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I think anyone who has a green card can apply to become a citizen after five years of being an LPR. If they are married to a US citizen, they can do it after three years, but I think they must have attained LPR status through marriage.

Yep, the renewal is free.  You will get a receipt in the post which will serve as the extension.  They don't produce a new card or anything.
 
You should be fine timing-wise, but I'd send it today.

For anyone wondering my H1B got approved. However, I cannot guarantee that all the cases with this status update are/will be approved. 

We were consulting with a lawyer (without company sponsorship) between filing an EB-1 or EB-2 NIW. Our lawyer suggested EB-2 NIW. Reason being that it is easier to get through than EB-1. My husband has a PhD (from a US University) and won some prizes but his amount of publications was not impressive (<15). The lawyer said we could go for it but it is a safer bet for EB-2 NIW. We took 3-5 months to prepare all the documents with the help of the lawyer and got all references. Started in late Oct 2018 and filed I-140 on Feb 2019. I-140 was approved in Sept 2019 and we proceed to file I-485 in Oct 2019. We just got our I-485 approved. No RFE and no interview for us. 
 
There are some lawyers who give you free consultations to tell you what they prefer. No obligation at all. We spoke to 2 before we decided on EB-2 NIW and who to use. I suggest you contact them for some ideas. If you need contact/recommendations, let me know. Our lawyer package for I-140 was "Approved or refund".

Yes, EB1 A

You should also look into an EB2 National Interest Waiver (if you're not from India or China) as the criteria are much less stringent than EB1A.

My husband and I are ready to file my AOS so I called my local office this morning to enquire on something , and was told that I can mail my packet in but don't expect anything to be done about it as they are in deep trouble financially and are about to be without half the workforce, confirmed bin the article below,  so I'm now very worried about sending my packet in if it's just gonna sit there because they are understaffed?? Anyone else concerned ???
 
Thanks Trump 😠
 
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/immigration-system-budget-cuts
 
 

Do you have any more information that you can share with us as it will help answer your question? What unapproved applications? Where did the list come from? Do you have a link to that information?

Thank you all - just for anyone who's interested to hear: my visa got approved! They are still processing O-1's today 🙂

If the girlfriend wants to move to the US, I think the best solution is him getting the visa, entering the US to activate it, then applying for a re entry permit. Then he can go back home, marry her, file and wait. 

I tried looking for this answer..couldn't find anything unfortunately. Only that it's not amongst the June 4th openings 🥴. Hopefully someone else had better luck

Anyone knows if / when NYC offices will open? Afaik they're not opening yet. 😩

Your title is misleading and false. USCIS did not lay off anyone. They talked about a potential layoff for some contractors and it did not occur. Those 1,000 contractors were not laid off on May 29. USCIS has around 20,000 employees and contractors with a budget of a little more than $4 billion per year. They were requesting a loan of $600 million per year. A bailout is usually used for a bankruptcy. Again, they are not in debt or facing bankruptcy. The article mentions that USCIS does not want to take drastic actions. What would actions be? Furloughing employees. They don't want to do that. If applications drop by a certain amount, they don't need as many employees. Once applications pick back up again, they can bring the employees back. They want a loan so they don't have to furlough some of their employees.

Given this situation, would it be possible they would try to continue the interview waivers they have been doing?  I know it is not for certain, just getting some opinions.

Here's the process in the USCIS policy manual: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-a-chapter-8
Every such case is discretionary.

I self submitted for my EB 1 GC. It was a ton of work but I did receive my GC without any RFEs and saved about $7K. 

My partner came to the US on 01 (which took 4 months from him starting to collect paperwork to arrival in US), with company funded legal support and expedite. I recall we were advised to wait 6 months after arrival before adjusting status but then delayed it further for personal/business reasons. We are, thankfully, a few years into our careers and my partner is in a field that lends itself to the publications and awards they are looking for, and doesn’t have any US specific training or licensing requirements, so he covered the EB1 criteria fairly comfortably.

From a moralistic point of view persuading such specialists to move countries during these troubling times abandoning their own Citizens seems troubling.
 
And in the US medical practitioners in non COVID areas are being furloughed, we live in crazy times.

This is the work visa forum description:
 
"Discussion on Work based visas to the USA. H1B, H2A, H2B, H4, L1, L2, O, P1, P3 and Q1 Visas. Hundreds of thousands of people enter the US each year and may even choose to immigrate to the US."
 
it is not clear that it is also intended to cover employment-based immigration. 

Hi all - this is going to be a lengthy post. I thank you in advance if you can get through it!
 
My husband and I are Canadian and he is a greencard holder. We got married 2 years ago and I have been on H1B. We filed the I-130 January 2019 (it has been approved). We have been patiently waiting for my time to file my adjustment of status.

My husband works for a top global brand and we thought we were fortunate enough to use "one of America's best immigration lawyers" for our cases. This lawyer did my husband's greencard application about 4 years ago. Back in September I checked in with them on the status of my application (they charge $300 an hour just an FYI) They told me the process would be another 2-3 years and I was devastated to hear this. But they said to reach out to them around mid October as they would have a better idea of when my turn might be to file. I did just that and emailed them mid October. They responded October 31, 2019 saying there was no update and they would continue to monitor my case.

I gave birth to our first child in October and I was really struggling with going back to work (but I had no choice as I had to maintain my H1-B status in order to legally stay in the US and keep my family together).  I reached out to our lawyer again January 2020 as I was getting even more unhappy with my job and wanted to explore all options. It was at this time she tells us that her firm made "clerical error" and my time to file was OCTOBER 2019. I nearly lost my mind. I had to push her further and she corrected herself, my time to apply was JUNE 2019. I can't express how absolutely furious I was. Not only did they miss my chance to file in June but when I reached out to them in October they never even looked and noticed the error? And then lied?

I demanded they file ASAP.  I wanted the receipt so I could quit my job that was making me unhappy. They filed, i got the receipt. She tells me they filed it WRONG! We had to file AGAIN. She told me to not attend my biometrics appointment for my first application. I gave my work notice and then COVID hit a few weeks later. My case isn't even with USCIS because I haven't done biometrics. At this point I just really really want my advanced parole as I recently lost a family member to the shooting massacre in Canada. I can't leave the country without the advanced parole because I don't have my job anymore.
 
I am almost a year behind due to this lawyer's negligence. Has this happened to anyone else before? Is there anything that can be done?? It just feels like there are no repercussions for this lawyer. I know we are going through a national crisis so no one is going to care about immigration right now but it's just the worst feeling and I'm desperate as I want to be able to go be with my family ASAP. I'm like a crazy person drafting letters and reaching out to senators! I'm at my whit's end and any advice would be appreciated.
 
 

Update: I got my combo card and it says fingerprints unavailable. Also says no restrictions on the card. Seems like biometrics were indeed waived

I'm at EB1C
 
Interview was scheduled before the pandemic. And it was cancelled a few days before the scheduled date. It hasn't been rescheduled yet

UPDATE: Status just changed again to this 😁😁😁😁
 

 
 

Thanks for the update! Looks like they are waiving the biometric requirement in some cases, not reusing a prior one.

Hi Geowrian, my card has my photograph and it says "fingerprint not available" where my thumb should be. It also says "Terms and Conditions: None." It's a combo card.