daveyjoe!

1 hour ago, newyorkaos said:

Best of of Luck!!

Linyahui- im up for it, let's keep each other posted. 

Meanwhile- daveyjoe!, sending you all the positive vibes. 

Welp. - Currently sitting in the land of deferred dreams a.k.a. The Queens Immigration office. 

Met with my lameass lawyer who handed us off to another lawyer to handle the interview. HE at least is clear and in depth on everything we needed and the process at least - even if he is sickeningly condescending and making us both very nervous. Especially when he freaked out that he said we had used Medicaid.... Thanks for telling me in advance?! Ughhh. 

The initial guy who submitted our forms never encouraged me to add my savings to the form for support - which would have enabled me to not have burdened my brother with having him jointly file. 

Also he LOST my husband's original birth certificate then told us literally 6 days ago we needed the original again which OF COUrSE has not arrived in the mail even if it was speed delivered. However even after my husband's parents spent tons of money express mailing it and having it arrive delayed, he never told us we need it translated as well. All that time in his office, him holding all of our documents, never once did he mention translation. 

Additonally he wrote down to only bring my 2015 W-2s not also my 2016. Which might actually have also been an oversight on my part but why not mention that to me yesterday prior when you were looking thru?!

Basically I'm expecting this to not go well. We probably will be delayed for months again and I'll be trapped in this forum till the close it down again. Is this purgatory? Hoping for a miracle y'all! - while simultaneously hoping for a curse on this rude and less than thorough lawyer.

TODAY IS THE DAY! 

I didn't sleep AT ALL last night. Of course, I felt like I should beef up my binder of supporting documents / I suddenly realized just how much I didn't have yet. 

Before our interview  @2:15PM here in NYC, I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone in this forum. I don't think I'll ever get to meet the vast majority of you, but having you all as a resource kept me from truly having a breakdown while waiting. 

Equally as important, I wanted to say an extra, extra thanks to everyone here for being such an amazing & phenomenal resource. To be frank - my lawyer freaking SUCKS - I always left more confused and scared after talking to him. However, it was everyone in this forum who TRULY offered clarity, explanation, comfort, and insight in ways the lawyer NEVER did or could. In fact, you were all so wonderful I fully regret paying the asshat and would have GLADLY put that money in all your pockets instead. ...< O the things I wish I had known 1.5 years ago >...

DEFINITELY terrified about my finances qualifying for sponsorship levels, definitely terrified I did my taxes wrong last year (don't fail me now TurboTax), definitely terrified they'll question the timeline of our coming back into the country while claiming at customs no intent of staying permanently... but then getting married literally 4 days later... 

I'll be filling you all in later with how it all turns out.  Give me them positive vibes y'all! 

Hello everyone! Our interview is 2:15 on Thursday, February 23rd. We're semi-freaking out and am terrified. Luckily my husband who is the one up for the greencard, found a serving job, however, I'm still unemployed spare some freelancing. We have my brother's paperwork and form ready incase they ask about my finances as a sponsor, so he will be our back up sponsor just in case. 

I'm nervous that I'm forgetting something. Any advice on what to expect? AHHHHHHHHH! 

I'll be sure to post about our experience after the interview! 

22 hours ago, newyorkaos said:

Hello everyone I have an important question

 

We are preparing our taxes so we can bring it to the interview at the end of the month and our accountant informed us that we may have to pay penalty for lack of coverage for my spouse. My spouse was undocumented prior to July 2016 when he got his SSN and started working. The company started health coverage in November. I know you can go up to 3 months without coverage in between jobs so I was thinking if there were a penalty it would have been for October only. Please shed some light if anyone has info. We are filing married filing jointly. 

Any input is appreciated.

WAIT - My interview is on the 23rd... Taxes for 2016 aren't due until April... do we need to have 2016s completed yet... because that would be really unfortunate...

I am so confused. 

When I'm looking for a civil surgeon what is the difference between a civil surgeon who says they don't do any of the screenings, but will sign the form for a (lower) cost, than a civil surgeon who says they do both the signing and the screenings? 

In what instance would someone ONLY need the form signed? I thought they ALL required the Civil Surgeon to screen and sign?

I know there is a separate forum, but @newyorkaos and other NYC-ers where did you go to do your medical and how much did it cost y'all! I gotta schedule that for this coming week! 

Thanks!

22 minutes ago, sparkles_ said:

I think dont mention it unless directly asked about it at the interview. I've seen other threads about one or both being unemployed or collecting unemployment and it never came up in the interview. I honestly don't think it will even come up for you guys either. If someone is getting unemployment pay, I would bring proof of those payments but again, don't mention any of it unless directly asked.

Neither of us collect unemployment but this is definitely good advice. My frame of mind leading up to this interview is to always say less. Only offer info when asked. As a talker this is a challenge. HaHa.

