bird&bear

Hi Y'all,
 
I randomly keep checking the case status and on May 16th, I was totally surprised to see the status change to "New card is issued". I was not expecting that. I was so sure I will get an RFE or at least the interview, as most MSC cases do. You can look at my timeline to see how long it all took me, just about 10 months. I received my card on May 23rd. I am sharing this so you don't feel hopeless with waiting. Hit me up if you have any questions and good luck to you all. 

Actually, I feel these kinds of "protests" are very minor, I don't care about the "Kiev" vs "Kyiv" spelling, it's so minor and most people don't even understand it since it's some inside baseball linguistics battle. The Russian vodka bans are just silly but I'm sure Russia factored it in that they'd take hits on exports like that.
 
What does bother me is ordinary Russians, especially those living/working abroad, getting punished. Not to mention anything to do with Russian culture. Some university in Italy banned Dostoevsky's books. Russian restaurants and stores being vandalized. An online language learning platform just banned Russians....this is all insanity to me. How is any of this going to "hurt" Russia? Also most Russians who live/work abroad are very anti-Putin/do not support the war. So much hatred and raw emotion going around, and they're actually doing damage to be people who are on "their side"...it's very baffling.

I can take 2 years or more at the moment, but it can be substantially shorter (or longer) depending on your situation as well as your luck. Estimates for the first step, which is filing I-130 at USCIS, are all over the place. Some people get through it in less than 3 months, others are currently still waiting for their February application to be processed. Generally speaking, count 6 to 10 months for that step alone. The second step, which is NVC, has a 3-month backlog and is currently processing September and early October submissions. Assuming you get everything right on the first try, ie no request for evidence at either stage, the road from filing to DQ is somewhere in the range of 7 to 12 months for most people at the moment. If you do get a RFE, add a few months to that estimate (especially at the NVC stage). 
The real unknown is how long it takes to get an appointment at a consulate when you are DQ. This is arguably the part of the process that was hit the hardest by the pandemic, as many consulates have had to shut down and have, consequently, amassed a considerable backlog. The good (or bad) news is that not all consulates are equal. Some have years worth of backlog, others are processing cases with little or no backlog. From the small pool of IR1/CR1 timelines on VJ, it looks like the consulate in Nepal belongs to the latter category. All in all, in the current situation, your case would probably take 11 to 15 months, give or take, from start to finish, so long as it is not a difficult case and doesn't get hit by RFEs.
It is still a very long and stressful process, even in the best-case scenario. But, so long as your case is straightforward and you do your due diligence, the entire process should, at current rates, stay well under 2 years.

Be hyper-vigilant about this. We moved during our I-485 application and made sure to file the address change form. I even called USCIS to verify they got my new address.
 
The interview notice arrived at our new house with a big yellow 'reroute' sticker from USPS. It was addressed to our old apartment, and fortunately I had set up mail forwarding with USPS. Our attorney also got a copy.
 
I mentioned this at the interview and the officer told us USCIS uses "about 5 different systems that don't talk to each other" (literally his words). All other communications (e.g. the I485 approval notice, the actual green card) made it to our new address. But apparently the interview scheduler is on a different system that doesn't always sync up with the other systems.
 
Set up informed delivery. Make sure you set up mail forwarding with USPS. You may even want to contact the person that lives at your old address now and let them know to contact you if any mail from USCIS accidentally goes to there address. It's a major PITA to deal with a missed interview letter.
 
BTW regarding the wait time - could be a few months, could be 2+ years. It depends on the workload of the field office unfortunately.

Our case status was updated to the "fingerprints received" notice today, too!  We are at Nebraska.  

I'm sorry to hear that 😞
 
We've had trouble in the past getting through to a human being on the phone support line, but we've always managed to get to someone with enough persistence and some combination of those phrases I mentioned above. One of the agents I spoke to said to try whatever you could to get through -- doesn't matter if it has anything to do with your actual support request, they'll assist you once you're connected.
 
Edit: you could also try saying "I don't have a case number." I think we had some success with that before.

