John & Annie

Overstaying is not a reason for denial.

That being said, follow the advice from the post above. It is really good direction.

better to file sooner than later....although the most important thing is that you both got married to one another within the 90 days of the K1 expiring...

Keeping in mind the sooner you file for AOS the sooner you get the Green Card and then the sooner you can life conditions! =)

Thanks Everyone for your replies ! The load has been lifted ! God Bless Chuck and Teresa

Just for the record and future readers, the K1 visa itself is dead on arrival. The visa expiration date is of no consequence whatsoever, once US entry has occured. The I-94 expired in 90 days but because the entry status was K1, there's no consequence for filing the AOS late provided it does get both filed and approved.

as a point, technically the K1 is not dead on entry. It is fulfilled upon the marriage. The difference is that in rare cases you can apply for and reuse the K1 if an extenuating circumstance causes a delay in the marriage. I have never heard of it ever happening but I have read about it.

John

All of the form letters say that processing has stopped, but this is rarely the case.

AOS, regardless of RFE's can take a couple of months to a couple of years. There is no rhyme or reason.

Take it one step at a time and you will get through this process.

A US passport is the simplest form of proof of ones citizenship.

Best of luck on your journey.

John

Yes, it is correct that you should file as soon as you can. If you do not, you will be 'out of status'. This does not mean illegal.

USCIS looks at two things:

1. Legal entry

2. intent upon entry

If you have satisfied these two items, you are not illegal.

Now, if you are out of status you are likely to have a hard time with obtaining and ID or SSN (if you miss the window upon entering).

The law says you should apply, should is not a must, or required item. It is a should, and trust me, we waited for the very same reasons. I would recommend following the 'should' and filing as soon as you can.

We did the same and reused all of the supporting documents we could. There are a couple of additional requirements that you should not forget.

Best of luck,

John

I think I should address one thing though: This whole idea of AP only being for emergency reasons is a TOTAL fallacy but I read it all the time on here. It's simply not true. Traveling for holiday, business, visits etc. are COMPLETELY legitimate uses of AP. I've left the country 5 times using my AP and none of those times were for emergency reasons. The CBP officers where all aware of this at the time of my re-entry as well.

The "emergency reasons" stated in my earlier post were not taken by the posts on this forum, they were taken by the official USCIS instructions for Form I131 itself, where it reads:

"Advance Parole Document - An advance parole document is issued solely to authorize the temporary parole of a person into the United States.

The document may be accepted by a transportation company in lieu of a visa as an authorization for the holder to travel to the United States. An advance parole document is not issued to serve in place of any required passport.

Advance parole is an extraordinary measure used sparingly to bring an otherwise inadmissible alien to the United States for a temporary period of time due to a compelling emergency. Advance parole cannot be used to circumvent the normal visa issuing procedures and is not a means to bypass delays in visa issuance."

Rosie74,

We realize that is what it says on the form, but AP has become a matter of course in AOS. This is why the cost for AP has been rolled in to the charge for AOS. You can travel uninhibited with the AP, but each entry will be logged and might raise some questions if you have an interview.

Annie and I only found this out Yesterday.

Kezzie will surely be missed.

Hopefully we will be dancing on streets of gold with her some day.

A reason for filing AP is not needed in personal family based cases, you can just say to be able to return home to visit family.

You can even say to visit family and celebrate our marriage. USCIS makes no distinction if was a civil marriage or religious marriage.

:thumbs: :thumbs:

Its no problem, as long as you were legally married here in the US.

UK Student loans repayment is based solely on the persons income that has the loan.

We have had nothing but Headaches from the Student loans people.

Make sure you get everything in writing from them, even then they told us that they do not do anything in writing until we presented them with a letter on their letterhead.

When you consider that AOS includes EAD and AP, the increase was not that much.

Well what if you choose not to apply for the EAD or AP? Then what, you get jacked for $1100 and the statistics show that withing days or a month you normally get the green card anyway, so why bother spending the extra $600 for in first place. Illogical.

We chose not to apply for EAD or AP, but when we got close to a year of waiting, the interim benefits came in real handy. $1010.00 is not a lot of money.

When you consider that AOS includes EAD and AP, the increase was not that much.

It takes at least six months for a fee increase to go through.

Don't worry about a fee increase, but doing AOS sooner rather than later is recommended.

as Kez stated, there is no requirement to file AOS, you can wait ten or twenty years if you want. It is not recommended, but you can.

