Lillyryu

Hello everyone. I've been reading for a while but haven't had a chance to greet everyone. Anyway, I've updated the google doc with my status. I'm an April filer at CSC. I just checked my status this morning and my new card is being produced now. So I'll probably get it next year after me and my husband come back from our vacation. Good start of the year!

Best of luck to all of you. Hopefully you guys will hear something from them

This is exactly what I want to know. Cause I'm going to get a job and the company will send me to work abroad for 2 years. I also have a 2-year GC.

Hope we'll get the answer we want. Or let me know if you have any updates.

Nope, not very lucky yet. I am thinking of enrolling in some graduate certificate. Not yet decided though.

How about you? Do I remember it right that you're also an engineer?

Yeah, I'm an engineer, agricultural engineer but looking for a mechanical engineering position. Luckily, I studied in japan for 1 year. And that makes my resume a little bit interesting. So I would recommend you to take japanese class if you still can't find a job. That might help you. Because I just got a phone interview this morning, and they want to interview me in person next Monday. Pretty good sign, right? I think speaking other languages than English would make companies interested.

Hope this would help you get a job soon. Good luck!

Congrats Richydylan!

Did you have any luck to find a job?

why does it have to be removed?

Once you have your green card, you don't need your EAD anymore. So the word "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION" doesn't need to be on your SSN card anymore because now you're legal to work in USA. And the USCIS interviewer told me to remove it after I got my green card.

Ohh, I just received my new SS card in married name after 4 weeks (Changed last name on June 6). Hope you get yours soon as well.

Dragonmermaid!! I have just backread and saw your post about your interview. I'm so sorry to know that you had a negative experience with a jerk of an interviewer. Same thought as with Lillyryu, focus on the wedding party for now and get the RFE ball rolling afterwards. I'm sure your family and friends will be able to help in coming up with more relationship proofs such as affidavits and pictures [though the years].

Thanks, sweet cake! I just got my new SSN card last Monday. But I have to go back to SSA again cause I just received my green card. Need to remove "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION" off of my SSN card again

Congrats, Lillyryu. These are the types of stories that made me feel like my husband and I were a shoo-in and pretty much why I lost my sh** that we didn't get our GC at our interview. My husband and I have decided to wait until after our big wedding party next Saturday to submit the RFE responses because we just don't even want to deal with it. I'll let you all know it how goes. I'm pretty much apathetic about it all now. *sigh*

Thanks, Dragonmermaid. I think you should focus on your wedding and have fun with it for now. After the wedding I'm sure you'll have plenty of evidences to show them

Congrats, Lillyryu. These are the types of stories that made me feel like my husband and I were a shoo-in and pretty much why I lost my sh** that we didn't get our GC at our interview. My husband and I have decided to wait until after our big wedding party next Saturday to submit the RFE responses because we just don't even want to deal with it. I'll let you all know it how goes. I'm pretty much apathetic about it all now. *sigh*

Thanks, Dragonmermaid. I think you should focus on your wedding and have fun with it for now. After the wedding I'm sure you'll have plenty of evidences to show them

Great to hear you had a positive interview experience, Lillyryu! It won't be long now. From experience, I received my GC the next business day after notification of card production. Congrats!

Thank you, sweet cakes! I haven't received anything today. But I'm pretty sure it's coming. I'm really relieved after the interview yesterday. Can't wait to get the card and go back to the SSA to change my name again. I tried to change the name last time and it's been a month. I haven't got the new SSN card yet. SIGH!! I hate government.

Hey, guys! I just got the interview yesterday. It went very well since I came with K-1 visa. The interview appointment was at 1.35. We got there at 1.30 and waited in the waiting room for about 30 minutes. The interviewer didn't ask much. She asked mostly from the form. For documents, she only wanted to see my husband's and my passports which I have 4. Then she asked us if we had any documents we wanted to submit. So I only gave her pictures on the marriage day and health and dental insurance. In the same day evening, we got the notification that the green card is in production and I'm gonna get the welcome notice soon.

Hooray!! Good luck you guys who are still waiting

Lillyryu, you might get lucky and not have a jerk of an IO like we had. I thought being together for almost 8 years would work in our favor, but it worked against us because our IO must've thought: "Well, they've been together so long, they should have more proof!" Jerk move, seriously. I almost wish we didn't have any of our vacation photos because then he wouldn't have asked for ticket stubs! I think your IO will understand that you are new graduates and you are building your lives together so you won't have vacation proof just yet.

