P055UM

Ps you can chat to EMMA to ask if the AoS has been recommended for interview. It doesn’t make any difference (as in you can’t speed anything up this way), but it could help your sanity to know if the case is still being looked at or if it is just waiting for an interview slot to come up at the local FO.

Ah, understandable, and I sympathise with you guys. The USCIS website suggests that 80% of AP is done in 10.5 months, so hopefully you get some good news this month! ☺️ As for the SSN, this is such a horrible pitfall that so many people are trapped in through no fault of their own. The only additional thing I can say is that many banks will give bank accounts to people without SSN - this is how I got my bank account originally, you just have to shop around a little. Good luck and keeping my fingers crossed for you 🤞

A lot of people have success getting an EAD expedite with a valid job offer, so you could try that. It’s not the route I took personally, but there are many many success stories in the AoS forums from people who took this approach. This is also solid advice.

That is very funny 😂 I think you’re right. My first time doing turbo tax was last year and it is pretty confusing! I regularly ponder why there is the concept of ‘doing taxes’ at the end of the year rather than good ol’ PAYE. Some friends tell me it because of big interests and whatnot and I’m sure there’s some truth in that, but I often also just land on ‘because that’s how it’s always been’.

There is no universal. It is entirely dependent on your jurisdiction. My DL had an expiry date of exactly one year after the issue date. I got it using an expired I94 and my AoS I797s. But each state has its own regulations.

Hahaha you can say that again! There are so many moving parts to come in the future. I guess all one can really do is take action which makes sense based on the information one has at the time, and trust that it'll be okay in the long term. But yes, I agree with you that in the bigger picture taking SS makes sense for those with professional careers ahead of them. It is interesting learning about this stuff, and it does make me think that when you move to a different country there is so much stuff that you'd taken for granted at home that you now need to figure out for yourself or, of course, with the help of great communities such as this one; I can't quite fathom how anybody got their heads around this stuff before the internet was so widespread.

I would strongly recommend trying to hold on til AP. You guys have put so much work in to get to this point and it would be a shame to undo so much of it. AP expedite could work, or failing that, you’re hopefully only looking at another few months until it just arrives on day. All the bureaucracy and waiting is depressing and frustrating, but it’ll be worse if you have to start the journey all over again.

🤞🤞

Thank you for your ramblings, honestly. I find this really insightful and it is prompting me to at least do some more research into the topic. It seems possibly that the WEP is only relevant if you work less than 30 years in the US, since I am 32 at present, if I stayed here forever I guess I would end up hitting over 30 years of SS contributions (sigh). In this case, it seems perhaps I *could* claim both pensions (at least that is my interpretation of the below link) - perhaps that is what this guy was taking about? I can at least confirm voluntary NIs are very cheap if you are employed abroad - something like £3.15 per week. https://www.hudsonvalley360.com/opinion/columnists/social-security-matters-will-my-uk-pension-affect-my-us-social-security/article_5cadfde5-7b46-5886-9faf-5f276eebabe3.html More reading definitely required on my part, now I know how to spend some of my last week in K1 purgatory before starting my first job here 😀 Thanks again for your valuable insights!!

Thanks for your reply! I was hoping you’d be along at some point. I have 14 years at the moment and could expensively top up another two. I guess I plan on being in the US indefinitely so it makes sense to try and get these voluntary contributions squared away. I guess I have probably 15 years or so to get it right 😂 Current plan is to send the form off with it filled out as best I can and see what happens. Hopefully it’ll be right, or they’ll write to tell me what was wrong about it 😀

Agree, the general lack of certainty of status is certainly a disadvantage for the K1. In my specific case, I couldn’t get a DL til I had my SS card. My SS card was approved just a couple of days before my I94 expired so obviously the card didn’t turn up until some time after the I94 expiry. When I went to the DMV, they requested (and were perfectly happy to accept) my expired I94 - lord knows what they think it proved, other than, I guess, that I was at some point allowed into the country legally.

I had to present my I94 (as well as 797s) when I got my DL even though it was expired…go figure. I swear they make it up as they go along.

Not only is it risky, but it is fraudulent. Coming to the US on a tourist visa with the intent of marrying and doing AoS and also carrying a case full evidence to "prove" intent of returning home is also quite deceptive. I would suggest you don't contact that attorney again.

Possibly a long shot given the sparsity of results when searching this topic on VJ - but is anybody here making voluntary NICs to HMRC? Keen to do so but Form NI38 is a bit confusing - the "Ordinarily Resident" question in particular seems counterintuitive. Would be interested if anybody is doing this and how they went about filling out this form. Cheers!

Seconded. They’ll need to check relevant documents and this is easier done in person. FWIW I went to the social security office last week (removing restriction on SS card now I have conditional GC, so slightly different) and it wasn’t a bad experience. I just walked up and was in and out in 45 mins, with the actual appointment part probably only being 10 mins. SS card arrived in just a few days, although your experience may of course be different.

Thanks, Interesting to know, although I note OP *does* have AP.

I am by no means an expert but it doesn’t seem right/legal that you can be refused work because of the type of work authorisation you hold.

Illegal, surely?

To address the ‘are we in trouble?’ In the title of the post: you’re not in trouble, per se, but if the 90 days have passed and you haven’t filed AoS, the visa holder is now out of status, and whilst unlikely, is in jeopardy of removal if unlucky or in the wrong place at the wrong time. All that goes away once the AoS is filed, so get mailing as soon as possible

🤞

Or 4.5 even 😅

There’s no set time but my recent experience is that I received an RFE on my I-485 on 10/27/2021, responded 10/29/2021 and they took action on it on 03/17/2022 - so 5.5 months for me but your experience may vary.

Here's a couple of links for you. Seems they recently changed the validity period from one to two years. Note this is the amount of time the US gov will consider the information to be current, as there isn't an expiry on the actual certificate. I note that the visa issued when using this certificate cannot expire later than the second anniversary of the issuance of the certificate (at least the is my reading from link 1), which may be pertinent if you are looking to stretch your entry to convert from a CR1 to and IR1, which many people round here will recommend if asked. https://lawandborder.com/police-certificates-now-valid-for-2-years-says-u-s-state-dept/#:~:text=Police certificates now expire after,beyond a certificate's expiration date. https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fiancee-2/required-documents/

Yes, that's the one. I'm not sure about going to a police station - the US Embassy in London website advises you to go to the acro website. Besides, I'd rather deal with a central agency whose job it is to deal with this, as opposed to chancing my arm at the local station - definitely wouldn't have trusted them to do it quickly or even at all in my old town.

Congratulations!!