As long as you are married within the 90 days, you have fulfilled the requirements of the K1 and you are here legally.

As a spouse to a US Citizen and arriving on visa, being 'out of status' is not illegal.

There have been couple of people recently who did not submit a I-693a.

I suspect some of the CS over seas are filling out the I-693a.

You can choose to take a chance and not submit one. The worst that will happen is that you will get an RFE for it.

Yesterday I received an I-797 Notice Of Action, which starts with "Welcome To The United States Of America".

It goes on to state that the application to adjust permanent status has been approved. Further down it states that they will soon mail out a new Permanent Resident Card which we should recieve in 3 weeks.

However, we never went through an interview, just the biometrics. I did a search and haven't seen any new threads on this subject for almost two years (perhaps I didn't look hard enough?) Do we really not have to go through the interview now?

It's not a fluke, because I recieved the same letter for my wifes son (K-2). We filed around the last week of July, before the rate increase took place - could the flood of applicants have anything to do with that? Very odd - of course, I am not complaining in the least!

Anyone else have any experiences like this?

It is true, you can be approved with out an interview.

Congrats!!!!!

Some of you know our story

In a nutshell, Annie came here on a K1 visa in August of 2005. We were married within the 90 days. We waited to file AOS until September 2006.

We spent 9 months and 22 days in the dreaded FBI Name check. At the time of adjudication we were married over two years and we still received the conditional two year card.

We sent in an I-90 as it was an administrative error. The I-90 was received by CSC on October 2, 2007.

Today, we received the 10 year card!!!!!!!!

:dance: :dance:

We never went for an interview, we followed up regularly with our elected representatives. there was very little they could do,but it made us feel as though we were participating in the process.

We are done with USCIS for the next ten years unless we move, or Annie decides to go for Citizenship in three years.

I will still lurk and offer advice were needed.

Good Luck on you journey.

John

We found Aer Lingus to be pretty reasonable. If you are flying out of London and Virgin is a little more, I think it is worth it.

Congrats

I have been suspecting that some of the CS overseas are filing out the I-693a. Glad to hear my suspicion is true.

I have a question concerning the volunteering for work without pay. My husband arrived in the states on a K3 and he just applied for his EAD in Oct. He wants to work so bad and my dad and his boss would like him to come work with them 1 or 2 days a week but they don't want my husband to get into trouble and they don't want to neither. Is my husband allowed just work with no pay while waiting his EAD or should he wait just to be safe?

Thanks ahead of time for any info.

Technically, no

if it would normally be a volunteer job, yes. but if it is a position that could turn into a paid position, no.

Ok,

Thank you all for the help...

it sucks though - its too expensive to file for the travels permit....

If you're filing for AOS the cost also includes the filing fees for your EAD and AP.

But does this mean, that I have to filed for AOS after July 30 for it to have been included in the fees of earlier??

The form says:

If you filed a Form I-485, Application to RegisterPermanent Residence or Adjust Status, as of July 30, 2007,no fee is required to also file a request for advance paroleon Form I-131.

Yes, if you filed after July 30, 2007 and paid $1,010 for AOS there is no fee associated for EAD or AP

If you decided to 'beat' the fee increase then you would pay the current fee for AP and EAD and the fee for any subsequent renewals.

you have had great advice.

Enjoy your flight and congratulations!

If Colorado is anything like CA, he will have to wait till he obtains either the EAD or the green card (or the approval letter ,I-797a).

The AOS receipt is the I-797c and is not accepted in CA.

I know all about the fee difference. Just trying to determine the e-filing proccess and wondering if it gets done quicker than mailing it in.

There has been some debate about this. We e-filed and had no problems.

We did not have to wait to get the check cashed and we received the receipt number immediately. It took a couple days to track the EAD online, but it was there.

Then again we filed on a pending AOS application, i do not know what the difference would be as a K3, if there is any difference.

My hubby has been frustrated and looking for it around Pennsylvania, but no luck so far. He'd also love some Tennants He doesn't really want to order it from the internet but maybe I'll surprise him for Christmas.

Ah, Tennants. I miss that. Hopefully we will be there in July for a visit

You may want to check to see if you can change your passport to your married name here in the states. otherwise you have to travel with a copy of the marriage certificate with you.