As I had mentioned before our interview is at 2:15PM on February 23rd. 

OF COURSE the interview comes at the worst moment, when both of us are unemployed. - What are some things we can do to mitigate the damage this will do to our consideration? Should I be freaking out should we not be able to find jobs prior? The past 2 years have been very rough for my work situation as my freelancing took a downward turn. Over the past 5 months I've been interviewing and applying like crazy but having not so good luck. Any thoughts or advice?

-- Nothing quite like adding the threat of your spouse's deportation to add to the already anxiety-ridden stakes of unemployment to REALLY test the strength of your anti-depressants, am I right? -- 

30 minutes ago, sparkles_ said:

Guys, I'm getting really nervous about this ban Trump is laying down. I've been hearing rumors that anyone who basically seems Muslim is turned away at airports, even green card holders. 

 

Im really worried this will stop or slow down things for us. And that he may have issues renewing his EAD 

I too am shocked and sick to my stomach about everything. 

I know what it is like to wait thru immigration. I couldn't imagine just as I thought all the waiting and the paperwork was over, suddenly it would mean nothing in the blink of an eye.  I would be beyond emotional repair. 

That being said, on a personal level I'm very very upset. My husband and I are in Italy (his origin country). We have our date on the 23rd for our interview. Because of a massive miscommunication between us when packing - we forgot to bring any of our supporting documents with us (no visas, no marriage certificate beyond our EAD). We are flying Emirates and my husbad has a lot of facial hair and reads sometimes to people as middle eastern. I'm nervous that depending on who we get at check in at JFK they may decide to deny us entry. 

Of course this is far less a concern as those that are currently being detained simply because of their religion and the executive order Trump signed regarding those specific countries. I'm so sad this is what has become of this country. At this point I don't even want to remain in the states as all this terror occurs....

56 minutes ago, newyorkaos said:

Good morning amd good news! Our interview was finally scheduled for Feb 27,  so 10 months and 11 days- within the processing times for Queens NY in relation to schedule for interview, not necessarily getting the GC. Will

continue to pray that everyone gets their schedule soon, I know this is not over but this is such a relief. Thank you for being my virtual friends and support - i will be actively joining you guys I couldnt have kept my sanity without checking out your posts everyday

 

daveyjoe! You will be scheduled soon since your date is 2 days after me or go check your case status now! 

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@NewYorkaos!  THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME TO CHECK! I'm currently in Italy (Florence this weekend) and decided to do what you said and check! 

MY INTERVIEW IS FOR FEBRUARY 23RD! THEY SAID THEY SENT ME A LETTER OUT ON THE 19TH!

THIS.
IS.

HAPPENING.

- Semi-terrified because currently we are both unemployed. The challenge to find a job is officially ON! 
Sigh - nothing is ever easy is it? 

Should I still put in my EAD card renewal or no? 

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING GUYS! You are literally my sanity!

I just counted. 120 days prior to our EAD expiration was 12/26/2016!

Is it bad if we haven't resubmitted yet? Ahhhh!

Damn the USCIS!

Question: EAD Renewal can be submitted 120 days before expiration. 120 days not including weekends or because it's a card just like 120 full days? 

My one year wedding anniversary is on the 15th. Ah! what a wonderful day! A special, special time when I thought to myself, "A year from now, we'll have gone completely through immigration, he'll have his green card, the country will have a Democrat president, and I'll have abs." 

Such innocence. Such youthful naïveté. 

Just realized yesterday when checking my email I had joined the restarted MAY thread. I'm absolutely embarrassed. Thank you for sheparding me back to the CORRECT fold @Linyahui!

Can we all agree that we can officially rename Infopass, InfoFAIL because honesty. 

Our processing has taken so long that now we get to experience the shade from VisaJourney. Joy. 

Hope everyone we've built this community with over this past year is able to find this thread. For me this website is almost as densely confusing as trying to get a Tier 2 officer. 

Congrats, Sparkles!

what's your office again?

My wife buys me a lot of shoes...

Jokes! I actually don't stay very positive, it's been very hard after the 9 month mark when we officially fell out of processing time. Some days are really rough. And other days I simply resign to the fact that I have done everything by the book and all I can do is wait.

I hope ya'll get yours before the application anniversaries roll by.

Actually - wait....

When should we start reapplying? When does our application expire technically?

Also - if it expires because of their lack of attention... do we have to pay the fees again if we have to reapply?

My husband over stayed a student type visa. It was valid wen we met, but after we married we dragged our feet to file and basically he got a notice to go to deportation court. Caused us to have to get the i130 approved by itself before a judge would close the case and let him adjust....spent all of 2015 doing that. It's probably why my waiting game is so strong lol. You can't file AOS til removal court is closed.

