sharna413

Just now, Luckycuds said:

That is really strange you got an interview after the greencard; definitely keep us updated.

 

Also FYI don't ever destroy your immigration documents. You are going to want to reference them for removal of conditions and naturalization. 

I only destroyed all the copies I made, no originals. But all the originals have been filed back into my OCD filing cabinet that will take me a good couple of hours to collate again and re photo copy again. I'm just annoyed that I put so much effort into creating two identical packets in special folders with tabs and everything... One for the officer and one for me... and now I will need to redo them all again. 

I'll keep everyone updated on what happens....

In early May, my husbands Green-card showed up in the mail after our original interview was cancelled due to COVID-19. We were so happy to be done with this journey and put it all behind us... until...

My USCIS app gave me a notification last week that our interview had been scheduled. Weird, we already have the green-card - I just ignore it. On Saturday the official USCIS notice for the interview is in our mailbox. Weird again - I'm assuming it was some kind of mistake. Hubby calls this morning and whilst they couldn't tell him WHY he needs to go in for an interview after already having the card, he does.

I'm so annoyed! I have already destroyed all the millions of copies of documents I'd made and I've refiled all the original paperwork I'd pulled out. I gave a stack of photos that I'd originally printed out to my mum.... All those hours of work that I was annoyed I'd done for no reason, I now have to redo! 

You can see my original post about our journey here. 

Anyone else see anything similar to this? I've told hubby to call again in 2 weeks and see if the next person he speaks to still says we need to go back in - fingers crossed!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TIMELINE

**Both Australian's living in America together for the last 7 years - Been together almost 12 years. 

4/16/2013 - Moved to US together on J1 Visa

5/1/2014 - Returned to Australia to file for new visa

5/18/2014 - Both approved for E1 visa (treaty/trade - Starting our own Aus based visa in USA)

May 2014 - I (petitioner) was drawn in the green card lottery. Long wait ahead for my number to come to start that process

8/13/2014 - Moved back to USA together on E1 visa

8/18/2015 - Green card interview in Sydney Australia, approved on the spot (did not do AOS and stupidly, did not include my partner on my application)

7/3/2017 - We got married!  

7/7/2017 - Submitted Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

7/13/2017 - Received confirmation that application was received and given case number

2/2/2018 - Husband had interview at US Consulate in Australia to renew his E1 Visa - Approved for a further 4 years on the spot.

5/26/2019 - Form 1-130 approved, case sent to NVC. 

7/8/2019 - Submitted AOS, EAD, AP concurrently  

7/12/2019 - Application marked as received

7/25/2019 - Bio appointment

1/31/2020 - EAD Approved, AP Approved

2/1/2020 - Combo Card shipped/ AOS status changed to ready to schedule

2/6/2020 - Combo Card Received

2/28/2020 - Received interview letter

3/23/2020 - Interview Day! Cancelled due to COVID-19  

4/27/2020 - RFE for Medical - Mailed to San Antonio Field office same day

5/5/2020 - Status changed: Case Was Approved - Awaiting confirmation letter and further instructions
5/9/2020 - Green Card in hand! 

6/18/2020 - Case updated to Interview Scheduled 

6/22/2020 - Confirmed w/ USCIS that we really do need to go for interview.

7/29/2020 - Interview date

UPDATE: Status just changed again to this 😁😁😁😁

8 minutes ago, HSsweethearts4E said:

Congrats! May I ask where he was asked to mail his medical? Did he mail it to your local USCIS office or the NBC?

We sent it directly to the Field Office PO Box in San Antonio. I'm guessing they already have his whole file there because the interview was meant to be on March 23. 

Not 100% waived yet but case status changed to APPROVED this morning. 

Field Office - San Antonio, TX

Category - AOS - E1 Visa (him) married to LPR (me) 

TIMELINE

**Both Australian's living in America together for the last 7 years - Been together almost 12 years. 

4/16/2013 - Moved to US together on J1 Visa

5/1/2014 - Returned to Australia to file for new visa

5/18/2014 - Both approved for E1 visa (treaty/trade - Starting our own Aus based visa in USA)

May 2014 - I (petitioner) was drawn in the green card lottery. Long wait ahead for my number to come to start that process

8/13/2014 - Moved back to USA together on E1 visa

8/18/2015 - Green card interview in Sydney Australia, approved on the spot (did not do AOS and stupidly, did not include my partner on my application)

7/3/2017 - We got married!  

