Tilly87

I received my permanent resident card today! So happy. It's the 8th anniversary of me entering the US (I came here to start school on 09/20/2011). The card also has 09/13/2019 printed as the day I became a PR--too perfect (Friday the 13th, love it). It's a 10 year card, as me and my husband have been married for 3 years now. 

Now for the juicy details: the card arrived by USPS Priority Mail. I checked my status daily, on September 17th it updated to Card Was Mailed, and on September 18th it updated with a USPS tracking number. I was able to track it and receive text/email alerts about it. It arrived in my mailbox today, no signature required. It was a plain priority mail envelope, it did not have USCIS's name visible through the window, just the address & then my address, so it's not super obvious that it's a green card (if any of you waiting are worried that it will get stolen en route). It came with a little paper protector envelope and a "Welcome to the United States" brochure. I also received two I-197's for the I-485 & I-130 being approved, both on heavyweight certificate paper. In total, it took 572 days from the receipt day of our AoS package to the day I received my greencard, 17 days from the date of the interview (08/28/2019) to when I received decision (09/13/2019),  and 24 days from the date of the interview (08/28/2019) to when I received greencard (09/20/2019). 

Hope some of my documentation of my experience has been helpful! Please let me know if anyone still waiting has questions about my experience, I'm happy to share. I'll go update my timeline now

My I-485 case on egov.uscis.gov updated today to: "My Case Was Approved - On September 16, 2019, we approved your Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, Receipt Number ____________. We will mail your approval notice. Please follow the instructions in the notice. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address." The I-130 also updated. Still nothing in the mail, but I would be surprised if it was that fast.

On 9/14/2019 at 3:05 PM, cpthk said:

Thanks for the update. Mine is still the same.

I'm sure if you had supporting documentation, you'll be fine. We had a proper wedding in Iowa, where my husband is from, his parents helped us. My family couldn't come, neither parents nor extended family. The latter was expected since my family & extended are not close, but I thought my parents couldn't come because of money. I later learned my dad was just starting his fight with cancer at that time and couldn't travel (he hadn't told me). He passed away in January. I told the IO this, and I was worried about it afterward because I knew it seemed very odd that my family wasn't there, only my husband's relatives. But I think because we had lots of documentation showing we are a real couple, it was okay in the end. I think there is some allowance for "real life" circumstances; they just want to make sure us applicants are genuine. I hope your decision comes soon (and is good)! 🤞

My status updated today (around 2:30 pm) to: "New Card Is Being Produced - On September 13, 2019, we ordered your new card for Receipt Number _____________, and will mail it to the address you gave us. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address." I couldn't believe it! Still can't, not quite yet...it's just so big. Husband and I are going to celebrate tomorrow. Our interview was August 28, 2:30 pm, so exactly 11 business days for the decision (September 2nd was Labor Day so it doesn't count). I'll update again when I receive the letter/card. 

My status updated this morning (on egov.uscis.gov) to:

"My Interview Was Completed And My Case Must Be Reviewed
Your interview for your Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, Receipt Number _____________, was completed, and your case must be reviewed. We will mail you a notice if we make a decision or take further action. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address."

I googled this for a bit and it doesn't seem like anything to be alarmed about. We did give the officer some updated information - new I-693, 2018 taxes, new employment info, so I think it makes sense that it'll take a bit of time to go through. Still nerve wracking 😆 fingers crossed that everything goes okay. 

We had our interview today at the Seattle field office! Here's a breakdown of our experience.

Preparation:

Our lawyer had thankfully advised us to get a new I-693 (civil surgeon exam) completed beforehand, which was excellent advice as ours indeed turned out to be expired. If we hadn't had it on hand, we would've received a RFE. (I'd suggest to anyone applying to adjust status, check out the updated USCIS rules regarding the civil surgeon exam. I believe it is, if your I-693  was completed 60 or more days before you submitted your package to USCIS, then the I-693 is only good for 1 year; if the I-693 was completed 60 or less days before submission of package, it's good for 2 years. Unfortunately we had mine done in November 2017 and submitted February 2018, so it was outside the window & we needed to redo. But I'm glad we did!

