sabellic

I came on a CR1 and I cant tell you how many times I packed my bags that first year.  Or have thought about it since then. I'd still move back to Canada (just not where I was living before) but the economy there is more difficult. My husband is from the south and does nothing but complain about city life and city people. He hates driving more than 5 minutes to anything but hates that we can see into our neighbors yard.  
 
I had PPD but hadnt had any issues in years until I moved here.  I almost died a few years ago and finally sought some help, so Im glad youve found some sooner than I did. 
 
This isnt easy. Just keep going.  You have to learn to support yourself too. Sometimes we have to pretend the loved one isnt there to lean on so we learn to stand on our own two feet. We can do it when we're alone but it's harder when that person is right there.  But our relationships are better when we can. 

Hey guys, on May 14th the tracker said my case was approved. Both interviews were waived in my case, I did biometrics for both AOS and ROC. 🙂

Congrats, hope the same happens to me 😂

The packages aren't just put down somewhere like when you get your mail at home. This is a government office with lots of personal information it'll be fine. 

Got my I-797 18 month extension yesterday! About 1 week total time between time received at lockbox and letter received at home. Such a relief!! 

You get a stamp in your passport as proof of your legal status in the country if you for some reason don't have a greencard.

For instance if your greencard gets lost you can get a stamp while waiting for your new greencard (it can take up to a year to replace your greencard), or if your greencard had some errors and you had to send it back you can get a stamp. So those who have a greencard or have a greencard coming their way won't get a stamp, they will just be told to wait until the physical greencard shows up. To get a stamp you need to provide USCIS with proof that you have a pending application (that you ordered a new card etc).

You get a stamp by making an infopass. 

Got my green card in the mail today 

Status just updated to "card was mailed to me"! Earlier today I had a (double) interview for a job that went really well, and I'm assuming that, pending all of the HR paperwork being processed, it's mine if I want it. I told them that I should have my card in hand within a week or so but was definitely worried I'd end up with an outlier case that would take a month. Guess not!
 
Today was a good day. Things are finally coming together!

I woke up this morning, saw my husband off to work, and laid in bed for a bit feeling sorry for myself. I think that we all need mornings like that sometimes. I thought about how I needed to walk over to the local library to print off the privacy release form that the senator's office sent me yesterday, filed a service request for the I-485 (because why not?), and decided to call and try to start another service request for my EAD after breakfast. I made myself a bagel and some tea, sat down on the couch, and noticed I had notifications on my phone. From the USCIS tracker. About my EAD and AP. In the rush of nerves, I temporarily forgot how to use my phone, then saw that the tracker hadn't updated. Then I temporarily forgot how to use both my iPad and the USCIS site, but when I figured it out...crying. Lots of it.
 
I don't even have the words to express my relief.
 

nope, that's why I'm hoping my interview will be waived

Received an email this evening notifying us of approval for Green Card. We apparently were able to bypass the interview. A pleasant surprise, and about 4-5 month earlier than expected. WHEW!

We hadn't checked status for a few days, but just checked it and found out my wife's AOS was approved on April 25 without interview

I've already promised to take my husband out for dinner when we get that notification, both to celebrate and as a thank you for putting up with how crazy I've been about it, haha. 

New Card is being produced!  Green card is on the way.  Finally can step away from immigration stuff for a bit.  And my wife's 1st day of work is today.  Finally.  Next step is to teach her how to drive.
 
11/23/16 - Filed
03/16/17 - Approved
03/29/17 - Received EAD/AP Card
04/17/17 - New card being produced
 
Good luck to the rest who are waiting.

Hi Everyone! I just thought i'd update this thread.  My status changed today to "New card being produced" So yayy! No interview requested . 

So here I am at work on a crazy busy Monday and my phone starts blinking -- this girl has her green card in production!!
 
My coworkers (who already tease me about my Canadianess) now think I'm crazy bc of how excited I got.  
 
So glad I have a break from USCIS. 
 
I had to share this news with folks who feel the struggle.  And my husband is still asleep and didn't answer the phone when I called!!  

Try and remember that at least you're here with the one you love

I also didn't want to change my name and applied for AOS with maiden name

I am so sorry I made an honest mistake. I'll walk to a corner and think about what I've done. 

Very interesting that you say this. The updates the OP got were those of a NOID. It's great that it wasn't, but that's clearly because they pushed through the wrong status update. Are you expecting ppl to be psychic? 
Congrats OP! wonderful to hear!

Guyyyzzzz!!!
 
We got approved on the spot about 5mins ago!!
Yaaaaay!!!!
The interview was very easy! We got a lady and at first we thought oh god but it turned out that she was a married Lesbian officer which was very good for us! She seemed to enjoy our case very much! She didn't want to see that much evidence at all. She only took our joint tax return and bank account and that was it. 
 
