Silmaril

16 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

You can not travel on a re-entry permit alone.  The I-131 is used for multiple purposes, 1) such as applying for a AP Card, 2)permission to re-enter the US for up to 2 years, 3)a boarding foil for returning to the US with a lost green card or 4) a travel letter in the case of a lost (US) Passport.

 

Airlines will not allow you to board without a passport or a document similar to the above from the country of naturalization.

Paul/Mary,

Thank you for your response. It is certainly plausible that airlines are unfamiliar with the reentry permit booklet (I-327) and will make difficulties.

However, if the statement is that the booklet, also known as a "travel document", cannot serve as a passport substitute, I believe you are mistaken. This role is primarily intended for stateless persons and refugees. USCIS themselves state, as noted in my earlier post:

Description here:

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/B5en.pdf

states:

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all doing OK during these troubled times.

My spouse is an LPR, with a 10 year GC.

Her passport expired a few years ago, and her home country demands various documents, Clearances etc. for renewal which is presently difficult since she no longer has family there.

We'll pursue that, but at this point we're likely going to just have to wait until she can naturalize.

We've applied for an I-131 reentry permit, which we understand resembles a passport and can hold visas. 

Per online research, some countries will accept a visa plus GC, or a visa plus reentry document plus GC, in lieu of a passport.

The list may include Germany and Costa Rica. 

Description here:

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/B5en.pdf

states:

We too had a decent experience at the SJ office. We had sent a lot of evidence with our original packet, including joint bank account and credit card statements, 401k beneficiary statements, joint health insurance, photographs dating back several years etc. The officer examined passports, birth certificates, social security cards, took the I-693 and our photos, and asked us the 485 questions thoroughly. We were then told we'd probably be approved soon, and the approval was posted online a couple of hours later. Hopefully the GC arrives safely in a few weeks.

Thanks to everyone who posted their experiences here. I hope this thread continues and helps other Bay Area filers.

On 2/14/2020 at 8:18 PM, Silmaril said:

Best of luck with the interview, we're a couple of weeks away from ours.

 

Hopefully others will chime in, but have you looked through the reviews here?

https://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.php?cnty=&cty=San+Jose+CA&dfilter=5

Lisa, you may find the interview experiences described on this thread below useful. Let us know how it goes and good luck!

Best of luck with the interview, we're a couple of weeks away from ours.

Hopefully others will chime in, but have you looked through the reviews here?

https://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.php?cnty=&cty=San+Jose+CA&dfilter=5

5 minutes ago, Jpgs said:

Just went to my interview today.

 

The officer wasn’t the nicest person in the world, but he wasn’t rude. He seemed to care about my J1 visa and my trips to the US than anything else.

 

He said my case will be held for review as he wants to confirm some things regarding the application.

We left feeling pretty confident and hope for a positive response soon.

 

Will update you guys once I hear anything else.

 

Good Luck! 

Thanks for the update and here’s hoping your wait isn’t too long.
 

I’d guess the J-1 questions were related to the home residency requirement for that visa?

I wonder if you had the “grumpy” San Jose IO that some other posters have mentioned. Regardless, I’m sure all of us genuine couples will prevail in the end!

4 hours ago, oflyingbunnyo said:

A question to the folk who have already received their EAD's...(Apart from @May531 answer 😛) 

How long did it take for you to receive your EAD card after your case switched to "card is being produced"? Also, if you asked to be given an SSN alongside of it, did that arrive at the same time or did that arrive later? 

To anyone who answers this, thank you very much in advance !

Hello

for us it was about a week. There were several online status updates past the “card is produced” stage. One of the updates, about a day after the “card was mailed”, had a USPS tracking number. It was delivered via priority mail so it was relatively fast (by USCIS standards).

good luck!

5 hours ago, Giftyfromcali said:

Same update as you but mine was on the 4th ( card was mailed to me) and nothing since then. Please keep us updated.  

We got another update “card was picked up by USPS”, with a priority mail tracking number on the website. Looks like it may arrive slightly more than a week after the initial “card is being produced” notification. Needless to say we’ve signed up for text and email USPS notifications.

i see that USPS is offering a “premium service” extended tracking where they’ll keep around history for longer. Not sure why we’d want that at this point. Best of luck to all!

