mw & rg k1

On 6/1/2024 at 12:13 PM, SaraClaire11 said:

Wishing you the best of luck! Let us know how it goes!

 

The app updated again today and now our status says our case was approved as of yesterday. Already been looking into the I-751 and what's needed to remove conditions in 2 years. 

I made a post a while back about I-751 removal of conditions.
Even started a word doc and let me tell you that it was already hard to find correct photos for our story.

Our doc is already up to ~35 pages and I check in on it every 2 weeks or so to see what I need to add (or remember to take photos to add).
Orginized with a table of contents in front and then page after page of proof points.

Here is our current table of contents for reference.
Will is started and in process ... Not sure if I will kep gift receipts 
But the general list came from that link I submitted to this group chat.

Evidence of CoHabitation (showing both names)

    Association document to property showing both names…………………………….………24

    Mortgage or loan document showing both names…………………………………..………..21
    Lease agreement showing both names……………………………..…………………….10, 24
    Voided or Canceled checks………………………………………………………….….……9, 17

    Property and Car insurance………….………………………….………………………….10, 22

Evidence of CoHabitation (showing same address)

    Driver’s Licenses, IDs, Gov’n Docs……..…………………..…5, 18, 20, 24-25, Attachments
    Bank Statements ………………………………………………..…………………..…………..17

    Utility bills ………………………………………………………………………..…………...11, 34

    Health and other insurance policies……………………………….….……….…..………12, 22

    Correspondence from friends, family………………………….….……………..…………26-28

    Affidavits from friends, family, neighbors, landlords………….….…..……..…………Attached

Evidence of Commingling of Finances (Joint Finances)

    Bank statements………………………………………………………….…….…….…….……17

    Canceled checks and Credit………..…………………..…….………….……..………9, 17, 19

    Loan statements…………………………………………………….…….…………..…………21

    Health, life, property, auto insurance statement……………………….…...….…………12, 22

    Utility bills………………………………………………………………….……..……...……11, 34

    Tax Returns Married filing Jointly…………………....……2023 & 2024 Transcripts Attached

    Ownership of property…………………………….…..…………………………………………21

    Family matters including wills, etc.………….….…..……………………….…………………??

Evidence of intimacy

    Photos of couple’s wedding, honeymoon………..…………….………………………2-5, 30,x

    Photos of vacation………………………………….………………………..………13-14, 29-31

    Photos of family dinners/activities……………………………….…………8, 13-14, 25, 29, 31

    Photos of holidays…………………………………..…………..……………………8, 13, 14, 31

    Travel Itineraries and hotel bookings…………………..………………………………13, 27-32

    Photos of vacations or trips ………………………………….………………5, 8, 13, 14, 29-32
    Photos of international family visit trips…………………..………………….…………3, 29, 30

    Tickets to events both attended……………………………….……….…….5, 9, 15, 23-25, 31

    Gift Receipts……………..…………………………………………….……………

    Evidence of in-law communication……………………..…..…………………3, 7, 8, 25, 27-28

    Joint Accounts…………………….….………………………9-12, 15-17, 19, 21-22, 24, 33-34      
    Social Media Records………………………….7, 27-28 (and many of the photos within doc)

Attachments

    IRS Tax Filings 2023 & 2024,          Brazil Recognition of wedding (Apostilled)

    Affidavits (Person 1 & Person 2), Religious Certificate of Wedding (in Brazil)   

On 5/12/2024 at 11:21 PM, ThailandR said:

3 weeks until my wife's interview. Have a stack of photos, all documents, plane tickets, Disney tickets, joint bank account documents and hopefully I will have her on the house title by then.  Happy to see folks get the GC without an interview. Wish my wife was as lucky but it is what it is 

So sad they are putting you through all of this

On 4/11/2024 at 7:25 AM, SaraClaire11 said:

UPDATE:

 

I never uploaded any additional documents but just now I received an update through the tracking app I use on my phone:

 

'I-485 AOS Interview Was Scheduled'

 

They are sending us a notice in the mail with information about the interview. I am not sure if this is good or bad, I see many approved GC without interviews. Has anyone here attended an AOS interview?

