Javier Mera

Congrats on everyone that got their stuff approved lately!. 

I Wanted to pass along this information to see if maybe works out for you guys. My wife recently started working for a grocery delivery service called ShipT. Here's the website https://www.shipt.com/. Of course is not the dream job or anything but it's pretty good money for the time being. Considering the current crisis that is shutting down a lot of job hires and interviews I thought I'd share this.

Good luck to anyone in this crazy times!

12 hours ago, andreaam said:

Green card on hand guys!
It took 5 business days since the ‘New Card Being Produced’ update

Que bueno! Muchas felicidades que se que fue dura la espera en tu caso. A respirar un poco ahora y relajar.

On 3/23/2020 at 1:01 PM, andreaam said:

Hello guys! How are you all?? How are your feeling these days? 
Stay safe and healthy. I’m thinking and wishing for a good turnover for all of us. 
Keep me posted. 
 

Andrea 😃

All good. Finally working from home. Not too crazy over here yet hehe. My wife has started applying for jobs even though she doesn't have the translated stuff from Wes but what the hell, there's nothing to lose. How's new York these days? Last I read you guys are in mandatory quarantine possibly? 

17 hours ago, Jonnat said:

 Gracias Javier. I'm the one travelling. But I talked to someone at the airport, then called American Airlines and Aerolineas Argentinas and apparently the only flight available was for tonight. It was the last one,  And Everyone is like crazy here.

Also, my fear is that  all latin American countries are closing  borders, I'm ashamed to say this but it would be my first time flying, and I'm kinda worried about getting stuck at an airport. I'm guessing we are running out of options.

We were so excited about being approved and now this

Really sorry to hear this. But just like @andreaam mentionted you might just have to wait until this is over and then you will be able to travel. Maybe the visa needs to be reissued, but I cant imagine they wouldn't do it considering the circumstances.

Best of luck

@Jonnat I just checked American airlines to see if you could book a flight to Wisconsin for March 30th and there a re a few cheap flights. I'm guessing if they have them on their website then I see no reason why your fiancee couldn't fly. So maybe even if Argentina is not accepting flights from the US starting tomorrow, the flight could be done to brazil and then to the states. That's just my guess.

Good luck and keep us posted as to what happens.

3 minutes ago, Jonnat said:

@Javier Mera I don't have a plane ticket yet, I was given my k1 visa last week and When I was making all the arrangements for leaving Argentina this happened. So now I don't know what to do now. The president at the press conference said those who wanted to leave can do it, but I don't know if that applies for the States too. And If I could travel Are there  any restrictions for Argentinians entering the States, since I'm not married yet and hat's the intend of this visa. 😢

Ah I see. Well as far as I see it you shouldn't have a problem entering the USA as long as you have a flight ticket. Because the travel ban to the USA that was imposed does not include Argentina, not yet at least. But this is just me guessing, nothing has been said by USA that they are restricting Argentinians from entering. Again the only issue that you might run into is the fact that airlines are not flying out of Argentina into the USA. If you can, try to get a ticket as soon as you can.

Worse case scenario, and I know it sounds easy to say, stay calm and I'm sure the governments will have to extend those k1 visas that were delayed due to the pandemic.

1 hour ago, Fe.Ta said:

@Javier Mera Could you please speak into this, since you are the one with the most recent scenario?  I didn't see anything as far as traveling in from Argentina what would happen.

As far as I know the glorious president of Argentina announced the travel ban from several countries considered at high risk which includes the USA. If I were you I would call your airline right away and make the flight change as soon as possible. I don't know what the travel ban means in Argentina for US citizens/residents, but I would be very surprised if they didn't let you come back home. That said, If you are the temporary green card holder then I would make it back as soon as you can. You never know what could happen with airlines and airports in the coming days.

Our experience was with AA and I was able to change the flight at no cost for my wife (it's noted in their web site that they are waiving any change free due to the pandemic).

