victorian221b

Google "Permanent Residency requirements", there should be a USCIS link explaining to you what you need to do in order to maintain your residency. I can't give you any info here as I don't know the details and do not want to misinform you.

There are also many posts on here regarding your situation with some people who already went through with it.

Hello!

I would call back again and get a different person. And when you do, don't even bring up what other people's experiences are because that's the reaction you get.

To answer your questions:

1) Normal processing time per USCIS is currently "6 months" and this is based on the current average process time for I-751 - 6 months can change to 9 months if the current average processing time is 9 months etc. Now, USCIS gives you the allowance to follow-up if you don't hear back after 6 months - I don't think anyone should argue that as it's documented so I don't understand why some Tier 2 officers would argue. However, you don't HAVE to follow-up after 6 months if you want to wait - you have up to a year to do that. USCIS understands how frustrating it is to wait so they give you the timeframe so that you can give them a reasonable time to get to your case. With that said, the officer you spoke isn't wrong - you do have up to a year but whether it's considered the "normal processing time" it's debatable. Some Tier 2 officers will say you are out of the normal processing time if it's beyond 6 months.

2) I would wait and call again after your 6 months mark - 5 months is a bit short. You will have a better chance of getting a service request submitted at that time.

3) I spoke with two Tier 2 officers. As I mentioned in the beginning, don't bring up what other people experienced or what you already know. I have seen nothing but unhelpful results when you do that. When I called each time, I assumed that I am not aware of many of the logistics (even though I've been on VJ for a while) so that this way the Tier 2 will make an attempt to educate you on the process. The first time I called was just to get an "idea" of whether I should receive a receipt notice after I submitted my RFE. The second time I called, it was regarding a response to a service request I had submitted through a Tier 1. The letter tells me my case is still in "normal processing time" but the Tier 2 I spoke with (different person from my first call) tells me that although usually they give applications 6 months there is no guarantee that the adjudicator reviewing your case will follow that. The most he could do was send in a more specific service request and I just had to wait. This is the reason why I would call back again and speak with a different person because you may get someone who is more helpful than the first.

Hope this helps! Good luck.

I am a late September filer, called USCIS today because I don't have any updates on my case for more than 5 months. I asked to speak to tier 2 and the lady told me that the normal processing time for I-751 cases is 1 year and that I even can't ask about a service request before my 1 year extension letter (NOA1) expires. I was really surprised to hear that as the uscis website indicates that the normal processing time is 6 months. When I politely asked her about the website info and said that I even know a few people who had submitted their cases later than I did and had already been approved, she told me that there must be a mistake in the website and all my info is wrong and that I should not argue (which I actually did not) and advised to wait.

Now I have a few questions to you guys:

1. What is the normal processing time for I-751? Can we rely on the info from their website?

2. Can I submit a service request if there is no info about my case for more than 6 months?

3. What was your experience talking to tier 2 officers?

Thanks. Any thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.

They will if the other evidences are just as compelling.

Like an extreme example will be (which I'm sure most people don't do), sending in a one-year worth of joint bank statements and then pictures - that's it. That wouldn't really help.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I know some couples that have been married for a long time and don't have joint bank accounts. I'm going to include it, just was curious if they will consider it or if it's a hard set rule that they won't consider things that aren't going back 2 years.

Might not be a bad idea to resend with a fresh form because it will be accepted and processed as a new application (I think).

Actually, USCIS have up to the end of your 1-year extension to respond to you for anything. They are not obligated to respond earlier than that. There have been reported cases on this forum that are a lot shorter than that, however that should not be a means to gage your case. When you receive an RFE, you have about 3 months to respond to. Once the RFE response is received at USCIS they have 2 months to respond back to you - but this doesn't mean they HAVE to respond to you in 2 months. If after 2 months you don't hear back, you will need to call them and find out why (says so on the RFE letter).

With that said, when USCIS decides to give you an RFE can vary as well. Some people don't even hear back until close to a year after they submitted their application - and then they get an RFE. USCIS gives us 6 months waiting period before we are "allowed" to call back and find out.

An example, I got my RFE about 4 months after I sent in our application for my ROC. I responded withiin month and waited for another 2 months for them to get back to me. I didn't get my 10-year until exactly 8 months since they received my application. My RFE took more than 2 months to get responded to whereas others who submitted RFEs to the same service center heard back in less than 2 weeks.

Long story short, there is no straight answer - 1 to 3 months is only an estimate based on the average of this forum but not a fact. Really depends on your adjudicator.