We made the mistake of working the day before our exam, so we ended up staying up until 4 am copying documents and assembling them all into sets. We made 3 packets, each packet was a labelled manila envelope:

-Main (containing originals of all items requested on the interview letter)

-Updated information (containing originals of all items that had updated since we submitted the original package, such as finances, 2018 tax return, etc)

-Supporting information (containing originals of proof of cohabitation, proof of mail received at same address, and photos)

We then made copies of all this information, separating sets of documents with paperclips. Some documents felt related, e.g. we were using them to prove we lived together, or received mail at the same address; we called this a "tab" in our coversheets. I made a coversheet for each of the 3 packets, following this format for each item (in case it's helpful to anyone else--I copied our lawyer's format from the original package, and also saw a very helpful post on this forum about how they approached the coverletter, and combined the two) :

Tab 1.     Evidence of Cohabitation

 1. Lease agreement for (address) signed by both (my name) (Spouse Beneficiary) and (husband's name) (Petitioner) on (date)

2.  Lease agreement for (address 2) signed by both (my name) (Spouse Beneficiary) and (husband's name) (Petitioner) on (date)

Tab. 2  Evidence of Joint Accounts
1. Joint bank account statements (bank account name) for both (my name) (Spouse Beneficiary) and (husband's name) (Petitioner) for as far back as (earliest statement date)

2. Joint loan statements (bank account name) for both (my name) (Spouse Beneficiary) and (husband's name) (Petitioner) for as far back as (earliest statement date)
 

(Etc. for as many tabs as needed)

Then, we made a copy of each packet, and stored these separately from the originals.

We also reviewed our entire application twice, once a few days before, and then again on the drive up to the field office. I think this was helpful later!

The Interview: (sounds like a movie title!)
Everyone was very nice to us (the person who checked us in for the interview even made a joke asking why I would want to leave Canada, the land of free health insurance 😆). We had just gotten upstairs to our waiting area when our number was called, which was amazing since we had heard Seattle can often run a bit behind schedule. Our officer was really nice too, we felt comfortable answering questions and making a little small talk. Here's the "timeline":

First part - swearing in
Second part - reviewing the submitted information, asking us the questions on the form & verifying our responses, then going over the portion of the I-485 that asks if the beneficiary has been involved in illegal activities (just reading the questions and asking for a yes-or-no response); also he asked us the same information at different points (ex: asking my husband when my birthday was [he fudged up at first and said the wrong day at first, we all laughed at him], asking me where husband was born, etc). That's where I felt reviewing our packet first was helpful; of course we knew all the information in it, but it helped to know what to expect.

Third part - asking us some questions about how we met, who was at our wedding, etc. All questions felt very reasonable and allowed us to kind of tell our story, felt like telling a coworker (or someone) about how you met your partner, with a few more little specific questions thrown in, as he was typing out notes. 

 Third part- allowing us to present our updated & supporting information. He took what he needed and left us with some of the copies. (He paused at one moment to ask my husband to identify some people in photos; not me though, which was a little surprising)

All in all, our interview was about 50 minutes long. Our lawyer advised us that a typical interview is 25-30 minutes, and if longer, it means trouble. However, we think we ended up making our interview go overtime by having so much supporting info--my husband was so excited to get rid of the box of copies we worked so hard on, he jokingly asked the officer to "please take it, we worked so hard on it" (he told the officer how late we stayed up copying it, so we all laughed) 😄 We agreed that around a half hour, the interview felt done, and the extra time was just us going over the additional information. I felt bad if we caused someone else's interview to run late (sorry if you were scheduled for 3 PM at Seattle and had to wait!) but I feel we firmly established our relationship with all the work.

At the end of the interview, the officer said he'd have to review everything and we could check the status online, so no decision was given then -- probably because of the updated information. Our lawyer said it should be within 3 weeks. That's it for now, I'll update again once I know more. Hope this write-up helps others, I wanted to make sure to contribute as I read a lot of helpful posts on this forum that I think helped us. 

Good luck to everyone still waiting for the interview letter!
 

On 7/25/2019 at 12:39 PM, rain111 said:

 

Congratulations! I am Seattle filer (September 2018) too. I have read that currently Seattle field office is moving their applications to other field offices, which helps their process faster. Seattle filers might receive a notice for an interview that comes from another field office. I will appreciate your updates 🙂

 

It is close to 180 days before my EAD/AP expiration..  Should I wait a bit my renewal application and see how the situation go?

