JKLSemicolon

When we took our marriage certificate to the County Clerk’s office to have it recorded, I was able to get certified copies made and in hand that same day. This was during the pandemic. So it really depends on where one lives.

Just to add another data point: For the K-1 petition, I documented a total of 20 separate visits or periods when we were living in the same town, totaling 486 days. At the time of the petition, 7 of those visits (86 days) had been during the previous two years. Between the filing and interview, we had an additional 3 visits totaling 30 days together. Obviously not everyone is going to be spending as much time together but if there is still an opportunity for additional visits before the interview, I would say that first and foremost it's good for the relationship and it certainly can't hurt when it comes to the petition. I documented all of our visits on a table with the following headings, and provided an updated version for the interview: The supporting documents included flight itineraries, boarding passes and/or passport stamps, and photos with dates/locations in the captions.

Final update: Finally received our 2020 refund today (5/11/2022), just over a year after mailing the return.

Update: as of today the “Where’s My Refund” page shows that the return has been received and is being processed. So that makes the timeline for our 2020 return: 5/2021 mailed paper return and W-7 9/2021 original documents returned and ITIN issued 4/2022 return being processed. In the meantime I have filed an extension for the 2021 return.

Check my profile and timeline, we successfully completed the CR1 process last year after abandoning AOS from a K1. I went ahead and sent a letter (to the address on the I-485 NOA) notifying USCIS that my wife had left the country (attaching documentation of this such as the I-94 travel history) and that we would instead be pursuing the I-130/CR1 route. My reasoning for doing this was to ensure that no one wasted any more time reviewing the AOS paperwork while I gathered additional evidence for the new petition. Whether due to my reaching out or not, USCIS sent a letter addressed to my wife within two weeks notifying that the application was denied and citing the relevant statute. I included both my letter and the USCIS reply as "unsolicited evidence" (i.e. evidence uploaded after the petition is submitted that USCIS may not necessarily review) when filing the I-130 online.

No transcript for 2020 yet. Clicking on the 2020 transcript link produces a letter that says, among other things: I agree that it's probably being processed manually and don't expect it to be resolved any time soon.

If that's the case you may need to wait until the SSN is issued, since depending on the background check provider this may indeed be a requirement. Here's a resource (not from your state) that goes into more detail around this type of situation for employers. While it is possible for them to hire someone who does not yet have a SSN, reading the bottom of the page it appears that the employer is within their rights to refuse to hire an applicant who does not provide one: https://www.twc.texas.gov/news/efte/employees_without_ssns.html But you would probably want to look into this more in your own state and others here may have more information as well.

So another update, the card arrived today. It was mailed to our physical address rather than the UPS Store mailbox address that my wife provided at POE. That didn't help to answer the question that I had when creating this thread, but everything worked out so I can't complain!

In case this can be of use to anyone, despite my wife providing a different mailing address to CBP at POE, the GC was still mailed to the address on the DS-260. In our case it didn't cause a problem since it simply went to our physical address instead of the mailing address that we tried to provide, but if someone were to move and need to change the address at POE I would encourage them to be proactive in following up.

Here is my understanding, hopefully more knowledgeable members can also weigh in: The EAD is on list A of the I-9 acceptable documents, meaning that an employer can accept it as a stand-alone document upon hire. Regardless, an SSN is going to be needed for payroll, etc., but if you talk to the employer they should have some sort of grace period (e.g. 90 days) after starting during which you can provide the SSN if you don't have it initially. If you apply for the SSN (after January 24 if that is what the local office is saying), you can also provide that documentation to the employer and then once the actual card is received, have the employer update their records.

The local SS office here hangs up after about 15 minutes on hold. The hold message also gets interrupted with a phone ringing every few minutes as if you're about to be connected, before immediately putting you back on hold. I had to call back several times over multiple days in order to get a live person, so you may need to be persistent and pay close attention to their opening hours. Once I did get a live person they took all of my wife's information and told me a supervisor would have to call back to schedule the actual appointment. The call back, which they said usually happens within 3 days, never came. My wife is out of the country at the moment so we will try again once she's back and hope for better results. Good luck.

Congratulations! I filed our return the same time as you and the ITIN came in around the same time as well (dated September 9) , but have heard nothing from the IRS since then. I check the "Where's my Refund?" page about once a week but it always returns the "You may not have entered your information correctly" message. Still waiting...

Update: as of January 4, the case status shows that the Permanent Resident Card has been mailed. Fingers crossed that it arrives soon - I will try to post another update when it does.

Thanks, the SS card not arriving is less concerning to me than the Permanent Resident Card and we will follow up with the SS office for that. Out of curiosity, when you listed your UPS Store address do you remember if you used “#” or “PMB” before the box number? I ask because I’m wondering if it makes a difference to USCIS in terms of recognizing that an address looks like a mailbox instead of a physical address. I have read, for example, that green cards are not mailed to PO boxes and I’m wondering whether that happens on USCIS’s end versus the USPS carrier’s end.

The SS card has not come yet either.