rachel175

UPDATE: 

June 17th - Received work & travel authorization card

June 26th - Received interview appointment notice

June 30th - Interview  

2 minutes ago, azblk said:

oh ok I assumed your i-130 was already approved based on your second sentence. I think your i-130 is only approved after interview especially for marriage based cases. But good for you. This is the first time I have heard of i-485 being expedited let alone successfully. I have read in the uscis  policy manual that any expedites are granted on a case by case basis and based on local policy discretion - in USCIS speak that means rarely.

 

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume1-PartA-Chapter12.html

I was also under the impression it's particularly rare for marriage-based rather than employment-based GCs.. but not impossible is the thing to focus on!  

Well I will report back when I actually have the green card in hand - better not to get excited before it's actually happened.

1 minute ago, azblk said:

Congratulations and good luck to you. Where there is a will there is a way. Did it help that you already had an approved i-130?

I assume as my status had already switched to "ready to schedule interview" that does imply the i-130 was approved, but she didn't mention it today at InfoPass and my I-130 status online hasn't changed in months.

From my earlier phone conversations with them it sounded like in these concurrent filing cases there is always the option to submit expedite request for I-130 (my spouse would have had to do that obviously) if that's the hold up, and THEN separately for the I-485. I don't think that would be worthwhile though, to my knowledge processing of the I-130 isn't usually much of an issue. 

Good morning, all.

I've just had my expedite request relating to concurrent filing of I-485 and I-130 approved (no lawyers used at any point in the process) and wanted to share my timeline. I'd previously been told expediting I-485 is extremely difficult, but it turns out it is not impossible, don't give up!

Feb 17th - mailed concurrent forms I-485, I-130, I-131 and I-765 and all fees and supporting information.

March 4th - received receipt notices, dated Feb 21st

March 17th - received Biometrics appointment letter

March 27th - Biometrics completed at local USCIS office

May 2nd - contact local congressional representative, request help with USCIS and provide details of application / privacy form

May 3rd - local congressional representative's office call to say they have sent a request for information relating to my case, and will be in touch

May 15th - receive letter from representative's office saying my case is stuck at background check phase (out of USCIS control), and nothing can be done at this time

May 16th - call USCIS who reiterate point above, stating I have no options and can't even file expedite request at this time (for I-485) as I-130 hasn't been approved yet

May 17th - schedule InfoPass appointment at local office

May 25th - status update online: ready to schedule interview

                - checked local office processing times, >6 months behind

                - start preparing expedite request to take directly to local office 

June 1st  - attend InfoPass with following information:

                   1. Cover letter explaining reason for expedite request. I have a job offer with a start date in July, so I described how my case meets several of their expedite criterial: 1. work for                        non-profit institution "in furtherance of the social and cultural interests of the united states" (it's a cancer hospital), 2. in the interests of the US government (it's indirectly                                funded by the National Institutes of Health), and 3. it's my only source of income, so I will suffer severe financial loss if I'm unable to take it.   

                   2. Offer letter from company stating required start date, permanent residency requirement, and source of funds

                   3. Grant Award Notice from NIH to the institution

                   4. Proof of company non-profit status and several articles demonstrating their contribution to the community

                   5. List of my manuscripts submitted to academic journals while previously employed at this institution

                   6. Bank statements showing I have no other source of income.   

They evaluated this information very carefully (over 30 minutes between the girl who helped me and her supervisor), checking every single detail of the documents I provided and asking questions relating to name change, start dates etc. Ultimately she told me the request had been approved, and today they will contact the service center my application is at, have it sent to the local office and schedule our interview the day it is received. She suggested the interview should take place within 2-3 weeks, and the GC will be processed immediately thereafter. Based on those estimates I expect to have it no later than July.

I should also note that when I turned up for my InfoPass appointment I had not already submitted an expedite request over the phone and waited for them to contact me to ask for more evidence. I have found this method isn't very effective as the person you call has no power to subjectively evaluate your case and they don't take any supporting information from you at that point, so the request can often be rejected outright. I made the request and had it approved all while sat at the InfoPass appointment with a USCIS representative. 

Had my application not been held up at the background check phase (still don't know why this was), I think I could have gone down this infopass expedite request path sooner than I did, which would have made this whole process very quick by USCIS standards. I advise thinking very carefully about how you can frame your situation to meet the criteria they specify. When I first read the list I assumed my case wouldn't meet any of them, but if you take the time to plan carefully I'm sure there are many other scenarios that indirectly fit these categories. Take more evidence than you think you can possibly need, go through the list of criteria and include everything that could possibly support those points in even a small way. They will look at all of it, and she seemed pleased (and surprised) I had a folder full of documents for her. 

Importantly, don't see a few lawyers on google say something is impossible, and give up. Almost nothing is impossible, you just need to a) commit a substantial amount of time to carefully figuring out what exactly you want to portray in your expedite request and how to say it clearly and concisely, b) be creative and thorough in preparing a supporting package, c) seek the help of a local congressional representative (this time may not have helped, but they have expedited an EAD very efficiently for me in the past), and d) try to go directly to a person at a USCIS office and speak to someone face to face. 

Best of luck to you all!

Apologies for starting a new thread on a widely discussed topic, I just felt given my own frustration during the process it might be helpful if I shared my success story in getting the OPT expedited, having learned a few lessons along the way.

I was offered a job starting on May 4th, but I had only submitted my OPT application March 27th as I wasn't expecting to find something so soon. I ultimately ended up managing to get the EAD card in a total of 47 days, which could potentially have been less if I'd started to panic and take action earlier.

Below is the process I went through:

March 27th - Mailed application

I highly recommend trying the local congressional office route if you are in a dire situation. I'm sure they don't want to be inundated with expedite requests, but in an emergency, I think that was the step that really made the difference. I had to start a week later than I hoped, but ultimately it worked out well given that I could have been waiting until July.

Good luck, and please feel free to ask any questions.