novocastrian

please let me know what do they tell you. I have a similar problem and I don't know what to do?

I actually ended up finding my Green Card!! So I never ended up having to go to an infopass appointment, so I can't tell you what would have happened unfortunately... I'm so sorry to hear you are in a similar position; it is really frustrating! I would book an infopass appointment asap (you can always cancel it if the card turns up). Good luck!

Really appreciate the reply Hypnos. The question of whether they may require me to file the I-90 before they give me a stamp is the key question. Could they even issue me a "replacement" green card under this timeline using an I-90 if my conditional green card would have expired? For instance, if in 4 months time I got a replacement green card in the mail, wouldn't it still be a replacement of my 2-yr conditional green card which would have expired 3 month earlier?

I'm trying to figure this out without having to make two Infopass appointments (ie, a second one if they don't give me a stamp without the I-90) because my local office (NYC) only has appointments in 2 weeks time, and I need to leave the country in 3 weeks, so I won't be able to have two appointment by then.

Thank you!!

Hey everyone

I have just lost my 2-yr conditional green card. It expires at the end of next month (April), and I have already filed my I-751 to remove conditions and have received my NOA. I am traveling overseas in 3 weeks (the week before my lost green card would have expired).

• Having just paid the $590 for the 10-yr greencard and assuming I'm doing biometrics for that in the next month or two, do I now also have to submit a $450 I-90 (green card replacement) as well? It seems like a strange result, as I would have biometrics for the replacement expired card most likely after the biometrics for my new 10 year greencard. It looks like a replacement card can take over 4 months to receive.
• In this scenario, can I get an Infopass appointment to get an I-551 stamp without submitting a receipt for submitting the Form I-90 (replacement green card)? Perhaps by submitting my NOA Receipt Notice for the I-751?
• And can anyone confirm what I need in order to travel overseas without my lost green card (expired or not expired) before a replacement is given to me. Would I need (i) an I-551 stamp, (ii) my NOA (I-751 Receipt Notice), (iii) a police report for the lost card???

Many thanks!!!!

When you say "entered the US in transit" what do you mean? Did they go through customs and passport control? Or did they just transfer to another flight?

When you enter on any flight into LAX from Australia, they make you go through Immigration and Customs, even if you are just connecting to Canada.

Friends of mine from Australia entered the US in transit to Canada. They then stayed with their son in Canada for 2 months, then came into the US to travel for over a month. Apparently the US boarder control said their 90 day visa waiver started when they originally transited through LAX to Canada, so in fact they only have the remaining 30 days left on their visa waiver and will have to leave before they had planned. To make matters worse, they are returning back to Canada to see their son and their flight back to Australia goes through the US again. This will be after the 90 days, and they were told immigration in US may not let them transit to Australia because you can't get back to back 90 day VWPs.

This all seems crazy and unfair. Does anyone know if this is correct? Is there anything they can do?

Thanks in advance.

I remember what happened to Little_My, so I can tell you.

She was not approved at interview, and she left the country that same day. She was approved a day or two later. She returned to the US on her AP and said that she had been approved for GC since she left the country. They said it was fine but she should go back within a year with her GC to a CBP area if she did not travel again in the next year.

If you are approved at your interview, though, you need the stamp to travel before the GC arrives.

Thanks - I appreciate it. So, if we end up getting approved at the interview, I plan to have my flight tickets with us to convince them to give us a stamp, and if they don't, I plan on having an info pass appointment lined up a week later to try and get a stamp then. If I don't get approved on the spot, I guess I can also ask the interviewer if I can keep my AP combo card after the interview given the up-coming trip. If I get approved after the interview in the following two weeks (before we get on the plane), I guess we will try and come back to the US on the AP card and have the print out of the USCIS website saying we are approved, similar to Little My. I don't know if that is asking for trouble, but I would think at the end of the day they could see on their computer that I have been approved for a GC - would they still not let me back in the country when they know I have been issued a GC?

I would feel uncomfortable mailing my GC anywhere by any means, even with FedEx, though I have considered that as once option as well. If I get the stamp, the GC can wait for me here in the U.S. and I can return with the stamp without having to worry about getting the GC to me in Finland. If, however, I cannot get the stamp, and I get an approval notice some days after my interview, I will need to get the GC to me somehow. Luckily there is a friend coming from here to our wedding, who could bring the card to me with him, assuming it arrives here in time. That is the other wild card in this whole mess of ours - our interview is scheduled for July 20th, our wedding is on July 30th. If it takes about 2 weeks for the physical card to get here to my address, it might not even arrive before our wedding.

