sleepless in OR

I was wondering whether it is possible? I though that in order to travel to any country, one MUST have a passport!

Just to address that -- not necessarily, no. If you are from any of the EU countries or Switzerland, you don't need a passport to travel within the EU or Switzerland. Of course that doesn't apply to you but I thought I'd mention it.

Sorry for the off-topicness.

Back on topic, the CBP's web site suggests that you need a passport in addition to your green card in order to re-enter the US.

I bolded the parts which I think are relevant to you.

http://help.cbp.gov/cgi-bin/customs.cfg/ph...php?p_faqid=572

Foreign nationals that are lawful permanent residents of the U.S. must present a Permanent Resident Card (“Green Card”, INS Form I-551), a Reentry Permit (if gone for more than 1 year), or a Returning Resident Visa (if gone for 2 years or more), and their passport to reenter the United States if traveling from outside the Western Hemisphere. If traveling to Canada or Mexico, the Permanent Resident Card is sufficient, although, carrying a passport as well could help facilitate your reentry. (LPRs that are out of the U.S. for more than 180 days are subject to new immigrant inspection procedures as per 8 USC 1101.)

I have a question regarding the definition of a returning resident and the visa requirements for such. My husband has a 2-yr conditional green card and will have been out of the US for one year after April 25, 2008. Unavoidable circumstances have unfortunately delayed his return. We didn't apply for a Re-entry permit prior to his departure, as we didn't anticipate he would need one. We didn't pay close enough attention to the one-year requirement stating that there is a presumption that an LPR has effectively abandoned the green card if absent more than one year - 366 days or more. However, after reading the information on the border/customs link provided above, it isn't clear exactly when you must obtain a returning resident visa (SB-1 visa, I believe). The verbage above indicates you need one if you have been out of the country for 2 yrs. or more, which is not the case here. There seems to be a gap about what is needed for an absence of more than one year, but less than two years. Does anyone here have experience or advice about this situation? Thanks! Also, does anyone know exactly what can happen if an LPR arrives back in the country, after an absence of say, 372 days, with valid green card and passport in hand? If the LPR had documentation of continued residence, bank account, tax returns filed as resident, etc. in hand, would that have any effect? Thanks, again!

Hi everybody,

today we had our AOS interview. We got there at 11:00 and waited maybe 5 mins and got called. We had a lady, very professional and nice.

Got sworn in and asked about the biographic info, then she went over the affidavit of support and told us it was sufficient. She asked Hassan the questions from the form, like if he ever was arrested etc. Then she wanted to know everything about our relationship from meeting the first time until now. She asked about his family, mine, my daughter. How do they get along, when did he meet her the first time. She wanted to know how many times I had been to Morocco and how was my time spent there. She asked for joint bills, rental agreement, anything we had jointly. We gave her rental agreement, power bill, bank statement and installment agreement of a car we bought together. She asked for pictures, I had brought an album with pics from Morocco and here, she looked at every single picture and asked questions about some. She had a sense of humor, was very thourough but always nice.

In the end she said she believed us and approved Hassan. She stamped his passport, took his EAD card and told him he will receive his green card in 2 to 3 weeks. Also gave us some instructions on how to file for lifting the conditions and when.

Shook our hands and we were on our way! Oh I also asked her what would have happened if I didnt find my appointment letter yesterday. She said it wouldn't have been a big deal, many people forget it or forget to put it in the box when they come so they just call the missing names that are on their schedule every 10 or 15 mins. I guess that varies from field office to field office.

Michaela

YIPPEEEEE!!!!! Another great Portland experience. Your description sounds similar to our interview, only the officer wasn't really interested in the pictures.

LIFE IS GOOD, n'est-ce-pas? And how about that sunshine today!!!!!

Hi All,

We had our AOS interview at Portland, OR at 8.00 AM(05/10/07) and we got approved from a very friendly officer. The interview, reviewing the documents etc took abut 40 minutes .Mostly we were chatting and joking, we really appreciate the officer and friendly USCIS office in Portland.

The officer gave me the I–551 seal in the passport and took back my EAD card.

She said I will get my Green Card in two weeks time and also explained about removing the condition in two years.

Thank you all. and good luck.

Life is good!!!! And it's even a sunny day today here in the Rose City!!! May your lives together continue to be so blessed. B)

Or perhaps the interviewer actually spoke French and was listening in hoping to trip them up. They are sneaky like that.

t

As far as I know you are allowed to bring a licensed interpreter. You can not translate anything yourself for your husband during the interview, so if in doubt, I'd say go for the interpreter. We were in the same position as well, but luckily were transferred to CSC and didn't have an interview.

