Phillabuster

Great news today from Phoenix! We were approved for my wife's conditional green card! First off, thank you to everyone who helped us come up with creative ideas for the evidence section of our interview on the board I made a few days ago. Secondly, I thought I'd share our experience for anyone else who's going through the AOS process. I know reading some experiences really helped calm me down!

We filed about a month after we were married, if that (our wedding day was on April 1st, 2017). We got our first interview letter in July of 2018. This wait time seems to be normal for immigrants of Australia in our region, as we were lucky enough to meet an Aussie Uber driver who also came on a K1 who gave us the same timeline. Unfortunately, we lost the letter and had to re-schedule. The second letter we got came about a month later, on August 21st. We only had two weeks to prepare this time so we started scrambling. We managed to lose three pieces of paper, but had everything else.

Today we woke up early and got there before they opened, as our interview was scheduled for 15 minutes after opening. E-A-R-L-Y! We went through security, where they were very nice, checked in with the receptionist (also very nice), and sat and waited for about 45 minutes. Definitely bring a good book! They also let us in with our Nintendo game systems, so if you have kids, I imagine they'd let them play a game system with the sound off if they need something to do. We wound up not needing ours, though.

A nice woman called us and took her through the building to her office. It was warmly decorated and smelled nice. There was a webcam and fingerprint reader. She let us know we were being recorded, and asked for my wife's index fingerprints from each hand. Then she swore us in and told us everything looked good, but that she would take a look if we had anything extra to add.

I wound up handing her a wedding book I made from Shutterfly (I used to work in their design department). It's a 40+ page hardcover lay-flat book of all our wedding photos in chronological order. We also had the idea to clearly label a photo of each of our wedding party with their full names and their relationship to us. Had no intention to use it for the interview, but it worked out nicely and she complimented that point, if you're looking for ideas! We also included pieces of our vows, photos of our wedding venue, photos of us just after the wedding in our nice duds, and a bunch of wide shots of our family & friends co-mingling.

I offered her the rest of our evidence but I guess the book was enough because she said it wouldn't be necessary and she didn't need to keep anything. Here was a list of the things we'd brought as evidence. The bolded items are ones that she eventually decided to include in our file for good measure.

-Printed wedding photos
-Thank-you magnet for the wedding
-Full selection of wedding stationery
-Facebook photo collage proving ongoing relationship (whole year + half)
-Facebook photo collage proving shared residency (whole year + half)
-Thank-you/congratulation card from officiant
-Certified copy of marriage certificate
-Hotel reservation for latest vacation under wife's name
-Screenshot of wife's phone number on utility bill
-3 pages of IM chats featuring candid couple conversations
-Full commemorative printout of our officiant's entire ceremony, including vows

All in all, it took about 5 minutes before she let us know that we were approved. She even very kindly let us know the card was already in production. Predicting a delivery between 1-4 weeks. We were then able to ask her questions we had about lifting conditions on the card and applying for my wife's citizenship.

If I had any advice, it would be to over-prepare! If you feel over-prepared, you're probably okay. : ) We also spent a little time discussing some practice questions and getting our dates and house details correct. We wound up not needing to do so, but we felt much better. You can get a little creative with the evidence you bring, too. The goal is just to prove that you live together and genuinely care for one another. They also didn't mind that my wife and I were holding hands or leaning on each other in the interview, either. Just be yourselves, be honest, and treat it like a job interview (down to the attire).

Best of luck to anyone going for their interview soon! I hope your experience is as easy and problem-free as ours was. Thank you again to this amazing and supportive community. We couldn't have done it without you!

If you've made it through this textwall, feel free to leave your own experiences down below!

Great news everyone, we passed on the spot! I'll start a new thread with the topic so people who are nervous can read about our experience. Our IO did seem to appreciate our catalog page, sticky note tabs, and our sizable (and catagorized!) facebook photo timeline. Couldn't have gone better. Thanks again for all your help! Wishing all of you a similarly hitch-free experience!

1 hour ago, KozmicBlues said:

I hope everything went smoothly! I'm also in Phoenix so I'm especially curious and hopeful! How long did it take you guys to get an interview from when you first filed? We're still waiting for the EAD (filed in April) and I know the interview is going to take much longer, but just curious as I haven't seen many people from the Phoenix office who went through K1>AOS. 