I am putting my hopes in getting that stamp. If not.. well. Then we will go to plans B-Z and hope one of them works out.

Hi Little_My,

I am basically in the same situation as you were - I have my green card interview at the end of April and then I'm going to Australia for our wedding party there two weeks later (and I am also at Federal Plaza NYC). Could you please update this post with whether you ended up getting an I-551 stamp at your interview or at an InfoPass appointment? From reading on VJ, it sounds like I shouldn't leave the US after the interview without either the physical green card or the I-551 stamp.

Many thanks!

Any update here? Been tracking NYC cases in another forum and notice that someone who filed in mid November 2012 just got an interview date in Long Island City.

Here is my timeline.

Dec 27, 2012 - Filed application

Dec 31, 2012 - Priority Date

Jan 7, 2013 - Biometrics Appointment scheduled

Jan 29, 2013 - Biometrics Appointment

Feb 6, 2013 - I-485 Status changed to "Testing and Interview"

Feb 25, 2013 - EAD and AP Approved

Mar 6, 2013 - Received EAD and AP

Still waiting for interview date.

Yes, finally got my interview date today - April 30th. So it looks like you could be a month or so after that based on your timeline (assuming you are AOS from a work visa).

Just checking in to see if any November AOS filers (from a work visa) are still waiting for an interview date like me? Its been 2.5 months since mine went to "ready for interview scheduling". I think it is because my local office is NYC Federal Plaza, but still, any clues as to whether this is completely abnormal or not would be good!

Thanks

Peter

I just came back from an InfoPass appointment I made a couple of weeks ago at Federal Plaza NYC. I originally made the appointment because I was supposed to be going on an overseas trip tomorrow (but I ended up cancelling the trip, not wanting to take the risk that my GC interview would be scheduled while I'm away) so I wanted to confirm my interview hadn't been scheduled and I just hadn't received the letter yet. I've been trying to reschedule that trip for April or May (I filed my AOS in early Nov), so I still went to the InfoPass appointment to see if they could give me any info on the status of my case. I thought I would report back my observations and what I was told:

The line to get into Federal Plaza to go through security is really long, took around 20-25 mins to get through it.

When I went to level 3 to go to my appointment, there was no wait to see an officer (it was past my appointment time because of the huge security line). Actually, it is a huge room with filled with empty seats, literally no one in there. But plenty of booths with officers waiting to speak to people with appointments - not what I expected since Federal Plaza never has any InfoPass appointments available.

When I told the officer I wanted to understand whether it was ok for me to plan now to go overseas in April or May (I have Advance Parole) as I haven't received by interview appointment yet, he was very relaxed and said sure, just reschedule your GC appointment if it is while you are overseas (but before the interview, otherwise it will be considered abandoned). He was of the opinion that this should be easy to reschedule (but I don't have much faith that he had any experience with people doing this, so I'm not taking much comfort in this).

He then looked up my case on the system, and much to my surprise, he told me my application was still at the National Benefits Center and hadn't even been sent to the NYC office yet. I had assumed that the NYC office was the hold up because my online status went to "interview scheduling" on Jan 9 and because I hadn't heard anything yet (and a lot/most other Nov 2012 filers have already got their interviews scheduled). He said that this happens because the NBC doesn't send individual applications to field offices, they wait until the maybe have 200 applications and then send them all in boxes at the same time. And only when NYC goes through them, will they appoint all those cases interview times. I had already assumed this was the case, but I also assumed that it wouldn't take the NBC over a month to accumulate enough NYC applications in order to send it to the field office - doesn't make much sense to me.

I'm not sure what to assume about my timeline now. Perhaps the NBC is holding on to the NYC cases longer than it holds on to some other field offices (I'm saying this because NYC seems to be much slower than most other field offices). Or else I could just be unlucky and mine has fallen through the cracks and may have missed the last NYC mail delivery. The upshot of this is that I'm not even convinced I'll get an appointment within 6-7 months of when I filed my AOS. Because even if the NBC sends my application to NYC in the next few weeks, NYC may just sit on it for weeks as well because apparently they are busier than other offices, who knows! The last thing I wanted to do is reschedule by GC appointment given how long it takes to get one and there is the risk that I can't successfully reschedule it and my case is "abandoned", but I also have some commitments back at home that I need to attend to and I have AP.

Hope this sheds some light (I know, not much) for the NYC AOS filers out there.

