19wheels

attached is a screen grab from the email that I got this morning from the post office, for those not familiar with the Informed Delivery service they offer for free.  And I opened it this afternoon and her green card's been extended 18 months. so we are happy. Wish the same for all. 

My package arrived on the 13th and my check was cashed on Monday, and according to USPS Informed Delivery, the NOA comes today.  If you’re unfamiliar with informed delivery, it’s a free servixe from the USPS where they email you a photo of every piece of mail you are receiving each day.  Just go to the USPS website and sign up.  Could be handy if you’re out of town, the country, etc and want peace of mind.  

california filer here. My package was delivered on the 13th, and this morning, the 24th, my bank shows the funds coming out. I'm hoping this means that the NOA will arrive in the mail within a few days. I'll keep you posted and update my timeline when I've got the NOA. 

Funny how things change. I remember feeling lucky when our K1 went to California because it was faster than all the other processing centers. 

My wife's 751 was sent overnight on 7/12/2018

UPS shows it being delivered on 7/13/2018 (my wife's green card expired two days later, on 7/12/2018)*

My bank still shows no sign of the check being cashed, so I'm hoping that will happen sometime by the end of next week, and shortly thereafter we'll get the NOA letter. 

*it wasn't our intention to wait until the last minute to take care of this, but things happened that we couldnt control, and here we are. 

I was looking for some clarification on another issue and came across this thread and wanted to chime in with my own experience, because it differs from others. My wife is colombian, and when she went for her interview she didn't speak much english. My spanish at the time was mediocre. We didn't bring a translator because we thought we could just hack our way through it. Absolutely not allowed. They want to have each question asked in perfect spanish (in this case) so they get an accurate answer. In retrospect, that makes complete sense and I should have known better. So the interviewer shut down our interview immediately. I was told they never reschedule, but for some reason they did. I was so worried. the next time we assumed that there would be a translator there for us (the first time the interviewer said "there's no one here today that can translate for you", which I took as "usually there is someone, but not today). Second mistake. They don't provide translators. And I should also mention that the person who was doing the interview was fluent in Spanish, but she wasn't about to be the translator, because that's not what she's supposed to be doing. Second interview canceled immediately. Because someone loves us up there, we were granted our request for another interview, brought a translator, and we passed. My advice is not to take anything lightly or for granted, or better yet, put as much care into it as this person is to you. I hope it all works well for all who are sincerely trying to create a better world. thanks

Thank you so much.

just an additional follow up. The green card showed up in USPS tracking as having been delivered on July 23rd, but we live in a condo, and it was not in our mailbox. I've contacted the USPS and they are trying to figure out where it is. Because we've got the stamp, I'm not too worried. I put this information here as a cautionary tale for others. I was able to tell that it was delivered by looking up our case number on the USCIS website, which provided delivery tracking information. Very helpful.

we went back today and were able to talk to an officer, who understood our situation and gave us an I-551 stamp. Our situation is that my wife is 6 months pregnant, and hasn't been home to see her family since December. Not the longest of times, but in October we had a miscarriage, and have been told that she should avoid flying later in the pregnancy. And now seats are filling up on planes, so having the option to purchase a ticket for the near future with confidence is a big relief for everyone. Btw, yesterday I was able to look on the USCIS site and see that her green card was granted, which inspired us to go to the USCIS office today in hopes of getting the stamp. Thank you all for your input and inspiration.

no, she doesn't have anything say that it was approved, but wasn't going to be returning until I receive it, and I was going to bring it to her, and we would return together.

OK. We had the interview today and were approved. It is a huge sigh of relief. I am not looking to press my our luck, but I will ask the same question and hopefully will get the same answer? If she leaves the country before she has her green card in hand, but I am able to bring it to her before she returns to the United States is she technically doing anything wrong? I understand that practically anything granted to you can be revoked (for example Advanced Parole doesn't grant you the right to automatically re-enter the country). But as I think this through, the Green Card is what lets her re-enter. Her Advance Parole allows her to travel to and from while her status is pending. He status changes the day that her green card is in effect, so there isn't a time within there that she was unable to leave and return to the country. So she should be good, right?

thank you so much

yes, I feel very fortunate. I feel confident about the interview, as we have all of the documents and then some, and she has no criminal record or plans to join any anti-government groups. But I understand the chicken hatching/counting process. I guess I was really only asking "in theory". thanks for the reply.

Well, we just got back from a One Pass appointment that I requested to find out what our status was. Turns out we've got an interview scheduled for next Friday. I will share this lesson: Never assume that just because they had your correct mailing address before that they will continue to use it. We live in an apartment. Our address has never changed. When we were there today we found out that they had left the apartment number off of the address that they sent the latest interview date information to. had we not requested the One Pass appointment today we would have unknowingly missed that third chance they were giving us. By the way, we'll be bringing an interpreter to this one FOR SURE!

Thanks for the invaluable information once again. Now for my next question. ASSUMING my wife passes the AOS interview next week, is she free to leave the country and return, using the same Advance Parole document as before? It won't expire by date, only expire possibly by the fact that her status would I guess no longer technically be "pending".

thank you all.

I can't believe that I'm in this situation, and it was completely avoidable. Now I'm scared and could use words of wisdom more than anything. And perhaps others can learn from my mistakes.

