Saturnalia

Hi all!

I just received my informed delivery from USPS with a picture of my re-mailed NOA. Yay! So I wanted to give everyone my timeline too, just in case it helps.

April 30th - Case was received by USCIS

May 5th - Received text with receipt number

May 30th - No NOA received

June 2nd - Called USCIS, received a number to give to an officer who would be calling me back within a day or two, along with the number they would be calling from. I never received that call. Was also transferred to another officer who gave me the lockbox email address. Emailed that, and also put in a non-delivery of receipt notice on the website. Received email confirmation  from both the lockbox and from the non-delivery service request.

June 3rd - Received email from the service request that the NOA will be resent

June 9th - USPS Informed Delivery shows NOA

11 minutes ago, Sarah_k92 said:

Call customer services and tell them this. They should push you to a tier 2 officer . You can also put in online inquiry with your USCIS account. Your GC is automatically extended for 18 months but you just need the letter as proof. 

Unfortunately I was transferred to a tier 2 officer when I called - she was the one who told me to email the lockbox, and also couldn't even answer a question as simple as "what kind of information should I include in the subject line?".

I emailed lockbox and also sent in the inquiry... hopefully that works!!

Hi all, I'm in the same boat - filing date of April 30th and no NOA. I called USCIS today and was also told to email the lockbox address.

Now I'm a bit worried - my GC expires on June 30th. Would that NOA extend my GC? I have a job and while they would bring me back after my GC got extended, I definitely cannot be unemployed at the moment (especially because we probably can't even apply for unemployment if our GC isn't extended). Has anyone had their GC expire during this time, and if so, what happened?

On 12/7/2017 at 2:35 PM, astronot said:

Hello ! below is the case history before and after I mailed the documents for my expedite request even though I had faxed it earlier. I did this because I was frustrated at the lack of a response so far and I spoke to a tier 2 officer yesterday who stated that there would be no harm in mailing my documents even though i had faxed them already.

 

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up ! 

 

 

Which address did you send it to, and who did you put it to the attention to? The division/team of the officer they give you? I’m about to mail out my job offer but I’m not sure how to get it into the right hands...

Congrats to everyone who’s gotten their EAD! I’m super jealous. 

Well, I got my written job offer today and sent it to my congressman’s office/caseworker today. She said the usual time to hear back is two weeks! 

So I’ve decided I’m going to pass it out to any elected office that will take it.  I tried to fax it to the number provided on the RFE I got for the expedite request, but no one answered it.. I called USCIS right away and of course had to be transferred to a tier 2 officer with a 58 min wait. But the CSR said the officer may be able to even provide me an email to send it to. Interestingly enough, he said that there wasn’t any indication of my request on my file... and here I was worried about it! 

I’m also going to send requests to my two senators, and the governor too if he allows it. Bombard USCIS with a bazillion inquiries!

ETA: Nevermind, I just read on one of my senators’ sites that opening several cases with a several different senators/representatives may slow down the process. Glad I read it on this one as my other senator’s site said nothing about it. So I advise against it if anyone is considering it! I’m just going to leave it with my congressman’s office and send it to USCIS directly as well. 

11 minutes ago, Gemma said:

That sounds great! Again, I have no experience and if the Tier 2 officer clarified that's good. He knows 100% better than I do. A second opinion never hurts, but I hope they both agree and you don't have to worry about it.

Thank you! I talked to another tier 2 officer, explained the situation again as well as what the policy manual says, and she said “those are two different RFEs”. So my case is still being processed as normal. I asked both officers whether it’s worthwhile for me to send in the job offer once I get it tomorrow since they’re processing as of the 15th and I’m the 18th (the first officer confirmed they go by received date as filing date, yay), and they both told me “that’s your decision”... I don’t want to add on another week just for them to process the expedite evidence so I think I’ll wait. Thanks for posting the manual, though, Gemma!

38 minutes ago, Gemma said:

Hi @Saturnalia

 

I have not been in that situation, so I do not talk from experience. But it seems to me that maybe you should call USCIS and figure out if they are still waiting on you to reply to RFE. It looks like the clock stops when they send you a RFE. 

 

Hope someone in the forum may help you better!

I just called and asked to speak to a tier 2 officer. He said that basically if the USCIS office sent me an RFE to expedite and I didn’t answer it, then the case goes back to being processed normally since the officer assigned to my case can’t continue with it. But after seeing what you just posted, I’m not entirely sure if I believe he knows what he’s talking about... I asked if I could just cancel the request and he said there is no way to cancel it once I’ve requested it. I think I may call back and try to talk to another person for a second opinion. Even with customer service reps at USCIS, I always get a different answer depending on who I’m talking to. 

I’m not sure if I should bother either expediting or sending in my service request. 

I sent in my AOS (but not my I-765) in July and did my biometrics in the middle of August. In the middle of September, I realized I hadn’t filed for my EAD and sent in the I-765 on September 18th. They sent the NOA for that on Sept. 20th, then sent an NOA on Sept. 22nd stating that they could reuse my biometrics from my AOS. 