7/7/2017 - Submitted Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

7/13/2017 - Received confirmation that application was received and given case number

2/2/2018 - Husband had interview at US Consulate in Australia to renew his E1 Visa - Approved for a further 4 years on the spot.

5/26/2019 - Form 1-130 approved, case sent to NVC. 

7/8/2019 - Submitted AOS, EAD, AP concurrently  

7/12/2019 - Application marked as received

7/25/2019 - Bio appointment

1/31/2020 - EAD Approved, AP Approved

2/1/2020 - Combo Card shipped/ AOS status changed to ready to schedule

2/6/2020 - Combo Card Received

2/28/2020 - Received interview letter

3/23/2020 - Interview Day! Cancelled due to COVID-19  

4/27/2020 - RFE for Medical - Mailed to San Antonio Field office same day

5/5/2020 - Status changed: Case Was Approved - Awaiting confirmation letter and further instructions

Just wanting to provide an update on our case - Last week I made this post about hubby being asked to mail in his medical and today his status has updated to APPROVED!!

It says they are sending an Approval Notice with instructions on what to do next - No idea what that could be.... But we are super excited that this could all finally be over.

TIMELINE

**Both Australian's living in America together for the last 7 years - Been together almost 12 years. 

4/16/2013 - Moved to US together on J1 Visa

5/1/2014 - Returned to Australia to file for new visa

5/18/2014 - Both approved for E1 visa (treaty/trade - Starting our own Aus based visa in USA)

May 2014 - I (petitioner) was drawn in the green card lottery. Long wait ahead for my number to come to start that process

8/13/2014 - Moved back to USA together on E1 visa

8/18/2015 - Green card interview in Sydney Australia, approved on the spot (did not do AOS and stupidly, did not include my partner on my application)

7/3/2017 - We got married!  

7/7/2017 - Submitted Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

7/13/2017 - Received confirmation that application was received and given case number

2/2/2018 - Husband had interview at US Consulate in Australia to renew his E1 Visa - Approved for a further 4 years on the spot.

5/26/2019 - Form 1-130 approved, case sent to NVC. 

7/8/2019 - Submitted AOS, EAD, AP concurrently  

7/12/2019 - Application marked as received

7/25/2019 - Bio appointment

1/31/2020 - EAD Approved, AP Approved

2/1/2020 - Combo Card shipped/ AOS status changed to ready to schedule

2/6/2020 - Combo Card Received

2/28/2020 - Received interview letter

3/23/2020 - Interview Day! Cancelled due to COVID-19  

4/27/2020 - RFE for Medical - Mailed to San Antonio Field office same day

5/5/2020 - Status changed: Case Was Approved - Awaiting confirmation letter and further instructions

Hey All,

Hubby had his March 23rd AOS interview cancelled due to COVID-19, like many of you. This week we received an RFE asking for us to mail in his medical. We'd previously (Jan 2020) received the pink slip stating the medical was missing from the application and NOT to mail it but to bring it along to the interview. I'd deliberately left it out so as not to risk it expiring so he completed his medical that week so it would be ready for whenever the interview was scheduled. 

I've seen a number of people say that their interview has been waived for various reasons - Could this be the case here? I fedEx'd the medical within hours of opening that letter so it should arrive at the San Antonio Field Office today. So nervous/excited/impatient!

Love to hear others thoughts and experience. Our LONG visa journey below for reference...

Sharna

Both Australian's living in America together for the last 7 years - Been together almost 12 years. 

4/16/2013 - Moved to US together on J1 Visa

5/1/2014 - Returned to Australia to file for new visa

5/18/2014 - Both approved for E1 visa (treaty/trade - Starting our own Aus based visa in USA)

May 2014 - I (petitioner) was drawn in the green card lottery. Long wait ahead for my number to come to start that process

8/13/2014 - Moved back to USA together on E1 visa

8/18/2015 - Green card interview in Sydney Australia, approved on the spot (did not do AOS and stupidly, did not include my partner on my application)

7/3/2017 - We got married!  