You'll do great! It varies a bit, but in our case it was 1.5 years. Another Australian we met had a 1.5 year timeline too. We were never able to file the EAD (which wound up being okay- my wife's an artist and never had the opportunity to build a portfolio for the career she wants, so we just decided that she could take care of the house while I worked, which would give her time to work on her own projects).  I hope you get yours soon! I can't imagine they'd keep you waiting too long.

Hey guys! Just wanted to give you a quick thanks for all the inspiration. After some digging and soul-searching, I managed to dig up a hotel booking under my wife's name for our last big vacation to Vegas, a copy of our lease agreement (they won't give us the original, hmmph!) which had her name on it (YAY!), some IM chats about boring couple stuff like dinner plans and bedtimes, a screenshot of her listed as contact info on our utility account, and a whole bunch of photos we'd taken and kept on Facebook of my wife and I standing in and around our shared apartment and condo, including some moving announcements.

I think that, when coupled with the photos we have from mixed family parties, we should be golden. We have all our dates straight, we drew the house for fun since we're both artists, and reviewed our wedding album. Honestly a nice way to spend the evening before something so stressful! If we get RFE'd, we'll easily be able to provide information or sign up for additional things right away. We're not especially worried anymore. Thank y'all SO much for all the amazing ideas and inspiration! Nothing a morning of digging around couldn't fix. : )

We'll update this thread with our experience tomorrow when we get home! We've heard horror stories, but we've also heard from people who seemed over-prepared. We're hoping ours will be the latter, ha!

I also printed out new forms for the ones we were missing with our updated information. We did have a move between filing and now, and I had a job change. I'm expecting to maybe get RFE'd to provide additional evidence about my income, but since the wages were an increase and it's the truth, it should be very easy to get ahold of the evidence they need.

4 hours ago, Naes said:

I opened on Wells Fargo, my friend opened one in Bank of America.

 

you need a proof of address(if opening personal account, nothing if getting add to a joint account) and proof of identification(passport) and I used a credit card for second proof of identification.

No ssn nothing.

 

for joint accounts as long as both people are available you can add a person even with a tourist visa as they won’t even look at a visa.

Weird! The banks here kept quoting the Patriot Act and refused to help us. : ( Again, it must be because we're in a border state. People are really paranoid here. There must be pressure from local law enforcement, which is 100% a thing where we live. (In my opinion, it's ridiculous and does more harm than good.) Glad you were able to get it though! : )

Thank you everyone! If we have issues, I'll try getting our lease agreement, which should have her listed as a resident of the building. I didn't think to do that, but it's readily available! (Of course our interview would be scheduled right after a holiday.) I'll also look into a credit card. Hopefully we don't have to use it in order to open it.

RE: the banks not requiring an SSN, literally every one where we live requires one. We're in a border state and I assume that's why. We were heartbroken when we found that out.

This really is a nightmare situation for us. I'm really worried now. I hope this has a happy ending. : ( I'm a little skeptical at the idea that we're the first people to misplace documents before and that there's no way to fix it, though. Surely if we sent it off and got to the interview part, the documentation exists? With all the paperwork they ask for you to keep in triplicate, it just seems like a strange thing for one or two papers going missing that you filled out accurately, recently, and already submitted completely throwing an irreparable spanner in the works.

Please though, I appreciate all the insight, especially from people who have had this happen!

10 hours ago, debbiedoo said:

^^ that for #1. proving he relationship is bonafide should be the easiest thing of all of it. you dont need a SS card to do so. 

as for #2, are you on the way to the interview RIGHT NOW? did you not have another copy at home or these things on your computer? You'll get an RFE if you dont have them (the 485 and 864 in particular).

 

and you need to alert the credit bureaus your personal info has been compromised and change passwords/ security phrases/ etc for any financial or personally sensitive websites. You do know those docs contain VERY SENSITIVE and PRIVATE info that would make it easy for an identity thief to have a field day with almost zero effort. just an FYI

 

I would totally fuss at you for keeping it in your car, but my fiance has a copy of our K1 packet in his truck for when he drives over the border (hes never needed it but you know if he took it out he would). No, i dont like the fact he leaves it in his truck. 😕 

I'm not sure how to respond to an RFE since I don't have copies. I kept it in my car to help with identifying her as a legal immigrant, since I heard the NOA2 alone wouldn't help. I did change passwords, though. So far, no issues! I have fraud alerts on pretty much everything bank-related and check all my accounts frequently.