I read that too, but our interview letter arrived today and it's for Seattle! Aug 28th (so about a month out from when it was scheduled). We are happy that we won't need to travel farther than that, it's already an hour and a half drive down to there. Also, it'll feel a little less scary to go somewhere we've been before, as that is where I had my biometrics done. 🙂

I applied for my renewal EAD/AP back at the end of April, and only received the receipts recently (about a week ago), so I'd recommend renewing as soon as you're at the 180-day mark. I don't think it hurts anything if you get approved for the GC first. Better to have that in the works just in case your interview takes longer to schedule still. The renewal receipt letter gives you an automatic 180 day extension to your EAD (not AP). Good thing I did mine early, my current EAD expires 08/09/2019 so I would have had to leave my job then if I hadn't filed early enough. Phew! 

Good luck in getting your letter soon too! Fingers crossed for you.

So excited, today my status changed to "My interview was scheduled" !!! I don't know when the interview is for yet, but I'm at the Seattle field office and that has a really long wait--even though we filed in Feb 2018, we estimated it could take as long as November for me to get an interview scheduled--so even knowing it has been scheduled is amazing. There is light at the end of the tunnel now! 😊 Annnnd now begins the process of preparing our interview evidence package. I've been saving things like mail and tickets and photos, so we should be okay in that department; we've known each other since 2008 and lived together since 2011, as I did my degree here in the states, which means we have a fair amount of evidence. Just need to go through it all! (I think it'll actually be kind of fun, we can do a lot of reminiscing. Our 3rd wedding ann will be on August 20, so this feels kind of perfect 😄).

Good luck to everyone still waiting! I'll be sure to update with my interview date & the experience, as I know it can be very helpful to other people still waiting to help estimate wait times/what to expect.

Hi all,

My EAD combo card expires 08/09/2019, and I have a job I'm hoping to keep until my immigration process is over, so I applied (with my lawyer's help) at the end of April for a renewal for both my I-176 (EAD) and I-131 (Advanced Parole). At that point, I knew processing times are very long, but that with the renewal receipt notice, the EAD card is automatically extended for 180 days. I still haven't received even the receipts for these. I had my lawyer follow up and he confirmed that the renewal applications were delivered to USCIS, also that several of his other clients are in a similar situation (waiting on receipts for months), and also that he spoke with an officer that sounded like he would track it down. That was a week ago, still no movement. Just curious, are there any other people on here who are in this situation, waiting 2+ months for even the receipt notices? I think my application is at the National Benefits Center, that's where the initial I-765 and I-131 were processed (based on a pending I-485).

Thanks! 

5 hours ago, isa_bella said:

Hey guys. When are y'all planning to renew your EADs? Can we do it 6 months before expiration since processing takes almost 6 months now?

I've been wondering that too. I suspect renewals work differently than initial authorization, but I'd like to know for sure. I'm only 3 months into my permit, so I haven't looked it up yet, but it would be good to be prepared just in case. My case has been at "Ready to schedule for an interview" since the end of May,  but it's at the Seattle field office so it might take a long time for my interview to get scheduled still. That office is very busy.

I was reading the new proposal (https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/18_0921_USCIS_Proposed-Rule-Public-Charge.pdf) after seeing an article that DHS is proposing to add credit score as a factor in determining public charge. On reading the proposed law, I also noticed that they are proposing that lawful permanent residents may be subject to an inadmissability determination  (due to public charge consideration) in some cases when travelling. 

