Mthldou

Received my green card today. 8 days after interview. My online status still says the card is being produced but it's very well here lol USCIS online updates aren't reliable as we know them to be lol good luck y'all 

Congrats!!!  My status changed to Card has been mailed after 3 days of the  painful interview  I know you will see yours soon  

Thank you very much!!! All of you have been so kind and helped me through it all!! I wish y'all nothing but the best in your future American endeavors! 
I will stick around to keep up with the progress of the december filers and answer any questions y'all might have. 
For my part I will enjoy the rest of the summer here in hot and humid Kansas and continue working and going to college. 

@Scandi this is great info either way for the others  thank you for your fast response. Appreciate it. 

Thanks!! Actually, 3 minutes after I posted this I received a text saying my green card is being produced!!! The email said August 2nd which is yesterday when I had my interview  I'm excited!! The I130 is being reviewed whatever that means but I'm happy!! 

Never mind y'all! Just got a text message with the card in production. The I-130 needs to be "reviewed" whatever that means. I'm so happy. 

thank you!!! So grateful for your help along the way!! Thank you thank you!!!  

Wichita Kansas 
9:45 but got called at 10:15. Only ones in the waiting room, couple before us got separated but not us. 
Very warm and welcoming lady swore us in, asked questions from the forms, names, address, SSn , and asked if we had additional proof. We have her 
-jointly filed taxes 
-lease 
-credit card statement 
-pictures 

At the end she thanked us for organizing our paper work and being nice and polite. Recommended for approval, explained about the conditional green card and said we should get it in the mail in 30 days or less and that was it!!

Congratulations. I don't appreciate the insinuation of it going poorly with the sad faces as ppl are here to help and you kept ppl wondering and asking and I felt as though you were fishing for attention.
In any case, enjoy your permanent residency.

Hey y'all this is what I have so far gathered for our interview 
Birth certificates for both of us. Originals
Marriage certificate, certified copy with the courthouse stamp
Lease
Credit card statement 
Life insurance benefits 
Health insurance 
Dental and vision insurance 
401k listing me as the beneficiary 
Receipt of pet adoption
(All document listed above are in both of our names) 
Passports 
Wedding pictures 
Pictures
I 20 from when I was a student 
Joint tax return 
Joint checking and saving accounts 
Documents from our joint sponsor 
Medical already submitted back in December but it DOES include the gonorreah test results 
If you can think of anything else we need please let me know!! 

My mom got her GC last friday.. marking the end of this journey.
I am really grateful to the This group & VJ community for the invaluable resource you guys are... 
 
Special thanks to  @Megha13 , @trpr . In Early May, once you both confirmed your local offices had scheduled interview when the USCIS website was showing processing July 2016 cases. It gave me the conviction that some offices are not as bad as USCIS.gov processing times showed,
Hence I did MN field office a favor by ensuring my file is NOT added to  their backlogged workload (Thus filling AR11)
 @TJSEE ,  @jamaicanwifey  no hard feelings    I understand. 
 
Lastly, if you may, please update your timeline (not just signature) It provides more accurate useful VJ stats for processing times.
 
 Sincere apologies too for the disagreements, distractions etc
 
Best of luck to the rest still waiting... Greenlight should be around the corner here soon
 
 

No good reason at all. Went to the DMV and got it changed 

Just had my interview today and I was approved!  The interview was pretty laid back.  The immigration officer ("IO") went through the information on the forms and then just asked us general questions about where we met and about the wedding, ie. who was there and reason why we picked the specific date for the wedding.  The IO also asked each of us about each other's siblings, my husband forgot the name of one of my sisters, but the IO said don't worry about it.  The IO then asked what we have done to financially merge our lives together.  I then provided her documents showing that my husband had made me the beneficiary of his employee work insurance and a document showing that my husband was the beneficiary on my 401K. These were documents that we had not provided with the original application and she kept the documents,  I also showed her  copies of documents that I had already submitted with my application and she told me she didn't need to look at them again.  The IO then asked for some wedding photos and kept about 3 of them.  I also gave the IO pictures from a trip we took with his family last year.  The IO also asked for a copy of our jointly filed income tax return, we didn't have a copy of the income tax return and provided the IRS transcript instead and it was fine.  The IO asked me what hobbies my husband has that I wasn't interested in and then asked my husband what was it that he liked most about me. That was it and then she approved me and then went through the explanation of the conditional green card.  What was interesting was that I asked the IO about how long it takes to get your conditions removed once you've sent the paperwork in and she said right now it's taking about a year because very few interviews are being waived during the removal of conditions process, she said hopefully in the future more interviews will be waived so that the process won't take so long, so more waiting, and possibly another interview, is up ahead for those of us who have to remove conditions in the future.

