ajs1984

I would recommend against using a cashier's check.

1) It's not actually required to use a cashier's check.

2) If the packet is lost, it's a pain to get your funds back.

3) If the check is returned to you, you have to return to the bank to cancel it.

4) You can't tell when or if USCIS cashed your check.

It's better to just use a personal check.

My I-485 case status was updated to "Interview is Scheduled", today.

You would want to hold onto the combo card. You don't know what will happen in your interview; some people don't get approved immediately and there can be weeks or months of delay after your interview before the card is mailed. While that decision is pending, you can work using the EAD.

Form I-9 requires you to be in physical possession of either your EAD (Form I-765) or Green Card (Form I-551) when completing it, it is also required to keep the cards on you at all times.

San Jose / Santa Clara has a reported 11 month backlog, yet two of us allocated there got an interview in less than five. It's very encouraging news for other filers.

I got the interview appointment letter today. Still no sign of / no update on EAD/AP. My interview is on 2/7. Very happy.

13 hours ago, Vinicius said:

I am sorry for ask bur did you get it ? How it works , mine is 79 days today :/

Not sure yet. They said it takes up to 5 working days to receive an email requesting more information or an approval to expedite.

I wouldn't bother trying the expedite route if you don't have a job offer as that is definitely a prerequisite. However anybody can raise an SR instead.

My EAD has been pending for 77 days (my priority date is 10/17/17), as this is more than 75 days I just called USCIS to place an expedite request.

Called 1-800-375-5283

Option 2

Option 1

Entered alphanumeric receipt number

Option 3 (to speak to somebody)

Requested expedite (not Service Request)

Financial hardship category (first option)

They took my details and gave me a reference number

I have a job offer but approval of an expedite is still discretionary.

USCIS processing times were updated for NBC/MSC yesterday. As of October 31st, I-131 was at August 1st and I-765 was at June 30th. Seems like the AP/EAD gap may be growing.

Anyway, most october filers would still be on track to receive AP in January and EAD in February.

Info for I-693 Part 9, Vaccination Record.

Writing this up because I found a lot of obsolete and conflicting information about the requirements and what was generally accepted by the civil surgeon. What you get done in advance has an impact on what you end up paying. The customer in front of me was charged $400; I was charged $180.

I was told by a lawyer at an early consultation that out of country vaccination records aren't usually accepted by the Designated Civil Surgeon. The said that they *will* accept print outs from local lab companies and heathcare providers that they are familiar with. So most likely, you don't need your historical records, as they wouldn't be accepted anyway. Lab titers are usually cheaper or less risky than administering another shot, and you can get them all done from one blood sample, so you can 'americanize' your records quite easily. But, I'm not sure you have to. See below..

Male & female adults aged 26-60, which I'd guess covers most people adjusting w/ spousal petitions, only need Tdap (if never previously received) or a Td booster (you need evidence of Tdap), and the Influenza shot during the winter months. Of course, it's best to always get the flu shot, even if it isn't in season, as you don't know when your interview will be. All other requirements are allowed to be marked "not age appropriate" or "not medically appropriate". Both of these vaccines are cheap to get, even if you are not insured.

My civil surgeon did transcribe everything I had labs done for, and I have heard that some Civil Surgeons will require evidence of everything. But no other records are required by CDC or USCIS, so don't let your civil surgeon oversell you. For example, I've never been vaccinated against Hep A or Hep B.. Hep B is a 6 month series and most likely quite expensive to get done, and I've never read about any civil surgeon requiring it, perhaps unsurprisingly.

Things you need

Tdap: I got the shot from KP in California. Had the record. He wrote the date of my 2014 shot. Don't listen to people online that say your shot needs to be from 1 or 2 years ago. It doesn't. You get 10 years for the initial shot and any booster.

Influenza: I got the shot from KP done in October, just before I filed. This guy only lasts a year. Had the record. He wrote the date of my 2017 shot.

Things you might need

Varicella: This one is called out in the "Complete Series", so most likely a good idea to get it done. I'd never been vaccinated, but I had chickenpox as a child, and got a blood titer done for V.Zoster which proved I was immune. He wrote "VH <date>", the date being when my titer form was printed.

Things you probably don't need

DT/DTaP/DTP, OPV/IPV, Hib, Rotavirus, Meningococcal: I had these done as a child. He marked "Not age appropriate", and didn't ask for records.

Pneumococcal, Hep A, Hep B: Never had the vaccines. He marked "Not age appropriate", and didn't ask for records.

MMR: I had lab titers done for mumps, rubeola and rubella. He marked "Not age appropriate", didn't ask for records. In retrospect this one was a waste of my time/money.

The statue of liberty watermark is used on all I-797 and I-797B documents. It means you got an approval for something. None of the other letters (I-797C, Interview appt, RFE, Biometrics, etc.) are watermarked.

The official processing times got updated on Dec 7th. The update for NBC/MSC states that on September 30, I-131 and I-765 cases from July 1st were being adjudicated. If we run that forward 71 days to today's date (assumes constant in/out rate of processing..), they would be adjudicating cases from September 10 right now. I hope we all get our EAD/AP soon, but for most of us it will be in at least 1 month more to wait. My visajourney timeline also predicts Jan 13-25 for me (from a priority date of 10/17).