My wife had her interview for her I-485 scheduled for mid March of this year. She is from Colombia, and does not speak english well, but my spanish is pretty good, and she's learning. However the day before the interview I got a migraine headache that took me out of commission, and, long story short, we missed the interview. I called when I was able (after the fact) and later got a letter saying that our case was reopened, and later another letter came with the new interview date. There was no way that we were going to miss this one.

We arrived at the interview and waited, and then were called back into the office. The officer asked if we had an interpreter, and I said that we did not. I told her that I could speak to my wife, as I always did, and explain things to her. It was my impression that USCIS had interpreters there for people that needed them. At this point though, I did not yet know this was not the case. My misunderstanding was further strengthened when the agent told me "we don't have anyone here that can do that for you today", as if we had just caught them on an off day. To her credit, she let me continue after being sworn in. Eventually she stopped the interview, explaining that the questions only got more technical as the interview went on. This was disappointing. She scheduled a new date and told us to come back. She printed out a list of things to bring, including the last page of the medical forms. For some reason, and she said that she she's it often, the page that shows the immunization records was not included in her materials. An important thing to note: I noticed on my wife's application papers a large stamp that said DENIED on it. I asked about it, and she said that when you don't show up for an interview you are automatically denied, and that we were lucky it was reopened. Of course I felt extremely luck.

We went to the doctor and got what was needed, and returned a couple of weeks later. And this is where the ultimate problem began.

I was still under the impression that an interpreter would be provided. When I found out that it was our responsibility I was in shock, and heartbroken. The agent of course explained that was not the case, and briefly stepped out to consult the agent who gave the first interview. He came back and said that we would try it again, with me as the interpreter, and swore me in. We continued through the interview, getting to the questions where of course they are just a series of "no" responses (Have you ever done bad things, etc). I can't remember the question that tripped me up, but whatever it was, I just did not know the proper words for it, and being an honest rule following person, had to say that I just didn't know how to say it. At that point, he stopped the interview and said that they would let us know within a couple of weeks what their decision was. To say he was not warm, understanding or encouraging is a bit of an understatement. Of course I understand the mistake was ours, but all it was was a mistake, albeit a big one. If I had understood that we needed to bring a translator of course I would have brought one. We have done everything else successfully to this point, I certainly wouldn't have stopped at that.

So now we wait, and I am scared. I have read that an appeal is tough to win. I have read that nobody gets denied twice and is allowed an appeal. I will tell you that my wife and I have ample proof of our relationship. We got married in my mother's backyard in September (with photos). We had a miscarriage in October (with hospital bills). We are 21 weeks pregnant now (with photos.) And any grey area in between we have color photos documenting our relationship. So absolutely none of that is an issue, and has never been questioned.

I looked back at the first letter for the interview (the missed interview) as well as the second. Both say to bring an interpreter if you do not speak english. I understood that, but felt I was qualified to do it. But when the pressure was on, I just wasn't. But I looked at the letter that we left the original interview with (which was the second interview date due to missing the first) and NOWHERE on it does it say to bring an interpreter. It listed a lot of other things, specific to our case, to bring. We brought all of those things. I am not trying to prove that I'm right, only point out why I was under the impression that an interpreter would be provided.

Needless to say, I love my wife very much, and she loves me. We will have a boy in November and I can't imagine not being with her.

To further complicate things, she was planning on returning to Colombia for a few weeks in late June. She has was approved for advance parole, but I have no idea IF she is denied if that means that traveling is a bad idea.

I think that is most, if not all, of the pertinent information. If any experts out there have any advice, please pass it along.

I am very grateful to this community already. Thank you.

my fiancee has an upcoming interview. I had been checking for available dates on a regular (Is hourly regular? lol) basis. Nothing. Nothing. nothing. Then I got a message from another VJ member saying dates had been made available, and got one that was about two weeks later. Perhaps those were only visible by K1 applicants, perhaps they were only available for a very short time. I guess my advice is don't think that because you didn't see anything available for the last three days that something won't be available when you check tomorrow at 10:15 am.

Thank you! So did we. ?

On the website we are all checking for interviews, it says that one function that can be done by calling the embassy is to schedule an interview. I called the embassy yesterday. The woman who answered the phone really didn't have any answers that gave me much direction as to how to make anything go more quickly. By the sound of it (It's amazing that I can have conversations with embassy employees, or NVC employees, and get off the phone with only a small amount of increased knowledge as to what exactly the process is. lol) the people answering the phones and potentially arranging interviews are looking at the same screen that we are.

I asked her if it was common to not have times available. I asked her if there was a certain day that dates are made available, in general. I asked her why there hadn't been dates available for at least 2-3 weeks. Her response was that she had at least one degree of separation from the consulate, so she did not know what was happening nor have any idea as to the rhyme or reason the consulate does what they do. It was about five minutes of conversation that wasn't quite so helpful.

Ultimately, she said the only thing that I could do is to either keep calling, or check online. So, for on last time, I asked her if there was any advantage to calling as opposed to simply checking online, which I can do from my phone. She said there was nothing more that could be done and checking online was just as effective as calling.

If you've read all of this, and then go back and read it all another three times, you will have successfully recreated my experience on the phone yesterday.

If anyone knows/hears different, I would love to hear. I realize the information given on the phone is not always accurate. Sadly.