kgund77

Just wanted to chime in with my own data point that might be helpful. We filed my husband’s AOS (from a non-K1 visa) on October 19th of this past year, and his EAD was approved 5 weeks later (one business day after his biometrics appointment) and card received in the mail one week after that. No expedite request or any special circumstances. We were shocked it was so fast, and we personally know another couple who also received their EAD within 2 months in 2022. Obviously it’s very different from case to case and there are no guarantees, but I hope that gives you a bit of hope, at least!

Thank you very much! Your point is well taken with regard to what it would look like to USCIS to do the medical exam before the wedding - we’ll wait til the week after we get married to schedule his first appointment. Good to know about the split filing. I hadn’t looked into filing procedures yet since we’re still in the evidence-gathering phase. Is that what most people are doing, filing the I-130 online and the I-485 simultaneously by mail?

I’m a woman and my fiancé is a man Yes, rushing the AOS due to ongoing status issues but I’ve got a handle on it, so not seeking advice on that front - just a few one-off questions that the quick answers of the VisaJourney forums are helpful for! He entered on a J-1 visa five years ago. I did a lot of research before choosing SimpleCitizen and we’re very happy with the attorney assigned to review our file based on the consultation we had with her so far. I do enough immigration pro bono at my firm that I feel comfortable enough with putting things together on my own, but at the same time, I value the extra set of eyes of someone who does this for a living every day. SimpleCitizen was a happy medium for me, and worth the small amount of money we paid compared to hiring an independent immigration specialist. We’ll definitely give it a couple weeks after marriage, though, so 30 days seems like a reasonable target. We live together, have a joint bank account, will eventually share health insurance, etc, so I’m really not concerned about amassing evidence.

That’s a good point and definitely convinces me to wait til the week after we marry to have the medical exam done, at least. I’ll go over the papers with a fine-toothed comb; I am an attorney myself (not an immigration specialist) and we’ve got one of those online legal services reviewing as extra backup, so we will hopefully be fine. I’m not at all concerned about being questioned about a bona fide marriage, though; we’ve been together for three years and have endless evidence that our relationship is very legitimate. We just need to get the ball rolling on AOS ASAP.

Ah wait, reading your messages again it sounds like you aren’t saying to wait for the marriage certificate because we need it at the exam, but because of the 60 days rule. I understand now, my bad. It sounds like I may be able to go to the NYC City Clerk’s office to get the marriage certificate in person if it is taking too long in the mail, so we should be good on that front, as long as we don’t need to actually show the certificate at the medical exam. Still wondering if the 60 day rule waiver applies to medical exams conducted before sept 30th, or immigration applications filed before sept 30th.

Thank you, I’m aware I need the marriage certificate for the whole package. We are not going to send in the package until the marriage certificate arrives. We would like, however, to have the medical exam over with as soon as possible, particularly since the 60 day requirement is waived through the end of September. I am asking if anyone has had to bring and show their marriage certificate to the medical exam?

Unfortunately as we are getting married outside of City Hall, our marriage certificate will need to be mailed to us and can take a while to arrive. Is there an actual need to have the marriage certificate for the medical exam? We can wait til the week after the wedding if necessary, but waiting for the marriage certificate itself could end up taking longer than we would like (we will be out of town in early Oct and want to do the medical before then).

Hi all, my fiancé and I are getting married next Sunday and want to send in our I-130 and adjustment of status application as soon as possible after that. Most of our paperwork is already ready. Is there any problem with having his I-693 medical exam done prior to his actually being married? We’re hoping to schedule the first appointment for this week prior to the wedding, since it will need to be done in two appointments. I’m assuming it’s going to be fine, but I thought I’d check anyway. Relatedly, it seems like the rule requiring the medical exam be done within 60 days of filing for the actual immigration benefit is waived through the end of this month. Assuming that is not extended, does that apply to *medical exams* conducted prior to September 30th, or to *immigration applications* filed prior to September 30th? As in, would the 60 day rule still be waived for us if we had his medical exam done in September, but didn’t file the immigration app til October or later? We don’t expect to have any issues getting in the application well within 60 days of his medical exam, but it would be helpful to know if we have that extra leeway or not. Thank you very much!

So there’s no risk of them finding out in a background check or something, and wondering why we didn’t disclose it?

Hi all! My spouse and I are preparing his marriage-based green card AOS application and the only thing even remotely resembling a “criminal record” he has is one $100 ticket from last year from going through an open emergency exit door to catch a subway quickly in NYC. He paid it right away. Is this something we need to disclose on his AOS app? And if so, will it cause any problems with his AOS? I see the I-485 instructions say no documentation is necessary for “traffic violations and incidents involving fines less than $500,” but I assume we still need to disclose that it happened and explain it in the additional information section. I’m just concerned because I’ve seen that fare evasion has been considered a CIMT before and I don’t want it to have any negative effect on his application. Thank you!

@Family this is a great tip, thank you! Just checking that noncitizens are able to make FOIA requests?

Just to follow up on that last question - luckily we do have photos of his US entry stamps from the old passport, as they were just above the J-1 visa pages and included in the scans he took. We just don't have the info page.

Hi all , my fiancé and I are getting married in September, and we've just started preparing our documents to apply for his marriage-based green card. I am a US citizen and he is a Bulgarian citizen. He did two separate J-1 visa summers of work in the US in 2016 and 2017. Both visas on their face say very clearly that he is not subject to the two year home country requirement, and he additionally has the DS-2019 from his 2017 J-1 visa which confirms that he is not subject to the requirement. I just want to make 100% sure here that this will suffice to show USCIS that he is not subject to the requirement - there's no reason for us to obtain a No Objection letter from the Bulgarian government too, right? Another issue is that he no longer has the DS-2019 from his 2016 J-1 visa, even though he does have the one from 2017. We have contacted his J-1 sponsor to see if they still have a copy, but as it was six years ago I'm not hopeful. Will not having the DS-2019 form from his first J-1 visa be a problem, or will USCIS overlook that given that the 2016 visa on its face, which we do have a copy of, clearly says he is not subject to the two year requirement? Final question: he renewed his passport last year and the Bulgarian consulate took his old expired passport, which had the original J-1 visas in it. Luckily he took scans of the J-1 pages before he gave it in, but we just noticed there are watermarks from the scanning app at the bottom which can no longer be removed. They don't obscure any vital information, just a bit of the visa number at the very bottom of the visa. Will this be ok? Since we don't have the old passport anymore we unfortunately can't take a new photo of the visas. Relatedly, is he required to submit pictures of the info pages of the passport he entered the US on, by any chance? He never took a photo of the old passport's info page. Hoping that isn't necessary. Thanks! Sorry for all the questions, just want to make sure we get this right the first time.