greenslippers

Dear Friends, Its 3 days and no welcome notice in the mail yet! on USCIS website it says they mailed welcome notice on Sep. 5, I worry If they mailed it to our old address, What should I do If they sent it to old adress? Should I report address change again?

Thanks

desperate heart, I can totally understand your anxiety...however, it's only been 3 days. At least give it 2 weeks before you start panicking. Besides it's just the welcome notice, not the green card. Do you really give a @#$% about a letter welcoming you? Also, your timeline indicates that they sent you a confirmation mail through the postal mail so what are you worried about? It will come. Just chill. The hard part is already over... have a great sunday.

Yea don't bother taking your clinic results to the interview. THe IO can look over it but all he'll tell you is that the civil surgeon is the one who has to sign off on it. Cuz I had that same letter with me and showed it to the IO and he said "the civil surgeon needs to sign off on it"

Thanks greenslippers your info was really useful!

I had my husband get the TB skin test recently, just in case. I was trying to decide whether to bring the results to a civil surgeon to concur, or just bring the govt clinic results to the interview. Now we will definitely see the civil surgeon before the interview. Better safe than sorry!

Anyone heard from Khushi? How was his or her interview experience? Please update us

unlike lovingja indicated, my civil surgeon did not have to read my xray. I only provided her with a letter from the city of ny that states that i'm not contagious. That letter is the key not your xray report. If you have xray reports, sure take it but if not then just ge the letter.

PS: for ppl who have positive skin tests, don't go rushing to get another skin test just to avoid the drama because if you are a bcg vaccinated person like myself, it is actually detrimental for your health to keep getting injected with the ppd thing and is actually against the law. You should request a blood test if you know your skin test comes out positive if you don't have and cannot get the supporting document I described in my other post.

I did my interview in atlanta and at the end of the interview, the officer stated that the only reason he couldn't approve me on the spot was because my medical examination packet did not include my TB test. He said that their policy has changed about it in the sense that the civil surgeon must be the one that gives you a TB skin test or signs off on a previous one you've had. So if you didn't do one because of a reason other than the one I'll describe below, you should go get it done before your interview and bring the sealed civil surgeon envelope with you to your interview.

So my case is interesting cuz I got the BCG vaccine when I was younger, which predisposes any TB skin test I take to being positive. So when I got my skin test done last, I came up positive. WHen your skin test is positive, a chest xray is necessary to declare whether or not you have TB and whether or not you're contagious. Whichever agency does your chest xray will provide you with a report or letter that states that although your skin test is positive you're not contagious. So in my case, when I went to the civil surgeon to get my exam done (way before my interview, prior to the change of policy) I took the documentation that stated that my ppd was positive and the measurement of how much swelling happened on my skin and that i'm not contagious. With that, the surgeon simply indicated that previous ppd test was taken. Now the difference now as a result of the policy change is that the civil surgeon must state that they saw the documentation and concur with the results. I hope i'm being clear.

After my interview, i went back to the civil surgeon and they said they didn't have to give me a TB test and take me through all that process again they just had to indicate that they concur with the previous ppd result and that i'm fine. Pretty much the civil surgeon MUST say that you're fine. So if you didn't do a TB test when you saw your civil surgeon, and your reason is not similar to mine, you will most likely have to do it for the Atlanta interview so you should get it done before you get there. If you're no sure, call the civil surgeon office and ask if you did it and ask if they reported it in a way that fits the new policy. Remember, If someone other than the civil surgeon did it and it was before the policy change (anyone know the date?) most likely your civil surgeon did not state it in a manner that fits the new policy and will need to do so. Good luck.

PS: I agree that you should do it before your interview so it doesn't delay your process.

yea he asked for bc and passport- i'm not sure why but the interview letter has said stated that usc's bring bc and passport

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS VERY LONG!!!!

Our interview was scheduled for today at 2pm so my husband and I arrived at 1:45. We ran into some of the officers we had seen during my previous info pass vists and they were very cordial to us. Anyway we sat in the waiting room/lobby for about 25 mins before my name was called (my husband is the US citizen). I was an overstay. Our lawyer was also there. As soon as we walked in, the officer introduced himself as officer nelson (he's so nice) and we took the oath. We sat down and he just confirmed information (he pretty much was reading the 1-485 and was like is that correct) so we pretty much confirmed that the information he had was accurate. here are some of the questions he confirmed

-"is your address still _____ ," (we just moved so we told him our updated address and confirmed that we had done a change of address0

- your name is (my name)? (yes)

- confirmed my husband's name

- confirmed my parent's name

- asked for a copy of my birth cert., driver's license, passport, marriage certificate and SS card (i asked him if he wanted the original copy of the marriage cert he said yes)

- asked for my husband's birth cert and passport (he asked my husband if this was his original passport, he said no, he had done a renewal since the one from his childhood)

- then he asked whether i had ever been deported or lied/fraud on any INS document (no)

- ever been convicted of a crime... (no and i made a joke about me being a goody two shoe and he said there's nothing wrong with that)

- then he confirmed whether i'm still in school

- we were interuppted by a co-worker who asked if he was ready yet and he stated that we were his last two.

