Mena28

Gosh! They still haven't fixed that hyphen!?!?! Grrr! I was reading my husband's NOA2 for the GC and it said we should call if we notice something is out of place. I think we are going to submit the I-90 online tonight and see if that method goes any faster. We will need to mail back the GC at some point, but maybe they will have us mail it when the new one is about to be issued. I'm wondering if they make a decision on the e-filed I-90's before they have you mail back the card.

If you mail back the GC, I suggest you look into getting the I-551 stamp in your passport first, then mail the GC back with the paper that the card is attached to. That way you will have a way of proving your permanent resident status until you get the new card in hand.

Or just keep the one without the hyphen if you face no other problems getting your unrestricted SSA card and regular term DL (if your state has a shorter approval period for the DL for only those with EAD's. For example only one year compared with five years.)

Nope, on the notice it is missing. I wouldn't care, but I really don't want to run into a border control person who does...

Good thinking, I didn't know about the stamp.

Luckily Massachusetts gave me a regular licence just with my Arrival Record, K-1 visa, social security card, and marriage certificate. They didn't even ever see my NOA1.

I filed an e-request for my EAD card having it missing and got a paper letter about 2 weeks later, telling me to send the card back to them with proof of spelling attached to it. they received it on March 19, and I got the I-485 NOA2 today (dated March 24), so I doubt I will hear back from them.

I read about a couple on the forum who had a birthday wrong on the EAD card, did an infopass, they fixed it in the system, and told them to keep the card and not pay for a replacement. Don't know if they attempted to travel with it though. And the GC is my document for like 2 years, so I just hope they got it right this time!

I have driver's license without a hyphen too, because my name had one character too many to fit in the provided space, so I have one name run into the other seamlessly. I have since run into other people who have it like that (with first and/or last names) who are all like "wow, I can't believe they had to do it, but it's been fine".

Oh joy :-)

Good luck getting your husbands name straightened out!

I received my approval notice for the greencard today!!! It was a surprise, because I haven't checked my status in a while, they must have worked on it right after I last checked (coping mechanism left over from waiting for approval of I-129f for 10 months), and now the status says "card was mailed on March 28". No interview of anything.

This is all really great, especially since we are planning on travelling in June and I had to send my EAD back because of a typo (missing hyphen). After multiple service requests spelling my name correctly, the approval notice is again missing the hyphen. Such a pain. If the card is missing it too, I will take it to an infopass appointment to ask if it is a big deal. If I had known how hard it is to put a hyphen in a name I would have just kept mine to start with!

Good luck to those of you still waiting!

Wanted to compare timeline, my status on 485 changed to ready to schedule interview on Feb 3. Have received my EAD and AP combo card couple of weeks ago. When can we expect the interview?

oops, I meant to do multiquote, sorry.

Hey thats great :-)

I am not sure we are adjusting from the same visa though? I came on a K-1 in Nov, applied for Adjustment of Status early Dec, NOA1 per text Dec 14, EAD approved late February and got the card early March.

my I-485 still says case received though.

I looked at the uscis website to see when Boston is working on (they are at June 9, as of January 31, information that was posted March 14). That makes it look like 7 month turnaround, but it is March now, so maybe more like 7-10 months for interview? Anybody's guess, really. And that is only if our cases are worked on at Boston, not transferred to another office like other people's have been (not from Boston though).

Not sure if that was helpful, but that's what I am going by :-)

Good luck!

Yes!!!! Day 103 and my husband's conditional green card is being produced!!!!

We were going to finish his vaccinations by this Friday - we only had two more to go and I found a civil surgeon that would transcribe the vaccines for only $10 in Dallas. I figured based on his age that he would only need one, but we wanted him to get the full set anyhow. But it looks like whatever the panel physician filled out was sufficient!!!

It would have been better if his name change had been completed (which should be done this Thursday...maybe) but I figure we can just use his name change document instead of switching out his entire card. We will do ROC in his new name when the time comes and will consider updating the conditional card sooner if need be.

May all of us get to the GC level soon!!!!! Come on, Team AOS December 2015!!!

Thats awesome! At least that went fast, after all the stuff with name change and EAD!

Yay!

When the IRS says TOTAL Income, they generally mean gross before taxes and other things are taken out.

Ok! Thanks so much!

I also have a question regarding the 2555-EZ. I have been able to figure out most of it based on previous comments (especially posts by Nich-Nick :-)), but the one thing I am not sure about is this:

When I do the sum for the total foreign income (converted to US Dollars and all that) on Line 17, do I use the pre-tax income (Brutto) or the post tax income (Netto) of what I made in my country each month? I paid taxes, there, obviously, plus social security etc.

Help would be great!

thanks!

