cvancejp

3 hours ago, KierenHby said:

Congrats

Yeah the house key thing was a trip. My wife NEVER carries her keys with her if she's with me. But for some random reason, I grabbed both hers and mine before we left. Lucky.

Just sharing my journey and interview process!

My wife and I got married in February and filed in April of 2016. It was a grueling process for us, our initial co-sponsor didn't work out (which wasted many months of time) and we had to scramble to find a new one. We luckily did... our EAD/AP was approved on December 3rd of 2016 (FINALLY... this was the most frustrating part... waiting so many months where my wife was unable to work or leave the country, especially since she had been back in the states since December of 2015) and our interview happened today!

We filed with an immigration lawyer who helped us fill out the applications. I highly recommend this route... it saved us a lot of time and stress knowing we were doing everything right and providing all of the right documents.

Our interview was in Los Angeles, CA at 8:15am. We arrived a half hour early and waited less than 10 minutes after checking in before being called into the interview room. We had been stressing about what documents and proof of evidence to bring with us, but to be honest with you, the immigration officer barely looked any of it. He was more interested in our story.

We took an oath, then he asked us names, passports, ID's. Then (which I don't even feel this was okay or even legal to do), he asked me about my relationship history and sexual orientation. We are a gay couple. He asked me how many boyfriends I had, then girlfriends, then made a statement of "You must be bisexual then." Blergh. He did the same to my wife. Asked if we knew we were gay before meeting and stuff like that. I don't feel like it's appropriate... you wouldn't ask a straight couple the same questions. But whatever, I'm grateful he focused on that and not on my taxes hahaha.

He then asked about our history, moving in together, asked if we had our house keys on us, then asked us both to show him the key to the front door. Also asked very briefly about our co-sponsor, if he was a US citizen and where he lived.

He didn't ask anything about my work, taxes, income, what we did for a living... didn't look at a single photo or receipts. We had documents showing our apartment lease, joint credit card, and joint cell-phone plan, which he looked at very quickly. That was about it.

And then we were approved on the spot! I guess it's just a luck of a draw with immigration officers!

My suggestion to other couples... be patient! Be there for one another. It's tough on everyone, but you will get through it. Make sure you are filing things properly to save a lot of time and stress! One little mistake can cost you months and that can be very hard on everyone. It's good to over prepare for the interview! I honestly think printing conversations is overkill (we didn't) but bring whatever you need to make you feel secure about the interview.

And finally, it's not as bad as people make it out to be. Don't listen to the horror stories! If your relationship is legit, you've lived together and are an actual couple doing "couple" things (like travelling together, meeting family, etc). you have nothing to worry about.

Woot!

We filed in April, got approved for our EAD/AP in December and had our interview TODAY! And got approved on the spot! Hang in there guys! It was a grueling process for us but we got it done.

I just checked my case status and they mailed off our 2ND RFE. We still haven't received our EAD or AP since filing in April. Really disheartened by this whole process and the fact that my wife hasn't been able to work or leave the country since December. This sucks.

I would hope not considering we replied 7 days after receiving the letter. Hopefully we will be lucky like others have. But will just have to wait and see.

Maybe that will make a difference! W weren't able to reply for almost a month to a month and a half. It was really hard finding a co-sponsor. Our initial filing date was May 16th... but now it's August 31st. I hope you have better luck than us!

I read this many times and was hopeful myself, as many people stated that an RFIE would not reset my EAD. That is incorrect though. It did for me. I had to find a co-sponsor due to my income (which took some time). Once we were finally able to mail back our response, we thought we'd just pick up where we left off. It's even what our lawyer told us.

BUT, that wasn't correct. We called Immigrations several times and they notified us that our initial processing date is now invalid and our new date would be when they received our evidence. -___-

So it's 3 months after they receive your evidence.

You can start making service requests on EAD and AP once you hit 75 days from when they received your applications. The "average" time for both is only 90 days, so it is safe to assume that they are tying your I-485 to your EAD and AP. Sometimes they get tied to it depending on the RFE, if it's something they feel is absolutely needed, they'll halt the EAD and AP as well since your EAD and AP is based on a green card being recieved at some point.

Since your RFE was due to needing a new joint sponsor, they most likely held everything else. Some people can't just come up with a joint sponsor, so for the government, there's no reason to give you those extra things if they don't think you can satisfy the GC application.

If the RFE was for something like... forgot to check a box, they would have most likely continued processing the rest.

Hmm good point, fair enough. I guess then I'm wondering if the clock is reset for the EAD and AP or not. Maybe I'm to assume it is if it's been almost 120 days since they've received our application for it. Sighhhhh....

I'm going to assume since you haven't received your EAD or AP that both of those are tied to the RFE you got.

You can always put in a service request on your AP case online and see what they say, but it's more than likely you may get a response along the lines of that your AP will be processed within 90 days of receipt of USCIS receiving the RFE. So that would mean your AP should be processed within August 31st and November 29th.

https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/Intro.do

^Go to case outside of normal processing time. Make sure you have an online account set up so you can see when they respond and all that jazz.

Nope haven't received either... but the RFIE was only in regards to the I-485. Well at least that's what it said on the letter.

But thanks for the suggestion on the service request! Once we hit September 25 it will have been 120 days... so maybe we'll try calling as well.

I'm almost in the same situation. They received my application for EAD/AP may 20th, July 20th RFIE and we responded August 8th. EAD/AP was approved August 17th, but still waiting for the card to show up. EAD/Ap was approved within the 90 days

Congrats on getting approved at the very least! I would try calling to ask them. It honestly shouldn't take long for you to received your card. It seems like everyone else has gotten them within days or weeks.

So confused. I know that receiving an RFIE restarts the clock for the I-485 whenever they receive it. However... is the same for the work permit and AP? Is the clock restarted from when the received my evidence? Or is that completely separate?

They received our initial evidence response on August 31st however, they received our form I-765 and I-I31 back on May 16th.

Help?

My wife and I haven't celebrated our honeymoon this entire year due to this whole immigrations process but we planned to go in December outside the US and we were hoping to have our AP by now.

One month later and still no response from Immigrations after sending in our response for the RFIE. Blah. Trying to remain as patient as possible. Hopefully a notice comes soon.

Well I got an online update saying they received my RFE response on August 31st. Blah, I hope we get an answer soon. We were hoping to take a trip with my wife's family in Mexico in mid-October.

How long is the wait after mailing in your RFIE response? We filed in early April, they received it on May 16th. After waiting a lifetime we received an RFIE around July 6th. We had to find a new joint sponsor so after a mad scramble we mailed our response back on August 16th. Any idea on how long the wait could be to receive a response in regards to the EAD and AP?

This process.... the wait.... my god...