doggieandsam

Errr..with USCIS probably best not to predict for your sanity and peace of mind.

hello guys. i did mine in the DC/Fairfax office last year. Not sure if the timings have improved but my AOS took 10 months exactly. Filed in late Oct 2017 and got my green card in late Aug 2018. there were some anomalies during my time last year (some people skipped the EAD part and went straight to GC so they got done in 3-4 months). But in general, timeline for DC/Fairfax was 10-12 months.

Hey there. Yes I did! Don't let me get started on the process LOL! I always say among all the government offices I've had the luck (haha) to interact with since I started this immigration journey, the DMV is by far the worst (most rude, most unhelpful, most unflexible, most unreasonable, most negative anything etc!!!) But yes, I was able to get my license with just the AOS NOA1 plus all the other documentation that they required like SSN, bank statements etc (check their website for a complete list). They are a stickler esp regarding the bank statements. They want the one that is actually mailed to you on a monthly basis so I had to wait for my first statement to come and use that. I tried with a letter from my bank first but they turned that down. They gave me something called a "limited-duration" license which was valid for a year. I just "renewed" it for a full one recently. BUT guess what, they botched the picture taking and i look cross eyed there but whatever, I'm glad i'm done with them for a while. Well, unless the cross eyed picture bothers me more than dealing with them, then i might go get a new card!!!! I live in VA and went to the DMV on Four Mile Run in Arlington.

have you looked at having a doc prescribe a larger quantity for his medication, enough to cover him while he is visiting the US? then ask the doctor for a letter certifying the medication and describing your father's need for it. a lot of people bring meds when traveling esp something as common as hypertension medication. aside from the fact that your father will avoid any teething issues with adjusting to a new doctor and new medication, this will be a much, (way much) cheaper option.

sorry for taking so long to reply. think of POE just like how you travel to and from the your home country. say you are travelling from your home country back to the uae. you check in first, then go to home country immigration, go to your gate, then board your flight. upon arrival in dubai, you deplane, go to uae immigration then collect your bags then exit. since abu dhabi is a pre clearance facility for the US, then the order of things is a little different...first you check in, then uae immigration, then you go to the US immigration pre-clearance facility (CBP), then you go to your gate, then board your flight to the US. upon arriving in the US, there no longer any need to go to US immigration since you already did that in Abu Dhabi. all you need to do then is either get to your connecting flight if you are connecting or collect your bags and exit. you need to hand carry your yellow packet!!! this is very important because you need to hand that to the CBP offer in Abu Dhabi!!! if you dont have it with you when you present yourself at the US immigration counter, they will not let you in as a K1!!!

Philhealth as far as I am aware can only be used within the Philippines. Now an OFW can participate in it and register, know that they can only avail of it when they are in the Philippines. Any dependents that they add to their Philhealth account will of course be able to avail of the benefits as well, provided said dependents are also in the Philippines. However, can OFW cant be outside the country and expect PhilHealth to come to the rescue there (it won't). Now, perhaps (don't quote me on this part) an OFW, after getting their hospital bills abroad can perhaps submit a reimbursement claim to PhilHealth and their benefits can be paid in cash but seriously, PhilHealth benefits pays peanuts, it cannot even cover the full cost of hospitalization in the Philippines, how much more medical expenses incurred in the US / abroad?! My advise as a Filipino living overseas? Don't bother with PhilHealth. The only reason why one might get PhilHealth while living overseas is if they have family back home that they want covered. That's it.

hi there! glad to hear you are close to the end of your K1 journey. the POE process in AUH is pretty straightforward. Make sure you arrive to the airport early. i got there 4 hours before my flight so there was plenty of time to go through security etc. the CBP officer was pretty nice and just asked me basic questions - nothing you cannot answer if you have a genuine relationship with your petitioner so don't worry to much. don't bring food because it's not allowed.

Oh ok, gotcha! Thanks for the info on Vermont, good to know. Anyway best of luck with your journey this time around!

That might be why ie you were not adjusting from a k1 so your medical although you submitted it already, it technically “have not yet been looked at yet”. But yeah i agree every case is different and the best course of action is always to check with the local office handling the case.

Wait didnt you just send in your I-130? They couldn’t have approved it already? On the Potomac Service Center - it’s always been around but iirc I seem to recall reading a post on here saying that Potomac handles non-routine cases (ie convictions, awa, etc)?

@rlondon - did you adjust from a k1? and if so, did your officer know that a medical is already in your file? @moosy - in my case, i adjusted from a k1. I had my k1 medical done in july 2017. I submitted the sealed envelope at poe in sep 2017. I submitted my aos in oct 2017. My interview was aug 2018. Several VJ members has told me that you get one year from medical date to aos submission and then as long as you submit before the year is up, your medical remains valid for another year while you wait for your interview. the interview letter says “bring medical if not yet submitted”. i did not bring a new medical to my interview. the officer who interviewed me did ask me for a new medical but when i explained that i am adjusting from a k1 and that i submitted my medical at poe and a copy of my vaccination form with my aos, he acknowledged that he remembered seeing a copy of my medical form somewhere (it was not in the physical file he was holding during my interview) and he specifically mentioned that i did not need a new medical since i was a k1. Now of course, this is just my experience and officers and even local office procedures may vary as to how they interpret medical validity so take this for what it’s worth. you are free to decide what makes you feel comfortable heading to your interview.

hey are you going to be interviewing at the local office in Fairfax? if so, i had mine there. i was adjusting from a k1 and my medical docs were handed over to CBP at my POE. in my AOS i only included a copy of my DS-3025 (which says completed, request blanket waiver). the officer who interviewed us spent a few minutes rummaging through our physical file looking for my medical docs and when he couldn't find it, he asked us for a completed form i-693. i said i submitted mine at POE and that what i have is a copy of ds-3025. at the end he said that it was ok because i don't need a new form I-693 as a k1. he also said he remembered seeing a I-693 in my file somewhere when he was reviewing it prior to my interview. obviously YMMV.

Really? Do you have the official announcement for this?

yeah, very interesting! let us know what it ends up being!

Ok, cool, I remember you now! For me it just said "We have scheduled your interview" and then I received the notice in the mail a few days later.