 

Our I-765 EAD still states 'Case Was Updated To Show Fingerprints Were Taken' I thought for sure we would have movement on this before AOS.

If you have a myuscis login and case registered, you should be able to see the notice they will be mailing you under documents tab.

Check there .... if not, then hope your notice shows in the mail soon.

1 hour ago, SaraClaire11 said:

I appreciate the suggestions! I just doubled checked my saved copy of our application and we selected "yes" and answered all the sections. Do you think I should just randomly upload evidence without them reaching out or sending and RFE? Would a most recent paystub be enough?

"Unsolicited" evidence is good .... (and supported through the site)
"Non-applicable" evidence might hurt as much as help  .....
Find something that is aligned with the original application and I would consider that ...

12 hours ago, Gary Rich said:

any news yet..

Update.. she will arrive in 3 weeks... what a long journey.. but it's almost over!

About time @Gary Rich ....
hang in there @Saeid, it will happen (eventually)

1 hour ago, OsmanMCFC said:

 

I hope and pray your situation gets better, patience is key in these situations.

 

If you have a USCIS account i'd suggest uploading additional evidence on form i485 part 8 section 61- 68 with regards to the public charge make sure you selected 'yes' and not 'no' and answer all the sections.

 

This is what prolonged my process and gave me an RFE, maybe upload a new i485 and label it as section8 61-68 completed if you did not already answer that part correctly. I am pretty sure it will make your case for GC go a lot quicker.

 

If you already answered that correctly just ignore what I said, just hope your situation gets better, cause i have been there also.  

 

Agree with Osman .... I can't say for sure but have a feeling that uploading a "fixed" 485 helped move our application along.

Keeping hopes for a speedy completion for you @SaraClaire11

On 3/28/2024 at 7:31 PM, OldUser said:

RFE from IRS? That's unrelated to immigration. Are you sure you filed taxes correctly and disclosed all the income? Sometimes it's worth paying a good tax preparer to get taxes filed properly

Yes ... IRS and while technically "unrelated" to immigration ... we have had to re-prove her identity over and over for each state and government agency ....

Had to grant permission for CA DMV to "check her documents" with DHS/USCIS.
State CA RFE was identity documents and re-verification of mailed in documents.

New IRS document arriving today.

My caution / tale might be to encourage getting a tax pro (with audit package) to do the work .... especially for late in year AOS people like this group.

While we consider ourselves very lucky with the December GC arrival ... so have an update for this group. 

Be very careful with first years taxes when claiming Married.

Just today,  we received our second taxes RFE ... first from IRS and second from State 

On a next step note, we just returned from Brazil (first use of the GC) and did the global entry interview ...

Took ~2 mo for the conditional approval and the final approval happened during the interview (even the officer seemed to think that was fast)

We did file a written dispute with each of the agencies that eventually allowed us to login to experian, transequity, and equifax but that is all that did.

Never got CreditKarma to work or anyone that uses experian challenge questions (yet)

On 3/13/2024 at 4:52 PM, Kristina582 said:

Hello!

I was wondering if you were able to solve the problem with your wife’s SSN and the credit agencies? Seems like my husband is having the same issue. I could add him to my bank account and also to my credit card but he can’t even sign up for an online account and I can’t make him an account manager. Every time I enter his SSN is says “invalid”. Not sure how I can resolve the issue. Any information and help from you will be greatly appreciated. 

We never got login.gov to work for mySSN account ... we did use ID.me (the other way) and had to video verify but she did get into her account eventually.

The major problem is a lack of credit history.  Sign them up for a secured credit card through your bank, add them as authorized users and eventually it should get easier

On 3/5/2024 at 2:23 PM, vldrnxrz said:

It's frustrating and eating me alive!! I thought waiting for the I-129F to get approved was stressful... this is just as stressful! I keep checking the USCIS site every day for updates and nothing ever updates on there. It bounces around from 4 months... to 2 weeks... to 2 months... to 3 weeks... to 4 months again. It's extremely frustrating! 