Good luck.

I sent in copies of my husband's USC passport, wasn't needed but didn't hurt to attach *shrug*

Only need a copy of the green card, passport copy not needed at all. Everything else in your list looks good.

I quickly found this, not sure if this will help you but do an "Advance Search" for "divorce" in this forum, there are plenty in your case. Good luck!

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/429413-getting-divorce-prior-to-removal-of-condition/page-2?hl=%2Bdivorce#entry6343024

Based on what I understand regarding divorce proceedings from seeing what others had reported on here, if you know you are going into a divorce then you should file a waiver as soon as possible and not at the 90-day mark. This will need to be confirmed by someone who had already went through this. One lady from earlier last year actually did that and was going through a divorce when she filed for ROC. After submitting her ROC application, she received an RFE requesting proof to show that the divorce was final (decree?). So maybe that's you can do it.

Search this forum a bit, you may have to go as far back as early 2013 or late 2012 in this forum to find something regarding divorce cases. I think there is even a thread for waivers on here somewhere.

Good luck!

Hello! It's always a pain getting an RFE especially when you think you had sent in everything you possibly can. It appears you have and I don't know what other reasons will trigger the RFE except maybe your adjudicator just wanted to push off your application so they can work on their backlog LOL. I kind of was in the same situation as you - except I may have left off some key documents that I never thought to submit in the original RFE but who knows.

I think you should submit everything you had listed that you didn't send in the original. It doesn't matter you received some of the documents before the RFE so it's ok - I had sent in some of my mortgage documents for my RFE and we closed our house after I submitted my initial ROC application but before the RFE.

With that said, go over your the documents you had submitted and see if there are any "gaps" you can fill in. For example, when you sent bank statements as proof of joint accounts, did you send in evidence covering every quarter? If you did for every quarter then throw in every month that you didn't submit initially for the RFE. Do the same for the other documents you already submitted.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Hi all,

I just received an RFE in the mail couple of days ago. It was dated Feb 18th 2014. Interesting thing is that I truly believe it was somehow triggered by change of address I put in on Feb 6th 2014 (others in the past have also noted the same). Also it is very generic, usually people receive some sort of "personalized" RFE in the sense that it mentions what was submitted and what they need, but in my case, it is as generic as anything. However, whatever they request, I already submitted with my original packet including. Here is what I had sent:

Joint lease from last three years
Joint tax transcript (ordered from IRS website) from last two years
Our health insurance cards showing both names
Account snapshot of our Aetna website showing both of us using this insurance during our doc visits
Joint bank account transaction pages covering last two years
Letter from our bank stating when was my wife added to my account and that we have debit cards associated with that account
Copy of a joint loan application we signed back in late 2011
Joint auto insurance and renter insurance
Copy of our DLs showing same address
Some utility bills showing individual names but same address
Affidavits from friends/family
Pics and holiday cards addressed to both of us
Copies of the doc visit forms showing spouse as emergency contact

******

Now, other than the docs mentioned above, I have the following that I didn't send

Life insurance showing spouse as beneficiary (but we just got it a month ago; before RFE date though... should I even send it? or will it raise red flag?)
Call/text log showing awful lot of texts/calls between me and my wife
e-mail/chat logs (not sure how much weight it carries)
some more pics when my parents visited us back in October
some hospital bills to us individually but same address? same goes with pet clinic bills showing her name but same address?

******
We haven't filed the taxes yet for this year, I dont have 401K, we dont have a child, we dont have a mortgage, the cars are under my name only as her credit score was pretty bad

Any help is appreciated. Please advise fellow filers!

This is a very vague question as each situation is different and also based on what you can find. I personally came from an H1-B background - had a degree in Engineering and stayed to work in manufacturing. But this was pre-recession days. I do hear that companies are less likely to hire foreign nationals today if they can help it because it is extra cost for them (averaging at least $5000) to plunk down on just one person and as someone "kindly" mentions unemployment is high. If you absolutely have skills that they can't find in domestic workers then you may have a greater chance - for example, language skills or if you have like research background is sub-atomic particle fission or something.

With that said, you won't know what your chances are unless you try. No one here can give you a definite answer - especially with today's economy.

To get LPR from H1B, it has to be done through an employer or through marriage. As for other types work visas or treaties with other countries, I don't know.

Can anyone help?