This all said, how would one respond to an RFE for these things if we don't have copies? Make new ones? I technically could, they're really not difficult documents to fill back out, especially since I have all the supporting evidence required on hand. Thankfully, those were NOT in the car at the time. (We are due to attend in the next couple of days- I'm only posting this after scouring everything many, many times in the hopes I would find copies. They were the only things I didn't have copies of, for some reason.)

I feel stupid for losing important documents, but hoping we're not the first ones to experience this and that there's an easy solution. It's been especially hard keeping track of everything since we both have conditions that affect our ability to remember and organize things (my severe ADHD in particular. Honestly it's incredible we have so much of our original documentation. Really due to my wife's fastidiousness in making copies! I guess I never handed the documents to her. : ( )

Hello everyone! We're finally on our way to the Adjustment of Status interview proper, hooray! We have a few concerns though and were wondering if anyone's dealt with this:

1.) My wife's SSN was mishandled and sent to the wrong address. When we went to get a new card re-issued, the SoSec Office refused to re-issue it, thinking the K1 visa had expired when in fact she was here legally. As a result, we had no way to get joint bank accounts or put her on our condo's lease. Pretty crappy situation! I've already printed out all of our wedding photos, assembled all of our Facebook memories (with dates & family comments), and gotten our wedding book together. Any ideas on what additional things we can do to prove legitimacy in our relationship? We're both a little scared- the mishandling wasn't our fault and we're worried that our future might pay the price. (We do have extensive plans to tie our lives together financially, but got stalled by this issue. We're eager to get started when she gets her approval.)

2.) I was keeping our copy of the AOS application in our car, which was recently stolen. We're currently missing the cover letter and forms I-485 and I-864. As luck would have it, I do have the supporting evidence for the I-864, which we'll be bringing to the interview. Does anyone know if not having this information on hand will hurt our case? I found one guide that seemed to suggest you only need a copy so you can help them cross-check information, which wouldn't be an issue.

I feel terrible that so much has happened to our situation, it just feels like we're throwing out excuses even though this is all the truth. Any advice y'all might have would be really appreciated, even if it's just reassurances that the interview isn't as scary as all these guides make it sound! I'm trying to keep my wife -and myself- calm in the face of all the nonsense we've had happen to us while waiting for this interview.

Thanks, everyone! : )

We waited for about a year and a half! Some people wait less, some people wait longer. 1.5 years seems pretty normal. Make sure to get LOTS of pictures and supporting evidence like joint bank accounts and lease agreements with the time you're given. Good luck!

It really depends. Firstly and mostly, of course, on how fast you can manage to get and send the report. Then, most embassies are usually quite quick at adjudicating the case after all paperwork are in order (maybe a week? just guessing). Then comes the standard production + delivery time of the visa.

They will definetively not deny her outright.

Most likely she will get a "temporary denial" paper/form/sheet, and she might have to send that in with the missing paperwork. Just having the police report sent directly to the consulate is not something I would recommend unless they specifically say you can do so (who know what they'll do with mail they are not expecting).

Haha, good point!! Okay, that is good to know. Was kind of steeling myself for disaster. I will get her to fill out the form as soon as she gets home and will let her know what to expect. Maybe we can keep our original timeline after all~

Thank you all! As always, you've been exceptionally helpful and kind.

Oh, neat! You wouldn't happen to know how long the delay would be, would you? Maybe we could just have the report sent to the consulate too. Not sure what to expect for processing times for paperwork submitted after the visa. As long as they don't deny her outright. Been apart for two years during this silly process...

Of course! The plane tickets I referenced were for Sydney, yes. I guess I will reach out to the consolate and/or the processing office for the police checks and see what can be done. Sigh. Such a simple little thing, such a large problem. That's what I get for not paying attention between 12 hour days I guess. Cheers, y'all!

Howdy y'all! Happy to report major progress has been made- we've gotten our interview date, medical's done, everything! Only problem is, my fiancee went on holiday before submitting her police report (sadly I was too preoccupied with holiday overtime at work to remember!), and now it won't get processed in time for her to take it to the interview. Does anyone know if this will be an issue, or do we have nothing to worry about? Will we be able to just send it in later, or should we attempt to reschedule the interview? (Hopefully not, I literally JUST bought her plane tickets...)