1) Credit score: This is true (starts on page 187 of the PDF, "(c) Credit Report and Score" ). "USCIS would generally consider a credit score characterized as “good” or better to be a positive factor as it demonstrates an applicant may be able to support him or herself and any dependents assuming all other financial records are sufficient. A “good” credit report is generally near or slightly above the average of U.S. consumers, and therefore the person may be self-sufficient and less likely to become a public charge. A poor credit report is well below the average of U.S. consumers" (page 188). They also have considerations for people with no or limited credit, and for errors in credit history. I personally think this is not a good proposal, as it will discriminate against those who have relied on credit to remain self-supporting during emergency situations, such as to help pay for large medical costs, or tight times during an unexpected layoff, and fails to account for how fickle the credit score can be to maintain, as it relies on a multitude of factors such as the number of inquiries, age of accounts, balances on those accounts, payments on time, number of lines open, and so on, so conceivably a person could have sufficient income but be impacted by non-monetary factors. Granted, they are proposing that this would be one of a multitude of factors taken into consideration for the public charge benefit determination, but I still think it wouldn't be fair to have credit score counted as a negative if it doesn't accurately reflect the individual's situation. I didn't see this mentioned in precious discussions, but my apologies if it was and I missed it.

2) LPR's and travelling: I noticed this gem buried in the document: under section 1. Applicants for Admission (which starts on page 57 of PDF; quote is on page 59): "Additionally, although lawful permanent residents generally are not considered to be applicants for admission upon their return from a trip abroad, in certain limited circumstances a lawful permanent resident will be considered an applicant for admission and, therefore, subject to an inadmissibility determination.  This inadmissibility determination includes whether the alien is inadmissible as likely to become a public charge, which will be determined upon the lawful permanent resident's return to the United States." (quote is from page 59) I couldn't find a statement clarifying what those limited circumstances are, which doesn't make me very comfortable. It seems like this vague language would give point-of-entry the right to apply the public charge rules, and so even LPR's may need to bring financial supporting evidence with them when travelling, in the event that one of the "certain limited circumstances" pops up? I am full-on speculating here, of course, (and I didn't read the whole 447-page document, so it's possible they define it much later on, but they didn't for the 100 or so pages that I did glance through). But as is,  the proposal statement seems vague and open to interpretation. Thoughts? 😅

Thanks for your response! 😃

I thought of one more question I had: what about selling art/crafts through the Etsy website, is that also allowed under the EAD? I'm guessing that might count as self employment, legal as long as I report on our tax returns?

Hi all, 

I received my EAD/AP combo card a while back (Aug 27), based my I-485/I-130 application (adjusting from an F-1 visa). I was working through OPT before the F-1 expired at a 9-5 office job, which rehired me when I received the new EAD/AP card, so all is well with that and I have a source of income. My husband went through a period of unemployment earlier in the year but now has a position again, and his parents co-sponsored my application anyway/well satisfied requirements, so I am not too worried about the income part of our application. We are in the "Waiting to be scheduled for an interview" phase. Now for my question: while we are able to afford living right now, we don't have much room for extras, and so I was thinking about doing some work on the side. I was thinking of doing this through Amazon Mechanical Turk, or fiverr, or possibly some freelance writing work, but likely for companies or magazines to make sure the work is properly taxed and legitimate. Could doing some work on the side like this cause problems with my pending immigration application? I'm fairly certain the work permit itself allows me to accept any legal employment within the US, correct? What about at the interview, could that cause any difficulties? I am probably being overly cautious, but would rather be so than cause a problem over some small amounts of money. 

Thanks for any input, much appreciated! 😃

On 8/10/2018 at 4:00 PM, Tilly87 said:

Good news on my EAD (I-765). No changes on my.uscis.gov, but .egov updated to: "My New Card Is Being Produced. On August 10, 2018, we ordered your new card for Receipt Number ###########, and will mail it to the address you gave us." I was in shock when I saw the screen. I had been thinking it would be the end of August due to our month-long RFE hold. I know it will still be a few weeks for the card to get here/SSN to arrive (we checked the option for a new SSN), but this is still amazing. Time to party! 😃 For reference to anyone else waiting:

 

-February 26: NOA1 priority date (filed I-485, I-130, I-765, and I-131, all concurrently)

-March 26: RFE for I-864 (they missed already included evidence)
-March 28: Biometrics

-April 24: RFE response was processed & case taken off hold

-May 30: On .egov my case moved to "Ready to schedule for interview" (this update has not appeared on myUSCIS)

-June 26: The "Last action taken on your case" date updated to June 26 on my automatic "No updates" emails (even though the last real change I had seen was the May 30th .egov update). We theorized that June 26 was the date they transferred my case to the field office. 