31 minutes ago, Ayrton said:

I think there's 2 more updates until you see the tracking number.

Thanks, that's good to know. Do you recall what those updates are named?

For us the progression was:

New card being produced

Case was approved (which I assume means the physical card was checked and approved, since one would think the case has to be approved before the card is produced!)

Card was mailed

Doing a search, I see one other state "card was delivered by the post office", which can show a tracking number. But I'm guessing that happens only after USPS informs them of delivery completion?

9 minutes ago, ale07 said:

I did sign up for Informed Delivery. It didn't show up in informed delivery until the day it arrived. It was expected to arrive on Monday, but arrived early on Saturday. Although I believe the USCIS website did show a tracking number once the status changed to Card was mailed to me

Thanks for sharing your experience!

That's interesting that you saw a tracking number. When we logon to egov.uscis.gov, or use apps such as casetracker or lawfully, all that's visible is

"On February 3, 2020, we mailed your new card for your Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, Receipt Number x...If you do not receive your card by February 18, 2020...".

I wonder if it takes a couple of days for the tracking number to show up. 

Hello!

For those who have received or are waiting for their EAD, have you signed up for USPS informed delivery? 
 

If so do you recall how long it took to show up in the packages section of informed delivery after the online 765 status changed to “card was mailed” ?

As far as I can tell the uscis online account doesn’t show a tracking number for pending EADs.

thanks!

Thanks for sharing your insights, San Jose locals!

Any recommendations for quick and reliable (as in accurate paperwork) civil surgeons in the vicinity? 
Thanks!

Hi there, we obtained a confidential CA cert as well just to avoid our data becoming available on internet searches and then used for identity theft etc. Of course we have wedding videos, pictures, shared financials and tons of other proof of bonafide marriage. Our attorney didn’t think it would be a problem, but we have some lingering concerns. Our interview has been scheduled, guess we’ll see!

3 minutes ago, Fe.Ta said:

For those of us that are waiting on or will be having the interview after today, how will the implementation of the new public charge rule affect us?

A very interesting question. USCIS hasn’t updated their page here:

https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/public-charge
to reflect the SCOTUS ruling. Ideally it’s going to be what it was in October, where only new applicants required to submit the I-944 form would be subject to the rule, and not retro-active . Making it retroactive back to Oct 15th would probably be a nightmare for all involved so hopefully it won’t come to that.

The cases are still proceeding in the lower courts, I’m guessing it will be back at SCOTUS at some point.

We just received our “Interview has been scheduled” online update, hopefully we’ll get the notice in the next week or so. Far sooner than we expected!

Still no update on the EAD/AP though I see posters here with later NOA dates being approved for the EAD. Very mysterious are the ways of USCIS!

4 hours ago, Grant & Bri said:

Yeah spoke to a tier 2 officer twice this week and wasn’t helpful at all. How do I get an info pass I see you can’t do it online anymore. 

Hi

Hopefully someone with direct experience can chime in here, but my understanding is that the tier 2 officer can help you with scheduling an appointment. The website just says the contact center can create an appointment:

From

https://my.uscis.gov/en/appointment/v2

“If our online tools do not provide the help you need, please call the USCIS Contact Center to request an appointment.”

The USCIS ombudsman office also apparently offers assistance with case inquiries

https://www.dhs.gov/topic/cis-ombudsman

Good luck!

Hello

The case numbers listed above are interesting. According to a few websites, these numbers have internal structure and a specific format

https://citizenpath.com/uscis-receipt-number-explained/

The first three letters for the EAD here are typically MSC for Missouri service center (Lee’s summit NBC).

The next two digits are the fiscal year i.e. 20 for 2020 for us which makes sense.

 according to these sites the next 3 digits are supposed to be the “computer workday of the year”. By definition you would expect that to be less than 365 and, since it excludes holidays, less than 300. However the cases listed above have “workday” numbers beginning with “902” (ours is 900 and unlike those cases we haven’t received the EAD). I wonder if USCIS has switched to a new format for the “work day”, anyone know the details?

best of luck to all!

