TAB2TAB

Thank you for the link to the USCIS policy update - I was not aware of the update as the policy was only 5 days old on the date we submitted our I-485 application. That was helpful.
I don't know why you feel the need to diminish fellow VJ members with unnecessary comments like "It's not too hard to understand". The reason I was confused by your first response was a) that you used incorrect dates, "pre-feb" vs Dec 10, 2013 and b) you didn't actually post the relevant information - the link to the new USCIS policy - until your second response.
Regardless, the prevailing intent of my question is whether anyone on this site has had any success in challenging the USCIS when the medical exam expiration is clearly not the fault of the applicant. While the USCIS rarely acknowledges fault in most matters, it is not unheard of, and they have been known to concede in some instances where they were at fault. The documented USCIS' goal for I-485 completion is 5 months. In our case, it has taken them 13 months... not to complete the case, but to begin the process of looking at the basic contents of the file, (i.e. the medical exam). To hold me financially responsible for their inefficiency and delay is what I find "hard to understand".
Thank you again for the link to the updated policy.
If anyone has had a similar situation - an expired medical that resulted from an excessive delay in I-485 processing, I'd be interested to hear how the situation resolved. Did you just deal with paying for a new medical? Did you contact USCIS and if so, what was the resolution? Thank you for taking the time to read this!

We had a somewhat similar situation, where he went back home and we had considered the prospect of getting married while he was still in the states. We didn't know it was possible to do AOS in that way. When we really considered the "what ifs", we realized there actually were some benefits to us going through the "standard" K1 process:
1) I was able to better prepare for him to be here permanently (financially, homelife, friends family, wedding celebration, etc)
2) He was able to have a proper 'goodbye' with all his friends, gracefully end his work commitments, and take the time to go through his possessions and decide what things he wanted to bring with him to the states.
3) we didn't have to worry whether an unexpected marriage while in the states would be a cause for heightened fraud scrutiny in our AOS application.
These may or may not apply perfectly in your situation. The main point I'm trying to make is that we all have a CHOICE as to whether to be "disheartened" about having to do things the "long" way (the same way the vast majority of applicants do) or to make the most of our situation. We still used skype every day and spent as much time online as we could, but we also found we had many things to keep us occupied in wrapping up one chapter of our lives, and preparing to begin an exciting new one. Yes, life is definitely better now that we are permanently together, but take time to enjoy this transition as a journey, not just as a destination - it will definitely make a difference in the quality of your life until you are reunited. Best wishes to you.

In spite of you stating that your marriage is failing, you've said that you are willing to stay married if it can deflect the financial damages from a "costly divorce" and the impact of the I-864. In other words, you're willing to sacrifice some personal considerations for financial considerations. If this is the case, why not extend that perspective further, and attempt to co-habitate and/or rehabilitate the relationship? Both of you would have a better quality of life (financially) if your living expenses were pooled, and if that is a top priority over the "inconvenience" of remaining married. You would no longer have to worry about half your assets being taken or ongoing support if you are able to agree on a minimally amicable relationship. The responsibilities of the I-864 eventually could go away as well in as few as 3 years depending on the outcome.
The consequences of marriage dissolution were there from the beginning of your relationship and have not/will not go away just because the possibility has become more imminent. Of course not every relationship works out, but I'm not sure how you can fathom that treating her with less respect and dignity will somehow benefit your situation. Even if your only consideration is your own financial self-interest, showing some level of empathy and cooperation towards her situation (she was the one, after all, who took the leap of faith to leave her life behind to start over in a new country) may prove the much better strategy than trying to orchestrate a legal checkmate against her.

In spite of you stating that your marriage is failing, you've said that you are willing to stay married if it can deflect the financial damages from a "costly divorce" and the impact of the I-864. In other words, you're willing to sacrifice some personal considerations for financial considerations. If this is the case, why not extend that perspective further, and attempt to co-habitate and/or rehabilitate the relationship? Both of you would have a better quality of life (financially) if your living expenses were pooled, and if that is a top priority over the "inconvenience" of remaining married. You would no longer have to worry about half your assets being taken or ongoing support if you are able to agree on a minimally amicable relationship. The responsibilities of the I-864 eventually could go away as well in as few as 3 years depending on the outcome.
The consequences of marriage dissolution were there from the beginning of your relationship and have not/will not go away just because the possibility has become more imminent. Of course not every relationship works out, but I'm not sure how you can fathom that treating her with less respect and dignity will somehow benefit your situation. Even if your only consideration is your own financial self-interest, showing some level of empathy and cooperation towards her situation (she was the one, after all, who took the leap of faith to leave her life behind to start over in a new country) may prove the much better strategy than trying to orchestrate a legal checkmate against her.