7/7/2017 - Submitted Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

7/13/2017 - Received confirmation that application was received and given case number

2/2/2018 - Husband had interview at US Consulate in Australia to renew his E1 Visa - Approved for a further 4 years on the spot.

5/26/2019 - Form 1-130 approved, case sent to NVC. 

7/8/2019 - Submitted AOS, EAD, AP concurrently  

7/12/2019 - Application marked as received

7/25/2019 - Bio appointment

1/31/2020 - EAD Approved, AP Approved

2/1/2020 - Combo Card shipped/ AOS status changed to ready to schedule

2/6/2020 - Combo Card Received

2/28/2020 - Received interview letter

3/23/2020 - Interview Day! Cancelled due to COVID-19  

4/27/2020 - RFE for Medical - Mailed to San Antonio Field office same day

I need some guidance filling out the I-864 for my husbands Adjustment of Status Application. We both live together in America and have joint bank accounts (no individual ones), a house and we have been filing our tax returns jointly for the past two years.

Do I include his income and assets on the form? Or only mine? If I'm just including mine, do I need to split everything 50/50? For example, our house has about $60,000 in equity - Do I list a $60K assett or do I need to say $30k?

There is also a question (Part 5, Question 3) which asks if I am married to enter a "1" to indicate my household size. I obviously don;t want to add a "1" to this box if my husband is already being counted as the person I am sponsoring - But it reads really weird and considering how many of us would be filing this form on behalf of a spouse, I'm wondering if I'm getting something wrong here. Any assistance greatly appreciated!  

Hello!

My husband and I have been living in America for over 6 years now - We moved together as J1's, then returned to Australia for 3 months, started a business and moved back to America on the E-1 visa. During that time, I was accepted in the green card lottery and have now been a LPR for 4 years. Stupidly, my husband and i were not married at the time of my GC application and as he still had 3 years on his E1 visa, I didn't include him on my initial application. We married July 2017 and I immediately filed for i-130 and last month we received notification that it has been approved and sent to NVC. My husband is still on the E-1 visa with 3 more years until expiry (it was renewed last year). 

Do I apply for an adjustment of status for him now or do I need to wait until I hear from NVC? I was also told to apply for an EAD for him. Whilst he can work for our own company under the E1 visa, it would be nice if he had the rights to pick up additional work to help pay all these damn visa fees! 

Any guidance is much appreciated.

Cheers!   

Thanks for the input on this guys...

I didn't go too much into the details of my appointment being cancelled as I didn't expect that to be the main focus point of my question... It wasn't as simple as me calling up and cancelling.

As soon as I had my E1 visa approved and knew that I would be living in America once the interviews started to happen, I contacted the consulate in Sydney to find out what I would need to do. I had plans to be home in Melbourne in March/April of this year and they suspected that my case number would be current in March 2015 so advised me to contact them when I knew for sure and they would schedule my appointment for the time that I would be home.

When they released the information for my case number (current in April) I contacted the consulate to request my interview and they replied saying that they would schedule me for the first Tuesday in April (they only do Tuesday's) and they would email me with the details (time etc.) once they started allocating interviews for that day.

I received my interview details on the 2nd week of March but my interview was scheduled for the week after I had discussed with them which was going to mean me having to move A LOT of things around with my business and change flights/medical - everything (which I would have done). So I contacted them to confirm that they had changed the date and that I was not on the Tuesday they originally said they would put me on. They were very apologetic and advised that due the Easter Public Holidays in Australia messing up their usual scheduling, they were not able to get me on that day. It was actually the consulate at this point who asked me if I had considered applying for an AoS here in the US and provided me with the website link to look into it.

I asked them what would happen if I was not able to apply for an AoS (And I mentioned I do have another trip planned home for August 2015) and they said they would be able to reschedule my appointment in Sydney if I could not/ did not want to take the AoS option.