My friend is a Canadian and is in USA on a H1b visa, due to a specialized field. He has been in the USA for 2 years. He would like to apply for a green card personally for himself, his wife and two kids under 11. My question is can he do so personally or does his employer have to petition for him and once he gets his green card, he will file for his family? I have never heard that this can happen but maybe because he is a Canadian? Someone also said that filing personally depends on his employment visa, EB1 visa which is a specialized employment base allows him priority?

Can anyone please advise me?

Thank you

Since you're getting married next month, why not consider just going ahead and process your CR-1? Once USCIS receives your application and begins the approval process you can apply for an EAD which will allow you to work while your CR-1 application is pending. No need to go and get a temporary work visa at all.

If you're going to be in the US under a different visa, it's a matter of applying for Adjustment of Status to CR-1.

Hello!

Are you in the US Military? I think there's a separate forum for that here.

Not sure if this applies to you: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/152-military-immigration-related-discussion/

With that said, as a general change of address requirement, apparently USCIS doesn't seem to have an issue if you were late with your change of address. The most important thing (my opinion) is that you can prove both of you have been residing in all the locations you moved to within the period of your CR status. If you're going to move to another place I would just go ahead and make the change now and make sure you receive the documents in your new location. Others will choose to have a permanent address set up and have all mails sent there. Again, make sure you can prove both of you have documents to back up that you were at the same location.

Not sure if this helps but good luck!

Hi im coming up on the 90 days prior to my temp gc expiration so upon doing research it was only to my knowledge that u had to notify change of address if u had a document pending. well i learned that i was wrong and u have to notify them within 10 days. i know the consequences and how they arent typically enforced but my dilema is that we are military so we move once permanantly and had another temporary address due to my husband getting deployed. now we are due to move yet again to another place. we will have already moved to this location by the time i file for my ROC. we are actually moving iin a week. so should i just do a change of address to the current new one asap when i move and just forget about my previous address however just note them on the previous addresses section on the ROC paperwork and hope for the best? im not sure on how to approach this situation. any imput would help. thanks

Biometrics is usually part of "Initial Review" and they don't update your case online for that. If you do a change of address in the middle of the process it may show up within "Initial Review". Otherwise, they don't update the case until you get an approval (they don't update even if you get an RFE) - so basically just wait Make sure you follow-up if the allowable wait period is up and you still haven't heard back though.

Good luck!

Congrats on your approval! Glad to know that yours went through fast after your RFE response Not all are that lucky - mine took well over 2 months and not without some pushing on my end LOL

I do agree, do it right to begin with, there is no such thing as sending too much - some people might get away with it and maybe because it is due to strong evidences (whatever that means now) they submitted or the adjudicator's mood (LOL). I personally followed the advice of those who got approved with not sending too much and I end up with an RFE as well. Every case is different and every adjudicator is different - what works for one person may not always work for another. I try not to discount people's experiences but I wouldn't advice NOT sending something - and "saving paper" is not a good excuse for not sending evidences LOL.

Long story short, in January we received an RFE due to not submitting enough evidence of us living together.

During 3 weeks we gathered absolutely everything we had (old rental contracts, online order history showing shipment to same apartment, bills, bank statement, affidavit, pictures, flight ticket, hotel booking.. yeah you name it, EVERYTHING).

The package arrived at the USCIS office in California on Monday Feb 10 and today there was an update online saying that the new card have been ordered. (Way to go USCIS, that was fast!!).

I couldn't be happier not to have to deal with immigration worries anymore and to just enjoy life as husband and wife. For all of those who are about to file for ROC, I have an advise.. DO NOT DO what we did (send in a super thin file out of pure laziness hoping that it will be enough). Do it right from the beginning, you have such a long time to prepare to file your papers so start it up on time. Cause once you get that RFE, it is super stressful. Save yourself some sleepless nights and send in enough evidence from the start!

Hello!

Also include employment information - get a copy of the address currently on file in your HR department to show that you are both residing in the same address.

Any document to show you are the primary emergency contact for each other?

Any beneficiary information for benefits offered by your company?

Copies of W-2 showing the same address will help too.

Those are a just a few to keep you thinking if you want to throw more evidence in.

Good luck

My husband and I live in my mother-in-law's house so ALL the bills are in her name. We don't have a cell phone plan together ( I use pre-pay). We filed taxes together this year, and the car insurance for our two cars is on both our names. I am also authorized user on two of my husband's credit cards and we use the same bank account ( our paycheck gets deposited in the same account at the same time- we work for the same company)
Is this enough proof of ROC?