Actually, you can interpret for your spouse during the interview if they are not fluent in English. We had a successful interview yesterday, and I translated everything - from the oath to the very end - for my husband to make sure he understood well what was being said. There was no issue with me translating.

That is highly unusual from what I've heard. It even goes against their own regulations (see my previous post with the relevant CFR). Part of the reason for the AOS interview is to establish that the relationship is bonafide and was not entered into for the purpose of immigration benefits. A couple communicating amongst themselves in a language foreign to the interviewer would really make it hard to make that determination.

It doesn't make sense for them to allow the spouse to translate...you could be making up what they're saying for all the AO knows.

All I am doing is relating our experience. I think an astute officer would be able to tell if you were trying to pull a fast one. There is a lot involved in communication other than the actual words spoken. Anyway, each to their own as to whether to have a third party interpreter. In our case, we didn't, and all went well. That's all I was trying to say.

Congratulations Sleepless,

Your journey is finally over (well until lifting conditions). Be sure to come back to VJ from time to time and check on us who are still waiting. Both you and American Woman are finished. Je suis tres heurese pour toi et ton mari. A tout a l'heure.

Sherry & Angelo

Merci beaucoup pour votre gentillesse. J'espere que il n'y a pas trop longue pour vous maintenant. Et felicitations pour le bebe!!!

Seems such a long time ago now that we were all caught up in the IMBRA nightmare, but the nightmare has passed and everything has worked out in the end. I think I would have lost my mind if it weren't for VJ, especially when our petitions were recalled due to IMBRA and I didn't have a clue as to what was going on. Thanks to you, Amwo, William, Kitkat, and many others going through the same thing, I was able to hold on to a shred of sanity and not give up.

Gros bisous a toi et ton mari!

As far as I know you are allowed to bring a licensed interpreter. You can not translate anything yourself for your husband during the interview, so if in doubt, I'd say go for the interpreter. We were in the same position as well, but luckily were transferred to CSC and didn't have an interview.

Actually, you can interpret for your spouse during the interview if they are not fluent in English. We had a successful interview yesterday, and I translated everything - from the oath to the very end - for my husband to make sure he understood well what was being said. There was no issue with me translating.

Greetings all:

Just wanted to share our AOS interview experience today in Portland, OR. After about 30 minutes, we were approved by an officer who was friendly, pleasant and also very thorough. She looked through the file carefully, asked for evidence of co-habitation - we had copies of utility bills, insurance cards, city parks & rec card with photo of us both on the same card, not too much really. She also asked for my 2006 W-2 and was very happy I had brought a copy of my 2006 tax return, which I filed back in Jan (filed married joint, BTW, and had no problems, already got the return). She never asked to see my original birth certificate, which I had brought along. She was not interested in seeing wedding pictures or any others, even though we had plenty. She asked who had been at the wedding, what we did after the wedding (helicopter tour over Vegas), what my children thought about the whole thing, if he had ever had any children.

After all was in order, she said the AOS was approved, and she stamped his passport with the I-551, which she wrote in is valid for 60 days, authorizing travel and work during the period. We didn't ask for the stamp, she just did it, saying it would probably be about 2 weeks for the green card to arrive. So we blew $170 on the AP application, which we haven't heard boo about yet. Oh well. We're just thrilled it's done for a while.

WOW! What the heck am I going to do to break the habit of checking the USCIS website 40 times a day????

Best wishes to all of you who have been waiting a long time, and for those of you just starting the AOS process. It's almost like having a second job, but it's worth it in the end.

Unlike the K-1 process, pray that your case gets transferred to CSC

HI,

Just wondering if anyone has received their approval and green card directly from MSC without going through an interview at the local USCIS office.

We haven't heard anything since the biometrics were taken Jan 30, and have not been notified that case has been sent to CSC, which is what they did previously with the recalled K-1 petition.

Have not received any RFEs thus far, so just curious why maybe some apps are delayed at MSC.

Thanks!

WOOHOO!

We received our approval email today. What a short timeline! And no interview. Did they take pity on us for being an IMBRA recall case? Or did we have the "perfect" application (which I think we did ;-) ?

AOS, AP, EAD apps:

delivered 12/4

received 12/7

received noa's 12/11

touched 12/14

Biometrics NOA dated 12/8, rec'd 12/16, appt 12/22

I-485 transferred to CSC 12/27, touches: 1/4, 1/5 (arrived CSC), 1/8, 1/9, 1/17, 1/18;

1/23 - approved/welcome notice email

I-131 touch 12/19

I-765 touch 12/27, 1/3

WE HOPE THIS IS GOOD NEWS FOR CSC TRANSFERS!

