cbro20

Our case was randomly "approved" without an interview on December 29th, 2023 according to the online tracker. Filed in early November 2022 at Lincoln Service Center. Biometrics were waived in mid-December 2022 and then there was no movement until now. Did NOT file N400. Approval notice is coming in the mail today according to Informed Delivery. 

Received 48-month extension letter yesterday. Case is at LIN (Nebraska).

14 minutes ago, Mike E said:

You are missing that  a port of entry on the land border is actually inside the USA and legally LPRs cannot be removed the USA until a judge orders it.  
 

It works and CBP even tells you it works. 
 

See https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/769286-lost-green-card-while-in-canada-i-90-form-questions-merged-threads/?tab=comments#comment-10532481

 

This why CBP wants all airports of entry to be pre-clearance. So that undesirable citizens, LPRs, and other non citizens can be kept out of the U.S. 

 

Once anyone is on U.S. soil, removal is hard.  

 

 

 

So an LPR who loses their green card abroad can simply walk up to, or drive across, the border at Canada or Mexico and gain admission? 

12 hours ago, Mike E said:

Actually if I were in your situation in would prefer to not be using CBP pre-clearance. 
 

Your first challenge is getting past airline check in to reach CBP pre-clearance. 
 

Your second challenge is getting CBP to accept anything but an original extension letter. 
 

CBP’s policy is clearly written. A non original extension letter is not acceptable for boarding a flight. 
 

So you can try it but I am skeptical it will work. Unlike the rest of the crowd, I agree with you about printing your copy of extension letter on thick green tinged paper as that might help you get past airline check in Dublin.  But then you are at the mercy of CBP who can deny boarding. Do not represent your extension letter to CBP as an original document. Make it clear to CBP  it is a copy. Since it will be A4 and not U.S. letter size it should be obvious to CBP it is a copy.  
 

The alternative is to use your visa waiver to fly to Canada or Mexico and then enter the USA on foot.  You might have to pay the I-193 fee.  
 

How long have you been outside the U.S.?

 

Why do people on this forum keep telling people to walk into the US from Canada or Mexico on foot? I’ve seen it mentioned a few times and don’t get it at all. What am I missing?

Got notification today that fingerprints were taken. 
 

Nebraska service center.

Our case was received on Nov. 10.

8 minutes ago, Meg101 said:

It is impossible to know what the date is for sure but I wonder if August 2023 is when she was saying you are eligible to apply for citizenship?! ☺️  that’s personally when I am eligible (my 2 year greencard expires on Thursday this week)

 

Good luck with the process of biometrics! 🤞🏽

7 minutes ago, gogogo786 said:

That is a quick turnaround. So they are not automatically waiving biometrics for pretty much everyone like they were doing during pandemic and post-pandemic.

Judging from the spreadsheets in other threads, it appears that biometrics is likely (but not guaranteed) to be waived if your petition was sent to any place other than the National Benefits Center (NBC).
 

This particular poster was sent to NBC and didn’t go through AOS, though, so biometrics were essentially guaranteed for them.

Will continue hoping that my petition, sent to Nebraska, will waive biometrics.

39 minutes ago, MlgSea said:

Hello! End-of-October filer here, so I'll be looking at both the October and November threads 

 

 

31 OCT 2022: Sent ROC packet out via UPS.

 

7 NOV 2022: Received text from USCIS:  “Your case was received. Official Receipt Notice (Form I-797C) to follow in mail."

 

12 NOV 2022: Received I-797 NOA in the mail (dated 7 NOV 2022), 24 months extension.

 

21 NOV 2022: Received I-797C Biometrics appointment in the mail (dated 12 NOV 2022) for 29 NOV 2022.

 

Called USCIS today to try to move my biometrics appointment to a different state because I am/was planning to go on a work trip to that state next week but the agent said it wasn't possible. At least she was nice about it, and offered if I'd like to change the date instead -- I declined because I'd just be on another work trip then. She also offered to look up my case's processing time (unprompted, which was kind), and at first she said 18 months (which I figured), but then she looked up something further (not sure what, I was distracted with having to possibly change my work trip plans) and came back to me with an August 2023 date. Again, I was distracted so I just said, "great, sounds good, thanks!" After hanging up I realized that August 2023 is practically around the corner and I wish I had paid more attention to what she was telling me. Ha!

 

 

Wow, that’s a fast turnaround on biometrics. What service center was your petition sent to?