You said you reached out to USCIS, did you contact them via phone, email, in person at an office? 

Many (including us) found the myProgress to be horribly misleading ... if you have the account, monitor the documents folder ... that will change often even faster then the main status page does

On 2/27/2024 at 10:15 AM, badwolfxi said:

Received RFE today 2/27, they are requesting evidence of shared marital life together, basic stuff like shared property, names on lease, joint bank accounts and tax returns, photos of the marriage ceremony.

 

I assume these are being requested as a chance to bypass the interview.

I would try to reach an agent though Emma and expore what this is ....
Those things should be I751 ... not I485 as you said in a follow up comment ...

That said, we are working on our proof of marriage doc which also dates to our first days ...
Strongly recommend opening a doc and adding as you go ... I find it far easier to do as we do things and remember that we need to take a photo ... because it will be used there.

1 hour ago, vldrnxrz said:

Hi all, here is my timeline: 

• 9/12/2023 mailed I-485 packet (packet received 9/14)
• 9/27/2023 Case number assigned (IOE09224...)
• 10/10/2023 Letter recvd regarding biometrics. Biometrics scheduled for 10/20.
• 10/20/2021, completed biometrics
• 10/21/2023. case shows as "Case is being actively reviewed by USCIS" 

and crickets since then. I check the status almost everyday and it never changes anything. I am losing a lot of patience as my wife wants to visit her family but I keep being the bearer of bad news to her telling her there are no updates almost daily. Should I contact USCIS about the status? Am I in normal processing times compared to you guys? Anyone file around the same time as me and still waiting? I am desperate for some movement. Any insight would be helpful! Thank you!

https://www.casestatusext.com/forms/I-485/IOE-LB

doesn't help and I'd also say that even though we were on the fast side, this does show that there is still a ton of processing to do.

What I would recommend, double and triple check your forms.  In particular, this forum has a few examples of "mis-answered" questions ... do a minor fix if you find one and upload ... it "may" make things faster

4 hours ago, rierose said:

I keep the 'hope' up by looking at the USCIS case status analysis tool that mw & rg k1 shared in this forum earlier - there are still thousands both before my group and in my group with the same status.

Sharing that link again that @rierose was referring to ... this is right to green card status.

https://www.casestatusext.com/forms/I-485/IOE-LB

That said, I suspect that some of the" rushing of EAD/AP files (when it happens) is them doing some cleanup.
Remember I was "Denied" on those but only because we got the GC approved ... so the statistics could easily be wrong (but what else is new with this whole process).

Even after approval, everyone here still has plenty of work to do .... hope to see you in a future group and I won't be going anywhere in case you have a question that I have any idea about.

19 hours ago, SaraClaire11 said:

 

Thank you for your insight, it's just been hard to navigate this process, the wait for our K1 visa was longer than most (663 days) so I just get frustrated thinking we have been put on the back burner again. Hopefully we will get some much needed updates soon!

Agree that all of these process steps ( and even the more to come) has been absurd.

we were 631 days in k-1 process as well with a huge (information black hole) gap added between 129F approval and NVC receive.

We consider ourselves very lucky to be an early GC and encourage you to read this entire board ... even us, like many other early recipients needed to "fix" our submission. 

Ok. ... this was fun

GC in hand since 26 Dec 2024.

Today, got this notification that EAD/AP was terminated.  One deeper look, denied 4 days after GC was approved ... all of that makes sense (sort of) as EAD/AP apply if GC is in process.  Stange that they seemed to back date the "denial" AND now the "explanation letter" is already 3 weeks behind.

Just an FYI to expect strange things (even beyond the circle-k)

7 hours ago, OldUser said:

That's OK. I know some people get overwhelmed by evidence volume, but if you read I-751 instructions, they as for as much evidence as you can submit. I sent a lot, and didn't regret it. Approved without RFE or interview.