Received my green card today!! Yay :-)

I hope that for everybody who is still waiting here, it's going to end soon and we will all hold our green cards in hands :-)

yay, that's great!

Anyone from Boston in Dec AOS filers?

Yes! Me :-)

Why?

Gosh - you make our name change issues look like small beans! I was hoping ours was close to a finale as the State mailed his background check to the family court on March 10th. However, the court is saying they haven't received it yet...

We applied for this SSN on Monday, so we are hoping to get the card this week. We really need it on or before March 22nd, this Tuesday so we don't need to make a sixth trip to the DMV as his driving test is on Wednesday morning. I hope April brings us immigration calm!!

Btw, it seems that the estimator shows the last week of December is being completed this week. We obviously still have some stragglers. I wonder why USCIS does that? Someone in the November thread was saying they are still waiting too! Why??????

I actually think you guys are asking way more of them to process - and I hope you get it sorted soon! - all i want them to do is to include a hyphen, you want to update the whole name sequence and add names!

We are planning on going to Europe for June (my husband gets his sabbatical then, finally, after having applied for it over and over again), so here is hoping this can be sorted within the next two months so I dont have to say, "sorry honey, you are off, but I cant leave the country". That would suck, but hey, first world problems :-D

So I had gotten my EAD card a few weeks ago - including a type. Called the hotline and they said to do an infopass. Did an online service request instead and just got the answer to it in the mail (not email, I was so surprised) that I need to send the card back, including documentation of what my name is supposed to look like. Collected all that, made copies of everything else, sent it back to NBC, and now I get to wait again. Oh joy.

I never thought including a hyphen would be this troublesome, I really didnt... :-P

Got my EAD card in the mail today!

Which is great, only it is missing the hyphen from my name, just like all the other docs, even after service requests... So I called AGAIN (also filed an online service request for type, for good measure) and was told to make an INFOPASS appointment - only there aren't any available like ever. Not a single one is open. Oh well. My husband has told me that maybe adding his name is more trouble that its worth and I should change it back :-D (my drivers license doesnt fit my name...)

Goo luck to all, I hope you get some movement soon too!

Received the card a couple of minutes ago! Valid for one year from the day of approval

woohoo! :-D

I also hyphenated my last name. My NOA's came without the hyphen. I put in a service request straight away. My name was updated. I received my RFE with the hypen and now my EAD/AP approval with the hyphen so if I were you I'd make another service request to get that corrected. At my biometrics appointment the officer told me they'd not include a hyphen unless my birth certificate included that. Obviously that was a load bull! Anyway, my advice is be persistent if you want the hyphen. I was.

...they already sent the card on Friday, so I have to wait until I get it and if it is missing on there as well I have to call again and ask for them to fix it then *urgh* one more thing to fix...

I also hyphenated my last name. My NOA's came without the hyphen. I put in a service request straight away. My name was updated. I received my RFE with the hypen and now my EAD/AP approval with the hyphen so if I were you I'd make another service request to get that corrected. At my biometrics appointment the officer told me they'd not include a hyphen unless my birth certificate included that. Obviously that was a load bull! Anyway, my advice is be persistent if you want the hyphen. I was.

Thanks for sharing your experience, I will do that!

just received the letter that tells me EAD and AP got approved.

case status for EAD says approved, but AP says case received.

Now waiting for the actual card :-)

BUT they got my name wrong AGAIN. They keep missing the hyphen, I already put in an update twice and now this notice doesnt have it again.

The guy at the biometrics did say they dont have it in the computer, so it wouldnt show up on his screen anyways, but shouldnt the notice have the correct one? Man, complicated. I really dont want my EAD/AP to not match my marriage certificate, that would suck when traveling.

VJ wont let me post my whole post -

anyways - good luck!

I-130 tend to take longer than K-1s, and sometimes USCIS just takes their sweet old time, just because they can, so try to relax and just take it as is. As someone who waited 10 months from NOA1 to NOA2 (on a K-1) I know how frustrating the wait can be. But honeslty - the only thing that helped me was to distract myself and ignore the fact that I was basically just waiting for something to happen. Eventually it will happen :-)

I'm having this same problem, the potomac service center where my case got sent to is new i was told (just opened 5 months ago), and i'm yet to see a case status from anyone

Are you Ir-1 or CR-1? Because all the people in this thread are K-1. Have you been able to find an Ir-1 Cr-1 thread?

Hoping someone can help me. Sorry new here, hope this is the right section.

I began dating my girlfriend early December last year, we met online and then for first time in person late December. To say it was something of a whirlwind romance is an understatement, we married early January and I flew back home not long after.

