a1000elephants

Finally got our approval and card in the mail. Apparently our application was approved on Dec. 10th, but none of the email or text alerts worked, so we didn't know until we received the letter on the 15th letting us know that we were approved. We received the card in the mail yesterday. Such a relief! 

Are any CSC transfers to TSC still waiting for their approvals? We were originally at CSC, and transferred to TSC on June 27th, but haven't heard anything else. It seems now like most everyone else has been approved from April. I really wouldn't expect us to get an RFE or anything, as we had very extensive documentation with the package we sent. But I'm just wondering why it's taking so long? 

Sent our package on April 3rd, it was delivered on April 5th to the CSC. They have not cashed our check yet, and we haven't received the NOA yet. Feeling a bit nervous about it. 

Got the greencard on Friday! Yay! So it only took a week for us to get it in hand.

Yay, congratulations!!!

That's great. Reading about your interview just confirms even more what I already know: immigration varies! From office to office, case to case, consulate to consulate, IO to IO... You can never know for sure what will happen.

Like, why did she take your husband's EAD? They didn't take mine? Are they supposed to?

Or separating the couple. On my case and yours it happened, other cases around here didn't.

Btw, I'm near you in Manchester, NH's office! I can't believe you waited 40 min! We were called in for the interview a few minutes before our scheduled time! Ah, that's what I love about my small state!

Best of luck to you guys! See you at the citizenship test ??

I believe they are supposed to take the EAD card. The EAD card is no longer valid once a Green Card is issued. Or at least that's what she explained to us yesterday.

APPROVED!!!! YAY!

I wanted to give you all a detailed overview, since I think it may be helpful for people.

We interviewed in Boston, MA. We had a 3pm appointment, and we got there at 2:30pm just to make sure we'd be there on time. We wore business casual attire, but there was definitely a mix with the people there. Some people were in jeans, and others in business casual. Our name wasn't called until about 3:40pm, as it seemed like everyone was behind schedule (although there weren't all that many people in the waiting area). We walked up to the woman at the door, and she asked to see just me first (I'm the USC), with our documentation. We kind of freaked out at that, but tried to smile and act normal. So husband sat back down, and I went in with the woman to her office.

She started off wanting me to give her the history of our relationship, so I started at the beginning, and she would interrupt to ask for more detailed information, or ask other questions. She then asked for all of our supporting documentation, and I gave her what we had: cards from family addressed to both of us at our apartment; joint health insurance form; joint checking/savings account statements and joint credit card; joint tax return for 2014; chat logs for 4 years; joint cell phone plan; flight itinerary for upcoming trip to visit my family; wedding and vacation photos. She said we had really strong evidence of our relationship, and that she was impressed/pleased with the documents I had brought.

She then asked me how my husband would describe me. In all of our studying and preparation for this, we focused on dates, details, etc., and it never occurred to us to have a ready answer for a question like this. So definitely discuss this with your spouse before your interviews!!!! I tried to come up with some sort of answer, but I really struggled, as I just couldn't think of a way to describe myself in that moment. I think I know myself pretty well, but the question just caught me off guard.

So then, she said she was going to go get my husband and bring him in, and that I should sit in the room with them but try not to answer any questions for him. We joked about how I would try to keep my mouth shut. She brings husband in, swears him in, etc., and then starts asking him the basic questions about address, phone number, etc. She then went through the list of questions about criminal history or political affiliations. She didn't really ask him for any specific details that she had asked me, so there definitely didn't seem to be a test of whether he and I answered the same way (which I thought was the point of separate interviews). But she did ask him then to describe me, and he totally failed. Haha. He had an even worse answer than what I had said, and was totally struggling with it. But we sort of turned it into a joke, and she thought it was funny.

She then told us she was approving us, and while she finished up putting details into the computer, we chatted about husband's profession (which is a creative art job) and she had a lot of interest in it personally and knew people in the industry. Then she stamped his paperwork, took his EAD card, and sent us on our way. We got texts about 10 minutes later that our case status online had been updated.

All in all, it took us about 35 minutes once she took me into her office, but we did chat quite a lot about non-immigration things, so that probably made it a longer appointment than needed. She was very friendly and conversational most of the time. I really don't know why they separated us, as it didn't seem like we were being grilled any more than we would be in the room together. My guess is that they just try to mix things up a bit at the office. Several other couples that we saw called in before us were separated as well. She didn't appear to doubt us at all, was impressed we have known each other for so long, have lived together for 2 years already, etc. So I quickly felt pretty comfortable with the whole situation.

Hope this helps some of you feel more confident in preparing!

The thread is about visa interviews in London, not adjustment of status. Afternoon appointments in London are unusual. Afternoon AOS appointments are not.