We have our interview on august 2nd! Wichita KS office. 

The instructions on USCIS website actually says that your medical is valid if you file for AOS within 1 year from when the medical was done, not that the medical is only valid for 1 year. So either way, even if you only get your interview more than a year after the medical was done you SHOULD still be fine. However, people have gotten RFEs for this very issue because some field offices don't know their own rules.
 
EDIT, the i-693 seems to have a littel different rule than the foreign medical exam. So it's valid for a year from when you submitted it to USCIS, or am I reading it wrong?  https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-issues-new-policy-form-i-693-report-medical-examination-and-vaccination-record
 
EDIT 2: Yeah I think you guys have until December as that's when you submitted it. https://my.uscis.gov/helpcenter/article/how-long-is-form-i-693-valid

Got my interview notice in the mail today. August 2nd  hopefully the end of the journey is near 

Congrats!!! What kind of questions were you asked? And what evidence did you bring ?

Got my interview notice in the mail today. August 2nd  hopefully the end of the journey is near 

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you all know had my interview on 8th June. 
We got approved! 
The interview went really well until the end when the lady said she had to run additional background checks and we would hear back in 30-90 days. 
Our hearts sank, worry, panic, couldnt figure out what was going on. 
Then 2 hours later I checked my online status and status had changed to approved. 
We were so scared and really still don't know what the lady meant so seeing the status updated was incredible! 
Got the approval notice in the mail a couple days ago. Now waiting for card to be mailed. 

I woke up this morning, saw my husband off to work, and laid in bed for a bit feeling sorry for myself. I think that we all need mornings like that sometimes. I thought about how I needed to walk over to the local library to print off the privacy release form that the senator's office sent me yesterday, filed a service request for the I-485 (because why not?), and decided to call and try to start another service request for my EAD after breakfast. I made myself a bagel and some tea, sat down on the couch, and noticed I had notifications on my phone. From the USCIS tracker. About my EAD and AP. In the rush of nerves, I temporarily forgot how to use my phone, then saw that the tracker hadn't updated. Then I temporarily forgot how to use both my iPad and the USCIS site, but when I figured it out...crying. Lots of it.
 
I don't even have the words to express my relief.
 

They never gave me a tracking number when I called. I got my card 3 days later. She said not all cases are updated with the tracking. 

USCIS has updated the processing times 

Oh dear, My Mom's I-693 (medical) expires by October ending. Hopefully I wont have to spend much on getting a new I-693
add to the fact that I have had to spend $300+ to change her flight (Until GC is on hand) as I do not want her subject to secondary inspection while travelling on AP.
Based on VJ posts, while most Field offices are approving cases 6 months or so past the websites processing dates, MN cases being worked on could actually be earlier than website processing dates.
USCIS Tier II officer confirmed cases (I130 & I-485) are still at NBC 2 weeks ago. So, I really am contemplating changing location (state) for the only I-485 at this point. My mom has been visiting her cousin in another state anyway and she likes it there.
it seems an overdo, but could save some agonizing wait time.
Bigger lesson: To never procrastinate any immigration app
 
Apologies for the rant

That's a sweeping generalization about F1 taking time. Can u site some examples of people you know ?
 
I have observed that it is pretty random, for example fellow F1 status forum filer  megha13 got the GC in 90 days in her hand so each case is pretty unique and depends on many more factors than we can assume.
 
 

Just a short story about my interview...
 
Got there half an hour early, went through "customs", everyone was really friendly. Sat in the waiting room, and the officers I did see were all smiles. I got a really good feeling about them. We were called in maybe 20-25 min after our scheduled appointment time, and the guy seemed pretty laid back. He swore us in, and then started asking us general questions. Birth dates, where we were born, how did we meet (we met online, so he asked us which website, etc), what our address was, asked to see wedding pictures, had a laugh with my husband about "never wanting to move to Canada", asked me all those questions about being a communist, etc that are on the I-485 form.
 
Then, he asked to see my long form Canadian birth certificate. Eek, I didn't have it. In Canada there are two types of birth certificates, and I had the short form one only. He let me call my Mom to see if she had it (he would have accepted just a picture of it), but she didn't have it either. Then after a few other questions, he said he was going to approve the I-485 as soon as we mail in a copy of my birth certificate. I asked if this happens often, he said yeah it's no big deal. He said our I-130 is approved. Cool.
 
So, we went home and I ordered a copy of my birth certificate ASAP. Then I went to check myUSCIS, and it says the I-485 is approved? Weird. But as soon as I get that birth certificate copy I'm gonna mail it in anyway, we'll see what the letter in the mail says about the I-485.
 
So, a little mishap on my part, but all in all I am happy. I hope you all have good experiences too. Cheers!