Actually, I kept my estimate low on purpose not to scare others here ....

Comment was more about just how fast and easy it is to "misplace" photo or other key story telling features.
Like when my wife met the Sr. VP of my company and had a shared photo a couple days after wedding .... 

Took a bit of time just to find that ... ooph

On 1/23/2024 at 1:15 PM, mw & rg k1 said:

https://citizenpath.com/proving-a-bona-fide-marriage/

 

Some light reading and ideas for I-751 proof of marriage docs to collect.

I had been collecting (even organized) most of these things in folders by month.
Decided to start a google-docs file with the items and photos organized.
Ooph, already hard digging up photos that I thought were going to be easy.

Looks like my future final file will be 125-175 pages or so

17 hours ago, OldUser said:

When I-485 is approved, GC should arrive in 2-4 weeks. I'd wait before that, even though you can travel with AP.

I would agree with OldUser ....

If you MUST travel, then go ... otherwise wait for GC just to be sure
after all, AP and EAD are only required as a temporary measure while GC is processing.
Since it is processed, there would be some extra "faith" in the USCIS documents if you go now.

https://citizenpath.com/proving-a-bona-fide-marriage/

Some light reading and ideas for I-751 proof of marriage docs to collect.

8 hours ago, skk12345 said:

@smashtic Hey, how long did it take for you to get the card after your status changed to "card produced"?

 Thanks!

Our Green-Card timeline
The EAD and AP was left open for quite some time and eventually changed to case closed in MyUSCIS ... Still shows as in process through normal search even today

GC approved 15 Dec
Found on USPS via Informed Delivery on 20 Dec)
Card produced 21 Dec (online status)
Scheduled delivery 23 Dec but USPS Slipped up and didn't get it in time
Actual delivery 26 Dec (USPS)

Check informed delivery and if you have card was produced message, you should see a tracking number thorugh informed delivery (USPS) or wait for a couple days to see if they make the update to card was picked up (which is hit or miss on USCIS website)

5 hours ago, ThailandR said:

Started collecting documents for the i-751 already. Just heard from a friend of my wife's who started AOS 2 years ago and has not received her GC yet still processing. She had to go for an interview last week and she was told by a USCIS individual that when approved because she's been in process for 2 years she should get a 10 year GC. Crazy.

agreed, the whole process is crazy .....

Here is another one for the group to consider:
Recommend getting a fixed credit card (aka secured credit card) for your spouse co credit history can be built.
After fighting with the credit reporting agencies to get accounts established, we STILL don't have a credit score from TransUnion which is limiting our ability to perform some simple tasks.  In particular, an account at creditKarma, My Social Security (which login.gov apparently uses credit agencies, etc.)  She did get a score with Experian and even boosted with the utility accounts I put her on before she moved here .... so some parts are working and some are waiting for months to establish presence and use of a credit card.

Back to that credit card,  a $200 limit (with deposit) through BoA is what we did .... charge it 30% and wait for the invoice and repeat.
Even BoA says TransUnion score is not available (offered free for BoA card holders)

4 hours ago, ThailandR said:

4 hours ago, OldUser said:

Are you talking about removing "Valid for work only with DHS authorization"? As far as I know, that's only possible when one gets a GC in hand.

Thanks. I was hoping with card in hand they would remove the notation.

Can say that with our GC, we were able to get the married name corrected on the SSN and the notation removed.

That said, we are still having plenty of challenges getting the SSN recognized especially with Equifax and in some cases TransUnion.
The fun will continue once you get things moving (just in case you thought it was just be completed once you get the GC).

BTW, don't forget to start saving for I-751 ... Proof of marriage documentation.  The 18 months after GC will come around faster than you think so best to start preparing today.

14 hours ago, smashtic said:

Received our combo card today! Now we wait for the 485 and plan to start submitting evidence of a life together via the online portal just in case it helps avoid interview.

Online portal? Where/what?

We are making a folder to submit with the future filing ... 

Was your thoughts for AOS or Removal of Conditions?