DWolf

Any idea on how this will impact the Medical Examinations?  Anyone who calls USCIS can they ask?  My wife's medical exam will be over a year in June.  If this extends, we'll have to go up and redo it.

USCIS needs to either extend or accept a year-and-a-half to two year validity on medical exams.  There could be medical offices closed nationwide.

Got two e-mails as well.

The most recent one says "Testing and Interview" under Case Status.  What does that mean?

They might be extending past the April 1 deadline.  We're at the Washington DC field office and our interview was scheduled for April 3rd.  Just got a Cancellation notice.

Anyone else getting these updates?

Our case status via e-mail says: "Testing and Interview".  What does that mean?

Hey DC Filers, our interview was set for April 3rd.  It looks like USCIS may be extending Field Office closures in some areas.  We just received an "Interview Cancelled - Notice Sent" change.

Anyone else receiving this information?  Anyone else set with a post-April 1st interview date seeing any changes?

Thanks for the responses.  April would be ideal.  Fingers crossed!

Hey everyone,

I know everyone says "don't reschedule" so my question is for those that have and what were their best practices?  Is it better over the phone?  Should we make an appointment and present evidence to an actual field office officer?

Our situation is that we just got our online status change of "Interview scheduled" on 2/27/20, unfortunately...we have our destination wedding ceremony on a cruise ship in the Bahamas from March 25-30.  We've already signed a contract, paid for our AND our guests' cabins, and our guests have already spent money on flights (both domestic and family coming from abroad).  Needless to say, we have significant financial investment already made and if our I-485 interview is on one of those March dates (from what I know, it's usually about a month from when your online status changes), we absolutely have to change the interview.  We intend to write a cover letter and provide copies of the wedding contract, our wedding/credit payments, bills, flight info/payment, etc.  This is not a typical vacation or something that can just be easily rescheduled.  Our USCIS field site is actually TOO EARLY with their interview notice.

So for those who have rescheduled with success, what do you all recommend as some best practices?

Our PD date is 5/28/2019.  So they're actually somewhat ahead of schedule.  It'll be about 10 months by the end of March.

On 2/25/2020 at 5:18 PM, ConcurrentVA said:

Thank you for sharing the details! And congratulations on getting approved! 

Hey, any updates of interview being scheduled at your end?

So we finally got our "Interview is Scheduled" status change this morning 2/27/2020.  Good news and bad...

The problem is that we are having our destination wedding ceremony around March 28th out of Florida to the Bahamas...it's on a cruise ranging from March 26-30 so if they scheduled us then, we have no choice but to reschedule.  We've already invested lots of money and our guests have already booked flights and secured hotels (some coming from overseas).  I'm hoping they schedule us for at least before March 25th but from my understanding, the interview is usually around exactly one month from your status change.  Hopefully the notice gets here in the next few days and we know our date.

Anyone have experience re-scheduling with the DC office?  My idea was to schedule an infoPASS appointment via phone and then present our information to the actual field office, including our wedding contract, bills and costs associated with our wedding and necessity to reschedule.  Unfortunately this is something we can't just outright postpone or cancel.

 

PD: May 28, 2019.

We’re in the “Waiting for interview scheduled” status since late October 2019 so we’re close to the 4 month mark of this status. DC is terribly slow (we’re in northern VA) and going over the holidays doesn’t help.  Thankfully we got my wife’s EAD/AP combo card within 5.5 months of filing.

I would suggest resending the FRC along with a print out from the US State Dept website explaining it is an acceptable alternative as you intend to.

make sure on the FRC print-outs fromthe State website you highlight the pertinent areas.

if you can get any information or letter from the Pakistan Embassy that confirms that the FRC is accurate and the record doesn’t exist, that will help too.

you have approximately 87 days to respond to the RFE. Good luck.

On 11/19/2019 at 2:48 AM, Violetta said:

UPDATE:

 

THEY RE-OPENED MY CASE WITHOUT HAVING TO GO THROUGH THE I-290B!!!! I AM SO HAPPY OMG, WHAT A RELIEF.

 

We over-nighted a letter to the officer that denied us explaining the situation and we attached all the proof we had. The Officer just called my husband cell and told him not to worry about it that he'll re-open the case and send us another interview date. He also was nice enough to provide us with his direct phone line for any other emergency. I am so happy omg! Thank you all for the support!

Congrats!

just out of curiosity, I know you can find the field office’s mailing addresses on the USCIS website, but how did you know the exact officer?  Or did you just put “Attention: Immigration Officer”.  Or did you make it out to the office director? Can you please share some of those details?

I would say it means your case has been reopened.  You can call USCIS and a customer rep can help verify that.

Dont be afraid to contact them.  Sometimes they can be helpful and the online system is notoriously unreliable...so I would verify everything.  We found out our EAD/AP cases were approved a day after via a phone call. It still took a few days for the online status to update.

It doesn’t reset the clock but does stop it temporarily.  So the quicker you get your RFE Response back, the quicker USCIS can get back to working your case.