I honestly fail to realize how having a house, a car, and money in the Philippines is a bad thing. Really..? Can someone possibly explain this from his point of view?
There is so much awesomeness out of owning your own things.
1) Whenever you travel to the Philippines you always have a place to stay and a way to get around.
2) Her kids will always have a home.. They won't end up on the streets.
3) You can Airbnb that shiz out. $$$$$$$$$$$$
4) Its friggen equity. You own it. It's yours. You'll never end up homeless.
So what if she has a savings in the Philippines..? So what if her kids don't want to come live in the US..? How exactly is that hindering you all from living and loving each other every day?

Why can you not just both sit yourselves down and talk about getting a divorce? Talk about how you would do things?

VJ is not your wife, and you can't predict what will happen through VJ. You say you need to protect yourself yada yada, if you've been this insecure your entire marriage then no wonder your marriage is failing.

Just talk to her and have some trust man.. Not that hard really. Maybe if you learn to trust each other you won't end up getting divorced.

We had a somewhat similar situation, where he went back home and we had considered the prospect of getting married while he was still in the states. We didn't know it was possible to do AOS in that way. When we really considered the "what ifs", we realized there actually were some benefits to us going through the "standard" K1 process:
1) I was able to better prepare for him to be here permanently (financially, homelife, friends family, wedding celebration, etc)
2) He was able to have a proper 'goodbye' with all his friends, gracefully end his work commitments, and take the time to go through his possessions and decide what things he wanted to bring with him to the states.
3) we didn't have to worry whether an unexpected marriage while in the states would be a cause for heightened fraud scrutiny in our AOS application.
These may or may not apply perfectly in your situation. The main point I'm trying to make is that we all have a CHOICE as to whether to be "disheartened" about having to do things the "long" way (the same way the vast majority of applicants do) or to make the most of our situation. We still used skype every day and spent as much time online as we could, but we also found we had many things to keep us occupied in wrapping up one chapter of our lives, and preparing to begin an exciting new one. Yes, life is definitely better now that we are permanently together, but take time to enjoy this transition as a journey, not just as a destination - it will definitely make a difference in the quality of your life until you are reunited. Best wishes to you.

Mail just arrived - green card in hand! Woo hoo! So wonderful to have this behind us... Many thanks to all of you for your advice, I'm sure we'd still be waiting without it. We'll be celebrating tonight for sure. Best wishes to all of you and enjoy the next two years before it's time to renew!
Rob and Adrian

Thanks for all the encouragement and support everyone... Today, (the day after doing the service request) our status on USCIS website has changed to: "My card was mailed to me" - with a Sept 3 mailing date. We know the website can be pretty unreliable but we definitely feel like that is a step in the right direction. Checking our mailbox daily and will keep you all posted!
Rob and Adrian

My updates happened in a different order. Got the "welcome notice" update after the "card is in production" update. Waited 3 weeks after the "card is in production email" before card was mailed. Look at others signatures to get an idea of a time frame. I would say wait a little bit with the service request, I know it is tough because you are anxious to get your card. Still make the infopass so that you have that scheduled (in case time slots fill up - not sure how busy your local office is), and just cancel it when you get your card.

I say still do the SR, still do the infopass! You've been waiting too damn long -- be a squeaky wheel.
Most people have 3 status updates: 1st "My card is being produced" right after approval; 2nd "welcome notice was mailed" a short time after; then 3rd "my new card has been mailed" which means it should arrive within a week (or even a couple days). So the most meaningful update you're waiting for is "my card has been mailed."
For me it was:
7/14/15 - Status update: My card is being produced
7/15/15 - Status update: Welcome notice was mailed
7/29/15 - received welcome notice
8/12/15 - infopass
8/14/15 - Status update: My card was mailed
8/19/15 - received card

Thanks for the update!
That's really weird, and I'm so sorry you're having so much trouble There's no harm in doing an infopass earlier, but it's up to you. I really hope you guys get it soon -- hang in there!!! Try to put it out of your mind while you wait for SR response.

