hanster

Here's a description of Soundex, the system used by the FBI to run clearance on all petitioners for AOS and NATZ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundex

Soundex is really not a system, it is a function (or algorithm) used. This really nothing especial and it really is not what the FBI uses for the clearance. I personally am a computer programmer and I have used soundex in the past, and alot of websites out there use it or use something similar to it. for example, if you search on google for "Wikipidia" (which is spelled wrong in this case), google will know that the word "Wikipedia" sounds the same way and will return that for you.

sorry to disappoint you, but soundex is definitely not a system used by the FBI for name checks.

The first I would advise you to do is try to setup the internet on your old computer alone and let us not worry about using the router or the other new computer for now.

Assuming the old computer has an ethernet card in it (if not install one), you would need to connect it directly to the modem of your satellite internet, so basically the cable that is comming from the satellite that you used to connect to your new computer you would connect it directly to your old computer. now double click on internet explorer and see if you can get on the internet, if so, than all you need to do next is connect this cable you just used and plug it in the back of your router where it says "WAN", and then you would connect 2 cables from one of the four plugs on the back of the router where it says "LAN" and each goes in an ethernet card of each of the computers and you should have two working computers.

now if when you connected your old computer directly to the satellite internet and it did not work, then you would need to setup the internet on the old computer and you do that by clicking on "Start > Programs > Accessories > Communications > Internet Connection( or new connection wizard or something like that). and then open internet explorer and see if you can get on the internet. if so, then connect the 2 computers to the internet like indicated above.

i hope this fixes your problem.

I got a welcome notice from CRIS just now. It was approved. Woot!

congrats,

I bet you were relieved... go celebrate now

Guys,

Today I had the day off and my wife had to study all day so I decided to venture to pittsburgh and see how bad the drive was gonna be and it really wasn't bad at all. I made it to the tunnel in an hour and twenty minutes (little bit of traffic) and then 10 minutes to find my way around to "Penn Ave", so I decided that I am not gonna stay at my friend's house but drive up to my interview on wednesday from morgantown.

btw, i ahdn't been to downtown pittsburgh for 5 years now, so today when i went through the tunnel and saw the high-rises, i was fascinated and said to myself "this is majestic" LOL. it is funny, but i have been to so many big cities in the U.S. before and seen many skyscrapers, and have been seen downtown pitt twice before, but i still get amazed every time i see the skyscrapers. I felt like a little kid with the big smile on my face.

btw, for people going to USCIS in pittsburgh, i saw 3 parking garages on Penn Ave. so if u get there early, you be able to find a place to park.

I live in Indiana,PA 45 minutes from Pittsbrugh, I just sent my documents for AOS, and waiting a reply from USCIS, I also, had my vaccination suplemenst in Pitt and was expensive, 3 vaccines for 200 including the form, sealed and signed by the doctor.

I guess Im going to have my interview in Pittsburgh. Will let you know my experiance when be my turn. Good luck to everybody!!

Samira

Samira,

Be happy that your medical only cost you $200, that is really very very cheap. I did my medical in morgantown and it cost me $399 including the physical and a chicken pox vaccine, and the bad thing about it is that they refused to bill my insurance company and said i can do it on my own if i want to, and when i filed the paperwork with my insurance they would not pay it because i did not get a referral from a doctor in my local area (morgantown), to make a story short, i had to pay it myself.

It rained on the day of mine too! But the wait was long enough for my hair to dry off!

There are some Super 8 motels in the area which are around $60 a night if that's any better for you. I'd recommend the one in Harmarville, as it's one straight road into downtown.

Unfortunately, the road you'll probably come in from is known for rush hour accidents. I was down there at 9am this morning and they had 1 lane closed for falling rocks. The traffic was horrendous!

Saying that, you're leaving yourself plenty of time so you should be good to go. I would say, if you do arrive early, try to avoid parking in the lots until nearer your interview time or you could be faced with a nasty huge charge.

I have a friend of mine that lives just outside pittsburgh in carnegie. I might actually try to stay with him because i just mapquested it from his house to the USCIS office in downtown and it said 9 minutes, so eventhough i would still have to go through the tunnel, but it is soo close to be fine with traffic

cheeky_wolf is right about staying overnite.

We stayed at a hotel a few blocks away from the office. They had a shuttle that took us over there for our interview AND picked us up. It was worth every dime of the $150 we paid for the room to not fight the traffic.

To be honest I probably cannot afford to pay $150 for a hotel room eventhough it does sound like a good idea. Both my wife and I are in graduate school and I am the only one who has a job (teaching assistantship) and we barely manage with our expenses. I will try to see if I can find a hotel cheaper than that and if not, I am thinking about leaving morgantown, WV at 5:00am (1.5 hour drive) and this should put me up there by 6:30am without traffic.

wish me luck

That would work. Lord knows there are plenty of coffee shops to hang out in.

What time is your appointment? If it's later in the day you could also miss rush-hour by driving in between about 11 am and 3 pm.

I drove STRAIGHT into the heart of Pittsburgh once by arriving about 2 in the afternoon. The traffic was definately manageable.