This article on the USCIS website says:

Quote

Q. What is my skin test is positive and my chest x-ray is normal?
A. If you are diagnosed with Class B, Latent TB infection, the civil surgeon may recommend you go to the health department for further assessment and preventative treatment. However, it is only recommended (not required) that you get assessed by the local health department. The civil surgeon can immediately sign Form I-693 and give it to you in a sealed envelope provided that all other examinations are up-to-date, and you can be medically cleared for immigration purposes prior to the referral to the health department TB control program.

This is explicitly stating that if you test positive, get the x-ray, and that's negative, you might still have latent TB (or not; could just be the BCG as you said), but either way it wouldn't require immediate treatment and isn't grounds for blocking your adjustment. If you've had a chest x-ray before and nothing came up, I wouldn't be worried.

Biometrics being done for only one of the forms happened to somebody on the October thread too (even though they filed concurrently). It looked like a clerical error in that case. There was some discussion on what it means and what you have to do.

The receipt number box is for people that file the forms non-concurrently. If you plan to file concurrently then you can leave them blank and USCIS will figure it out. If you were to respond to an RFE later (and had to resubmit the whole form) I would file out the receipt number and alien number at this time too.

G-325A is an obsolete form (for AOS). It isn't required for either I-130 or I-485. It was first removed from I-130 (w/ addition of I-130A), then, later this year, they removed it from I-485 too. Your packet does not need the form. If you had additional addresses in the last five years, just use the attachment page at the end of the form (copied as many time as you need).

Overstay and its relevance is for USCIS to worry about. You can just put VWP / Tourist.

The consensus on this forum appears to be that the "90 day rule" does not apply to AOS. The USCIS policy manual has not been updated for this rule change yet either. Most likely you will be told to get married now and file ASAP, and not to worry..

Note that this page (8 CFR 214.2(j)(1)(ii)) says J-1 visa holders have 30 days grace to leave after program end ("for the purposes of travel", if they completed the exchange program). It seems you guys would have time to get married and file the I-485 before he was out of status anyway. If that makes you more comfortable, maybe you could avoid the pitfalls of either rule by filing at the beginning of March.

If you checked 1.d on Part 2, and you are filing concurrently with I-485, then you do not need to fill in either section.

The I-131 instructions are confusingly laid out, but if you look carefully under:

"If you are applying for:

c. Advance Parole Document for Individuals Who Are Currently in the United States"

You can see that the list is "OR", not "AND", for all but the first bullet point. Part 4 of the form only needs to be filled out for DACA cases. This means you need to provide:

(1) A copy of any document issued to you by USCIS showing your present status, if any, in the United States; and

[...]

(3) If you are an applicant for adjustment of status, a copy of a USCIS receipt as evidence that you filed the adjustment application;

The EAD/AP combo card mostly seems to be what AOS cases like ours are getting now and this doesn't have any specific limits on travel. However, admission with AP alone would always be at the discretion of CBP/DHS, just like a visa or waiver, I suppose.

We used the PDF forms (typed). Just be aware that the forms don't work properly if you use some browser PDF viewers (the signature box red text might get printed!), so make sure you use Acrobat Reader to fill them in AND print them.

Some of the current forms have bugs where you can't enter CURRENT, N/A, NONE or hypens for e.g. K-1 or E-2 visa. We worked around these bugs by noting all the places the form validation was broken, and writing in pen after we printed them. So far, so good.

On 11/25/2017 at 4:44 PM, mrshoon said:

Btw guys, what does the 'priority date' on the letters mean? I'm kinda confused about 'priority date' and 'received date'. LOL

Priority date is not very interesting for most of us, because we are filing I-130 + I-485 for spouse or immediate family, for which the priority date is always current. If you had a priority date set in the future, no matter how quickly your case was adjudicated, you would not receive your green card until this priority date. That's how other the other adjustment categories are numerically limited.

I included Form I-693 with my I-485 packet. I know it only lasts a year, but I'm hedging my bets that my interview will be before then. If not, it's just another $180 for a new form.

Crossing my fingers for you guys. Seems like you just got unlucky. Some kind of system problem late in October?

I am in a similar situation to you (have H-1B approved, hasn't been stamped) and filed AOS in October. The advice I received from an attorney was to not risk travel until the EAD/AP is approved (at which point getting the H-1B stamp is essentially pointless anyway).

I think you might have a case to expedite based on your 150 day timescale, but AP is taking >100 days for lots of people right now and if you got RFE'd it might have reset this timescale. Seems unlikely you would get AP, even with an actioned expedite request, in 10 days.

Seems like your best option right now is to skip the wedding and stay in the US.

Had my biometrics today. Went to the same place as @janicecf. My experience was better. I turned up an hour early, which wasn't a problem, and was done in around 15 minutes. First you go through security, then you wait in line to receive a form duplicating stuff you undoubtedly put in your I-485 (which they don't seem to verify..), then you wait in line again, go up to get your photo and fingerprints taken, then they finish the stamp on the biometrics letter and you are done.

I did notice that on the 'contractors form' they fill out and retain, it is *very* specific about which receipts the biometrics are done for, and they have to write exactly "i-485, i-765" in the form, so I definitely agree that @JVjourney needs to get this sorted out!

Select "Other visa" if you did not enter on one of the visas in the list.

P.S. I think shakeyy is asking for a text summary of your timeline in your sig, not this site's timeline feature.