Can we get a refund (fries) with that? haha! Wasted $350 on the EAD and AP. Approved but we still can't go on our honeymoon to the Yucatan 'til we receive that friggin' card!

too freakin cool, Amwo. I hope ours goes as smoothly. Sent I-485 Jan 3, NOA dated Jan 9, received biometrics NOA Jan 22, biometrics appt. Jan 30. Please, let the immigration gods smile on another IMBRA recall, who also has the french connection.

Hope all is going well with you guys. We got married in Vegas Dec 14 - had a blast!

My fiance just arrived on Tuesday. He is originally from Togo, a francophone country in West Africa, but has lived in France for almost 10 years. He has lived in Paris, Lille and Caen. I am trying to learn French, but it has been difficult. I was with his family this past week and felt lost. But, it is ok because now I have a live-in tutor. LOL.

Check out the foreign embassy forum. I just placed a review of our experience with the Paris embassy.

Chouette!!!! I'm jealous, Shayrene - you're guy is here already. But mine will be in PORTLAND IN A FEW HOURS. He's in the air right now. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I'm taking a couple weeks off and we're going to Vegas to get married. He is the francophone, a native of the Comores islands off the coast of Mozambique. He's been in France 15 years, split between Paris & Marseille. We met June 2995 while my sister and I were vacationing. Language has been interesting! I had some French in high school, he some english in high school. We communicated with my travel dictionary when we first met. Since then I've taken a course from Alliance Francaise here in Portland, and a couple more classes at the community college. I enjoy language so it's been fun. I'm also trying to pick up a few words of his comoran dialect. All in all this has been a life changing experience. Bonne chance to all still waiting.

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are approved! I will tell you all the details when I get back to the USA. I think that it helped that I was there. Thanks for your help.

ps we bought the wrong size envelope. and had to return it and get a new one at la poste

FANTASTIQUE!!!!

Hi Everyone,

I'm not sure how many of us are still checking in, looking in the IMBRA section of VJ, but I wanted to say hello to you all. I hope everyone's petitions are moving forward and approaching the next step. Ours has and we are approaching our wedding on Wednesday. I know some of you are still waiting anxiously for your embassy interviews and I hope you are all still on your journey cuz let me tell you....

IT IS INCREDIBLE when you look into your loved one's eyes and know what you have been through has brought you closer together and the bond is stronger then ever. And the love.....

Peace and hearts!

I hope you are all well.

americanwoman

Wow!!!! Congratulations on the upcoming wedding - WOW!!!!!

Felicitations!!!! All my wishes for a long and happy life together, AMWO!!!!!

We sent 2 pictures of us together, copies of the passport pages showing Brazilian visa stamps and his air tickets.

Similar - 2 photos of us together; couple of emails, copy of email flight & hotel receipt. That's it - pretty minimalist.

The early 60's were great! The later 60's was the begining of the end of our national identity. Thats when liberalism started and it's been downhill ever since.

I definitely agree with that.

Crime has gone up, teen pregnancies have increased, divorce is rampant...... yeah, thanks a lot, damn dirty hippies.

The really funny thing is, all of these ex-flower children who wanted nothing to do with the government are now going to be the ones draining Social Security for the rest of us. I love hypocrites.

Excuse me, and what planet are you from???? And what exactly is it about civil rights, the right of women to earn equal compensation for doing what is often a superior job to her male counterparts, and corporate and big government corruption that you are apparently confused about? And gee, as I recall, there wouldn't be so darn many boomers if it hadn't been for all the horny survivors of the last display of testeronic insanity(AKA WWII) returning home and making up for lost time. Yeah, it's my fault I was born a boomer, and have chosen a path to bring accountability to government that theoretically guarantees my personal freedoms to live, work, think and speak as I choose (including personal phone calls), as long as I am not harming my neighbors, inciting riots, or committing treason. I have made a pretty hefty contribution to social security myself, and the age at which I can collect full benefis keeps creeping upward. Who should I blame for that?

Even thou I was born early 60's I think that this era made a great impact on us all.

sit back and enjoy.... Take me Back to the Sixties

Thanks!!! Took me back to my former flower child days

Congratulations!

BRAVO!!!!!!! 'bout time,eh? Good luck with the next step!!!!

I originally sent a copy of my divorce decree and received an RFE for the certified copy of final judgment of divorce.

Me too. They didn't ask to see the original certified final judgement during the interview at the embassy. I faxed the embassy ahead of time to see if the original certified doc would be needed at the interview.

it is a very simple question...