Hi Momoejin. I'm not aware of any phone number other than the toll free number listed at uscis.gov (800-375-5283). It can definitely be frustrating trying to reach a human being using the automated system, though. We've had luck in the past saying "schedule an appointment" or "reschedule an appointment" or "make an appointment." Hope you're able to get in touch with someone, and good luck!

Just received the text from USCIS today. Looks like I am in Potomac Service Center as well.
 

You may want to read the forums here. There have been more than a few posts where the AOS has been used against the sponsor in court and not because the government was going after the sponsor. But because a lawyer twisted the terms of the AOS saying it was a promise to keep the immigrant at a certain level. 
 
This is a case of them trying to push family by guilt to start the AOS process. This man has legal status right now and can OPT when he graduates. He will make his own money and start the process then. They don't want to wait. No way on earth would I sign the AOS for someone who is not even using his head that this issue can easily be solved. Instead this so called man is guilting his new wife telling her her parents are ruining his life. SOrry but a grown man should not be having tempter tantrums and attacking his wife. Because that is abuse already showing up this early in the marriage. 

My guess is that you're sending more evidence than when you first submitted, correct? 
 
I would recommend you including a letter explaining what you just explained in this post, so they understand why those documents they consider as strong evidence, are not in your packet. 

Our journey to immigrate my wife here started in December of 2015.  From the first form we filed, I-130, to most recently, the I-751.  
 
Through the help and advice from fellow forum members, I was able to accomplish this entire process with No RFE’s or legal help.    
 
logged into USCIS online status update this am and it showed, “New card being produced”. 👍🏻
 
I-751 filed May 2019
Interview was scheduled on Nov 8 for Dec 13.  
 
Dec 13 ROC interview completed. 
 
Status updated today, 12/21/21 to “New card being produced”.   
 

we’re done for now.  Taking a breather from USCIS for awhile before filling the N400.  We’re both stressed to the max!!!
 
 THANKS to all here for the advice and support!  🙏🏻🙏🏻

Hi, there.
 
I just had an interview yesterday and it went all good.
The officer was super nice & much more easier interview what I had thought.
 
The questions on interview were;
Both full names, current address & DOB
How we met
When we engaged
When/where we married
When we started to live together
 
We have a child, so the officer looked our I-751 and said “you have an enough proof.”
 
It only takes 10 min (total 20 min includes security check & waiting time) , no additional documents required. Even I prepared thick documents & bunch of photos, the officer told me that he didn't need them. 
 
I know my case was one of the fastest…I feel so lucky.
Hope all your process move smooth.
 
Timeline is here;
Filed I-751 1/2
NOA1 2/10
Biometric 6/?
Ready to Interview 11/10
Interview Letter 11/15
Interview Date 12/21
Card was Producing 12/21

If your husband entered on a CR-1, you can almost guarantee an interview. Especially since it was sent to MSC.  Biometrics are required.  
 
If you included a good variety of supporting documents with your I-751, the interview will be no problem.  I think our interview lasted about 10 minutes. 
 
Good luck!

The rumors floating around on the older ROC threads is that K-1s who had AOS interviews and get a regional service center receipt # (LIN, WAC, etc) will likely have their interview (and biometrics) waived, unless there was some issue in the first interview that they want to revisit.  So those applications will be processed at the service center, and never even dispatched to the local field office.
 
Those adjusting from spousal visas or anyone else who did not have an AOS interview is very likely to be processed through MSC, and end up with an interview at their local field office.

Seems so.  And those who come over on spousal visas (and therefore do not interview for AOS), will get an interview for ROC.

Yes this seems to be the case. You can’t get a time frame if assigned to MSC for the I 751. It’s back to the waiting game! 

SuznAaron mentioned above that this appears to be the case. Although based on the thread lurking that I've done recently, people who applied in late 2019 are only now getting interviews, so we have quite a wait ahead of us.