I am sorry you guys have to experience this.
They always tell you it takes 2 weeks to reply a SR. But in reality it is usually faster. I did a SR too after 1 month waiting. 2 days later my GC was mailed. 4 days later I received a letter about SR from USCIS. The letter explained that our request has been "handled". So I am hoping you guys status will be changed very soon. Don't pay too much attention to their website. It is not stable. I would wait for couple weeks to do infopass too. And, check mail box everyday. Once your SR is "handled", you should receive that letter in the next several days.
Good luck guys !

I strongly believe that the online statuses are kind of garbage, because most of the times they are out of sync, unfortunately.
In my case on 8/2 status changed to Card Production. On 8/7 I got the approval hard copy but only on 8/9 the status finally changed to Welcome Notice saying they approved the case on 8/3 !!! How can you order card before approving, makes no sense to me.
On 8/24 status changed that Card got mailed on 8/22 - again no sync.
I received the card on 8/25 - and online status still says Card mailed. Normally, as I have seen with EAD/other cases, it changes once USPS delivers the card to you - so again out of sync in my case.
Infopass much required for you, what I feel, as they are dragging things for long, unfortunately.

Hello all,
Just found this thread, and I realize most of you have finally gotten your green cards, but I'm hoping some of you might actually see this and provide some advice as we are really anxiously awaiting our green card.
We received our welcome letter on July 23, 2015 (5 weeks ago today). The letter states we need to wait up to 3 weeks to receive green card. On the USCIS website, our status is "My Welcome Notice Was Mailed" and states the green card should arrive by Sept 21, 2015. We have not seen a status of "Green Card in Production" or "My Green Card was mailed", at least to our knowledge. At the 3 week mark, we called USCIS and they told us (rather generically) that we should just wait and then call them again on Sept 22, 2015. Our Welcome Letter was issued from Lees Summit, MO, like many of you who have had delays.
Our AOS case is almost 15 months old - we filed June 6, 2014. We have a trip planned out of the country in early October, so we really can't afford to wait much longer. It seems that in spite of all the USCIS GC production delays, software problems, not enough employees, etc., it appears that most of you did get your GC's (in the end) at or around the 4 week mark after the Welcome Letter. We really don't know what we should do:
1) Call USCIS again and hope we get a different answer
2) Schedule an info pass
3) Call the 1-800-375-5283 that cococacao (post #28) recommends and ask for a "service request"
4) Do an e-request as bubblebubble (post#36 and #47) recommends. (We're a little wary of this, because it doesn't appear our card has been mailed, and the 3 option specifically says not to do the e-request if you are still in the "waiting" stage.
5) Call our congressman.
6) Keep waiting
We'd greatly appreciate any suggestions!
Rob and Adrian

Thank you Marco and Bettina!
Actually, I was estimating and got it wrong, USCIS approved our I-485 in just FOUR days once we sent them the "RFE" for medical and further relationship info!!
Not too bad once we got past the initial 13 month wait!!

If you want to live in the US and get married in the UK, you have two basic options:
1. Marry in UK, apply for spousal visa. This can take about 12 to 18 months (check current Visajourney timelines for a better picture). He would (probably) be able to visit during this period of time as normal. This is not guaranteed, however.
2. Apply for fiance visa now. Fiance visas take under a year, sometimes as fast as 4 or 5 months (but DO NOT count on that, it's all a matter of luck, timing and how long the line is when you got into it). This is a little more tricky but bear with me, it is faster and maybe easier (but not cheaper): He comes over on the fiance visa, you marry (either paper-only courthouse style or a big wedding here if you like), then apply for his green card, work permit (Employment Authorization Document) and travel authorization (Advance Parole). The green card will take about a year, but EAD and AP are only about 3 months. THEN, he will be able to leave the US (and return...that's the tricky part!) to go and have whatever sort of wedding you desire in the UK.
Please note that he cannot leave and come back until he gets AP (this is something that really trips people up from countries that are used to coming and going from the US at will). Also note (I'm anticupating your next question, that was mine, and everyone's) that the idea to have a religious ceremony only or some kind of non legally binding ceremony and save the legal wedding for the US (so that you can still have a "wedding" but not be married....so that you can still use the faster fiance visa) is generally not encouraged here. There have, apparently, been instances of people who did that very thing, and couldn't prove the negative that they weren't married, and were denied and told to start the process over again with the spouse visa.
Basically, with fiance visa, you could have a wedding in the UK in a year's time, maybe less, depending on how quickly your fiance visa goes through, and living together in the US in 9 months or less time. With spouse visa, you could get married in the UK tomorrow if you like, but not be living together in the US for 12-18 months.