Thanks in advance! We have no idea what kinds of delays to expect from this hiccup. If anyone has an inkling of what to expect, I'd love to hear from you.

Also side note: this process sucks. Major kudos to the people who have successfully navigated this frickin' mine field! : P

On the bright side, she did catch the bouquet at her friend's wedding yesterday, so hopefully that bodes well. Lol!

Okay, thank you! Well at least I'm not the worst almost-husband ever, haha.

Can you (or anyone else!) tell me if there's any other hidden fees? I know the medical exam, vaccinations, the police report, plane ticket to/from Sydney, hotel, moving costs, her 1-way ticket, and maybe a Social Security/general processing fee when she gets here, as well as her adjustment of status after the marriage license, which is another fee. Am I missing anything else major? Thanks in advance!

'Sup y'all! My fiancee and I recieved our NOA2 and she finally has her updated passport, woo! Quick question though: the embassy wants a weird 250$ fee just to apply for the visa. Is that normal? I appear to have mistaken a rent money order for my initial application fee money order and kept the wrong one. I am an intelligent, successful human being.

Anyway I'm kind of hoping there's some way it's the same fee, and that I can argue that I've already paid for it. Did anyone else have to pay this fee or am I just the biggest dumb?

Thanks y'all! Sooooooo close. Kind of dismayed we're running into yet more fees though- she's unemployed, my nest egg is limited thanks to unfortunate events and I'm paying for the entire thing including the wedding. I'm okay with doing that, I just... hope I have enough at this point if I'm gonna keep running into couple-hundred-dollar fees. :c

Sadly we are now overdue for our NOA2. I am really worried we may be stalled out because we are both transgendered... Does anyone know if the app will tell you if you've gotten RFE'd? Or if it changes the instant they approve, or if it only shows if a letter has been delivered?

I know some people wait extra time but I'm so disappointed it looks like we will be as it's been well over a year since we've seen each other and we're currently both waiting to get married to start working towards other life goals... hopefully we're not delayed too long.

Aaaaaaa, congrats LilAus!!! That is exciting news!!! Oh man, I hope my case didn't go MIA... but I'm very happy to hear it's happening for two months at once, that's always exciting! Hopefully we won't be too far behind you. Maybe y'all and my fiancee can high five on the way into the embassy, LOL!

(And I've been obsessively checking it every day. Sometimes several times a day even though I know they update once a day, hehe. Can't help it!!)

AH, well Igor's list is a graph showing the approvals each month in graph form. Currently about 25% of the way through the June filers... and a couple of July filers but I would say those are due to being expedited. Its too early for July yet.

You can see the graph on the right. Also bear in mind no month will ever get to 100% because people forget to fill in timelines or abandon cases and such.

http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/monthly_filers.php?form=1&visa=1&scenter=1&option=3&sortby=2

The June filers thread is here, so you can see people getting approved and stuff:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/598559-k1-june-2016-filers/page-42

Oh my gosh, people from around my timeframe are being approved already! We got our NOA1 on June 24th. SO EXCITED! And here I thought we had AGES to go yet. Looks like they're CSC filers too, which is where we are. Ohhhhh gosh thank you what wonderful news! Even if she were to be approved we would have to wait until the holidays but the holidays are so terrible at work it would be the best thing ever to have something so extraordinary to look forward to and to be able to SEND our INVITES. ;w; Thanks for the tips!! Now to just hope we're not like that rare person who just gets skipped for months...

I also got a tracker on my phone so hopefully we'll know without even having to wait for the NOA2 in the mail. So many helpful things available!

Hmm I'm keeping an eye on Igors list and also the June filers thread, are those what you mean?

I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'm just keeping track of this!

http://www.visajourney.com/content/times

Seems like it's the same result no matter what you follow... I'm interested to know what those things are though, especially if they're more accurate!

Thank you for your reassurances! I will exclude the claim ticket from the next stage of the process. Much appreciated- and good luck, LilAus! Are you following the currently processing section on the Processing Times section of this site too?

Hello everyone! I'm happy to say that if the counter on the Processing Times page is anywhere close to accurate, we should (hopefully!) be recieving our NOA2 sometime in September. Woo!