I personally believe it is a lot more involved this time around compared to the AOS. So start digging through anything that you have that can help with your case. Better safe than sorry.

Good luck!

Hey y'all,
It's been awhile since I've been on here, but I couldn't think of a better place to turn to when I'm preparing for filing the papers with USCIS.
End of March is my the beginning of my 90 day window and I'm not feeling as nervous and unprepared as I did the first time around. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this time all we need is the filled out form, proof of cohabitation and finance mingling? Oh, and taxes, right? And what about pictures, are those still needed?
I hope my fellow filers have a smooth journey and we get to our next pit stop quick.

You are welcome and good luck

I don't have any evidence or anything with my new address in Birmingham besides my presence (and pay stubs). I'm thinking of dropping the address unless the need for RFE arises (which I hope it doesn't ever happen!) cuz I know that would cause a delay.

Your explanation made a lot of sense and your tips/advice helped a lot, victorian221b! Thank you so much!

Hopefully it'll get the ball rolling. I got the same response after I asked for a service request, though I never had to do an interview, but about less than a week later I got my approval letter. Unfortunately, this is all a waiting game. Based on my understanding, the average wait to hear back from USCIS after an interview is between 30-60 days.

Good luck.

Hi everyone! So i filed for a joint roc..had our interview last month..the officer said she doesnt know why uscis sent us to that office because we already changed our address..she said since we're there, then she will do the interview..after the interview, she said that she has to forward our file to the local office because she doesnt have the jurisdiction to make the decision..so after 2 weeks, i followed up on the hotline and spoke with the tier 2 i guess..he said he's gonna mail the office for an update..so we receive the letter today saying that they regret to inform us that its still pending and they cannot give a timeframe..this is not helpful since we already had our interview..do u think contacting the congressman would be the solution? And how to contact and how to know which one is our congressman?

I doubt the month-to-month lease will raise red flags if you are still occupying that address. Some people do that. Just make sure you have documents to support both of you are still there. You don't have to physically be there and there are many couples in your situation. As long you show a common address USCIS does not need to know your real life plans. If any of your evidences do not include your new address, there is no reason to explain anything.

In my cover letter, I just grouped my evidences by location. By the way, this is for my RFE response. My conditional GC was for 2011 to 2013. I was at a location which I signed the lease for 2009-2011 but only had my name on it so I explained in the letter the lease was signed before we got married (which was 2010). However, my husband did use that address for some documents so I included that. Then we moved to another location between 2011-2013 and submitted evidences supporting that address. Then we moved again in 2013 (a house we bought together) and submit evidences supporting the 3rd address. I did not submit anything in which my husband still had my in-laws' address.

The evidences include financial statements, property ownership, employment documents etc for each address.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks! However, we are still leasing that apartment and we had the owner of the apartment complex write a letter stating that we are on month-to-month. So I'm still worried that the IO might still see that as a red flag. It is just impossible for us to live in the same location now due to work and school.

Did you explain all that on your cover letter on on a separate sheet of paper/document? If you don't mind, can you share with me the way you did your cover letter?

Here are a few things you may want to think about:

1) Regarding your bills, are some of bills to you and some to your spouse but to the same address? If you so, make sure it covers the entire duration of your marriage and you should be good. You don't absolutely need to have both names on the bills but it shows shared responsibilities if the bills are split between you two.

2) Regarding the house, expedite all you want. USCIS will not know what your plans are. The most important thing, I personally think, they want to see is that you trust each other enough to be included in something big like owning property together.

3) Affidavits, as some would argue, are secondary evidences as anyone can write them. For this reason, the argument is getting a notarized affidavit would not have made any difference. However, I got mine notarized anyways whether or not that would've held any weight.

Just remember that the most important thing to present to USCIS is to ensure you had started this marriage with the intention of it being permanent and not for immigration purposes and that you continue to contribute equally to this marriage for future. Your evidences do not stop after 2 years but that they continue to show future commitment to each other.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Hello All,

Glad to hear so many success stories on this thread. We are preparing to file for my ROC (90 day window begins Feb 29).

We have many documents to present to the men in black:

Joint bank account

Joint tax Returns

Vacation airline tickets

Pictures

Affidavits (btw - do these need to be notarized?)

Country club contract for my family (myself, wife, daughter)

Life insurance benificiary evidence

Evidence of each other as emergency contacts at places of work etc..

