelope over, and was jokingly asked if I was sure I wanted to go through this; an immigration officerwith a sense of humour ! The papers and passport where taken from me and looked over all within a couple of minutes. After that, I was told to go and get my luggage and come back after that.

You could see the baggage collection from the Immigration booths, and my bags where already there.

I walked back, sat down in a corner office, and started the wait. I was the only person there.

From what I can remember, I was only sitting down around 5-10 minutes when my passport was handed back to me, I was welcomed to the US, and I could go on my way.

I had left a good three hours between the International and connecting flight, just incase things were delayed.

All in all, it was very smooth and hassle free.

Martin

Well, to add to the previous posts...

EAD approved at 2145 last night (06/07/2006). Yey.

Congrats to all the other recent approvals. I guess the folks at the MSC are working overtime to clear the backlog, to free up work for when the millions of illegal immigrants get their shot at doing things legally...

Martin

I am kind off assuming that the answer for the question I posted is no; an RFE for the AOS does not stop processing for the EAD.

Hi there.

An RFE for AOS WILL stop the processing of the EAD when applied for at the same time under status c9 (and, at a guess, others)

We had one RFE for the AOS, which was responded to in a timely fashion.

After 90 days, I applied for a temp EAD, but a day afterwards, yet another RFE rolled in. The initial paperwork was submitted in Feb, but as it was now a new tax year, they required the tax returns for the past year. Great, more delays.

I still went to the interim EAD appointment, and was told that without prelimary processing being completed on the AOS (i.e. all required documents being correct), that there was an administrative hold on the EAD and thus couldn't be granted an interim EAD at this time.

Both of my AOS and EAD cases where touched today, so here is hoping something happens soon.

Hope this helps,

Ohhh, congrats !

Your NOA dates are after mine, so hopefully mine will come through soon; I guess the I-485 rfe held things up abit

Martin

I can only speak from experience, but when taking an internal US flight, you will not be required to go through customs or immigration.

You'll be asked for photo ID when going through security enroute to the gate. This is when you present your passport (or even US driving license if you have one). I very much doubt you'll be asked to show visa information.

Hope this helps,

Martin

My wife is 68 days older than me, but both born in same year; 1975. It's close enough that we don't consider me to be her British Toyboy ! Well, maybe..

Hey, another Columbus Biometrics graduate !

Congrats on getting this far. I just hope both of our EADs are issued soon

Martin

26kilos isnt very heavy..and it cost £300? Jeez

Jaylen, remember, that was a door to door airfreight service which also included insurance. If you're within the M25 area, then Excess Baggage do not charge for UK collection and delivery services to their warehouse - they subcontract this to DHL or similar. The delivery to the USA destination address is included in the price.

I had an additional $120 to pay, which was due to unforeseen customs and storage charges.

Gonna be taking extra suitcases for all our clothes (and just pay excess on the flight)

That's what I did. I flew out on Continental with two large rucksacs, and a bike. The bike was in a bike bag, but I called ahead to check the policies; I was going to get charged a flat fee of £60 one way, so I packed as much additional clothes and things into the bike bag as it could hold - I figured it would be extra protection for an expensive bike.

Hope that helps..

Martin

I used two companies :-

Airfreight :-

Excess Baggage to airfrieght 26kgs of things I needed almost straight away, from St Albans, Herts to Columbus Ohio. This cost me £300 all in all - £230 from Excess Baggage, and the other £70 in additional costs such as US customs fees, handling and storage. The US handling agent had issues reading the faxed copies of the forms from Excess Baggage, but never bothered to call me for a couple of days. It was only upon me calling them that things got put into action.

Unfortunately, I also fell foul of a Federal holiday, thus Customs couldn't check and clear it for another day. Despite putting exactly what it was on the forms, they still had to check it; standard procedure according to the handling agent. Still, I think from collection to delivery, it took just under two weeks. THis was a house to house service.

Sea Freight :-

And for the rest of my things, I used a company called 1st Move International - www.shipit.co.uk. As the rest of my things were in 'storage' at my parents house, it made sense to use a local company, even though still charged £70 for the collection of the goods.

Still, this was better than Excess Baggage, who were going to charge an absolute fortune for collection, despite saying they would beat any quote.

To ship just under 1 cubic metre of goods from Bristol to their warehouse in Columbus cost me £750, which included insurance, any US customs charges, and a credit card surcharge. I wish I had more things to ship, as the minimum charge was for 2 cubic metres. As I had very heavy goods, which included books and hifi speakers, airfreighting was completely out of the question.

The boat is due to sail at the end of this month, and is scheduled to arrive mid April, with my goods being available for collection from their Columbus depot soon afterwards. As we have a gas guzzling SUV, local pickup shouldn't be an issue.

All in all, both experiences have been good; both companies have been quick to respond to email and phone queries.

I hope this helps !

Regards,

Martin

Hi all,

Having recently had my biometrics taken for both EAD and AOS in Columbus, I thought i'd post a quick review of my experience.

My appointment was for 2pm Monday 27th at the Leveque Towers in Columbus. Luckily enough my future boss and mother-in-law just happen to work in the same place, so I was able to get a free lunch before hand.

Turned up to the office 5 minutes early. Handed over my biometrics letter and the two NOAs for EAD and AOS. It turns out that only the biometric appointment letter is needed. Filled in yet more paperwork (no change there), and handed it back in again, and was then given number 60.

In the fingerprint area, there must have only been around 10 or so people waiting, but when number 57 was called, I figured some of those were other family members.

My number was called, and went in. The lady had some issues trying to work out exactly how to type in my middle name into the computer, but 5 minutes later I had convinced her of the correct spelling. Additionally, she didn't know the correct two letters for the UK. I had put UK as place of birth on the form, but under the USCIS system, this is Ukraine. After abit of hunting, she found out that it was EN. At this point, I started to despair and was slightly unnerved that this lady was in charge of my future within the USA..

Anyway, she had some issues getting a decent set of prints; it turns out that most of my figures have scars on from various outdoor activities, and thus it took about 3 times as long for my prints to pass quality control. Sweet revenge from earlier, I thought . Still, we have to get our $70 worth...

Eventually they had a good set of prints, and that was it.

Total time spent there - 30 minutes.

They mentioned that I may get called back if the 'main QC' person doesn't like them. So the wait continues. Hopefully we'll get approved shortly, as I have a really good job waiting !

Hope this helps anyone else who may have biometrics at Columbus.

Regards,

Martin

Ah hah, just the thread I was looking for.

Received mine today for both EAD & AOS, 2 weeks after filing, for the 27th Feb. I'm quite impressed at the speed. If only they could've been that quick for the initial I-129f process !

Regards,

Martin

Hey, just found this thread !

Please add me - Martin, Columbus (well, really Westerville) Ohio, but originally from St Alnabs, Hertfordshire, UK

Thanks.

For what it's worth, our NOA1 for both AOS and EAD came today, only 5 days after posting it to Chicago on the 2nd Feb.

Now the real waiting starts !