Haha, oops! I didn't realize I ended up in a different subforum. Apologies.

I have my interview this afternoon at 3pm. I was nervous before, but now after reading your post, I'm terrified! Gah. I really hope it's not because they're planning on denying us! I'm fairly confident that we have a really easy case, with no red flags or anything, so I can't imagine what would make them choose to deny us.

Well, I felt the same way! I was nervous but thought it wasn't a big deal bc we lived together for a year, had enough evidences. But, be ready! Study even more tonight. Do you have any joint bank accounts? Joint credit cards? Our IO asked why we didn't have joint accounts and we really didn't think about it. She explained that couples have financial minglings. We had other things like lease and car insurance.

In the end she saw we were real and we were approved! So, good luck and hope it all goes smoothly!

I was so surprised to hear that they separated you, as well, MrsHopkins. I'm glad it worked out for you though! We will definitely be studying more tonight. And I've put together a whole binder full of evidence. We do have joint bank accounts and credit cards, but some of the other things, like utilities and car insurance are not joint, because it just hasn't made sense yet to do those things. But we have tons of pictures, we filed our taxes jointly, and he's on my health insurance, life insurance policies, etc. So I don't see how they could decide we weren't bona fide.

Fingers crossed though!

So nervous. Our interview is tomorrow afternoon! I keep trying to remind myself that it shouldn't be a big deal at all, we have a ton of evidence of our relationship, we've been living together for two years, etc. But I just can't help but feel nervous!

I typed out a response about Biometrics, but I just now saw you already answered that you've done that, and gotten your EAD. If I were you, I would call USCIS and try to speak to a Tier 2 person to see if they can tell you if you've missed some other notice, like an RFE. It seems very strange that your I-485 Status hasn't updated to Ready to Schedule For Interview, which usually gets changed within a few days after the Biometrics appointment. So I'm wondering if you missed a letter or request?

We just got our Interview Notice letter yesterday, and it says that the USC needs to bring their original birth certificate and proof of citizenship. The birth certificate is no issue, we have that already. With the AOS application packet, we included a photocopy of the USC passport, so are they going to want to see the original at the interview? We wanted to mail it in to get the name changed, due to our marriage, and we were planning on travelling a few weeks after the interview, so not enough time to expedite it. Is it sufficient to take photocopies of the passport to the interview, and explain that we had to mail it in to get a new one and we haven't received the new one back yet?

Yay! Just got a Case Status update. Interview has been scheduled for April 23rd, 2015!!! This is way faster than I was expecting for Boston. I'm so excited!

Have any of you November filers in the Boston area had your interview yet, or received your interview appointment date?

I'm in Massachusetts, and just got my SSN after getting my work authorization. I'm planning on going to the RMV to convert my Canadian driver's license, and the website lists requirements which include a driver's record not more than 30 days old. What I'm uncertain about is whether they want my FULL driver's record? Or a 3-year record? Or 5-year, etc.? The Ontario service website has a long list of every possible driver's record, with different costs, and I don't want to get the most expensive one, if all I need is the simple 3-year record. Has anyone else gone through this process? Is it just best to go with the full record, and just play it safe?

Hey guys,

Just received this morning text messages and e-mail saying that my interview was scheduled for April 14th! YAY!

For information purposes, I don't know if you guys read that I went for an Infopass appointment last Friday. The lady said she could not do anything... I think she might have. Either she contacted NBC to see if they had an answer on my RFE or it coincidentally got approved.

Note that I did not have a change of "Ready to Interview" or "RFE approved" or anything like that. It went straight from "We received your RFE" to "Interview Scheduled"

Hope the information helps and I hope you guys have a lot of strength to wait for USCIS

Congrats and good luck with the interview!

I have a feeling Boston is moving a lot slower than a lot of other local offices, and there don't seem to be many people from Boston updating their timelines, so it's been hard to guess averages.

Got my interview notice on an email today, its gonna be in a month, pretty excited about it. Not social security news yet.

Wow! Congrats! Hopefully we'll all start seeing these notices soon!

We got the EAD card! YAY! Our case status for the I-765 changed the delivery date from the Post Office to March 3rd, so I knew something was going on. I had put a hold on all of our mail for the next 30 days, because I was losing so much mail I would rather just go pick it up once a week at the post office. So when the delivery date was updated, I knew they must have finally found the envelope. I went to the post office last night, and sure enough, there was the priority mail envelope with the EAD card. Now I can stop stressing out a bit. It's been a rough two weeks with other stuff going on, so I was just not handling the situation well.

So our current update is that we called USCIS on Monday to open a case inquiry, in order to request a replacement EAD. We were told we will receive a response by March 17th, which hopefully means they'll mail a new card by then. At least my husband doesn't have a job lined up yet, as he's still finishing up his classes, so it's not causing any real problems for us. It's just been inconvenient.