Received NOA1 (extension letter) in the mail today!

Sent package to Phoenix on Nov. 7

Delivered to lockbox on Nov. 9

Credit card charged Nov. 15

Text notification Nov. 16 (NEB service center)

Extension letter delivered Nov. 21

Didn’t expect it before Thanksgiving and happy with the less-than-two-week turnaround!

Got text notification last night. Status tracker says it was received on Nov. 10 and that case was sent to the Nebraska service center. Anyone know when we should be expecting the NOA in the mail?

On 11/10/2022 at 4:14 PM, BellaUnion said:

Our application hit the Phoenix lockbox on the same day as yours, so let's compare timelines, at least on initial progress. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the encouraging words Sarge. I know you're a fellow kitchen-sinker! Your posts have helped us a great deal, especially during AOS. Best of luck with your current application. Hope it all goes well for you.

My credit card got charged today ($680.00). It was delivered to PHX on Nov. 9.

Hello fellow November filers! We just sent off our petition on Monday morning and it was delivered today (Phoenix Lockbox). Package was just under four pounds and had bank account statements, utility bills, photos, travel itineraries, tax returns, etc. Hope it goes smooth for everyone!

24 minutes ago, Alienbiteme said:

thanks for comment, here is part of my case status on USCIS. I went to green card interview on April 28th. Officer never said anything like"You will be approved".

"

April 29, 2021 We approved your Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.

April 28, 2021 We ordered your new card"

Sigh.

It’s standard procedure for applicants to be held for review after an I-485 interview. How long the case is held for review varies. 
 

Some cases are held for review for 30 minutes. Others for 24 hours. Others for a couple weeks. Some applicants don’t even know they were held for review because approval can come quickly after the interview.

Just because your status tracker updated to “approved” shortly after your interview doesn’t mean you weren’t held for review. From the time your interview finished, your case was technically held for review until the finalized approval was processed in the system. Unless the officer literally finalized the approval while you were sitting in the room, which would be uncommon, you were held for review.

Get it?

2 hours ago, Alienbiteme said:

not true, mine didn't get held at all, actually officer interviewed us told me clearly that I should be able to see approved  information on USCIS website in 24 hours. And he also mentioned I should be able to receive 10 year greed card in less than 2 weeks, which all turned out to be true.

 

Everyone gets held for review. As I said, some officers divulge more than others at the conclusion of an interview. Even if they flat-out say “you will be approved,” the applicant is still technically held under review until the officer processes the change in the system.

Anyway, congrats OP!

42 minutes ago, EvaYogiBear said:

Thank you for your response. 

 

Oh, we so wanted to go to the NY interview, believe me!! But our lawyer told us we were not allowed, apparently you can only go the an interview that is scheduled for the office where you currently live/are "registered" with.  

By the time we got the interview notice for that NY interview we had already officially notified USCIS of our change of address - literally just, they probably scheduled our NY interview moments before they got our change of address notification or something, at least that's how I'm picturing it in my mind lol. The timing of it all was just terrible and extremely unlucky, we basically got caught in some sort of communication "lag". 

 

Yes, we thought it would actually be better going from NYC to Charlotte, since NYC's offices were closed for way longer due to the pandemic and we had already been waiting for this AOS interview for 1 year...but it appears that the Charlotte office is just as busy, or even busier...😔

 

Sorry, when you say "Charlotte will get around to you when it’s your turn based on your PD" - what is "PD"? 😅

 

How can I check on things? Can I call USCIS or the Charlotte office myself and ask for an update? I thought that kind of approach was a "no no"...

 

Thanks!

 

PD (priority date) basically means the date your application was received by USCIS. Someone with a PD of February 14, 2020 will receive an interview before someone with a PD of February 15, 2020, at least that is how USCIS is supposed to process things.

Charlotte simply could be processing PD’s that come before yours, whereas NYC had reached your place in the queue.

And if it were me, I would call USCIS customer service every 2 weeks or so to see if the interview has been rescheduled. While a Tier 1 can’t tell you the interview date, they can verify whether an interview has been scheduled/notice mailed. They can also verify whether USCIS has your new address in the system correctly. That might be kind of on the paranoid side, but reduces the risk that you’ll miss an interview notice in the mail (which should be coming soon) and get denied. Again, address changes can be sketchy, and the online tracker doesn’t always update (especially for rescheduled interviews).