2nd approval for the interview...i had a interview in june it was cancelled because of IMBRA got the rfe and it was approved for a 2ND TIME....so the question for the 3rd time is....am i ok with the 1st noa2 or do i need the 2nd one as well....that is the question

I can only share my experience about the NOA2. My petition was originally approved Mar 31, subsequently recalled and "reaffirmed" - NVC's term, not mine. I never received a second NOA2 from CSC, just a letter from NVC saying petition was reaffirmed by USCIS and sent back embassy in Paris. This was not a problem at the interview in Paris.

it is a very simple question...

2nd approval for the interview...i had a interview in june it was cancelled because of IMBRA got the rfe and it was approved for a 2ND TIME....so the question for the 3rd time is....am i ok with the 1st noa2 or do i need the 2nd one as well....that is the question

I haven't had my interview yet, i even do not have my NOA2 yet, but i red somewhere in the K1 forum that you do not need the approval letter at whole for the interview but whenever you apply for AOS.

thanks....

My petition was recalled due to IMBRA, but my fiance had not received an interview appointment, he had just returned the pkt 3 checklist. I never received a second NOA2, just a letter from NVC saying that USCIS had reaffirmed the petition and sent it back to the embassy in Paris. My fiance had his interview Oct 4, and they didn't ask for a new approval letter (second NOA2), or to see the first one for that matter. They only asked for a handwritten letter from me saying I am still free and willing to go through with the marriage. I don't think you need to worry. I've read numerous other posts in the past saying you didn't need the NOAs until the AOS appt. B)

Yaup yaup , I had my interview in Frankfurt(17th Oct), I spend about 2 and half hours and the officer said every thing all right and I will get the visa next week. Really smooth experience .

Upcoming events:-

Flight to the US 15th of Nov NUE->FRA-> PDX 718€

Civil marriage on 4th Dec

VJ guys rocks , thanks to all.

CONGRATS!!! And welcome to Portland. Pretty cool that Lufthansa has direct flights here from Frankfurt now.

YAYYYYYYY

Good Luck Rlt!!!!!!!

And... RLT was approved!!!

BRAVO!!!!! More great news!!!! Way to go, RLT!!!!

I'd be surprised if he can get a direct flight from France to Portland, OR. They usually stopover in Chicago, NY, or Dallas.

Might be surprising, but Lufthansa flies FRA-PDX nonstop, I don't know about France though...

btw, my most disliked POE (and that was years before I even started thinking about immigrating!) was O'Hare.

Yes, Lufthansa started the direct flights from Frankfurt to Portland 3 or 4 years ago I believe. From France, one has to go to Frankfurt, then direct to Portland. I agree that the smaller POEs such as Portlland are probably more "user friendly". i even got detained at the POE at O'Hare last Dec when returning from Paris. A guard dog singled me out because I had stashed two apples in my carry-on bag. Before then, I didn't realize they had specially trained fruit sniffing canines. Everything considered, I think it best if my fiance does the POE at PDX.

i just want to know how much is the POE is important, i'm just confused wether enter from JFK or Portland, i prefer portland cause the trip will be easy there won't be much stops.

I have the same question about POE. From what I've read, I think the only POE that will give you a stamp on your visa to allow you to work is JFK. I live in Portland, and would also prefer my fiance come here directly as the flight is less complicated and he doesn't speak much English. But it would be great to get the temporary work permit stamp. I wish we could find out for certain whether you can get the work permit stamp in Portland.

Hi everyone!

Good to see so many visa approvals and interviews scheduled since the last time I was here.

Thought I's share a little story. The embassy in Russia finally got around to re-scheduling our interview on Monday Oct.2, and set the date for Dec. 6. I had, that same day, posted the I-134 and NOA2 notice to her at work via regular airmail, not knowing she had gotten her interview re-scheduled. On Oct. 4, my fiance sent me an email saying she had been successful in pushing the interview date up to Monday, October, 16. (She works for the US consulate in St. Petersburg and pulled some strings).

Now I'm kicking myself when I hear this becuase our fates are in the hands of the Post. She needs to leave for Moscow Thursday afternoon, October, 12, in order to get to Moscow to do her doctor's clearance the business day before the interview. According to USPS, the docs are supposed to arrive between Monday and Wednesday (Oct.9-Oct.11). Monday, nothing. Tuesday, zip. Wednesday, zero.

Now we're having phone conversations at 3 am Thursday and I'm sending her fax copies of the packet and she's calling Moscow figuring out ways she can dance her way around not having the originals and in general just ramping up the stress in an already super stressful period in a process that started in March.

Best Wishes for a successful interview! I feel your pain - I had to do some last minute faxing and fedexing just in case, but everything turned out OK in the end. B)

When I woke up today, I got an email saying she finally got the docs, about an hour after I spoke with her and two hours before she had to leave work to catch her train!

I can't really describe how much better I feel right now, which I'm sure will be nothing compared to what I'll feel next week if she gets the visa!!!