So yesterday when I spoke to someone in the USCIS office and they advised me that I am not eligible to even apply for a green card got me worried. I had not heard of this before but then again I have also not heard of any E1 visa holders who have won the DV so I have nothing to compare my situation to. I will take your advise SusieQQQ and stay with having my interview in Sydney. I am able to extend my stay in Australia by a week or two if I need to but if it the case that they hold my passport for a few months that would be a whole other story... Is there a way to know what the timeline would be on this?

To answer your comment Sm1smom about not being able to "handle" a DV application... I applied for an E1 visa for myself and my partner and against all odds, was approved for 4 years. There is no forum for E1 visa applicants with helpful information from people who have been there and done that. Just negative articles about all the people who have tried and failed and lawyers requesting $5000 per applicant to "look into" your case with a 10% success rate. I spent 100's of hours over 3 months ensuring I had every detail covered before I sent in our application. My DV application is ready to go with the exception of my medical and it was a walk in the park compared to what I went through last year. I don't know the process for an AoS application because until a week ago, I had no intention of applying for one. Everything I need for my DV interview is ready to go with the exception of my medical - I was fully prepared to interview in April before the consulate suggested the AoS option. So I am sure I will be perfectly fine. Thank you for your concern though...

I am living in America on an E1 visa. If you have put all of your application documents together and posted them to the us embassy where you will have your interview then all you will need is the documents the other people have listed in this thread. They will have your pack there to ask you questions. You wouldn't be asked about job prospects as being on an E1 you are taking your own company into America or being sent by your current employer so should already have employment well and truly sorted before the pack is sent. ..?

Hi SusieQQQ,

I hope I just spoke to someone uninformed as you suggest. I can't even say 100% that she totally understood what I meant about the Diversity Visa but she wouldn't allow me to explain anything.

I haven't notified KCC that I intend to do an AoS. Will that be a problem?

I also contacted the Consulate in Sydney today asking if they would reschedule my interview for when I am home again in August and they have said if I contact them on May 30th when they open up August interview bookings, they will schedule something for me. Would you recommend I do this instead? And if I do, how long would they be likely to hold my passport for as I will not be able to stay in Australia for more then a week, maybe two...

Really appreciate your thoughts

Thanks for the quick reply NigeriaorBust!

I have read through all of the information on this link but I am still not 100% convinced that I am going to be eligible - If it as easy as this site suggests then why would the lady from USCIS I spoke with today have told me that I am not able to apply? I was thinking it could have something to do with the intent to stay in America side of things as an E1 visa is meant to be for people who start a business in the US with the intention of eventually having American nationals run the business whilst I return home to Australia...

I don't want to post out $1400 worth of checks for something that I may not be able to pursue... Do you know of any E1 visa holders doing this?

Hello!

Hoping for a little advise from all of you DV experts

I am an Australian living in America on an E1 visa. (When I first applied for the 2015 DV lottery I was also living in America but on a J1 visa)

My case number became current in April of this year but I had to cancel my appointment at the consulate in Sydney as it was scheduled for the week after I was home visiting family (really bad timing!). When emailing the consulate to cancel my appointment they suggested I just contact my local USCIS here in Texas to apply for a change of status. Seemed pretty straight forward.

After having no luck making an appointment online at my local USCIS office (Just came up saying appointment unavailable) I called today to speak with an actual person about my options. The lady I spoke with (after repeating myself 3-4 times) told me that because I am on an E1 visa I am not eligible for any kind of permanent residency. She wouldn't elaborate, didn't ask for my case number and said she wasn't going to waste my time going into details, the answer was no and that's that. (Her words)

Apart from the fact that she was really rude... I am so confused now as to whether or not I am able to change over to the green card or not? Would it just be that I can't change my status here in the US? I know some people are required to return home which is fine, but I don't want to make the trip if it is the case that I am just going to be turned away because of the visa I am already on. Or that I jeopardize the chance of getting my visa renewed if I am not approved for the green card.

Does anyone out there have any experience with E1/DV visas that could offer some advise/assistance??

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Sharna