And your lawyer was technically correct that officers lack jurisdiction to adjudicate an AOS application once address is changed. However, the USCIS officer will often just adjudicate the AOS application anyway if the applicant shows up. But there is a risk that the officer would refuse to adjudicate it, yes (but worst case is that you’d have to reschedule).

Everyone gets held for review. Some officers give more hints than others. For example, my officer said “congrats” after the interview even though we were held for review. Lots of officers are simply bureaucratic as can be and don’t give anything away on the spot as to approval/denial. Your impression that the officer was unhappy with your responses is likely incorrect and/or overthinking and you’ll likely get an approval notification soon.

This simply depends on the scheduling capacity of the field office you’re dealing with. The fact that your interview was scheduled in NY doesn’t mean anything in regards to the Charlotte office. Charlotte will get around to you when it’s your turn based on your PD.

The opposite can happen FWIW. My wife and I started the AOS process in Minneapolis, which has longer-than-average processing times. We thought it would never end. When we changed our address to Des Moines, we basically instantly received a notification that our interview had been scheduled because Des Moines has like 2 immigrants total and processes things quickly. Charlotte could just be slow for whatever reason.

However it doesn’t hurt to try and aggressively stay on top of things. Address changes can be sketchy when it comes to USCIS and you want to be sure you haven’t missed an interview notice. I realize that this is pointless now and unhelpful, but I would have attended your NY interview as originally scheduled, even if it would have been inconvenient and required travel.

1 hour ago, PECS said:

Interview date today 3/3/21, but was given a paper saying your case is being held for review. Is this normal process? Officer said he needs to review the application, and he stated that worst case scenario we would get a letter for RFE. 😞

Normal

2 hours ago, beasty said:

So is germany, but we had a interview..

But it was basically like 5min small talk, explained how we met and thats it ..

 

K3 visa tho

Every case is different, what’s your point? I never said that applying from a low-fraud country automatically means the I-485 interview will be waived. It’s one possible contributing factor of many.

Australia is a low fraud country. And perhaps with the RFIE they had enough information there to just go ahead and approve.

There’s nothing to worry about here. The interview is scheduled at least 30 days in advance unless it’s extremely abnormal. A winter storm has been moving across the US, and with COVID, the mail is extremely slow lately.
 

It took 3 weeks (!!) for us to receive the interview notice after the status tracker updated. But if you haven’t received the notice in 7-10 days, a Tier 2 can tell you the date of the interview and will most likely send you a scan of the notice.

Just be patient and request a Tier 2 if it’s been 10+ days.

8 hours ago, David and Anna said:

Can you tell me where you get the DS-3025?  Is that something from the original doctor that did the medical in the fiance's country?  Did you need to get it directly from that doctor, or is something you fill out yourself?

The panel physician who conducted your K1 medical should have filled it out and sent it to the consulate. They are also supposed to send a copy to the K applicant for safekeeping. The DS-3025 is already likely in your file with USCIS, there’s just no way to be sure that it’s there and sufficient unless the physician gave you a copy. Sometimes things get lost in the shuffle between consulate, NBC, field office, etc. We were asked for ours because the USCIS officer saw that we had it on top of our stack of documents and it was easier to ask than to scour through the massive file looking for a single sheet.

https://www.uscis.gov/news/public-charge-fact-sheet

We had my wife’s AOS interview a few weeks ago. A new I-864 was not necessary, and we were not asked for any additional information. The officer simply saw that it was there, marked it with a red pen, and moved on. I generally think it’s a good idea to update the information, though, and took my 2020 tax return, 2020 W2, recent pay stubs, and an updated employment letter just in case. None of that was asked for.

The only thing which was requested during our AOS interview was the DS-3025 immunization report. A new I-693 isn’t necessary if it was valid at the time you filed for AOS.

IMO VisaJourney has a problem that goes both ways. OPs get unnecessarily offended when receiving direct advice they don’t like to hear, but there’s no doubt that the “veterans” of this forum undertake a default tone of condescension when dealing with OPs who lack knowledge. The latter is a bigger issue as the longtime users of this site are mostly the ones who have been through the immigration process and who should know better. For example, a “veteran” presented it as a fact that we were going to miss my wife’s AOS and that my wife’s AOS was going to be denied after we hadn’t received our interview notice in 2 weeks after the status tracker update. 

Yeah, we filed for AOS in February and didn’t have biometrics until October. It all just depends on the ASC you’re dealing with, which pile your package gets thrown into, etc.