-August 10: My new card is being produced

Update on this! I received both EAD (combo card) and SSN card on Saturday August 18, 174 days after applying(posting a bit late because I was on vacation). No updates to the main I-485 application , it's still "Ready to be scheduled for an interview." At least I can work now! 😃 My previous employer hired me back and I am starting next Monday. 

Good news on my EAD (I-765). No changes on my.uscis.gov, but .egov updated to: "My New Card Is Being Produced. On August 10, 2018, we ordered your new card for Receipt Number ###########, and will mail it to the address you gave us." I was in shock when I saw the screen. I had been thinking it would be the end of August due to our month-long RFE hold. I know it will still be a few weeks for the card to get here/SSN to arrive (we checked the option for a new SSN), but this is still amazing. Time to party! 😃 For reference to anyone else waiting:

-February 26: NOA1 priority date (filed I-485, I-130, I-765, and I-131, all concurrently)

-March 26: RFE for I-864 (they missed already included evidence)
-March 28: Biometrics

-April 24: RFE response was processed & case taken off hold

-May 30: On .egov my case moved to "Ready to schedule for interview" (this update has not appeared on myUSCIS)

-June 26: The "Last action taken on your case" date updated to June 26 on my automatic "No updates" emails (even though the last real change I had seen was the May 30th .egov update). We theorized that June 26 was the date they transferred my case to the field office. 

-August 10: My new card is being produced

I echo the advice given in this thread, your wife should NOT leave the country. I was also an F-1 student  (completed a post grad OPT), and I went through a scary period while waiting for our Notice of Action receipts (I-797C's): my F-1 had finished, and I was on the 60-day grace period before having to leave the country (because I hadn't had any unemployed time during my OPT). So technically I wasn't overstaying, but if someone had asked me to present documents during that period, I had nothing that officially explained the grace period. I was white knuckling it till those receipts arrived, so I fully understand how nerve wracking it is! And in our case, the check was cashed, then a week later I received my biometrics appointment letter, our receipts actually took longer to come (I want to say it was two weeks?). But as our lawyer explained to me when we were going through this stage, the check being cashed provides confirmation that USCIS has accepted your case and the wheels are in motion. That is what I held onto during that time, the knowledge that I was doing everything legally correctly, and that if asked for papers I had at least some sort of paper trail with my expired visa & the bank record of the checks being cashed. This of course is not a guarantee that you won't get a request for evidence (RFE) down the line (we did), but it does mean that your partner is legally present in the US while the case is being worked on. If your partner leaves before receiving advanced parole (I-131 if you filed for it), the case would be considered abandoned and you would lose any fees paid. You can file for something called a CR-1 (I think) for spouse to immigrate to US from outside country, but that means you'll be living apart for the whole process, and would pay fees all over again. Since your partner is in the states already, adjusting seems like the most logical path to proceed. Also note, things at USCIS seem to be moving very slowly as of late, so don't panic if things like receipts take longer to arrive than is the norm, just keep that in mind and make inquiries. Best of luck to you both!

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

I think the OP limited the search to only the past 90 days (http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/aosstats.php?history=90). This only has 1 record, which is well outside the norm.

Gotcha! Looks like that's it, thank you! 😃 Yeah I agree. It's important to look at the overall picture. One record is more likely to be a complicated case/outlier than a reflection of the average case processing time.

On 7/27/2018 at 11:30 PM, Paulmancub said:

I Just checked the processing time for AOS in Seattle WA office within the past 90 days and it says >900 days!!!

 

Saw the processing times on the stats from this website, but on the USCIS it says 11-17 months,,, totally confused somebody explain??

 

Also anyone know how long it will take for EAD to process,, filed at NBC????

 

Thanks

 

My AOS case is at the Seattle WA office too, and my EAD is at the NBC. Just curious, where were you seeing the 900 days figure? On http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/aosstats.php it says Seattle WA takes an average of 344 days to interview (307 days between biometrics and interview) based on 19 records for that office. The USCIS egov website says 11.5-17.5 months on average, with family based applications taking 10.5 Months to 23.5 Months and work based  applications taking 10 Months to 14.5 Months. As for EAD, 4-6 months seems to be a good estimate right now. My receipt date is February 26, and most of the other people who filed around my time are now receiving EAD's. I have not, most likely due to my case being on hold from March 26 - April 24 due to an RFE (probably added a month). But if you haven't had an RFE then you can probably count 6 months as being the longest it could take. 