In October, my husband petitioned our congressman to try to expedite it based on the fact that my biometrics has been done for months and that we would not be able to pay all our bills if we had to wait until December for my EAD. We gave them our bank statements and all of our bills and told the caseworker that Geico wanted to hire me but couldn’t give me a written offer without authorization. The caseworker pretty much tried to talk us out of expediting even though it was our only hope, but my husband told her to do it. She came back a few days later saying that basically USCIS thought we had “more money than most people” and that they would usually only expedite if we were about to get foreclosed on or something to that degree - so we’d have to wait until December when we were about to lose everything, then wait for them to give me my authorization, then find a job... sure. She told us to call back if I get a job offer. 

We didn’t really feel positive that she did all that she could on her end, so I filed to expedite the case with USCIS directly in the beginning of November. They assigned me a case officer and sent me an RFE for it, but I didn’t really feel like it would do anything so I never faxed anything. Will this affect my timeline at all?

Now, I’m about to get a written job offer tomorrow that will have January 3rd as my start date. I’m just unsure if I should even bother trying to expedite it, as USCIS’ website says they’re processing cases as of Sept. 15th - I’m not even sure what date my case is of (first NOA dated Sept 20th but case received on 18th, biometrics NOA dated Sept 22nd, expedite RFE dated Nov 1st but I never sent anything). I don’t want to prolong the process by expediting it or sending in a SR, but I’m also not sure if my unanswered RFE is going to cause any problems. Anyone have any advice for me?

Hey guys, I'm worried that I may have prolonged my EAD unnecessarily!

I read that when you file for your AOS, you're also filing for your EAD. You can also file for your EAD separately if you want to, to essentially expedite the process, but you have to pay extra and you're most likely going to receive it around the same time you would've if you hadn't done the separate file. So, I opted to just file for the AOS. Had my biometrics appt on August 18th and the USCIS website says "ready to schedule interview" since August 21st. 

I had initially thought, like someone else further up on here, that the whole process takes 3 months. Then I saw that my office (D.C.) takes ~25 weeks on average between the biometrics appointment and the interview and freaked out a little - we were acting as if we only had to be poor for 3 months! But now I see both people on here as well as on the K1 flow chart that receiving the EAD and the AOS happen separately. Is that only if you file for the EAD separately?

If so, I suppose I'll file for the EAD now, but will I have to do another biometrics appointment? Or am I better just waiting and not screwing the whole process up...? I'm so lost. :'(

Well, I've still yet to receive an acknowledgement about receiving my records, but I emailed the consulate and got a reply. They said to just bring whatever documents I have that I need for the interview, and if the officer conducting the interview does believe that I should provide the records, I'd be able to mail them in once receiving them.

2 hours ago, NikLR said:

You could have already downloaded the P3 from Montreal after your case status says "ready" on CEAC.

 

For k1 you don't actually send anything, except the checklist and the DS-160 confirmation page.  You bring all those items to interview.  Domicile should be easy to prove with a couple paystubs and his driver's license regardless of address on it.  You may need the military record. 

Ahhh, no way! I could have sent it out way earlier this week then. Thank you for that... I just sent it and hopefully I'll hear back this coming week (some people have said the next day?). I'm going to call the military office tomorrow and see if I can just drop by somewhere and get the records quickly. Thank you for your answer!!

Thank you for your answer!!

So far, we haven't had any problems with the address; he still lives at the address we put down for him and no one lives at the apartment. I think they may figure that we'll move once I go down. 

As for the records, that's what I thought. Thank you. Hopefully I won't need to send a scan of them when I send packet 3 in and will only have to bring them to the interview.

Hi guys, 

I think I'll be getting my packet 3 letter in the mail tomorrow (case was updated April 26th, then May 3rd, then May 4th - so I assume those dates are when NVC sent it out, the consulate in Montreal received it, and when the consulate sent out the letter), so I have some questions about the contents of the packet as well as actually sending it. 

Firstly, when I send the packet, I send it through email right? Do I have to send everything on the checklist (ie, scan the police certificate, birth certificate, etc) or just the biographical page of my passport, the page with the barcode on it, and the filled out checklist and email all of those as a pdf? 

For proving the petitioners domicile, he still lives at home with his parents but we have an (empty) apartment that we've signed a lease for. On all the forms, though, my fiancé has put his parents' address since we didn't have the apartment when we first did the i-129f and he doesn't live at the apartment yet anyway. How do we prove his domicile at his parents house? Does his address on his W2s suffice? Should I bring the apartment lease to the interview? Whenever a form asks where I'll be residing in the US, I always put the apartment address. 

Lastly, I was in the military for 4 months. It was a high school army co-op and I left after basic training. Do I really need to go through the process of getting military records for this? CAF's website says it can take up to 30 days to ANSWER an inquiry, so if I have to scan and send all the contents of packet 3 this will severely affect that. If I just have to bring them in to the interview, I can try to get the records before then but I'm not sure if I'll get them in time. 

Thank you so much in advance to anyone who tackles any of these questions!!