My husband and I married the day his Student Visa expired, and then filed like a little over a month afterwards...

I wonder if that makes us look sketchy and is delaying us? Do you think that's delaying us at all? I hope not, if the immigration officer wants undeniable proof just look at my text messages, camera roll, and Facebook/instagram. Done and done. hahahaha.

jeesh....so sorry.. i live upstate ny, nyc is my field office... i made an infopass in connecticut because its impossible to get one in nyc, long island and in newburgh

have you called them?

Calling is an absolute joke.

I put in a request for why it was taking so long and they sent a message being like - no, it's not taking long. thanks. - I've given up to be honest, I am absolutely defeated.

Not sure what an info pass is, but the last thing I need is some other type of process to let me down ON TOP of the process already letting me down.

Awesome! I read it, and just wanted to congratulate you and thank you for the review in detail.

um.. when did you file?

March 7th. Received March 10th.

(The person I commented on I believe filed March 30th and was received in April. Several weeks after us. Same office).

Hello everybody,

So here it goes: our interview was scheduled for 3:30pm. Our lawyer told us to be patient because that was the last time of the day for interviews. We arrived to the building (26 Federal Plaza in New York) at 2:30pm and went through security (airport style). We needed to go to room 800 (8th floor) and check in. There was no one else in that room. We showed our NOA with our appointment and they gave us a paper highlighting the room we needed to go to next (and gave us back the NOA). We went to room 437 on the 4th floor and checked in again with the only person available at the windows. She kept the paper they gave us in room 800, stapled a paper with our turn and asked us to take a seat. It was 2:45 by then.

There were only 3 other couples and a mother and son in the waiting area. We noticed they didn't necessarily call people in the order they arrived, apparently they assign your case to a specific officer (the officer who reviewed your file - I know this because our officer mentioned he had done our background check before the interview) so if your assigned officer takes longer with his/her interviews, you will see people who arrived after you come in before you. I think this is also what happens when they schedule the interviews: they assign your case to an officer when your file arrives to the local office and if that officer takes longer to review it, they will schedule your interview after people who filed after you. So, for people who filed before me in NYC and haven't received notification of your interview, it looks like your officer is slower/less efficient than mine.

At 3:30pm we were the only ones at the waiting area. The officer who guards the entrance started rearranging the seats for the next day, so we officially knew we were the last ones to be interviewed yesterday. We waited 10 more minutes and our officer came to get us at the door.

He was the best officer we could get. We are in a same-sex marriage so we were afraid of the officer not being open and inclusive; but it was completely the opposite. He was magnificent. He sworn us in and, then, the first thing he said was that it was about time that our marriage was recognized by the law and that my American wife could petition me for residency, he said he had a gay brother whose long-time partner died the day DOMA was repealed and he didn't get to marry the love of his life. He said we shouldn't lose hope and we should be proud of this country. We knew we were in the right hands.

The officer asked just one question to my wife: how did you meet? My wife explained how we met and how we started dating, the day she told me she had feelings for me, where we were and how I responded, so the officer said "my interviews are very simple, I have been working here for 22 years and I know when it's the real thing, and your story has nothing generic in it, I'm going to approve your case. That means that I conclude your marriage is legitimate". That was it. He asked to see my entry to the US (on my passport), documents that showed we co-habitate (we had bank statement, lease, home renter's insurance, medical insurance, etc.) and asked for 4-5 photos of us and with other people. It took 5 minutes.

Then he said he was going to do all the paperwork at that time, he said we could tweet or whatever we liked (he was funny and easygoing), the interview was over. So he proceeded to stamp, sign and write some stuff on our very tick file while he was talking about the election outcome, he said I shouldn't fear anything the new "punk of a president" might do, he can't take our rights (meaning he won't be able to do anything about us being residents). Since my wife and I have been married for more than three years, he said he was granting me permanent residency without conditions and he encouraged me to apply for citizenship in three years!

He really was a delight! When he finished with the paperwork he said we could expect the Green Card to arrive in 6-10 days. We mentioned we are traveling abroad on the 16th, so he said to keep my combo card just in case but that he thinks the card will arrive before our trip. And finally he said "in the name of the United States of America, congratulations! As of today, you are a permanent resident of this country", he brought tears to my eyes.

He accompanied us to the exit and wished us all the best. My wife and I hugged and left the building ecstatic! We went to battery park to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, had very early dinner and a glass of champagne to celebrate right after. While we were having dinner, I got a text message saying that my case status had changed, I immediately checked online and it now says "New Card is Being Produced".

I couldn't ask directly about people who are still waiting, but by the conversation we had, I can sincerely tell you, the process is not paused, at least not in NYC! There are some delays, he mentioned a couple of officers had resigned in the last three months and that other officers are catching up with their cases. Also, as I mentioned above, he was a very efficient and quick officer, but if your file fell in the hands of a slower officer or was in the hands of one of the officers who resigned, you might be in the backlog of that (or a new) officer. We were very lucky to get the best officer possible.