18 hours ago, Willy Wilcox said:

On 7/14/2018 at 8:25 PM, Zulu Flights said:

Do we still have February fliers that have not received EAD/AP yet?

 

I've been waiting like forever ... No updates after my Biometrics/RFE 

I have not yet either.  Like you, I haven't had any updates since they received the biometrics fee. 

I haven't received either yet either.  I applied Feb 26, did biometrics Mar 28, got an RFE dated March 26/RFE was marked as received & case taken off hold April 24, and the only update since was May 30 "Case is ready to be scheduled for an interview." My automatic email alerts telling me there has been no change on my case now uses June 26 as the last date of action on my case, which makes me think they probably sent my case over to the field office.

I think in terms of the EAD/AP, the RFE has slowed it down. Frustrating , because our RFE was likely due to USCIS overlooking evidence. They said that we had stated a sufficient income amount for husband on the I-864 but had not included any evidence for it (we had, in the form of his tax records). They wanted details like employment letters, paystubs for past 6 months, etc. But, as our lawyer noted, they seemed to completely miss the fact that we had filed to use his father as joint sponsor (also using an I-864A to include his mother) and had included quite a bit of documentation for them such as tax records, Social Security letters etc. and which well exceeded the income requirement for my application. We had done this because my husband is a car salesman, and his income has fluctuated so greatly that our lawyer thought our case would be much stronger using a joint sponsor. In effect, USCIS ignored the joint sponsorship completely. But we gathered all requested info anyway, and lawyer wrote a strong reaffirming statement that while we were happy to provide the info on husband, we were still using a joint sponsor, as we recognized how his fluctuating income complicated things. They accepted the response just fine. In terms of EAD/AP, I was optimistic a couple of weeks ago that it was just around the corner, but now I think that since most of the people who applied around my time have received cards already (I'm at 152 days now), mine will be along in 3-4 weeks, the time that my case was on hold for the dumb RFE. Hopefully sooner  . (I know they have must have reasons, just venting a bit, haha).

8 minutes ago, A&H2018 said:

The RFE may have slowed down your EAD, but should be coming soon unless you currently got some status. As for i485 moving, when you call push for tier2 officer on,y they can see when the files starting moving.

 

Also when did you last use your SR? Was it more than 30 days ago?

Yes I figured the RFE must have slowed down my EAD a bit. I suspect I'm on the verge of getting it, perhaps another week or two (I don't have any status currently, and at 136 days, although some of that must not count due to RFE). Can't wait!  Thanks for the advice on calling. What is an SR though? (Probably more than 30 days since I used it since I'm not sure what it is ).

Just now, A&H2018 said:

Is your card been produced yet? Very likely your case got transferred to your local office, was told today it takes up to 120days now between the transfer and interview being scheduled. So very likely update is either transfer started or your card was produced.

No we're still waiting to be scheduled for an interview, so it must be that it is the transfer has been started. Yay! Always glad to see signs of any kind of (positive) activity, haha. 

23 minutes ago, geowrian said:

To clarify...

You only need 1 qualifying joint sponsor. You cannot combine incomes or assets across sponsors.

 

I think you are referring to a household member agreement with a sponsor via an I-864A. This allows the household member to have their income/assets included with the sponsor's (primary or joint) income/assets. That said, there are a number of restrictions on an I-864A as well - namely it must be a qualified relative (spouse, sibling, son/daughter, or parent) living in the same residence as the sponsor (which is different than a household member, which may or may not live in the same residence).

Yes, that's what I meant, sorry for the confusion. In our case, our lawyer prepared the actual sponsorship forms, so while I knew it is possible to have a joint sponsor include income from their household as we had to ask his parents/make sure they met requirements, I was missing the I-864A part. Thank you for correcting and clarifying! 

21 hours ago, Pzs said:

Unfortunately we don’t have anyone who can be our co-sponsor. His family doesn’t make any money and theres no one else who could help us out with that...

