Buster & Hitch

I am interested about this as well! I had a baby in July and am still waiting on the green card interview. I am breastfeeding and just assumed I would bring my baby with me, I hadn't considered they would ask to not bring family. When I asked before about updating the i-485, people told me to just bring an updated i-485 to the interview with the birth certificate and baby's social security info. Curious to see what others say. 

Try online and talk to Emma and she'll transfer you to a representative or agent 

Just want to reiterate this, you can renew up to six months before the expiry date. I submitted my renewal at the beginning of November and it took 3.5 months to get my NOA1.
 
When I renewed there was no need to pay fees. I resubmitted all the same things as the first package with a copy of my current EAD card and communication I got from USCIS regarding the application for the first card.
 

I think you could probably try to go visit again with a return flight ticket to Canada and proof of ties & equities in Canada that adequately show your life is in Canada and have to return. But you actually have to return. When you apply for an AOS you submit your i-94 and it'll be pretty suspect if you're applying while on a visitor visa. You can Google what ties and equities look like, things like an employer note saying they expect your return, rental receipts, etc. I had a denial at the canadian-US border before applying for a K1 and had to show proof of ties and equities every time I visited my fiance. 

So I filed an EAD/AP renewal application at the very beginning of November and just got a receipt text message yesterday. Nothing in the mail yet. Compared to pre-pandemic my NOA1 came in like 10 days. 

I had my interview today and I wasn’t asked for the medical exam and vaccines things at all! It’s approved and card is processed 😆😀 Good luck for you too! 

I got mine rescheduled on Feb 18

Just got a text notice that USCIS is closing offices in Jan 19 & 20 https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/uscis-office-closings
 
We filed for AOS in Dec 2019 and have been waiting for the interview since Feb 2020. Finally got scheduled for January 19th and was so excited. Now I am just so bummed 😓

Thank you for sharing! I'm out of the Jacksonville office and my case status has been showing ready to be scheduled for an interview since February 7th. I'll start keeping a closer eye out! Out of curiosity how many weeks in advance is the interview date from the status change?

Hey! Sorry if I missed it, do you already have K1 in hand and just reconsidering the travel? I am currently 8 months pregnant and waiting on my green card interview after coming to the US on a K1 (we found out I was pregnant on our wedding day!). Just something to consider - I am on my husband's insurance which is considered to be pretty good. We are currently expecting to pay about $5000 out of pocket with all the appointment and delivery costs, even with good insurance, and assuming nothing huge goes wrong. I'm not sure what your healthcare like is in France, but if money is tight I would look into your fiance's insurance and crunch some numbers on the cost of delivering in the US. On the flipside it took me no time to get set up on my husband's insurance once we were married and I've been very pleased with the quality of care we've received here.

Canada-US border is really hard to cross right now. Not sure if that will change by the time consulates reopen but they had to clamp down on land borders to "essential travel" because there was still so much traffic between them. Air borders seem a little better but Air Canada just cancelled all US flights until end of May and I wouldn't be surprised if others followed suit. Not to mention, entering through another country miiiiight raise a bit of a red flag to the CBP officer taking the visa, I dunno.

Piggybacking on this to ask another question! I entered the US on a K1 in September 2019. Got a SSN right away without the work authorization, then we married in November 2019. My EAD arrived in March 2020 and I got my SSN updated then with the DHS work approval. My question is - if I had an SSN in 2019 with no work authorization, do I still get factored in to the benefit? Because I wasn't working we qualify for more as a joint household income. We actually haven't filed our 2019 taxes yet, taking advantage of that deadline extension.  Not sure if that hurts anything either. 

Your work authorization (or lack of it) is not relevant to eligibility here. All that matters are how the 2019 (or 2018 in your case since 2019 is not filed yet) taxes were filed.
In your case, the most recent tax return was from 2018 and that would filed as Single I'm assuming. If so, the advance rebate will be based on $1200 + [qualifying dependents] - [$5 per $100 over $75,000].
 
The tax credit you will get on your 2020 taxes will be based on your 2020 return. If filed jointly and with SSNs for both people, then you will qualify for $2400 instead of $1200, with a $150,000 reduction threshold.
Any amount already received is deducted - so if you get $1200 in advance rebate, but qualify for $2400 on the 2020 taxes, you'll get an extra $1200 refund at that time (or $1200 deduction in tax owed if you owe over $1200).
 
tldr: You'll get the $2400, but only $1200 in advance.

Congratulations!! We also found out that we're expecting almost 3 months after we got married and will be showing up to our interview with a newborn too, I'd assume  So exciting! 
 
I filed my AOS on November 17th and received my biometrics appointment letter yesterday for a January 10th appointment in Indianapolis. Our package was forwarded to the National Benefits Center from Chicago, which happens to be the slowest location. I'm not sure if all AOS from K1 go to this location, but I'm hoping it gets forwarded elsewhere or they speed things along soon. 