I wish all of you who are still waiting, the best of luck, and really hope you get your interviews scheduled in the next few days.

I won't need to remove conditions, so I will be back in two years and 9 months to talk with fellow citizenship filers.

In the mean time, if you have any questions about the interview, reply to this comment and I will try to solve them to the best of my knowledge. Cheers!

OMG! THANK YOU FOR THE FULL DESCRIPTION! Truly awesome! CONGRATS!

I am in a same sex marriage too and am nervous about discrimination etc. It sounds like your officer was freaking fantastic! I'm envious! haha.

I must have had the bad luck of getting a slow officer / one that has left. FML.

My husband and I are going back to his country for the month of January and I can almost guarantee that we will be summoned to our interview in the middle of that time period because that is how messed up and frustrating this process has been and ruining our trip and making us spend a ton more money we don't have would basically be the cherry on the cake for this entire process.

January 15th will be our 1 year anniversary of marriage. - that's how ridiculously long this process is becoming, it's nearing our anniversary. I thought when I said "I do" last year, that we'd be past this point and happy and getting on with our lives. Alas........

goodluck from someone in NYC!

OMG! Can you ask them after your interview what's going on and why so many from March are getting by passed by people who have applied after us and ask if you could pass on a word to fellow NY-ers suffering from their lies?

We filed our AOS petition on 3/12/2016. According to the AOS timelines shared on this site, I have learned the following about couples adjusting from K-1 to PR at our local service center in St. Paul, MN:

Couple A filed AOS on 7/27/2016 and received the green card in the mail on 11/23/2016. (Filed nearly five months after us)

Couple B filed on 6/27/2016 and received GC on 9/21/2016 (Filed nearly four months after us)

Couple C filed on 4/12/2016 and received GC on 6/17/2016 (filed one month after us)

Couple D filed on 4/12/2016 and received GC on 7/14/2016 (filed one month after us)

Couple E filed on 3/30/2016 and received GC on 6/29/2016 (filed three weeks after us)

Couple F filed on 3/22/2016 and received GC on 5/26/2016 (filed 10 days after us)

Couple G filed on 3/12/2016 and received GC on 10/29/2016 (filed same day as us)

Couple H filed on 3/3/2016 and received GC on 4/23/2016 (filed one week before us)

These are just the couples that are active on VisaJourney and updating their timelines. So, when we call USCIS on Thursday and are told applications are processed in order of receipt, I will calmly and rationally call them on their BS.

YAAAAASSSSSS!

God I love the Internet. You are literally Oliva Pope-ing the heck out of it!

They better recognize that we SEE THROUGH THEIR LIES.

LIIIIIIIES LIES LIES LIES LIES! Yes I am bitter.

YEP!

After my inquiry they called us to tell us to wait two weeks until the 19th to hear our date of the interview.

We waited and waited. On the 19th we received an email that stated:

"Our review indicates that this case is within our current processing time. We regret any misunderstanding. If you do not receive a decision or notice of other action within our current processing time, check our website for an update or call customer service at the number provided below."

THIS IS FREAKING LIES! THERE ARE OTHER PEOPE WHO HAVE SUBMITTED AFTER ME AT THE SAME OFFICE WHO ARE BEING PROCESSED! UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

However, I did just check the website and found that it said this which I hadn't noticed before:

• 11/26/2016

  

  On November 26, 2016, your general inquiry, referral number WKD309xxxxxxxxxxxxSC, was completed.

• 11/26/2016

  

  On November 26, 2016, we sent a response to your general inquiry, referral number WKD309xxxxxxxxxxSC.

• 11/25/2016

  

  On November 25, 2016, your general inquiry, referral number WKDxxxxxxxxxSC, was assigned to an officer for response.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

FLAMES FLAMES FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE!

Just saw this:

• 11/26/2016

  

  On November 26, 2016, your general inquiry, referral number WKD309xxxxxxxxxxxxSC, was completed.

• 11/26/2016

  

  On November 26, 2016, we sent a response to your general inquiry, referral number WKD309xxxxxxxxxxSC.

• 11/25/2016

  

  On November 25, 2016, your general inquiry, referral number WKDxxxxxxxxxSC, was assigned to an officer for response.

Does anyone know what a general inquiry is and what it means to be "completed"?

We were not notified further and this was AFTER they sent us an email on the 19th.

I just noticed via my profile timeline on the uscis website.

Does this mean someone looked at it and sent us an interview date in the mail?

Do they change the wording on the website once they send out the mail with the date that reads the same or will I be totally surprised when it arrives in the mail and it changes after a slight delay?