Hopefully this doesn't sound as alarming or chaotic, but in our case our main worry was that not only travel bans could happen but also the airports just not having flights out to the USA through argentina, chile, brazil or any other country. And then the fear of Trump just doing what ever with immigration in the future lol.

Well she made it safe back into the states this morning, before everything collapses 😅

3 minutes ago, Fe.Ta said:

Also, please note, AA is still considering cancelling and stopping operations if all or individual airports close, so keep an eye out (I have a family member that works for AA at the headquarters).  FYI.  I will pray that everything is good and she is able to come without any issues.

Thanks, yeah we are aware of that as well. Hopefully argentina keeps the ban starting on this monday so that she can fly out without problems on sunday. Fingers crossed.

@andreaam @Fe.Ta Thanks for your replies. I was able to get in touch with AA after 1 hour of being transferred 3 times haha. Her flight is now this coming Sunday.

Note: Just when I thought waiting lists were over after getting the green card, now the waiting is transferred to airlines 😂

Does anybody have some advice in regards flying from Argentina into the US with the current covid19 situation? My wife arrived there in March 3 and is suppose to come back April 10. As far as I understand Argentina has only banned travel coming from the US and not the other way. 

I'll be calling AA tomorrow and see what they say about coming back into the country. I was just wanting to know if you guys have any advice or have read more about the situation in South America 

Thanks!

On 3/6/2020 at 8:47 PM, andreaam said:

No hice apostillar nada. 
Una copia del analítico en español va en el sobre sellado. Las traducciones del título y del analítico no hace falta que vayan en el sobre sellado, van aparte. Lo que mandas a WES es el sobre sellado, copia del titulo y las traducciones certificadas. 
Según mi investigación, con lo que te da WES tu título ya está validado en US tanto para buscar trabajo como para seguir estudiando. Mire muchos videos de YouTube ylei muchas reseñas de gente que lo utilizaron para ambos casos.
Incluso en mi grupo de running hay una argentina que es fonoaudiologa. Ni bien se vino hace diez años hizo el mismo trámite en WES y con eso validó su título y buscó trabajo. 
Ahora estoy averiguando como es el tema de la matrícula pero es para más adelante. 
Por ahora se que vale mi título acá en créditos y el GPA. Recién empiezo a buscar trabajo y tengo una entrevista la semana que viene así que si me llegan a dar más información te escribo. 

Ah buenisimo entonces, muchas gracias por aclarar!. Que bueno con lo de la entrevista de trabajo, ojala salga todo bien! Conta despues por aca como te fue.

Tema matricula, por lo que estuvimos averiguando aca varia de acuerdo el estado en el que vivas. Esta la pagina del national board of architects y ahi te dice que requisitos necesitas para matricularte. Pero mi esposa por ahora va a hacer lo que vos hiciste, tratar de revalidar todo para poder conseguir trabajo en algun estudio o algo asi, y despues veremos para lo de la matricula.

Muchas gracias por compartir la info!

2 hours ago, andreaam said:

Escribo en español para expresarme mejor. 
Mande el analítico en sobre sellado como ellos dicen en las instrucciones. Le tuve que pedir a mi mamá que vaya a mi universidad y pida el sobre con membrete. Una vez que estaba la copia del analítico adentro, el decano lo cerró, selló y firmó la solapa de cierre del sobre.

Mi mamá me trajo ese sobre cuando vino a visitarme en enero, sino también podes usar DHL y que llegue a tu casa y de ahí vos agregas el título y la traducción y de ahí lo mandas a WES. 
Yo pagué la opción de 160 dólares donde me dice también cuántos créditos tengo y mi GPA. 

A ver si entendi bien. El analitico obviamente solo se manda en espanol porque tiene que ir sellado. Cuando me hablas de la traduccion, te referis a la traduccion del titulo nada mas, correcto? Vos al titulo de casualidad lo tuviste que apostillas y demas? y el analitico tiene que ir apostillado o algo por el estilo?