Sadly my interview is at 8:00am so I am gonna hit rush hour at its peak that's for sure. hopefully I manage to avoid it if I leave really early in the morning, as early as 5:00am. I can just imagine how my picture will look after getting up that early in the morning. Like i said earlier that i am getting my masters so basically still in college and usually do not wake up in the morning untill 7:30 or 8:00 to see her off before she goes to her classes.

and also, my 5 o'clock shadow will defenetly start at 5 o'clock that day. lol

cheeky_wolf is right about staying overnite.

We stayed at a hotel a few blocks away from the office. They had a shuttle that took us over there for our interview AND picked us up. It was worth every dime of the $150 we paid for the room to not fight the traffic.

To be honest I probably cannot afford to pay $150 for a hotel room eventhough it does sound like a good idea. Both my wife and I are in graduate school and I am the only one who has a job (teaching assistantship) and we barely manage with our expenses. I will try to see if I can find a hotel cheaper than that and if not, I am thinking about leaving morgantown, WV at 5:00am (1.5 hour drive) and this should put me up there by 6:30am without traffic.

wish me luck

It sounds like Ana is saying the biometrics are done in a different location than the interview. We did our biometrics in a sub-office in WV so I can't help you there, hanster.

Why are you looking for a BAD experience? I mean - jeez - who needs to hear that? LOL

We were treated well on our interview day. It's only this protracted wait that is our problem.

"Why are you looking for a BAD experience? I mean - jeez - who needs to hear that?"

You are right, i think i am just worrying too much about it.

yeah, the biometrics is done in pittsburgh and not charleston for me

Not many replies for a reason.

The day we were interviewed we saw the appointment list for that day and there were only 6 interviews scheduled. Not a very busy office.

Do you think since it is not being a busy office, then they might process things faster?

I have my biometrics scheduled for the 10th (next wednesday) and i received the NOA for my papers on the 3rd, so i was hoping it wouldn't not be too too long before they schedule an interview for me.

I have looked at your timeline and it really is ashame that eventhough you had your interview back in march and it went well you still did not receive the GC, I wonder if it is a problem with the pittsburgh office or what.

anyhow, I have seen you post a lot on this message board and giving advice and helping everyone and seeing a lot of people who filed after you receiving their greencard before you husband must be frustrating.

I will pray for you that it will be resolved very soon.

Well, the offices don't schedule their own appointments. Some dumb computer elsewhere does that.

Supposedly, there aren't going to be anymore interviews unless namecheck is done. I don't know that we have any official DHS field manuel updates or announcements about this, but that's the 'rumor'. We shall all see.

rebeccajo,

I have never driven to downtown pittsburgh before and I really am worried about it. I live in morgantown, WV which is about 1:25 minutes away from pittsburgh and my biometrics is on wednesday at 8:00am so i am actually thinking about leaving here at 5:00am this way i would not be stuck in traffic. is there a place to park close to the USCIS office there?? maybe parking garage or something?

The biometrics appointment is in downtown Pitts, and there are parking lots around (not cheap, but will do). The actual interviews are held on Southside, and it has it's own parking lot. Like Rebecca said. There is never a lot of people in the Pitts office. Though biometrics is another thing, there is a lot of people, and it kinda shaky. So be prepared.

Good luck!!

anyone with bad experience in pittsburgh that would like to share?

Not many replies for a reason.

The day we were interviewed we saw the appointment list for that day and there were only 6 interviews scheduled. Not a very busy office.

Do you think since it is not being a busy office, then they might process things faster?

I have my biometrics scheduled for the 10th (next wednesday) and i received the NOA for my papers on the 3rd, so i was hoping it wouldn't not be too too long before they schedule an interview for me.

I have looked at your timeline and it really is ashame that eventhough you had your interview back in march and it went well you still did not receive the GC, I wonder if it is a problem with the pittsburgh office or what.

anyhow, I have seen you post a lot on this message board and giving advice and helping everyone and seeing a lot of people who filed after you receiving their greencard before you husband must be frustrating.

I will pray for you that it will be resolved very soon.

Well, the offices don't schedule their own appointments. Some dumb computer elsewhere does that.

Supposedly, there aren't going to be anymore interviews unless namecheck is done. I don't know that we have any official DHS field manuel updates or announcements about this, but that's the 'rumor'. We shall all see.

rebeccajo,

I have never driven to downtown pittsburgh before and I really am worried about it. I live in morgantown, WV which is about 1:25 minutes away from pittsburgh and my biometrics is on wednesday at 8:00am so i am actually thinking about leaving here at 5:00am this way i would not be stuck in traffic. is there a place to park close to the USCIS office there?? maybe parking garage or something?

Not many replies for a reason.

The day we were interviewed we saw the appointment list for that day and there were only 6 interviews scheduled. Not a very busy office.

Do you think since it is not being a busy office, then they might process things faster?

I have my biometrics scheduled for the 10th (next wednesday) and i received the NOA for my papers on the 3rd, so i was hoping it wouldn't not be too too long before they schedule an interview for me.

I have looked at your timeline and it really is ashame that eventhough you had your interview back in march and it went well you still did not receive the GC, I wonder if it is a problem with the pittsburgh office or what.

anyhow, I have seen you post a lot on this message board and giving advice and helping everyone and seeing a lot of people who filed after you receiving their greencard before you husband must be frustrating.