I read that notarized affidavits are good so if you can get several of those, from friends and parents, etc. - this may help. The health insurances and credit card are good evidence as well. Don't forget your joint bank account and make sure you both have made purchases with it! Also, maybe print out popular Facebook pages and statuses that your friends have liked and commented on? Do you have any mail that has been addressed to you both?

My hubby reminded me that RFEs are not the end of the world (I realize that today now that I have calmed down)! The RFEs the IO wants from us are pretty simple, although not really necessary in light of all the other evidence we provided. Again, our IO was being a pain because he wanted to go to Del Taco!

Good luck to you and please keep us posted! The advice we get from here is so valuable! :-)

Thanks. And you do the same. God bless you

VJers, I am so disappointed right now. Our interview was this morning and I have an RFE in my hand instead of a GC approval. I'm sorry - I just got so caught up in everyone's success stories that I believed mine would go as smoothly, especially because my husband and I have been together for close to 8 years.

We arrived at the Chatsworth, CA location around 10:20am (appointment was set for 10:30am). We popped our appointment letter into the drop box per office instructions and we sat down. My hubby got called to check in a few minutes later. We sat and waited... and waited... and waited. Finally, 2 hours later (12:20pm), we get called into the office. The IO wasn't unfriendly, but he was definitely all business. He proceeded to ask us for a variety of documents (originals of birth certificates, etc.). I showed him our SS cards with our new married name, as well as my bank cards and a bank document with our married last name. He asked for a joint bank account statement and it took me a while to locate it in my pile of copies from the papers we had already sent in with our petition. He pointed out that only my hubby makes purchases with the joint account. I told him I use my credit card for safety because it's safer with all the card-skimming going on. I do -however- pay for rent and other household bills with checks from the joint account.

He didn't even bother looking at my hubby's children's foreign birth certificates, which were a struggle to procure because one is from the Netherlands and the other is from Indonesia.

He looked at a variety photos and asked us some questions. I even supplied him with the invitation for the big wedding party we're having on July 19th, 2014 as well as a stack of RSVPs with fun, personal messages from our guests that we received. I pointed out that there's an official wedding website with online comments from friends. I really thought we were going to be okay.

But -NOPE- after 25 minutes, he sent us home with an RFE for MORE proof of bonafide marriage. We explained to him that now that we live at home with and take care of my parents, we don't have a formal rental lease anymore and my father's name is on our utility bill as well as on our car title because his credit got us 2.5% APR. He also wanted itineraries of our vacations together. Seriously???? What if we were like most people and have had NO money to fly anywhere and could only do road trips???

I know that it's not a big deal, but I'm so afraid that the documents we have scraped together won't be enough or they'll get lost in the pile of papers that disgruntled government officers are careless with, and I'm just sooooooooooooooooo tired of this whole process! I got really confident reading everyone's stories and believed we had this in the bag. I lost it on the way to the parking lot and have been crying ever since, not understanding how some couples -please don't anyone take offense- who have been together for short a time and barely know each other can get their GCs but someone I have loved since 2006 and been living with since Summer 2007 can't get one. I honestly think my IO was being a jerk because he wanted to go to lunch (his co-worker popped his head in to check up on him and our IO said he was "almost done" with us)!

We've put together what documents we could. We found old email itineraries (they'll have to do because I'm not sentimental with plane tickets - I travel for a living and I don't want the clutter), we found copies of our old lease from a house we rented from 2007-2011, we highlighted our car payment withdrawal from our monthly bank statement that matches the online car bill with my father's name and our home address, we already gave the IO a copy of our family car insurance that lists my husband as one of the beneficiaries and we're adding a copy of our health insurance acceptance letter that has both of our names on it. My hubby is going to take the papers to the office tomorrow morning instead of mailing them in (we have the option of either). The IO told us to have a copy of each thing we submit and have the front desk person date stamp each item so that in the slight chance they get lost, we have proof that we did bring them in.