My question is this - We have not bought anything jointly, or opened any credit cards jointly in this time. We haven't needed to, or wanted to. We have not transferred any of our regular bills to include each others names - nothing has really changed in our life other than our joint bank account. Will we be penalized from a standpoint of not having enough evidence? No new cars, no new houses etc. In fact - it is the house I wish to discuss here.

We live in a house owned by my parents. They plan to transfer the house to both of us in May 2013. If we expedited the transfer into our names now - would that be an added security in the eyes of the immigration folks? We do not pay rent currently - so have no evidence of paying that bill together.

The change of address can be done online so it's an immediate change. You will get a letter from USCIS stating that they have rec'd your change of address request. This usually happens about a week or so after you send it through online.

Once you do that make sure you have supporting evidences at the new address. I changed mine during the process of ROC (i.e. after I submitted my application).

Good luck.

My husband got a new job with the government and we will be moving accross the country sometime in March i believe (the date is still to be determined). I understand that I have to file form AR-11 to change my address since i'm only a PR. However, I will have to file for ROC this coming July. Are they quick with the change of address? I'm afraid somehow I will mess things up by changing my address shortly before ROC. Any advice is appreciated.

Hello!

I was sort of in a similar situation as you so maybe you can use that as a reference.

During the 2 years of our marriage (ie the valid CGC period), we lived in 2 different locations plus our current location which makes it 3. When we were married, my husband had everything directed to his parents house whereas I had everything directed to the apt I lived in at the time. So our DLs are showing 2 different addresses that we don't currently reside long term in any more. This is the reason I did not submit our DLs.

Some of the documents my husband had still showed his parents' address and those documents crossed over into the period in which my 2-year GC was valid. He did change address for some of the important documents a lot later so that it will reflect cohabitation. However, for this reason I did not submit any documents that had a different address from where we actually lived.

I did submit evidences that supported the 3 locations we lived in - both from me and from him individually or from both of us. I clarified on the cover letter where we lived and when and what evidences I had submitted to support that.

Basically, make sure you provide evidences that show you both lived/have access to an address over the duration of your marriage.

Hope this helps.

Hello VJers! I'm finally kicking myself in the butt and going to make sure I send this packet in tomorrow morning! I'm a month behind and I only have less than 60days til my GC expires.

We have a few concerns here:

1. Hubby and I live in the same state but different counties/cities - I moved to Birmingham in March 2013 due to work and he is still in Mobile for school/internship. Moving to Birmingham would only delay his graduation thus we had decided that he would only move here upon graduation in May or after his internship ends. Should I address this matter on the cover letter?
2. We have multiple addresses: Old college/po box address on my DL; his mom's house address on his DL; our shared apartment address in Mobile; he also has a po box in college which he had just stopped using.
   -Our old savings account had his po box address, the new savings account has the apartment address
   -Credit card bills -- apartment address
   -IRS filed with apartment address
   -Sprint cellphone bill -- his po box address and then changed to his mom's address
   -Utilities (gas/power/internet) -- apartment address
   -His auto insurance -- his mom's address

Any idea what we should do in order to not raise any red flags that might jeopardize our "reputation" or bona fide marriage?

Please? Thank you!

Yes to all of them and the other person had already answered the service center question.

I used USPS and purchased "signature on delivery" and "tracking" as well as Next-Day. I personally chose USPS coz it's cheaper (maybe by a few dollars) and have had no issues.

Thanks both of you for your reply. Please advise if my understanding is correct on the following:

1. We do not staple any papers, just arrange them in order and if necessary use paper clips to organize them
2. We sign and date the forms in black ink
3. We do not need to send any passport sized photos
4. A single check of $590 ($505 + $85) should work
5. Since I live in Illinois (Chicago area), I send out my package to the California center
6. Do we use fedex, ups or usps? What special tracking method or insurance when we send out packages? (Honestly I do not care about the cost of sending out the package, especially after spending months working on evidence, I just want the best and safest method)

Here's the tracking list:

California Service Center (0 applicants, 0 approved - 0%)

VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved
VJNAME..............02/--/14.......--/--/14......--/--/14......--/--/--

Vermont Service Center (0 applicants, 0 approved - 0%)

VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved
VJNAME..............02/--/14.......--/--/14......--/--/14......--/--/--


IMPORTANT!

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Date of I-751 = The Date you sent your petition
NOA Date = The Receipt Date on your original NOA letter
Biometrics = The Date of your biometrics appointment
Approved = The Date your case was approved

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