spirochete

Thanks for your awesome posts, everyone. You guys rule

Congrats!!!

Our lawyer never told us one of the options was the officer taking out his big read APPROVED stamp and stamping everything right in front of our faces. He entered everything into the computer as we sat there and said "OK done. You should get your green card shortly" I burst into tears, my husband just sat there dumbfounded.

The interview itself was totally painless. He asked us very basic questions, took about a .5 second look at our pictures and didn't even ask for 90% of what I brought in. I'm still in shock

Just also wanted to say thank you for everyone for your stories, support and taking time to answer questions on this forum. I couldn't have made it through the process without my friends at VisaJourney

OH great, I've been a 1099 person for a couple of years. My lawyer didn't flag anything so hopefully things will go ok

My husband was here on a J-1 visa as well; they are given out for training purposes. He did not have the 2 year home country thing on there, either. I had an attorney do our paperwork but I can tell you it's a pretty straight forward case. We got married, he got his EAD and a sweet new job in his field (software developer).

The key is her coming to America and NOT having the intent of staying. That's the thing with the J-1. They will ask about that in the interview. That's the only trouble/pitfall with the J-1

Good luck!

While most people are doing the tax return happy dance I'll be shelling out thousands because I'm self employed. Just wanted to whine!

We got two emails about 5 days apart as well. We also got the approval notice a few days after the last card production email. What the hell goes on over there

OH! Ok. That makes sense. Thanks for the quick reply!

I got the card production email a week or so ago, and today got this:

Application Type: I765 , APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION

Current Status: Approval notice sent.

I thought the production of the card would mean it was approved? I'm sure this is a dumb question and I apologize in advance!

If I did that no work thing my husband would kill me! We're very lucky in that he's here on a J-1 visa and making good money. I don't think he would have came here until he could work so again, very lucky.

Those affidavits were the worst part of gathering everything to file. God bless my friends and family, but they wrote some silly stuff. I had to send them back and forth to the lawyer then track everyone down and get them to the notary.

Don't even get me started on pictures. We HATE pictures. We DETEST them. We would never take a picture of ourselves for any reason, until now. It's torture.

My husband and I are living in two different states because he's on a J-1 visa and I can't uproot my son. As soon as he gets his EAD (hopefully within the next 30 days) we'll be living together, though.

Anyway, here's what we did:

joint bank account

joint credit cards

I put him on all the household bills

joint health insurance

Our lawyer seems to be comfortable with that, as are we. Thanks for reminding me, I still have to update our life insurance!

I know nothing about this, but it seems kinda likely. I guess a cynical person would assume you could doctor her answers to match yours!

We did ours at home It is so easy, if you have a digital camera...

We were so paranoid and ####### we couldn't do that despite the fact my husband has a camera that costs more than our damn house. We paid a small fortune at Walgreens!

Our lawyer warned us that sometimes the case never makes it online! Our I485 and I765 are online, but the I130 is nowhere to be found

I can only pray they don't ask any sex questions because my husband would love nothing more than giving them a shocking 15 minute detailed speech about it.

As for the age, we're 15 years apart! He's 23, I'm 38. We don't think about it and we don't look that far apart. He looks a lot more mature and luckily I look younger. I don't want another thing to be worried about

We're about a week after you so you've been waiting a little longer. We're really anxious and grrr too since it seems that most Oct filers have theirs! My lawyer said the Chicago office is really laggy and this is typical. Did you file in Chicago like we did?

You dont need to wait until you have had a church service.... you are married now... as long as you have the marriage certificate you can file for AOS.... take photos at your church wedding and show them as part of your evidence at interview but you dont need wedding pictures to file for AOS... There are couples who only have the civil wedding and dont have photos.. they get approved at interview.

Kez

That better not hold us up! We are not religious people and I'm not have a church wedding for any reason!

Ha! I guess it's better to be at the top of the November list than waiting at the bottom of the Oct filers.

Every day of waiting is getting more and more painful!

You know what's weird, my husband and I finding ourselves doing things we'd never do just to make the immigration people happy. We don't take pictures, we'd keep separate bank accounts and I see no reason to put him on bills as it's an addition pain the butt I don't need right now. I know in the grander scheme of things, who cares. It's just frustrating that we have to put on a charade to prove our real relationship is real!

You guys are awesome. We're in the process of putting everything in both of our names.

We see each other as much as financially possible because we want to die when we're apart As for having the kid, NOT HAPPENING

OK, let's see if I can explain this correctly. My husband is here on a J-1 Visa. His employer is out of state. While a lawyer couldn't tell me this, the paralegal could. She told me that the fact we don't live together (because we didn't think we could) will hurt our AOS and drag it out. His visa keeps him working out of state; their immigration lawyers won't let him work remotely until he has his EAD since the training visa dictates that he works under direct supervision.

The paralegal said we'd have a much easier time for him to leave the job and move in regardless of the Visa. The important things are that he come to the US legally and that we live together as a married couple. We thought we were doing it the right way by honoring the J-1 visa (without the home residency requirement, by the way). Does this sound correct to you guys?

You don't have anything to hide you are fine!

This is good to know since we'll be sans lawyer as well. This whole process is just freaking me out.

Follow the guides.....

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...page=i130guide2

Good Luck

Kez

Oh geez I didn't see that one, just the ones for folks on a K visa. Thank you. The process is a little overwhelming, it's making me lose IQ points or something.

Sorry for the simple, boring question. We're getting married on Friday and have to get all this paperwork out. I see a lot of mention of the K Visas, but like I mentioned he's already here on a J-1 Visa and doesn't have the home residency requirement.

Is there any difference in the paperwork? An obvious answer would be "ask a lawyer, dummy" and we did. We'd really like to file the paperwork ourselves since the lawyer told us our case is very easy and straight forward.