I'm currently prepping all the stuff she's gonna need on my end, but I did have a question for you visa vets out there: I've included her engagement ring claim ticket/a photo with the petition. Thing is... she has no idea I have a ring, and I was going to surprise her with it when she gets off the plane from the move to the states!

I know you're supposed to send two copies of the petition to your partner- one for the embassy, one for her own notes- but I was wondering if I could leave out that claim ticket so there's no chance the surprise will be spoiled. At the time, I wanted to include it in the original petition just to make absolutely sure we looked dead serious about this big life decision.

If I can't leave it out entirely, would it be okay to put it in a sealed envelope and just tell her not to open it? I'm the one researching the paperwork, so she'd probably believe me that it's 'just procedure'. : P

Thank you to everyone who's been helping us answer these finicky questions. We are looking forward to our long, long, long wait being over. It's been a year since we've seen each other. Soon!!

Gotcha! I might get her on getting a police report because she gets easily overwhelmed, and if it's that cheap then I'm not particularly fussed ( I also have faith in the speed of the thing. Unless she needs to present it at POE? I thought it was just needed to send to the consulate.)

Thanks, everyone! You've been incredibly helpful. I'm confident we will make it through with very little fuss outside the general fuss they put ya through for the K1. : P

Hey all, us again! Things are moving quickly. It was only a week and a half or so between sending the packet and recieving our NOA1! How exciting!!

I'm trying to prepare everything now so we can hit the ground running, since the USCIS seems to be on fire with processing (and thank goodness for that). You all have been so helpful so far, thank you!

- Can we do the police check now, or will we have to wait until we get an interview date? (I've read that you need nationwide, full disclosure, and no fingerprints, let me know if that's incorrect!)
- Can we get the medical out of the way, or should we wait? Either way, can anyone recommend a good place in Brisbane?
- Can anyone recommend a decently priced hotel (preferably within walking distance) near the consulate in Sydney?

- Should I wait to get the letter from my employer and bank for the Affidavit of Support? Does it matter when it is dated?
- I forgot to make a copy of the money order I sent to USCIS. I still have the reciept stub. Would it work to copy this instead? Is there something else I should do when I send her the duplicate packet?

Thank y'all in advance! I'm looking forward to being well-versed in this so I can help future applicants too.

Also, bonus question: my future wife does not know I have purchased a ring for her, but I included it in the petition packet to help our case. When I send the duplicate, can I put that piece of paper inside an envelope so she can't read it? If I'm screwed, I'm screwed, but I'd like to at least try to surprise her when she makes it to the states. ;w;

Cheers, everyone!

Hi all- thankfully, no incidents since posting this. Thank you for all the well wishes. Don't worry, she is not carrying weapons. Instead, I bought her an early anniversary present: an MP3 player to help her block out the hateful comments. It is going well and her therapist is helping. Thank you for the helpful link! I will forward it to her.

I keep telling her to let the driver know if there's a problem, as I used to do back when I took public transport, but she is a quiet wee thing. I'm not sure the outbursts are loud enough for the driver to hear. Also, we don't want them to target her if they are kicked off the bus on her behalf. These are all repeat offenders who know her schedule. It's a rough situation.

However, we do have good news! We recieved our NOA1 this weekend. I am currently preparing the Affidavit of Support and writing up a document with a to-do list for her. It seems to be moving rather quickly and we hope we've caught their slow season.

Hope everyone is well, thank you again for your advice!

It's illegal to come on a tourist visa with the intention to stay.

We have absolutely zero intentions for her to stay on a tourist visa. We are playing the long game and want to do it by the books. I'm just wondering if there's anything we can do in the meantime to give her a break. It sounds like that's not the best idea though (my friend linked me to a discussion about this very topic- sorry to bother everyone with a common question, I am bad at searching sometimes...) so we may just ride it out. Asylum is even harder to claim than K1 I hear and I'd much rather she just marry me right off because that seems way more legally and permanently justifiable in the states.

Our intention is to end up married after all! Too bad I can't get her out here to give her the ring so she at least has a little reminder to carry around with her. I wish I could afford to go out there but even if I took a loan out to do it, I still don't have any way to take enough time off work.

Again, suggestions are still welcome if anyone has any ideas at all, even if it's not related to getting her a vacation in the states pending approval. Thanks guys, it means a lot to have all this support and honest advice.