We want to begin processing a I-130 visa but my concern is this: we hadn't intended to get married when we met in December but get married we did and when I fly back to see her next month, what do I say to the border guard? Do I say I'm visiting friends or do I state I'm visiting my wife and get hauled through the interview process to prove not only we know each other but I intend to return home (which I do, my job as it happens requires a 3 month notice period). Any advice will be greatly and gratefully appreciated

there is an equivalent thread for Cr-1/Ir-1 filers that talks about this - http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/479894-yes-you-can-visit-ir1-cr1-version/

Go check it out, if you haven't already.Tthey are the ones actually doing it. Here it's mostly people who are going through the K-1 who are posting.

the offshot is that yes, it is possible. Bring ties and relax and be honest and actually plan on leaving again.

Good luck!

Congrats everybody!

Seeing all you guys updates I went and checked mine too (I usually only log in on Saturdays, to keep the mental stress to a minimum) and EAD says "Approved on February 23, 2016" and that they will email the approval notice etc. Nothing about Cards being produced, but looking at everybody there is little consistency.

No action on AP or I-485.

Tuesday was day 71 for me (counting from the day I got the text NOA1s - 76 days counting from the received date that I get on my case status).

yay!

You know what I am thinking, reading your guys discussion on how the change in the EAD processing may affect us? It feels like they are trying to make adjust just a lot less straight forward / fast. If it should take up to a year until you can work/drive/anything after getting here on a K-1 or adjusting from any other visa, fewer people will want to do it and more will go with the Spouse Visa instead. Dont you think? At with that, a lot more processing happen when the potential immigrant is still outside of the country, giving them more time to potentially unearth info on any given person.

After what happened in San Bernardino I honestly would not be surprised, if they decided to make the K-1 harder to choose/ get.

Sound good!

Good luck, I hope it works out for you :-)

it is possible. I entered with a K-1 Nov 2015, filed for AOS in Dec 2015 and started school in Jan 2016. I was signed up for school before we had sent in the AOS stuff. I have neither EAD not GC and the school didn't ask for any of it - the wanted me to explain what made me be here legal and I told them about the ins and outs of a K-1. They do have my K-1 and I-94 on record, as well as my marriage certificate. And I am doing a whole degree program.

None of the schools I looked at had an issue with my status. It is probably a good idea to talk to the school directly though. Their admissions office should have a good idea what you can and cant do (or be able to find out). Sometimes they make you pay out of state tuition until you have lived in state for a while, sometimes having an instate spouse also in school gets you in state tuition... it varies a lot.

Something to keep in mind is how you can get to school - if car is the only way, can you drive on your license? Get a CA license easily?

Good luck! Going to school is great for me, keeps me from turning into a total couch potato and forces me to engage my brain cells. I was having way too much fun not doing anything for way too long :-D

That's great news, congrats! Here in CA I have to wait until the EAD comes through before I can get a license, which is lame.

thank you!

I hope you get your EAD soon then, it is not fun having no licence that's valid.

MA is nice like that - their drivers manual even states that they do not care about your immigration status, if you are eligible to get one (which I was because I entered on a K-1) that is enough to get your licence. Something to the effect of "It is not the job of the case worker at the RMV to determine your legal status in this country. This is between you and USCIS/DHS."

My I-94 only runs another 2 weeks, so yeah, I am glad it got done now.

Still radio silence here at day 49 since the NOA date. I can see why people say that patience is a virtue!

Same for us - I did the biometrics about two weeks ago, and that seemed fine. But my status on the website says "case received" for all of them. Never had anything change at all.

Something that made me feel like I am one step further overall is that I passed my driving test today! Yay! Always going everywhere together was driving my husband insane. Now we are planning on getting a second car and he won't have to babysit me while driving anymore :-D And I can go to school on my own too.

The examiner was very nice and chatty, the entire thing took 10 mins, then he pronounced me a good driver, gave me the temporary stamp on the permit and wished me well. Very short and painless, I am so glad :-)

Just for the people's information here, her mom does not need to attend an interview at the consulate, she has an ESTA.

I helped a old dutch lady, when I arrived at the POE. They let us in together trough immigration even tough we didn't knew echother and I had a different package. I helped her all the way trough the TSA and stuff, make sure she befriends someone.

I have done the same - help people get to where they are going / take them with me. Either they looks helpless enough for me to approach them, or we sat next to each other on the plane, or once I had someone tag along from pre-security onwards. their daughter approached me in the check-in line (all on same flight) and asked could I make sure mom got to the right place when switching flights in FRA. I was happy to, I had time. So basically, there are helpful people around :-)

On her flight there should be someone who speaks Swedish (from the flight crew), dont they usually announce which flight attendant speaks which languages? I have had this happen on every transatlantic flight so far.

I have a friend whose mom doesnt speak English and she visits her in the US once a year - she has never had issues at immigration, the one time she missed a connection the airport personnel called my friend to talk to her about how to get them where she was going.

I hope your mom decides to do it! Good luck!