I will pray for you that it will be resolved very soon.

Our experience last March 2006 is listed here:

http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.p...nty=&page=1

thank you for your reply. I have read your experience on that part before. it seems that there only 3 people who have posted their experience in pittsburgh since 2006 and this is why i created this post to see if people would inform us here instead.

I am wondering if there are people out there that went through the pittsburgh office for their AOS interview.

how was the interview, where the people professional there? how long did it take you to get your interview scheduled from the time you took your biometrics and how long after the interview did you receive the Green Card??or how long have you been waiting on your interview for??

I have done a lot of search on this message board to try to find people's experiences when their file is handled by pittsburgh office but could not find any.

i have checked the statistics for pittsburgh on VJ but it seems that very few are entered for pittsburgh so i decided to post this here instead. I was actually suprised not to see alot of entries for pittsburgh especially since it does not only cover western-PA but also the northern part of WV.

looking forward to reading your posts

My wife's AOS was approved and waiting for the green card. Can she work while the green card is coming or she has to wait till it comes?? PLease Help.. Thank you

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

n

GOD BLESS YOU

I am just guessing here, but since you guys did not have to through the interview process, and therefore your passport was not stamped with anything, there is no physical evidence that you guys actually got the green card and are waiting on it, so you will not be able to get a new social security card that does not say that you can work with homeland security authorization and i would imagine no employer would hire you unless you show proof that you are eligible to work.

can someone confirm this?

It is when the date on your case has changed but the case status hasnt

i posted this in another thread but i will post it here:

I received my NOA last week but i couldn't check my status online till Yesterday 01/09/2007 and the date under "last updated" is of 01/09/2007. does that mean that my application was touched yesterday or is this the date when i signed up for the email notification??

I received my NOA last week but i couldn't check my status online till Yesterday 01/09/2007 and the date under "last updated" is of 01/09/2007. does that mean that my application was touched yesterday or is this the date when i signed up for the email notification??

I attended school for the entire duration of my F1, and even asked for more time to complete my studies ( 5 years; BSc as well as 2 Associate degrees) We got married right before I graduated (days between)

humm, that is soo weird.

when he said "he has no doubt in his mind that our marriage isn't a farce..even though evidence tells him otherwise", did you guys question him about it??

is there anything you guys can think off that might have been the cause of him suspecting this?? for example, any offenses on your record or have you been together for a while before you got married?

F1. My wife and I got married last May. I wonder what could be classified as a weak case based on what they ask for which we provided.

You are adjusting from an F1 visa. did you actually go to school after entering the U.S. and how long where you in school before you got married??

the reason I am asking is that the intention for your visa is for studying and they worry that you might have used the visa just to get here and get married instead. i have heard of people who came here on an F1 visa who got married right a way, or even did not attend school at all and they had a hard time at the interview. I am interested to see what your situation is for him to put you under review.

I have been here on an F1 visa as well, and I have actually attended school for four years and started my masters program too before i got married.

please let us know

Hello,

I just received the NOA1 for my I-485. I had also sent an application for my EAD as well on the same envelope with a separate check. Do I receive a separate NOA for that too?

Audrey

Audrey,

you will receive a seperate NOA for each application you sent, in your case it would be getting one for EAD and another for the AOS(I-485). usually the numbers will be very close to one another.

Guys, try to check the status now. Mine worked just now. Good Luck

Theresa,

mine still does not work. does yours start with MSC which is the missouri service center and did they have any touches on your case ???

I can check my status online now. for anyone reading this post in the future, i guess it take a week or so for your case to be available online.

Guys, try to check the status now. Mine worked just now. Good Luck

Theresa,

mine still does not work. does yours start with MSC which is the missouri service center and did they have any touches on your case ???

same here, i recived my NOS last week dated December 29th and i still cannot check my status online.

Ok, maybe it takes time to put it in to the system or their system is down??? Anyways, it makes me feel better that I am not the only one. I will let you know when I can check it online.

thanks, i will do the same and let you know when mine works. i check mine 5 times a day on average to see if it works. btw, i once read in a post that some people actually called the 1800 number to inform them that it the online status did not work. i tried calling them the other day but i was put on hold for half an hour so i finally gave up.

it seems we both have the same time line for filing AOS and EAD, so I added you as a friend to keep track of the process of your application and kinda guess about mine.

good luck

I was informed by an attorney last Friday that of the individuals stuck in the namecheck blackhole, an inordinate percentage are from the Middle East.

Keep in mind - the over 400,000 individuals stuck in namecheck are from all immigrant categories (not just family based I-485's) and that figure also includes individuals filing the N400 (naturalization).

ohh no, bad news for me in that case. i always told my parents they should have given me a nicer (un-arabic) name.. just kidding.

I don't have any statistics for you, but my husband also has an arabic name and was not held up for his AOS. His file was transferred to CSC and we were approved without any interview. Start to finish, AOS process took about 5 months.

Good luck to you!

well that's reassuring, i hope mine goes smoothly too.

anyone else has any input?