Well, the good news is that we submitted our *new* medical (plus they also wanted evidence of our relationship.) Sent that off and we got our WELCOME LETTER ten days later!!! We should have our green card in the next 3 weeks. So I guess the thing is just not to question what they ask for and just get it done. So glad that we have completed the next step in our journey!
Rob and Adrian

I apologise if it came across as diminishing you, I was just pointing out that the 1 year expiry isn't too hard to understand because it's simply 1 year from the date you submitted it to USCIS.
When I said Pre-Feb I thought was pretty clear because you had said in your first post that Adrian’s K1 visa was issued Feb 26, 2014, so I was referring to your medical being completed prior to the K1 being issued so it has well and truly expired now. Then you gave me the specific date of Dec 2013, which is prior to his visa being issued (so Pre-Feb). Sorry that you couldn't understand me good luck on your journey!

Marco&Bettina, the good news is that at least we get to be annoyed and frustrated with our loved ones by our side...

Thank you for the link to the USCIS policy update - I was not aware of the update as the policy was only 5 days old on the date we submitted our I-485 application. That was helpful.
I don't know why you feel the need to diminish fellow VJ members with unnecessary comments like "It's not too hard to understand". The reason I was confused by your first response was a) that you used incorrect dates, "pre-feb" vs Dec 10, 2013 and b) you didn't actually post the relevant information - the link to the new USCIS policy - until your second response.
Regardless, the prevailing intent of my question is whether anyone on this site has had any success in challenging the USCIS when the medical exam expiration is clearly not the fault of the applicant. While the USCIS rarely acknowledges fault in most matters, it is not unheard of, and they have been known to concede in some instances where they were at fault. The documented USCIS' goal for I-485 completion is 5 months. In our case, it has taken them 13 months... not to complete the case, but to begin the process of looking at the basic contents of the file, (i.e. the medical exam). To hold me financially responsible for their inefficiency and delay is what I find "hard to understand".
Thank you again for the link to the updated policy.
If anyone has had a similar situation - an expired medical that resulted from an excessive delay in I-485 processing, I'd be interested to hear how the situation resolved. Did you just deal with paying for a new medical? Did you contact USCIS and if so, what was the resolution? Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Thank you for the link to the USCIS policy update - I was not aware of the update as the policy was only 5 days old on the date we submitted our I-485 application. That was helpful.
I don't know why you feel the need to diminish fellow VJ members with unnecessary comments like "It's not too hard to understand". The reason I was confused by your first response was a) that you used incorrect dates, "pre-feb" vs Dec 10, 2013 and b) you didn't actually post the relevant information - the link to the new USCIS policy - until your second response.
Regardless, the prevailing intent of my question is whether anyone on this site has had any success in challenging the USCIS when the medical exam expiration is clearly not the fault of the applicant. While the USCIS rarely acknowledges fault in most matters, it is not unheard of, and they have been known to concede in some instances where they were at fault. The documented USCIS' goal for I-485 completion is 5 months. In our case, it has taken them 13 months... not to complete the case, but to begin the process of looking at the basic contents of the file, (i.e. the medical exam). To hold me financially responsible for their inefficiency and delay is what I find "hard to understand".
Thank you again for the link to the updated policy.
If anyone has had a similar situation - an expired medical that resulted from an excessive delay in I-485 processing, I'd be interested to hear how the situation resolved. Did you just deal with paying for a new medical? Did you contact USCIS and if so, what was the resolution? Thank you for taking the time to read this!

If the *primary* purpose of your visit to the US is to meet your family (i.e. more so than the ASU game and hometown visit, etc.), have you considered having your family visit the two of you in Vietnam? Then, when you are ready to move permanently to the US in 5 years, file the CR1. I'm not suggesting you give up scouring VJ for a way to arrange a temporary visit to the states, but if all else fails, you can have a plan B in your back pocket. Establish the married life you want in Vietnam, live together which creates stronger ties to Vietnam than you both have currently, then perhaps you have better chance of getting a B1 in a year or two so you can meet the rest of the extended family, see your hometown, and get in that football game.

Not misinformation, but perhaps misinterpretation of the information on other couples...

This is not true. No need to spread rumors based on misinformation.