I think it went great. It was yesterday (12/13/21).  IO was super nice. Took us to his office and swore us in.  He asked a few basic questions. We had to verify our identity and signatures on the 751 form we filed.  A few questions about how we met, when we decided to get married, where we got married.  If I had traveled to my wife’s home county. He spent about 3-5 minutes going thru our packet we submitted.  
 
he told us everything looks good and favorable.  He then asked if we had anything else to add to our file. I handed over our tax returns for the time in between filling and interview. Also pictures and social media screen shots of trips and get togethers with family and friends.  
 
he looked over some of the pics and told us we would be notified of a decision in 2-3 weeks.  Said if he needed anything else he’d be in touch.  Wished us a merry Christmas as we said goodbye and left his office.  

Hi everyone,
 
We are preparing to send our I-751 packet. But I don’t know which address to list on our form.
 
we’ve lived at the same address since the greencard was issued, but now we’re moving very soon. In fact we’ll be moving about 2 days after we send in our packet. All of our supporting documents (tax returns, lease agreement, bank statements, etc) show our old address.
 
Do I enter our new or old address on the form? 

We had this same issue a few months back, sent the I-751 package on May 21st, and moved to a new address on June 1st.  We interpreted the instructions literally and put the address that was current at the time the I-751 was filed, as it had to be signed as correct and true.  USPS was notified of the new address and forwarding service set up to begin June 1, USCIS change of address done online shortly after.  Thankfully USPS forwarded the I-797 and extension letter a couple of weeks later, then in July the biometrics appointment information was sent directly to the new address, so this was also confirmation that USCIS had made the address update on their system.  Although we were worried that the I-797 would not be sent to the new address and that USPS would not forward it, everything worked out fine.  Good luck!

Honestly, these are questions which should have been asked and answered before he arrived.  Healthcare should be a MAJOR part every new immigrant's plan for living in the US.......While it might not be mandated that he have health insurance immediately, it is not wise to wait.  Any tax penalty should be the least of your concerns regarding healthcare.
To file a joint tax return, he MUST have a social security number.  

If it's an ACA-compliant policy (nearly every employer plan must be now), then it certainly is a QLE. The rules are in the prior link.
A non-compliant plan would have resulted in owing a tax (in most circumstances) under the individual mandate (prior to that tax going away).
 
Totality of the circumstances...IIRC, you have had a pretty strong case overall so I doubt they bat an eye. But for somebody who doesn't have that, it looks manufactured (solely for the purpose of immigration) IMO.
 
Of course open enrollment was not offered. Open enrollment are fixed periods (generally annually). I am speaking about a special enrollment period.
Unless your employer is exempt or it's a grandfathered plan (not sure if those even exist anymore?), a change in available plans due to a permanent move is a QLE (this doesn't mean every ZIP code change counts, but so long as at least 1 plan option differs, the QLE should apply). This includes any ACA-compliant plan on the exchange and off the exchange.
Note that this is different than the QLE for gaining lawful presence...that is an exchange-only requirement (employer-sponsored plans may or may not adopt it as well).
 
https://www.healthinsurance.org/special-enrollment-guide/how-your-big-move-can-trigger-an-sep/
 

I wouldn't buy an insurance they could not use. The obvious question being "Why did you buy that insurance?", and if the only answers revolve around immigration, well...
This may change a little if the healthcare proclamation ever goes into effect.
 
There certainly is a QLE for that. All ACA plans must offer a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for changes in residence.
https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage-outside-open-enrollment/special-enrollment-period/
 
 
 

Was approved at interview on Friday and today received my visa in my passport!!!!! Going to be back with my husband for Christmas! Thank you all for help and advice During this long process🎉🎉 

Hi guys,
 
after many months of waiting like you all, we had our interview in London today and were in, approved and back out in 45 mins!!!
 
really nice experience and as everyone says, absolutely nothing to be nervous about if you PREPARE,PREPARE and PREPARE again! 
 
Just 3 or 4 simple Random questions after the paperwork had been checked, with a very nice professional American lady ... it really is a conversational interview 
 
will have our visas back in 5-7 days then it’s new year, new start in the US!
 
 
this forum has been a source of great help and hope over the last few months and I will always be very grateful 
 
 
good luck to you all 🇺🇸