Ahora, el tramite que te hace WES es algo que necesitarias de cualquier modo si quisieras ir a una facultad Norte Americana para que te revalidaran el titulo? O uno podria optar por que una universidad de aca te hiciera la revalida o por WES?

Yo la semana que viene iba a llamar de cualquier manera a una universidad de aca y plantearles la situacion de mi esposa, a ver que me aconsejan hacer. Por ahi lo de WES hay que hacerlo si o si como primer paso como extranjero.

Muchas Gracias!

On 3/2/2020 at 11:10 AM, andreaam said:

I was thinking on doing a master here but now it seems I have one already according to the US educational system. In case I want to do another one or a PhD I can presenting this document. 
Through this company And evaluation I was able to see also how many credits I have and my GPA. According to my husband this are good information to have for job searching and interviews. 

How did you send your transcript to Wes? It says there that you either have the university send it in a sealed envelope or you send it in a sealed envelope. If it's sent by us, do we have to ask the university to have it sealed and stamped when we pick it up? I'm asking because my wife is confused about her sending it over to Wes and is not sure if every foreign university delivers it in an envelope.

Thanks in advance!

On 2/28/2020 at 1:25 PM, andreaam said:

For those with professional degree in any career, I highly suggest to use WES to so the validation. 
I studied for 6 years and got a bachelor architect degree from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and the validation gave me a Master’s degree. 
So apparently I have 2 degrees here instead of 1.

Nice! So would your next step be to take that to one of the universities over there and see how you resume the architecture field?

13 hours ago, KBCN said:

Wondering if anyone else did this... We decided to "check the box" on getting the SSN with the EAD since it is suppose to arrive within 1 week after the EAD is approved. 

 

In retrospect, this might not have been the best choice. Without a SSN for my husband, its been a headache (couldn't add to insurance, can't put him on bank accounts or open one, etc.). We figured we would wait it out, but now with the RFE and seeing some of the other timelines, I'm starting to get concerned. Just wondering if anyone else did the SSN with EAD option and if it worked out.

 

We assumed we would get our SSN/EAD/AP pretty early on (4-6 months) and be waiting a while for an interview (12-15 months) based off timelines/research. I know if you get issued SSN prior to the EAD, it will be marked with a red "not valid for work" stamp, which you have to go again and get an updated one with the approved EAD.

 

From those getting the RFE/Birth Certificate - it seems like interviews are coming up a lot faster and now I'm getting a little nervous that we will have very little time between his SSN getting issued/getting added to accounts for the additional evidence of a "bona fide relationship" for the green card interview. 

 

Our RFE was delivered to the PO Box today, so I was just going to wait and see if we get a response on anything, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask others about their experience or any advice/thoughts on this. 😕

When we submitted AOS and EAD forms we did check to issue a new one because we didn't see an option like "Already issued/requested SSN". My wife got the SSN from the Administration office which took 3 weeks after we applied. Then another was issued through the EAD form and we just went to the Administration and cancelled that one. We explained the situation and they had no problem in cancelling one and keeping the other one.

Note: In the last page of the EAD form, where you can give extra information for each question, we did explain that we had requested one already but just in case we were checking the option to issue one through EAD.

15 hours ago, acemanu said:

Yes! Today I went to a Deferred Inspection Office and handed the packet out.

I have another question about the medical forms for the AOS. Did you guys have to certify the Form I-693 by a civil surgeon? And what does  "If overseas medical expired" mean exactly? How can I check?

Thank you again!!

As others have stated the Form DS-3025 should suffice for your medical examination for the AOS packet. 

Like @Fe.Ta  my wife also did her medical again here so we did submit the form I-693 where you have to go to a civil surgeon to have it performed. We basically went there because we weren't sure at the time if the Form DS-3025 was valid or not to include in the packet.

The medical expired note refers to as long as you file your AOS within a year that the beneficiary had their medical done then you shouldn't have to get the examination again. So for example if the beneficiary had their medical done in January of 2020, then as long as you file for AOS in between January-December of 2020 then it should be valid.