Thanks for the responses! from the sounds of it, if the interview is after the baby is born we can just show up to the interview with the birth certificate and updated i864 in case they want either. Fingers crossed I don't go into labour AT the interview lol.

The same thing happened to us as well. We showed up at the interview with a 1 month old and a updated I864. That is all we had to do at the interview

I applied for my SSN name change shortly after getting married and only provided my marriage certificate and the actual SSN card with my maiden name on it (this is per SSA personnel's advise). I am located in Pensacola, Florida, by the way. 
 
Personally, I wouldn't want anything changed on my passport while in the middle of AOS but a recent Philippine embassy outreach encouraged me to do it (because of the convenience) and they assured that I will have my old and new passport back in 6 weeks and that's plenty of time before my AOS interview. So that solved my dilemma about messing with my passport.
 
Anyways, I haven't heard of that timeframe on changing passport name. That felt unnatural because SSA should not have a say on what name is on your passport. If you were granted the SSN in your maiden name, then the marriage certificate should suffice. 
 
Just my two cents. 

Hello! I am unsure of where to put this question so I will put it here! Please move if necessary. 
 
I arrived in St. Augustine Florida on a K1 visa in late September. When I went to apply for my SSN, the employee taking my application said when I get married and change my last name, I have 90 days from my marriage date to change my Canadian (home country) passport to my married name and bring it back to the SS office for updating. This is the first I had heard of this timeline. Most people say they apply for their AOS with their married name then go back to the office when they get their EAD with the new name. 
 
Any insight here? Changing my passport internationally, as most of you know, is a huge pain and I was hoping to do that one last. I'd been researching the SS process a ton so it was just odd to hear completely brand new instructions. Thanks!

I did not apply online for the I-94, I had just planned on asking about it at the POE and they printed it off for me there. From my understanding, since the I-94 went digital recently, a lot of the info online about getting it is outdated. If anyone had a different experience at POE though let us know!
 
This is the form they had me fill out there (3299): https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP Form 3299.pdf 
Instead of copying everything from my packing list, they just stapled a copy of the packing list I had prepared to the back. I'm not sure if every officer would do that though, another might require everything be all on the form. 

Just a quick update! (it's been a whirlwind since the interview!). Visa was approved at the interview September 11, received email notification September 13 from Canada Post that it had been shipped. Arrived at the post office in Moncton, NB I had it to delivered to September 17. Open up the mail package and check the visa in your passport to ensure all numbers and names are correct. There's an envelope in there they make very clear to keep sealed. 
 
I went through Port of Entry driving through the Houlton, ME border from NB. It was about 30-60minutes in secondary inspection while they went through the stack of papers in the sealed envelope and entered it into their system. Very friendly staff there who asked a few simple questions at the desk (how did you meet? are you on any medications?). My fiance drove through with me so it might have helped having him there. I provided a detailed packing list of personal & household items I was bringing in with me and their estimated value. They took all the information and had me fill out an additional import form. The car did not get searched. I had brought my interview binder in with me just in case they asked for any additional documents, but they only asked for a vet certificate for my dog. I-94 was stapled into the passport and cost $6. 
 
They gave me a little American flag and told me congrats! We went and had a beer immediately to celebrate in the only bar we could find open in Houlton, Maine lol. I had heard mostly stories of people going through airport POE so I wasn't sure what to expect driving, but thankfully my experience was a good one. 

@Buster & Hitch glad you had a great experience!!! 

Good to hear, I'm thinking of driving through Houlton as well when the time comes.

Just a quick update! (it's been a whirlwind since the interview!). Visa was approved at the interview September 11, received email notification September 13 from Canada Post that it had been shipped. Arrived at the post office in Moncton, NB I had it to delivered to September 17. Open up the mail package and check the visa in your passport to ensure all numbers and names are correct. There's an envelope in there they make very clear to keep sealed. 
 
I went through Port of Entry driving through the Houlton, ME border from NB. It was about 30-60minutes in secondary inspection while they went through the stack of papers in the sealed envelope and entered it into their system. Very friendly staff there who asked a few simple questions at the desk (how did you meet? are you on any medications?). My fiance drove through with me so it might have helped having him there. I provided a detailed packing list of personal & household items I was bringing in with me and their estimated value. They took all the information and had me fill out an additional import form. The car did not get searched. I had brought my interview binder in with me just in case they asked for any additional documents, but they only asked for a vet certificate for my dog. I-94 was stapled into the passport and cost $6. 
 
They gave me a little American flag and told me congrats! We went and had a beer immediately to celebrate in the only bar we could find open in Houlton, Maine lol. I had heard mostly stories of people going through airport POE so I wasn't sure what to expect driving, but thankfully my experience was a good one. 