- commented on the fact that we've been married for over 2yrs

- he then started talking about how he moved to ATL 19 mos ago, weather, my lawyer chimed in that he also was from the midwest (like officer nelson), we talked about his 4 children (IT WAS VERY LIGHTHEARTED...i Had been expecting the interview from hell)...

- then he asked for documents showing our life together (unlike many people, i did not drag my entire household--mostly because we just moved and could not access most of our stuff- so we simply took our current lease and previous lease, 6/7 pictures, cards from friends (holiday/anniversary, thank you cards), car insurance, voided check of our current checking account, life insurance, auto insurance) so i gave him the car insurance, cards, pictures and check. I asked if he wanted to see more and he said no, he was already convinced. He asked if he could take one of the cards and i said he can take anything except our 8x11 picture- which we hang on the wall) so he took a copy of the check, a christmas card and the account statement from one of our banks and stapled it together and put it in the file

- he told me my name had cleared from fbi and there were no secret files on me

- we had some more chit chat about his life

- asked if we had kids (we responded not yet in unison, it was very cute)

- asked again if i had been deported, but more in the form of "i already asked you if you've been deported right?"

- asked if we went on a honeymoon, we explained that we're broke students so we haven't done an elaborate one yet but we went to a hotel for the weekend after our wedding

- then he said the marriage is good and pretty much the only thing missing is my tb skin test which was not documented in the medical exam packet, i explained that i had done it previously and it was positive and i had a copy of a chest xray done to show that i'm not contagious; he said the civil surgeon had to sign off on it so i need to go back to the civil surgeon and have them do it and then deliver the sealed document back to them and as soon as the RFE arrives, i can expect my 485 to be approved and i 'll receive it a month from then.

So pretty much, for us, it was an extremely painless experience. I thought it was going to be very intense and they were going to grill me like crazy cuz i had overstayed my visa (for over a decade) but it was really well.

i attribute my painless and pleasant experience

1) to the really nice officer nelson

2) to the fact that my husband and I are so comfortable with each other (after 2 yrs, you have no other choice)

3) my hubby was a bit nervous but i didn't feel that anxious (i expected to be a nervous wreck but i wasn't, i was actually concerned at a point because my anxiety was minimal) so i'm assuming it came across that we were minimally anxious

4) the nice attitude and pleasant disposition of the officer

To everyone who still has to go through the experience, my suggestion is prepare for the worst, go through all the questions posted on this site and any other ones you can find so that you know that you and your hubby are exactly on the same page and remember everything that you need to because that's really what I attributed my calm disposition/attitude to. I knew that me and my boo were PREPARED. Also, if you think you generally have bad luck in life (i sometimes think that and ofcourse it's a cognitive distortion) the reality is that it can go either way, prepare for the worst and you'll be surprised when things go well like it did for me. If this is not a detailed enough interview, then i don't know what is. Good luck to everyone. I'll let you know when GC is in hand.

Mozplay, you can go ahead and remove my name from the list (i think). I had my interview today and everything went well but they need the Tb skin test so pending that i'm pretty much approved...yay!!!! so i don't know if that counts as taking my name off the list or is it officially when i receive gc in hand that you take it off. Thanks everyone for all your support!!!!

Thanks everyone. Cecy, that's a great suggestion.

We're going for our interview in 15 days exactly--excited and nervous ofcourse. I know many current members are empathic enough to stick around on the forum even after they have been approved for green card so can people who have recently gone on interviews please post. I've been reading past posts but only few are recent. Please don't direct me to the local reviews because those don't have any updated ones for my local office, ATLANTA. Please help the many of us going on interviews in August by posting details about your recent AOS interview if you attended one in July or August 2007. Thanks in advance. (I promise to come back and post for all about my experience, no matter how it goes).

If you scroll down the pages there are several of those. It may take some time to find them but they are there. Use the search tool and a bit of patience to find what you are looking for

Cecy, i did look through and like I stated earlier, there are some interview experiences but very few are "recent" i.e. within the past one month (the ones that are there, I've already seen). I'm just attempting to encourage people who come on to update about their status as approved (and we have many) but don't describe their experiences to do so. It's nice to see even more recent ones. I'm sure you're not freaking out yet but wait till you get a date and you'll see that you can't read enough about other's experiences...