Nonetheless, as @Fe.Ta mentioned in another reply, other members here can give you a better answer as to whether submit the form DS-3025 or not.

Hopefully that makes sense.

3 hours ago, acemanu said:

Hi, guys! Thank you for sharing your experiences. It's very helpful. I have a couple of questions.

The doctor seemed to mess up my i-693 ( I didn't notice at the time ) because the one she handed to me is only one page and some parts of it are missing. We know there is another one in the packet but we are not supposed to open it but when I got to the states, the immigration officer didn't open out my packet or anything.

1) Can the fact that the officer didn't open up my packet bring me problems?
2) If not, should I open the packet and take the i-693?

what do you mean the officer didn't open the packet? Did they not keep the packet and handed it back to you?

1 hour ago, andreaam said:

Thank you! We are finally finishing this process. We started gathering the paperwork for the interview on March 12. 
Congrats on the GC! I know your wife is an architect, I’m one too. Let her know I’m open to talk. We can help each other in this journey of looking for a job haha

I will tell her about it!. She's actually going back now in march to do the oath and get her diploma and transcript and everything translated. We were told that the process of equating the degree can be either done through one of the universities or the national board of architects. Not sure in what stage you are with your paperwork but I'd love to read your experience with it. I know she will start getting tense about the situation because the paperwork seems a bit overwhelming so knowing about your case and your experience will probably help her. 

12 hours ago, danilich33 said:

Hi, peeps! Greetings from Berkeley, CA! I'm currently about to get married (😍) and so my soon-to-be-husband and I are about to file the AOS, EAD and the AP, but we have a couple of questions you guys might be able to answer.
 

1) Where do we get our DS-3025 vaccination report? Is it in THE ENVELOPE? Ours wasn't opened at the border.

 

2) When we apply for AOS, EAD and AP, do we submit one packet containing everything all clipped together? Or do we submit 3 different packets in one envelope? There are certain forms that are replicated, I assume we need to print them multiple times and include them multiple times?

 

3) Does anyone have a sample cover letter they could share?

 

Thanks so much for your help!

Dani

1) My wife gave the envelope to the officer at the port of entry in dallas. The only thing she kept was a two page form with her vaccines. Because of this we weren't sure if it was valid or not so we went ahead and got her medical done again here in the United States. Don't worry about this too much though because you can file the medical later and they will attach it to your case. Or you can just get the medical done a few weeks before your AOS interview. From our experience, we mailed the medical 3 weeks after we filed for AOS, and last week in our interview the officer had our medical paperwork in the case.

2) We submitted one packet with AOS and EAD. We bought one of those Folder Organizers in amazon that allows to categorize things very easily and at the same time keep your paperwork safe and closed.

3) Our cover letter looked like the one @Fla&Mark described. I can't remember if USCIS has in their site an itemized list already of what is required for AOS, EAD and AP. 

Feel free to ask what ever comes to your mind in this forum. We are here to help in the best possible way.

22 hours ago, andreaam said:

Combo Card in hand! Watch out craiglist, linkedin, etc etc I’m coming for you! Lol

nice, congratulations. I know it was a painful wait for you. Glad to hear everything is moving for us argentinos 😀

3 hours ago, GeeRaf said:

We finally received electronic noticed that our interview is scheduled! Yes. How far out is the interview normally scheduled?

From our experience and other people's timelines that i've seen, it's been 6 weeks from the day you get the update of interview scheduled.

On 2/11/2020 at 8:31 PM, andreaam said:

Congratulations!! Now take a rest from paperwork!

Thanks! it is a relief honestly that for the next year and a half we are not thinking about paperwork

I forgot to mention that the officer for some reason hadn't received our marriage certificate so we had to give him the copy we brought with us. I know everyone here always has extra evidence for the interview but be sure to bring everything they ask for in the interview notice. Even if you have submitted it already.

5 minutes ago, Yeap said:

Pls do you submitted Copy of your birth certificate as USC along with your Wife own?

I brought a copy of it along with a translation in english with me but the officer didn't ask for it.