So, what I've learned about getting the marriage certificate.
 
Before I start, I'll just mention that 6 months' waiting period for my EAD is painful enough already, getting a job is very important to me, so I would not like to add another month of waiting because of all the lengthy processes of SSN and marriage certificate. So I'm looking for a way to file for AOS as soon as possible after I enter the US.
 
 
First of all, it's important to not confuse marriage license and marriage certificate.
 
The process is:
(1) Getting marriage license which is just a permission to marry
(2) Getting married
(3) Getting marriage certificate which is the actual proof of marriage
 
 
Reducing waiting period between (1) and (2):
 
In most states (apart from Nevada, obviously) there a few days' waiting period between the day when you obtain your marriage license and the day you can get married. But some states/counties officially offer to waive the few-day waiting period for an extra payment (i.e. in Portland, OR it's just $5.00). Look for information on marriage licenses page on your county's site. Examples:
Multnomah County, Oregon: https://multco.us/recording/marriage-licenses Washington County, Oregon: https://www.co.washington.or.us/AssessmentTaxation/MarriageLicenses/index.cfm Clark County, Nevada: https://www.clarkcountynv.gov/clerk/Pages/how-to-obtain-proof-of-marriage.aspx  
I also used these two sites to learn about the process, and that's where I learned about waiving of the waiting period between (1) and (2), maybe you can find something similar for your state/county:
https://m.wikihow.com/Get-Married-in-Oregon
https://aclu-or.org/en/obtaining-marriage-license-oregon-county
 
 
Reducing waiting period between (2) and (3):
 
This is a more complicated matter. Normal "non-Vegas" process seems to be something like this (we are in Oregon, so dates are for two counties in Oregon):
 
From the day we get married, the officiant who performs the ceremony has up to 5 (in Portland) or 14 (in Hillsboro) days to submit the signed marriage license to the county office for recording. This should be the same county office that issued the marriage license in the first place. The county office receives the signed marriage license from the officiant and adds it in their system. This may take 1 day. Then we can either pick up the certified copy of the marriage certificate in person from the county office, or wait for it to be mailed to us (7-10 days).  
So there are two possible scenarios to get a certified copy of marriage certificate on the day of marriage, and therefore remove waiting between (2) and (3):
 
Option 1. To ask the officiant not to file the signed marriage license for us, and ask them to give it to us instead so that we could go to the county office and file it ourselves. This will take 0 days instead of 14. Also, if we get the signed marriage license to the county office ourselves, we can get a certified copy of the marriage certificate there right away. That is what seems to be happening in Vegas. In all other states and counties officiants may refuse to give you the signed marriage license so that you could take it to the county office yourself. My plan is to call all the judges from my county site and check if they can let us do it "like in Vegas". But I don't have much hope.
 
Option 2. If Option 1 above is not possible in our county, we can ask the officiant to give us a temporary marriage confirmation right away to prove the marriage until we can request the official certified copy of the marriage certificate from the county office in a couple weeks. I'm personally not comfortable with Option 2 and filing some "unofficial" marriage confirmation with my AOS, but my US visa lawyer told me that we can totally use any "unofficial" marriage confirmation and it will work. As I wrote above, our lawyer has not been wrong so far, but... I'm not sure I personally want to go this way, and I would rather arrange marriage in Vegas and use Option 1 and get the real official marriage certificate asap.
 
 
In conclusion:
(1) and (2) - No waiting in Vegas, in other counties may be possible to waive waiting for a small fee.
(2) and (3) - No waiting in Vegas (but you may need to check the exact chapel's site). I'm still inclined towards getting married in Vegas, but I will do some research to be sure that removing this waiting period is just not possible in Oregon where we are going to live.
 
 
As a bonus, here are some quotes from people on VJ who got their marriage certificates on the date of marriage
(seems to not only be possible in Vegas, although both quotes are from 2006, things could have changed in 13 years):
 
"We married at a court house (in Wisconsin) and asked the judge if we could get a copy of the marriage certificate that day and one of his assistants walked us down to the Register of Deeds to make sure that they processed it right away. We had it within 5 minutes."
 
"We got married on Sat., August 28th, and after the judge married us, she gave us the signed marriage certificate to take to the Court house ourselves on Monday, August 30th. We had to pay a very small fee for each copy (we got 3 at the same time) and they gave us the copies while we waited. If the judge would have sent the signed marriage certificate in herself, we would have had to wait about a month to get copies ordered."
 
 

Also worth noting that for the most part, interviews seem to open up at the "end of the month" unless there's a cancellation. I had a September interview and they filled up in just a few hours of being posted so you are not crazy for constantly checking! Could be the difference of an extra month wait for you.