wish2bflying

Our I-751 NOA1 came from the Nebraska Service Center.

I disagree. It's important if you're applying for anything that will run a credit check, and even with E-Verify, that your SSN reflects that you are a "Legal Alien Allowed To Work" - this is one of the tick boxes on the form SS-5. This caused me all kinds of grief until I worked out that it was something I needed to do. Fortunately, it didn't stop me from getting work, but I can see the possibility of an employer giving up if they encounter any hurdles with their eligibility check. We want to remove as many barriers as possible, not make more!

https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ss-5.pdf

I have a question about EAD processing.

My I-765 was approved March 1, but I didn't get a notice that the card was being produced. When I followed it up, they said I missed my biometrics appointment from December last year. They realised when I was on the phone that no, I didn't miss the appointment, it was just that the biometrics was done under my I-485 application, and for some reason hadn't transferred to the I-765 application. They said I might have to redo the biometrics, but they would submit a Service Request and get back to me. Well, that was over two weeks ago. I rang on Friday last week and they said I can't follow it up until 30 days has passed. I can't find out ANY other information, like whether or not I can just drive to St Louis and get the biometrics done again anyway, or what. The complicating thing here is that on the basis of my I-765 approval notice, I started applying for jobs. I interviewed with a company who was keen to go ahead, but now without the actual EAD card, they can't employ me, so everything's on hold. Meanwhile, I'm going broke.

So, I have two questions: first, with the I-765 already approved (nothing to "expedite" as it's approved already, according to the Level 2 USCIS officer), can the employer go ahead and give me a job even though they can't fill in the Form I-9 "properly"? Twice now on the phone with USCIS, they've said "if your employer requires the EAD card to satisfy their legal requirements, then you have to wait for it". Well, I asked them does that mean that the company has the ability to waive the requirement for the card and just go on the basis of my approval notice? They said "we're not giving you legal advice". But you just said ... ! "Nope, that's not legal advice, you'd have to consult a lawyer".

Second, is there anyone else I can call, or even go and camp out in their foyer, until I get an answer? The Help line is really not helping.

It would be great to have a timeline section for "Received physical EAD card". I'm coming up on two months since approval. 

I'm starting to get a little frustrated with the amount of time it's taking to get my EAD. It was approved March 1, but they messed up my biometrics, and they won't tell me what's going on. I've lodged a Service Request, but of course I can't follow that up until 30 days has passed. They won't tell me if I have to re-do my biometrics, and so I'm just in limbo. I'll post this as a discussion topic in the Working in America section as well, I'm just giving that as a background here.

With all that in mind, it would be really great if I could see what other people are experiencing as far as the time between getting their I-765 approved and actually getting the physical EAD card.

For Information (I searched but couldn't find any discussion here on VJ about CDL).

There are two parts of interest to this topic. The first relates to general driver's licence information, the second to CDL.

I have an Australian truck licence (American CDL-A equivalent), and while waiting for my EAD and GC I thought I'd start the process of getting my driver's licence here so I could get the ball rolling on the CDL, so that when I get my EAD I can at least say I've got my local driver's licence as the starting point, if not the full CDL.

Well, I found out that it just doesn't work that way. First of all, the driver's licence is set to expire on the date of whatever document has an expiry date. In my case, the only thing they would accept was my I-94, and the stamp in my passport, which indicates an expiry date of the K-1 Visa of January 24. So my driver's licence arrived yesterday (17th), and TADAA!!, it expires on the 24th of this month. Yay me.

The good news is that my EAD is expected to be granted before the end of this month, so I can just go down to the licence bureau, show it to them and they'll renew the driver's licence with the new expiry date of whatever is the EAD expiry date (12 months?).

So on to the second part, about the CDL.

In Missouri, I have to hold a valid (non expired!) state driver's licence before I can go and apply for a CLP (Commercial Licence Permit), but that's only part of the story. Here's where it gets interesting:

1. I can't have a "real" MO driver's licence without at least a valid EAD.
2. The MO driver's licence will expire with the EAD expiry.
3. Issuing a Commercial Licence Permit will not occur unless:

• I have a valid, unexpired Permanent Resident Card issued by USCIS or INS (I was advised verbally that they will accept a copy of the NOA with all the info on it).

or

• I have a written job offer stating that a condition of my employment is that I have a Commercial Driver's Licence. In this case, they will issue the CLP and then CDL. This second point was only verbal advice, and there is nothing in the online copy of the Federal law that indicates this would be possible, so if you the reader rely on this you should expect the answer to be "no".

Here is the link to the Federal law on these things (scroll down to Table 1 in this section):

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=1&ty=HTML&h=L&mc=true&=PART&n=pt49.5.383#se49.5.383_171

Unlike other training courses that we may undertake while waiting for our EAD or GC, it is illegal to drive a Commercial Motor Vehicle without a valid Permit.

So the only thing I can do while waiting for either a job offer or my full Green Card (it's quite possible I'll end up with a job that doesn't require me to have a CDL) is to study the material for the written tests and review what will be required knowledge for the practical test (the pre-vehicle inspection and air brakes knowledge are not required to get an Australian CDL).

So, I hope this information is useful to someone. All the best, fellow visa peeps!

Michael.

A caveat: I am not an expert or a lawyer. I'm just relaying information based on my experience, in the state of Missouri. It's quite possible other people have different information, advice, and experience, based on any number of factors.

Just to clarify, we haven't received a message yet and by the current trajectory we don't expect to for another two weeks.

I'm really wondering what it means that the I-129f's are "being processed", and what would prompt people to update their VJ timeline ... are people getting an actual "YAY, you're approved!" message, or "your file has been touched", or .... what?

What exactly does "being processed" mean?

On this page:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1historical

Under the heading:

Step 2: I-129F Processing Time at Service Centers --> I-129F NOA1 to NOA2 (Approval) Time

It says that I-129f's with a NOA1 date of roughly (n) days ago (date) are being processed.

Does this mean that people are receiving updates about their file, or that they've been touched, or ... ?