Does anyone know what interviews are being scheduled in Federal Plaza (NYC)??? because this message has been appearing for more than a month now in my case status report: "Your I485, APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS is now ready for interview scheduling. When scheduling is complete, you will receive a notice with a time and place for your interview. If you have not received the notice within 30 days of the date the notice is mailed, please call customer service at 1-800-375-5283 for further assistance. Please check our website at www.uscis.gov for further updates on your case. If you move, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address."

And I haven't received anything on the mail as well. So I was wondering, which filling time is being scheduled right now in Federal Plaza

I'm federal plaza too and have also had the same "ready for interview scheduling" notice for over a month now. I know of someone who submitted their application (not an AOS from a K-1 though, from another visa like me) at the end of September and had their interview scheduled on March 6. Hope that helps!

Bump!

Any New Yorkers?!

Yes, I'm another New Yorker. You can see from my timeline I'm also in the waiting game for an interview date. Mine went to scheduling for interview on Jan 09. So frustrating as most other marriage-based-AOS from a work visa who filed in November seem to already have interview dates or even interviewed already (based on what I see on VJ). And it is just not clear to me whether I'll be waiting for another week or two or another month or two! Let me know if you have any developments - you seem to be on a similar timeline to me.

You might be able to make an infopass appointment and explain the situation. We tried it this morning to get a card for my husband's AP that's already approved and we were denied. We were told that unless it's a life or death emergency, which you need to provide proof of, they will not expedite. I've read accounts where people have received expedited AP for weddings and non emergency circumstances, perhaps it just depends on the office. It can't hurt to try...

Thank you, yes I think that approach is probably my only shot. If that doesn't work, I think I've got to pull the plug on this marriage party and cut my losses - I've already warned guests that we may have to cancel... So frustrating!

You should get the interview notice at least 3 weeks before the interview, so if you haven't received the notice yet then you can safely go somewhere for up to 3 weeks. If you have been getting email case updates, the date will be sent in an email when it is scheduled, so you could always return early from a trip if you need to attend the interview.

AP is particularly useful with employment-based or K-1 (I-129F) adjustments of status that can take many months to be processed - less so for adjustments based on I-130 immediate relative petitions that only take ~3 months.

That makes sense. Thanks, that is helpful.

Hi everyone,

When I applied for an AP, I thought it would give me the flexibility to plan a trip home to visit family / attend a wedding / travel for work reasons etc. But through this forum, it looks like you should never reschedule an AOS interview. So, if I plan a trip in advance and spend money on it, only to later find out that my interview is scheduled when I am away, the general advice on this forum seems to be that you should cancel the travel plans. So is the only real purpose of the AP if there is an emergency travel situation on short notice?

Thanks, just trying to get my head around what flexibility, if any, an AP really provides.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently on an E-3 work visa (Australian professional) and I am married to a USC. We submitted the I-485 with the AP/EAD application on Nov 9, 2012 and received the NOA paper copies dated Nov 14 mailed to my home address. My online status was updated to say that on Nov 29 they mailed me a RFE. The RFE has not arrived in the mail, and given it is Dec 12, I assume it is not arriving. I have called USCIS and they told me to wait the 15 days before they can resend, which means I can get it resent on Dec 15. I have not received a biometrics appointment yet (I assume this is because of the RFE). At this point if they resend the RFE on Dec 15, I'm thinking best case is I get the physical copy by Dec 21, and assuming it is a tiny oversight, the RFE can be sent back to them during the Christmas week. Worst case is the replacement RFE doesn't arrive also, and this drags into January.

Here is the problem - although we got married in the US a couple of months ago, we have arranged for our Australian wedding celebration for February 23 and our flights to leave the US are booked for February 16. We understood it was risky to book it then, but it was 90 days after when we sent the application in, so I assumed the risk was low that I would not at least have my AP by then. The RFE getting lost in the mail has screwed this plan up.

My questions are:

- what is the likelihood I will receive my AP by February 15? Assuming my best case scenario above is correct, this gives me 45 days or so to do my biometrics and get my AP sent to me. If this is not very likely, then we will have to cancel/postpone our wedding celebration, which would impact us financially and others.

- if I withdraw my AOS, does my E-3 status just continue existing (it doesn't expire until the end of the year) and I can therefore leave for the trip, come back to the US and my job on my E-3, and re-apply for my AOS when we get back? I understand the financial implication of reapplying, but that is better than cancelling the wedding.

- does anyone have any tips on progressing my AP at the same time I am dealing with the RFE?

Many thanks!!