Loveofmyife

First off,  thank you to this forum and community. I have learned all of our AOS filing and my wife's transition here to the states from these forum. We had good news in that our AOS processing was approved and Green Card sent in 5 months. When we first applied all of the estimates for AOS approval was estimated to take close o a year, and  EAD AP approval estimates is December, 2019 or  January 2020.
 
We were very anxious and had to change some plans due to this estimate but at this point, we are just thankful that my wife received her Greencard last week, the first week of November after our End of October Interview. The overall lesson we can impart is to not make any travel plans until you get your AP aproved.
 
The process seems to have gotten faster and we are very grateful, Thanks again to all here.

Early June AOS filer here, the wait for EAD and especially AP is on our mind as well... best of luck to all

Hello all!
 
Just checking in and wishing all of us the best of luck--- we filed our AOS, EAD AP forms last Friday, May 31 via Fedex--- they received it June 3 and hope to get our NOA soon. Thanks for all the support here! 

Such a good mail day today! We received his social security card, all his NOA1s (received date 5/24; notice date 5/29), and medical insurance card. All on the same day lol now hes almost set! We will try to go next week to the DMV and see if we can get a state ID for him. Hopefully we don't get too much hassle!

Congrats 🎊🎈

Congratulations to you!  I was approved today.  Most exciting feeling.  Wishing you well 

Thanks to everyone in this forum and thread, I was late to discover this forum,  but all the info and encouragement here helped during this unexpectedly long process. Thanks as well to Sarge and all the kind words in this long process and best of luck as well.   We were a May 2018 FILER too and it took us a year to get our approval for my fiance's visa, her interview was today and she got approved and she will be with me the soonest. We will get married her first week, after getting her SSN etc.. and will facilitate the AOS process as well.  We can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together and cheers to all. I'll see you guys in the May 2019 AOS thread, hopefully we make it that month. Kind Regards to all. 

Thanks to everyone in this forum and thread, I was late to discover this forum,  but all the info and encouragement here helped during this unexpectedly long process. Thanks as well to Sarge and all the kind words in this long process and best of luck as well.   We were a May 2018 FILER too and it took us a year to get our approval for my fiance's visa, her interview was today and she got approved and she will be with me the soonest. We will get married her first week, after getting her SSN etc.. and will facilitate the AOS process as well.  We can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together and cheers to all. I'll see you guys in the May 2019 AOS thread, hopefully we make it that month. Kind Regards to all. 

Thanks to everyone in this forum and thread, I was late to discover this forum,  but all the info and encouragement here helped during this unexpectedly long process. Thanks as well to Sarge and all the kind words in this long process and best of luck as well.   We were a May 2018 FILER too and it took us a year to get our approval for my fiance's visa, her interview was today and she got approved and she will be with me the soonest. We will get married her first week, after getting her SSN etc.. and will facilitate the AOS process as well.  We can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together and cheers to all. I'll see you guys in the May 2019 AOS thread, hopefully we make it that month. Kind Regards to all. 

Thanks to everyone in this forum and thread, I was late to discover this forum,  but all the info and encouragement here helped during this unexpectedly long process. Thanks as well to Sarge and all the kind words in this long process and best of luck as well.   We were a May 2018 FILER too and it took us a year to get our approval for my fiance's visa, her interview was today and she got approved and she will be with me the soonest. We will get married her first week, after getting her SSN etc.. and will facilitate the AOS process as well.  We can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together and cheers to all. I'll see you guys in the May 2019 AOS thread, hopefully we make it that month. Kind Regards to all. 

This is the right steps to take with least amount of headache involved.
 
We have seen people wait until day 75 of the 90 days allotted to try an get a SSN, then they get denied due to not enough time left on their allotted amount of authorized stay. 

Yup. You could also change the name on her SSN right after marriage (so before EAD/GC), as long as her I-94 is not expiring for another 2-3 weeks. I know there's people who got refused at the SSN office, but it worked for me and some other people I know   Trying can never hurt. And when you apply for jobs, the name on the SSN needs to match the name on the EAD (at least that was the case for me)

Get that social security # the second day that she is here !!!!!!!! Don't make the mistake I did .. big problems!

We tried opening a bank account online with capital one and it wouldn’t work. 
 
As for why wait to change name, because it requires changing the name on the passport, SS card, financial accounts, etc, and each of these takes time. There isn’t much time to before the K-1 visa expires. 
 
 

Check with your employer's rules on this. Mine would have needed documentation that we'd been living together for a year for this, so it wasn't worth trying to enroll Anastasia on my insurance until after we married (even if we hadn't married within a few days of POE).
 
 

This is the order of events I recommend, which has worked for us (in California):
 
1. The day of or after point of entry (POE), enroll your fiancee into your employer's health insurance as a domestic partner. This is a life event and can be done outside open enrollment. They will ask for an SSN, but they cannot require one.
 
2. Wait 2-10 working days after point of entry (POE) and then apply for social security card. We waited 2 days to apply, and the card arrived 10 days after application. Do not get married until after you apply. So many times we read on visajourney about SS offices who refuse to process a SSN application if the K-1 is married.
 
3. After you apply for SS card, get married in a county where the marriage certificate takes no more than a week to arrive. Do not change her name. There is plenty of time for name changes after she gets her green card.
 
4. Upgrade your domestic partner to a spouse in your employer's health insurance.  Another life event outside open enrollment.
 
5. After the SS card and marriage cert arrives, apply for state ID. California requires proof of residency. A marriage cert has an address. That plus proof of residence of the USA citizen spouse is enough for California to grant residency. Bring the letter from the SSA office that delivered the SS card too. Surprisingly, my wife got a California state ID good for several years, and not several months. Regardless, there are stories on visajourney about DMVs denying cards to people who apply 59 days or less before the K-1 visa expires. We applied at T minus 61 days.
 
6. Add you wife's SSN to your company health insurance.
 
7. Open a joint bank account. This has to be done in person IME. No online applications for non-LPRs/non-USCs.
 
8. Check your wife's credit score on line, and after you get a score, add your wife to your utility bill by phone. If you don't get a score, go to the utility office to add her.
 
9. Apply for AOS, EAD, AP. Use the health insurance card, utility bill, and bank account statement, and state ID as among the proof that she lives with you as your wife.

 
 

Marriage license is fast in NYC. Bank doesn't always need SSN, at least not the one we plan to deal with. Insurance doesn't always need SSN for a major family change. We are going to get married in a week after my arrival, say Friday arrived, Wednesday filed and got the license, Friday got married. Then file for the whole bunch at once. 

1. You should be able to do this without issue. 
2. Same as #1. 
3. Get the SSN first then get married. 
4. You can certainly do this but I do not know how long it takes to get the marriage license back in NYC. So try and do #2 first. 

DL: Yes, but check the state rules. Some states only allow to get a DL once there's an EAD/green card. I think NYC only allows to get your DL with EAD/green card
 
Bank account: Depends on the bank. Our bank (capital one) needed my SSN for me to open an account, but they did allow my husband to add me as a authorized user on his cc without SSN. Know there's banks out there that don't need SSN
 
Health insurance: Usually yes if you want to add her to yours, but check your health insurance. Some apparently don't need it (my husbands health insurance did need it)

Not required for health insurance 
Needed for bank accounts 
She probably won't be eligible for d/l due to her authorized stay being so short

Check that DL thing cause from what I know things are different when you're immigrating than from using the DL as tourist. I wouldnt be too sure that her license is really valid for that time