Congrats to everyone who's gotten their EAD cards! Your postmen are awesome for actually delivering your mail! Haha.

Hi Mrs Hopkins,

I don't have any change yet on my case maybe by Monday it will say mailed as well, as for the tracking number I noticed earlier in the thread someone mention that it updated to picked up by USPS and that is when they received the tracking number.

My guess is that is says mailed when they move it into their mail room, it is not actually with USPS at that point so when they do come and do collections, they are then assigned the tracking number which is then uploaded into our individual case status.

Yes, this is what happened with mine, and I believe my post is the one you're referring to. Case status changed to mailed, and then a day or two later, it said it was picked up by USPS and had the tracking information, and a link to USPS. So I assume they will do this with everyone, just keep checking your status everyday.

As for my EAD, I've complained several times to the post office, no one seems to know what happened to my priority mail envelope with the EAD. They keep saying they think it will turn up, but I'm just so angry. So we'll be calling USCIS on Monday to see if they can send another one. I've also now put a hold on all of our mail, so that I can just pick it all up at the post office. I no longer trust their delivery drivers to get us all of our mail. I've lost several important personal documents in the last four months (including two social security cards, and now two immigration documents). I'm trying hard to just get it sorted, but it's ridiculous.

I can't believe the terrible luck we've had with the postal service. First they lost our biometrics appointment. Now the USPS tracking says the EAD card was delivered on Tuesday, the 24th, and we never got it. So the postman gave our EAD priority mail package to someone else I guess. We were hoping maybe it went to a neighbor's mailbox and that someone might drop it off, but nothing. So now I get to call USPS today to complain. Fortunately, husband doesn't have a job lined up yet, so we have some time, but now I'm terrified that the Green Card will go missing in the mail too!

Hi everybody, thanks for your comments. I was wrong with the 1050 check, it is 1070 and the checks are filed seperately apparently, so 985 for the form and 85 for the biometrics service fee.

As for your comments about the others being free, I have trouble confirming that in the instructions. For the 131, my wife is requesting an advanced parole, so that we may visit her family in 2016. Am I understanding correctly that if I file them both together, the 131 is free?

and for the 765, I have found no where that the form is free. please confirm for me. She is applying for ©(9) permit for the first time.

The $1070 can all be on one check, which includes the $985 for the form and the $85 biometrics fee. On the check, as a memo, write that the check is for the I-485 application + Biometrics fee. This is how I sent mine, and there was no issue. They cashed it right away.

Unfortunately, I don't have links to the instructions to give you, but you can check what the required fees are on the USCIS website, and it will confirm that the 131 and 765 are both free when filed with the I-485 and I-130.

Update on my case:

My EAD has been approved! Im soo happy I guess i can expect it in mail within the next ten days.

Can somebody fill me in with my next step after this arrives, i guess i have to go to the social security office and DMV.

The status of my I-485 hasnt changed since day one, i guess will change when they are ready to assign a date for the interview.

Good luck everyone!

Looks like I'm going to be getting our EAD card tomorrow, so in total that will be 7 calendar days from seeing that it was approved. So that's very quick. They're mailing it priority 2-day mail with USPS. So hopefully you'll get yours next week.

Next steps would be going to the social security office. As for the DMV, it varies state by state as to what their requirements are for getting a license as an immigrant. I've been researching this myself, and I believe it's fairly easy in Massachusetts, but some states won't accept anything other than the Green Card before they'll give you a license. So you should go to your state's DMV website and look around.

My I-485 status changed the day after my I-765 changed to card in production. So check again tomorrow and maybe it will now say that your case is ready to be scheduled for the interview.

Good luck!

Nehaaspi, thanks for the info. OK, I understand Biometrics appointment doesn't change anything in the Case Status. But I am still wondering what is the next event that will cause a change in wording in the Case Status.

Maybe nothing has happened yet in this December group. I will check with the November group.

The next status update on your Case Status for the I-765 will say that the card has been ordered to be produced. It should then update a few days later to state that the card has been mailed. I just got these two updates in the last week, and waiting on the mail now.

I actually just went and checked again out of curiosity. Yesterday it said card was mailed. Today it says it was picked up by USPS and they gave me a tracking number. Even better!

I just received my EAD card..you guys will b getting it soon aswell ?....

Grats, Rooshi! I'm just waiting on the mail for ours. Hoping to have it by the end of the week.

Scratch all that. I just checked our case status, and it has changed to Card in Production! Yay! Did anyone keep track of how long it took to get the EAD card once their status changed?

Case Status was updated today saying the EAD card has been mailed.