I was in the same boat: we received an RFE requesting we send evidence of my husband's income (6 months of paystubs, tax returns, etc). However, we had already filed for his parents to act as his joint sponsors, as we knew my husband's income would not quite cut it; he is a car salesman, and had very expensive health insurance that ate up a good chunk of his income (long story). The RFE in our case was because they had not seemed to notice the joint sponsor situation; our lawyer helped us craft a response, including all evidence asked for but reaffirming that we were relying on his parents as joint sponsors. The RFE was accepted and I am now in the "Ready to schedule for an interview" phase.

What I wanted to point out is that you can use multiple joint sponsors (the joint sponsor can include all of the income from their household). I know you said you don't have anyone that can, as no one in his family makes enough money, but perhaps they do as a household? Our lawyer said the joint sponsor must meet $23,000 of income for 2 people in their household, plus $5,500 for each additional person (the immigrant counts as an "additional person"; we filed this Feb so the amounts should still be valid). I believe that works out to something like this: say the Joint sponsor's household is 2 (JS and spouse of JS), they would need as a household an income of $28,500. If the JS has an income of say 15k, and spouse income is 15K, they would make 30K as a household, which would meet the requirement. This can be found on the USCIS website under Joint Sponsor: https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/affidavit-support  I would suggest checking into this with your lawyer, and then maybe approaching husband's family, it would probably need to be quick since you're running close to the deadline. I know even some government benefits can be counted as income from the joint sponsor, such as social security pensions (again, another thing to ask lawyer, depending on your situation). Just something to look into, since you only get one shot at satisfying an RFE! Hope that helps, best of luck, I know it's rough! 

EDIT: And note, income doesn't have to be spouse of joint sponsor to count income as part of household, just someone in the household (so if there are any adult siblings living at home and working perhaps?) 

5 hours ago, txkangaroo said:

This is an automated email for inactivity of account. You can turn off at dhs site -> setting -> don't send any email if there's no update. It wouldn't affect any notification for the actual movement of your case.

Thanks for the info! However, that wasn't what I was saying about the emails, I know they are automated and about inactivity to the account. The last activity to my case that I can see was on May 30, but in the automated email it said the last activity on my case was on June 26. All my automated emails before have alternated between using the last activity date on myUSCIS (April 24) or a start date (myUSCIS says March 8, even though my NOA priority date is February 26). So it's a discrepancy, and the first change of any sort I have seen on my USCIS case at all in over a month. A few other people on the forums have noted a similar occurrence, where they received an automated email using a June activity date, although there had been no official activity. We thought it could mean an internal action was performed on our case on that date, such as the case being sent to our local field office. So a small update since nothing officially changed, but I was noting it in case anyone in this thread had seen it/experiences it in the future (I'll document if something actually happens). 

22 hours ago, Elena Ibrahim said:

Hello guys we received an email stating that "We are still reviewing your case and there are no updates at this time. We will notify you when your case status changes.  We last took action on your case on June 25, 2018."

 

I know I have seen this posted from a few of you,  but do not recall what it might mean.  If anyone wan shed some light, would really appreciate it, thank you.

 

 

Hi! I've applied to adjust status from an F1 student visa to permanent residence, so slightly different case compared to yours (but still an AOS). I wanted to note that received a similar update this morning:

"We are still reviewing your case and there are no updates at this time
We will notify you when your case status changes. We last took action on your case on June 26, 2018."

The last time myUSCIS displayed an update was April 24, 2018 registering my response to an RFE, and on the https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/ tracker the last date something changed there was May 30 indicating case ready to be scheduled for interview. I have been checking both trackers daily. So they did some kind of action on June 26, but I can't tell what as no changes are displayed. Hmmmmm now I get to drive myself crazy with speculation, hahaha. Hopefully it's something good!

Small update: this morning I received three emails stating:
"We are still reviewing your case and there are no updates at this time
We will notify you when your case status changes. We last took action on your case on June 26, 2018."

Mostly routine, except the last time myUSCIS displayed an update was April 24, 2018 registering response to RFE and on the https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/ tracker the last date something changed there was May 30 indicating case ready to be scheduled for interview. I have been checking both trackers daily. So they did something on June 26, but I can't tell what as no changes are displayed. I read about something similar on another VJ post, and someone suggested it as the date their case was sent to the local field office. Anyone else see something like this?