So, I guess the moral of the story is: make sure you have tons of proof of bonafide marriage. If you're a unique couple like us who live with parents or with family and have no formal rental lease or utility bills under your name, maybe create a rental lease agreement and have the utilities transferred to your name. I thought this was going to be an interview where they ask you all kinds of personal questions to see if they can catch you in a lie. I felt like we were just filling in our application all over again, but in person.

Good luck to everyone who is still waiting. I hope someone can learn from my frustration.

I am so sorry to hear that. Since I read your story, I haven't been confident at all. Because me and my husband just graduated last year. And he doesn't have much time and money to take a trip. So we normally just watch tv shows together or have his friends come over and have drinks. The only pictures that we have right now are the pictures from the marriage day with his parents. We don't have my name on his apartment lease because we had to pay more if we did that. The joint evidences that we have are health insurance, dental insurance and joint credit cards.

My interview is next thursday and I'm so nervous and worried that the evidences we have aren't enough

Same here ... DMV said they need the new SS card in my married name. I went to SSA to have it updated on June 6th, no news since. DMV already confirmed that I am in the SAVE database, but without the updated SS card, they won't let me do any tests. Ohhh well .... I am sooooo ready to take the tests too. I think I will forget what I've studied if it takes any longer..

At DMV in Livonia, MI, they let me take the written test and I already passed it. Just need the married name in the system to pass it officially. Also DMV sample test didn't help me at all. If you want to pass you need to study on the handbook. Hope that would help you. Good luck

Congratulation to all those that have received their GCs already! This thread has been amazing not only just providing valuable information, but more importantly supporting ne another! Great job everyone!!!!

Wanted to updated your guys on my progress.

After I received my EAD, applied for SSN four days later and received it in 3 days.

Then converted my out-of-country driving license, passed all the test on the same day!!!! Got my MD DL!

Now trying to get a job of course!

I'll update after the interview!!!

Good luck to everyone still waiting!

Congratulations. Wow, that's really fast. I went to a social security administration on 12th June to change my name on my SSN. It's been 11 days and I haven't got anything TT

I just want my name changed in the system then I'll be able to obtain a learner permit.

I'm into engineering and used to teach too part-time back in Philippines. My experience is very specific, that's why I'm having a hard time. Hubby said, maybe I'm just being picky. So maybe trying other fields will be my next resort. For now, I just need some experience and build a network, make new friends, be able to drive myself to places (aside from biking to the supermarket ), etc ... Sigh! Hope all of us here will be successful in whatever we do. It's hard enough to adjust to married life plus the depression of being far from our family back home.

I am having a hard time finding a job as an engineer as well. So I decided to go back to school getting a masters here. That way I will have experiences related to the US.

Good luck and hope you get a job soon. Also don't forget to write "legally working in USA" on your resume. That will help

I just got an interview scheduled today for July 10th. Yay!!

Best of luck everyone

Finally, the status changes to card production on today without saying approved.

It is 82 days from the date of filing but the status of I-131 is still at acceptance status. My wife might receive a difference card for AP instead of combo card?

It's the same to my status. I was wondering if I would get only I-765 but no, I got my EAD just now and it says "serves as I-512 Advance parole" without any notification for I-131

EAD Status updated that USCIS just mailed my EAD today!

That is perfect! Thank you so very much!

No problem! wish you the best of luck

Oh really?! I had no idea about this. Thanks for the information. I thought that G-1145 was enough for getting notifications. It would be great if you could kindly send me the link? I wasn't able to find it.

Thank you so much!

Here you go! https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/selectusertype.jsp

Yes, that's about right but some people have complained that sometimes the card arrives before any online update. There is probably some bug on their system, just like I am not longer receiving any text/email notifications after their receipt of the application for some unknown reason!

You have to sign up on USCIS website for the e-notification. They only send emails and texts for form G-1145 on the first time they receive your applications.

congrats to all of u with your ead

Thanks and congratulation with your GC

Congrats to those receiving EAD. Out of interest, do notifications for card production always get received in the morning?

Fingers crossed for my EAD soon.

Thanks! I got the notification at 11 o'clock

Mine too!!! Congratulations

Same here! Congrats!

Day 73! C'mon USCIS, how long for EAD??

Same here... I'm on day 71 and there's no update for EAD or AP

just received my welcome to USA LETTER!!!

That's really good news for today. Congrats!