2 hours ago, Grant & Bri said:

Expedite for EAD - 34 days NO RESPONSE

Second RFE response received - 19 days ago NO RESPONSE!! Boston filer here and I’m completely over this process about to lose a good job offer due to being given false hope when I made the expedite request that I would get a response within 5-30 days. Numerous of calls to USCIS each week and still nothing no more information I hope that one time I call they will see more information than I can and give me something but nope. I get everyone’s case is different but I just find it hilarious that people that filed in October already have EAD’s and interviews scheduled and there is some of us here still waiting for one of this. Absolutely over it. Sorry I’m just ranting but I’ve been here for 7 months already and already been 5.5 months since I filed my paperwork. 

Our sympathies! Have you tried asking for a Tier 2 officer on the phone, or asking for an infopass appointment? Best of luck!

AJCM: congratulations on the end of a long journey! Best of luck to all of the rest of us still waiting.

There are signs that USCIS is moving faster, both for SF and SJ applicants. Two September 2019 filers from SF have, I believe, received interview notices! I wonder if the speedup is solely due to offloading cases to Sac/Fresno/SJ, or if there have been other efficiency improvements.

Hi, this is an interesting question. If the OP will forgive me for asking a slightly different question: at the AoS interview would the USCIS officer frown upon presenting an expired passport? This assumes the beneficiary has several other valid forms of ID. We're not in this situation thankfully, but my spouse's relative is working hard to get her PP renewed in time. Thanks for any opinions!

USCIS timelines are even more enigmatic than I thought, and in a good way.

Just read that two *San Francisco* AoS filers from September 2019, @May531 and @Save85, have had interviews scheduled!

That's awesome...from all that I've read, even with the move to offload cases to Sacramento, SJ and Fresno, SF was even slower than San Jose.

I wonder how USCIS has managed to optimise the process.

Hopefully those two folks and others here have fast and stress-free interviews. We would very much appreciate updates!

@Jpgs have you received an interview date by any chance? Will it be in San Jose?

Best of luck to all! We filed in late September (NOA early October) and can't wait to complete this process too!

48 minutes ago, Jpgs said:

Hi guys! First post here.

 

Today I received update that my case was scheduled for interview on January 6th.

 

• I applied on August 2nd, 2019

• Biometrics on August 28th 2019

 

• EAD received on December 19th 2019

 

• Interview ready to be Scheduled on December 20th 2019

 

• Interview scheduled on January 6th 2020

Congratulations, and best of luck with the interview!

It's very interesting to note that both rhe earlier poster who filed in March and yourself have January interviews.

Mysterious are the ways of USCIS, hopefully a sign that processing is becoming more efficient.

3 hours ago, Vee_bay_bee said:

hi everyone! 
Our interview is January 24 in Santa Clara 😬😬 

besides the letter that tell us what documents to bring, does anyone have any other references or lists of documents to take to the interview ??

also, is it a requirement to take a translator  if my husband isn’t fluent in English (he’s a Spanish Speaker) 

A translator would be a wise precaution, if your partner cannot clearly express himself. I’ve read that if the officer feels they cannot communicate, they administer an English test.

this page seems reasonable on the document list

https://citizenpath.com/i-485-interview-preparation/

2 hours ago, pasadenagirl said:

any california filer here. how long did it take for your status to change from biometrics update to ready to schedule for interview update. thanks

Hi there, for us it was 28 days between biometrics at San Jose, CA to the “ready to be scheduled” notification. My understanding is that this phase happens at the national benefits center in Missouri, so it’s roughly similar for most applicants, unless there’s a delay due to RFEs etc.

Of course from that point it may be 7 months to a year for the actual interview here in SJ or even longer for SF(sigh). Apparently LA and SD applicants get interviews much faster so if you’re in Pasadena you may be better off than those of us in the Bay Area. Best of luck to everyone!

Thanks for commenting, and congratulations! Do you know if your interview will be at SJ or perhaps Sacramento or Fresno, which I understand is now a possibility?

Are you a military family? One other commenter received a quick interview since they were on the verge of deployment. 

Best of luck and please let us know how it goes!