We're going for our interview in 15 days exactly--excited and nervous ofcourse. I know many current members are empathic enough to stick around on the forum even after they have been approved for green card so can people who have recently gone on interviews please post. I've been reading past posts but only few are recent. Please don't direct me to the local reviews because those don't have any updated ones for my local office, ATLANTA. Please help the many of us going on interviews in August by posting details about your recent AOS interview if you attended one in July or August 2007. Thanks in advance. (I promise to come back and post for all about my experience, no matter how it goes).

We got an update today saying that an approval notice has been sent in the mail. Does anyone know if this usually happens around the time you get the work visa in the mail? Thank you for all of your responses!

Amelynn, I got mine yesterday (i also received an approval notice email the day before you got yours,), yours will probably arrive in a day or two more. Good luck.

Amelynn, any updates on your situation?

yea. unfortunately its more than that

doll face, whatever happened with the case? you still waiting to hear back?

I've read about different interviews and most appear to be moderate and not a big deal. Knowing my luck, I'm going to have the interview from hell. Can people who had the worst interview possible tell about their experiences. Does anyone know of anyone who got denied? If there is a thread with such experiences, can someone direct me to it. Thanks.

We got word that our interview is happening on the 20th of August- at the atlanta office. I'm wondering if people that have gone through the atlanta experience can talk a bit about their experience as I'm a nervous wreck. Also does anyone know of stories of aos getting denied-- I know i'm weird, I'm one of those people that insist on watching horror movies with my hands covering my face the entire time...please hlep

We got an update today saying that an approval notice has been sent in the mail. Does anyone know if this usually happens around the time you get the work visa in the mail? Thank you for all of your responses!

Amelynn, I got mine yesterday (i also received an approval notice email the day before you got yours,), yours will probably arrive in a day or two more. Good luck.

ok i'm really confused now... so they do or do not give out the I-551 stamp or not,( prior to green card approval, post EAD approval)?

I spoke to someone at the USCIS customer service and they said it was possible to get a stamp that allows you to work at the InfoPass appointment if it is urgent and your card has already been put to production. Has anyone heard of this and have any advice for asking them to do it?

Thanks

i found this on a different thread (which no one has responded to), does that mean that customer service provided inaccurate information? It wouldn't be a first as they told me that I could receive the interim ead even on the day of my infopass appointment, during which IOs already told me that they stopped. In fact, the IO officer told me that customer service is filled with contract workers who are not IOs and often provide inaccurate information, such that IOs are requesting that they be eliminated. How do you know they no longer provide the stamp?

PS: In post #1, I stated stamp on card, I meant stamp on passport.

just wanted to update you all, my job said their policy is for me to have the card so when I showed them the I-9 thing, it didn't really help. They suggested that I attempt to get a stamp on my passport that says I can work but I don't know if USCIS still does this. Does anyone know?

Does anyone know whether one can still receive a stamp on their card for work authorization from the local office (i have been approved and have been waiting for over a week and a half since card production). I'm in a situation where I'll lose my job offer if I don't receive the card in the next 2 days.

Hi all... i'm also a march filer and i'm noticing that many of the march filers had cases transferred to csc...it seems like this particular thread has much more csc transfers than any other thread. It's almost like most march filers on this thread that have aos approved didn't go through interview. Has anyone else noticed this? or is it wishful thinking on my part? i'm still waiting on my ead and my aos has not been touched since april...i don't know if i got transferred as i only recently signed up for the case status online (did all who got transferred to csc get snail stating so?)

My card was ordered on July 13th and I still haven't received anything. Please let us know when you receive yours, I will do the same.

Hey Nic,

my case is also at national benefits center. I'm one step in front of you in that they finally approved mine 103 days later. Unfortunately, there appears to be NOTHING that you can do. Maybe other senior members can tell you otherwise. . . i'm still waiting and likely to lose a highly coveted job offer on Aug 1st, if I still don't have my card. One thing you may want to do is go back to info pass people and make sure that they sent the email and if there was a response. When I went for my infopass appt, they promised that they'd send the email and ofcourse when I went back, they told me the email was never sent. THe really nice officer promised me she'd send it and took my phone number and called me when she received a response. Akunin response makes me feel hopeless though.

Thanks everyone for your responses. The information about the I-9 is particularly helpful. I've been informed by my HR department that they will only accept the card. I'm going to try to show them that section on the I-9 to see if it'll allow them to let me start (i understand that they are trying to cover themselves from any liabilities). Thanks.

I already have a social security number (card says not valid for employment) and recently received the online notification that my card is in production (7/13, ead touched 7/16). I have a job offer (which I was supposed to begin 2 weeks ago), I explained the situation to them and they said they'd give me till aug 1. I haven't received my approval letter or anything official apart from the online notification. Now my question is, is it legal for them to hire me now even though I don't have the card in my hand yet? Also, will i have to get a new SSN or will I just need a new ssn card? anyone have any advice on how to proceed.