I want to thank you guys for helping us out! You guys are the bomb! 
Good luck to everyone who is still waiting on their approval, interview, etc! You can do this! Just have faith and believe in yourself! 
Thank you guys once again and all the luck in this world to all of you!
 
xoxo 

Just got 4 text messages from USCIS, AOS was approved on day 136 

We got caught up in the whole family life stuff, so we stopped actively monitoring the Case status.
She checked her email today, and had a message from USCIS on 03-31-2017.
 
I-485 has been approved, Now we are just waiting for the card to be produced. We are very happy that we did not have to do an interview, everything has been such smooth sailing during this entire process.

In case anyone is interested, and more so in case another person ever searches for a similar experience on VJ, here is our experience with AOS after termination of removal proceedings. 
 
Well, it was a poopy experience, lol. The local office was beyond busy, we arrived at 915 and didn't get seen til about 1015. Got a lady IO and I somehow knew she would nitpick us. She started asking about how we met and telling us that our i130 may not have been adjudicated properly.....literally almost had me in tears at hearing this. We had to explain to her that because we got married before my husband got put into removal, an interview wasn't required but we were aware it was a chance. Then she started in about the i130 receipt date being after we dealt with ICE...cue more explaining. Says an interview for this would have been beneficial. I say well it took 11mo to approve, and she said they were probably deciding to interview or not. Fine. She gets on how we met, she tried to twist my words of saying I was at X place alone and he was with a friend who he blew off to hang out with me. Asks me, but I thought you said you were alone. Again, I clarify that I did say that, it was my husband who blew off the buddy to hit on me. She asks for the name of my husband's room mate at that time. Asks how we got engaged and when. Asks about what we have in common. We say language, travel, etc and religion. Which one is that? Muslim....
 
Cue the religion questions. Why didn't we have a mosque wedding? Because we didn't think it would take this long to get back to Morocco to have the big one. Well, so your legal civilmarriage isn't technically valid in your religion? My god, she is trying hard to make us screw ourselves. I explain that we are the equal of Easter christians, we don't go to the mosque weekly or even monthly. Yes our faith is important to us but we are also moderate and live far away from the mosque anyway. And that our marriage is valid for us because we are supposed to follow the laws of the land we live in firstly. My husband looked like he was about to pass out at this point. 
 
She flips deep into our file and says to me, "I see you aren't new to this." Meaning I filed for my ex husband about 10yr ago. And I say yes, I filed for my ex 10yr ago. She lets that go. She gets on the fact that I never changed my DL address from my mothers address, it's been 3yr. Why? Because I kept it in her address so I don't pay both county, city and new car highway tax by leaving it in that address. She says it's a discrepancy and explains to us that this is usually a key piece but my explanation makes sense, she knows how high NC newer car taxes are. 
 
We hand over two leases and 2.5 yr worth of detailed bank statements, printed every 3-4mo. She uses her eagle eyes to pick one damn thing to get on, our big tax refund deposit. Why is it in this name? Who is this? Why does it have an & sign in there, I've never seen it this way. I explain we have long first and last names, they used our first initial and what they could fit of our last names. Still asking. I finally present our tax transcript which is address to the same cut off names and this pleases her on that issue. At this point, I'm ready for a shot of vodka. She starts to click on her computer and tells us her connection is down, wait a second she has to call to see what's going on. After this she flips the hard ### act off and starts to smile and look semi human. Says she is sorry she can't approve us now because there is no connection to do the final security check. Basically to make sure hubs wasn't a criminal recently, and to expect something in the mail in 5-7 days pending the final security is good. 
 
Meanwhile im trying to get her to look at my damn 100$ worth of album and printed photos, which she wasn't interested in. Didn't even look at them. Didn't want our utilities. Didn't want anything else after the bank and lease stuff really. She didn't even ask us the yes/no questions on the i485....I give her some of our car insurance stuff. She seemed to want older things and said so, that anyone can add someone to something 2mo ago. I get that. I hand over emergency contact stuff from my kids school like 2yr ago and 3yr worth of zoo memberships. Now she is making small talk and saying she is really sorry she has no connection but that nothing appears negative in our file. Again 5-7 days for her decision. She can't tell us for sure approved without that damn internet. 
 
I ask her one one last time about our i130, because she has went and scared the life out of me about it. Is our i130 ok? I need to call my lawyer and fill her in. Yes, she says everything is ok. She thinks we should have filed concurrent and had an i130 interview and adjust in front of a judge but she thinks our lawyer opted for the long way to save money for us...she says adjusting in court is a lot of money, so she gets why. By the end of everything she was pretty decent and only made a copy of our DLs because of the address thing, and said she wouldn't be requesting any other info. 
 
Our lawyer says the 5-7 days thing is goo because a denial takes months. We were not asked anything personal about each other, about our kids, it was literally the 4-5 dagger questions and done. 
 
I wont believe it's approved til I see the card in my mail box. 

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!
OMG... I'M SO HAPPY! I SCREAMED IN THE PHONE TO THE RECRUITER! HAHAHAHAHA