We had a RFE for the 485 too.  It MAY have been relevant to the EAD too but nothing on our EAD online status changed during the RFE.  When we responded and tracking acknowledged that USCIS received the Response, they changed the online status the next day to “RFE Response Received”.  Approximate 24 days later, my wife’s EAD/AP combo card was approved and we received it in early November.  Also in early November, the 485 online case updated to “interview ready to be scheduled”, BUT they backdated the status to October 29th.

Total time time for my wife to receive her EAD/AP was a little over 5 months.

On 11/10/2019 at 8:28 AM, Loo1 said:

It’s absolutely a money thing!! We feel they may have lost it. We’re more annoyed because we brought it to the interview, specially told the officer we had everything that was mentioned on the interview letter and she said she didn’t need it because she had everything she needed.
Prior to my medical in Ireland I went to my own doctor who went through all my vaccines (my mother had every record of every vaccine since I was born!) I got boasters if I needed them, so I know 100% all the vaccines are up to date. 
All we can do is call on Monday and go from there. We’re so ready to be done with immigration for 2 years, the most frustrating experience ever! 
 

If it’s not inconvenient, maybe try scheduling an infopass to the local field office and see if they will directly accept the medical from you there.  That way it can get directly into the IO’s hands.  You can mention everything that happened during the interview.

At this point, it’s 100% a USCIS error.  

Monday is is also a US Federal holiday so USCIS will be closed.  Good luck!

The 485 is to Adjust Visa status to Green card (or another status) when you are INSIDE the US.

Now that your 130 is approved.  You can apply for an immigrant visa or try to apply for permanent residency to join your husband in the USA.

So we got a RFE asking for evidence that my wife was not subject to the 212E - Two year home residency requirement.  She was an Au Pair and came here on a J1 visa.  Commonly, au pairs are NOT subject to the requirement and she had two US Visas in her packet that clearly stated she was NOT subject to it.  We also included her recent DS-2019 which was not filled out by the Consulate because she switched families while here.  Thankfully she kept her old DS-2019 which was signed and dated by the Consulate and indicated she was not subject to the home residency rule.  This was an easy RFE to reply to, but USCIS wants to see more than visas I guess.

We Received the RFE in late September and sent the reply back about 4 days later.  USCIS updated online the next day they received it and it was in review.  All of this was ONLY for her 485.  About 30 days, I inquired about her EAD and AP and heard they were approved on Oct 29.  She just received her combo card.  Then TODAY, NOV 7th, our 485 case updated online to “Ready to schedule Interview” but is PAST-DATED to October 28th.  So about ten days.

So it took them about 30 days after the RFE Response to complete the review and put us on the scheduling queue.  This can vary!  One of my wives’ friends had her case flip to Schedule status about a week after the RFE was received, but that friend is also waiting on her EAD/AP.  I hear that USCIS usually tries to update with 90 days of RFE Received.  

Your RFE is simple, so I’d guess about 30 days for them to put you in the scheduling queue.  If it’s hitting 60, I’d reach out and ask what’s going on.

Are you inside the US or out?

Just got the update for the “Ready for interview” online.

of course, it’s back-dated to October 28th.  10 days ago!

Are you sure you don’t mean they received the 130 in February?  Did you submit 485 too?  Are you in or out of the US?

Good luck.

start being aggressive and pursue them with all your options.  They won’t act unless you push them to do so.

You have to make an infopass appointment via phone with a Tier 1 rep.  Maybe go that route and if they don’t answer any questions at the meeting, then tell them you want to open a case inquiry for outside the normal processing time.  You can do that in-person or online.  I’ve also heard some people writing letters DIRECTLY TO their local office (look up the mailing address) asking for them to make a decision.

you can also file a case inquiry through your congressman and the DHS Ombudsman.  At this point, they are admittedly outside their processing scope.

They don’t really care if you’re owning or renting but it never hurts to provide more info.  They just need to know where all your addresses were.

If you want to provide something - I would suggest a signed letter from your Fiancé’s mother noting that you are her son-in-law and are residing there for the foreseeable future and a copy of a mortgage bill or deed that identifies she owns the property and/or is paying the mortgage.

Received online status and tracking number that my wife’s EAD/AP card has shipped!

May 24: USCIS Receipt Date for EAD and AP, no online changes EVER until now

Oct 29: I-765/I-131 Approval (no online change)

Oct 30: Contacted USCIS via online chat who said both EAD and AP were approved yesterday.

Oct 31: Nuthin’

Nov 1: Online change on I-765 ONLY that new card has shipped.  Expected to be EAD/AP Combo card.

Nov 4: Expected delivery date.

is USCIS pretty good about making sure the EAD/AP is on one card?  They don’t forget about adding the AP on there, have they?

You can file a claim with USPS as well as go to your local PO and ask to speak to a supervisor to investigate what happened (tracking number helps).  Keep documentation of everything in case you need to submit a form to USCIS to replace it so they can waive any fees.

There’s a lot of great guides and samples on this website!

Have you made sure to read up on getting married on a tourist visa and what could happen with your AOS?  It is a gray area.  You at least waited past 90 days which is good and you’re from Canada which helps.