David&Marissa

She does face a ban, though, so she can't petition to stay even if she marries a USC. She's going to have to leave the US and then be sponsored to immigrate with a waiver for the illegal entry.

Unless I'm mistaken, the ban applied to ENTRY into the US. If you marry a USC, you can adjust status, but if you leave the US, you cannot get back in, even if you are married to USC. If she has her heart set on staying in the US in the long run, any decision to step out of US territory should be made very carefully as this can trigger the ban.

I received my approval for the I-130 on Dec 6th, then on Dec 19th we received notice that my hubby was approved for legal permanent resident. So good luck, hopefully yours comes thru as quickly.

Thanks for the encouraging word, and -- you were right! I-130 approval email on Dec 22 and I-485 email on Dec 26!

Congratulations! We got the same email on December 26. It seems the USCIS is playing Santa Claus this year, at least for a few of us.

David & Maris

Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR

TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: Notice mailed welcoming the new permanent resident.

On December 26, 2006, we mailed you a notice that we had registered

this customer's new permanent resident status. Please follow any

instructions on the notice. Your new permanent resident card should be mailed

within 60 days following this registration or after you complete any ADIT

processing referred to in the welcome notice, whichever is later.

I think it would be up to the officer doing the interview, but I can't imagine them agreeing to it.

Based on our experience (one interview) I would say the most important thing to do is relax. We were actually missing some of the documents we were supposed to bring, but I think from talking to us for a few minutes it was obvious that we had been living together and had known each other and that our relationship was genuine. Trying to over-prepare for possible questions sometimes might give the appearance that you are trying to give the "right answers" rather than just relaxing and telling the truth. We welcomed more questions during the interview because we knew that we were simply telling the truth about our relationship and our history.

Now if only the FBI namecheck would go so easily. Still waiting on that. . . .

Good luck.

David & Maris

Pretty fast for most people I've heard about, some in a week or so. I wish I could tell you from personal experience, but we're still waiting for ours.

Congratulations.

David & Maris

We got this email today:

"Application Type: I130 , IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR

ORPHAN

Current Status: Approval notice sent.

On December 22, 2006, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this

I130 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN. Please

follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the

notice, call customer service."

Does this mean the green card has been issued, the FBI namecheck is OK, etc.? We didn't get anything in the mail yet, just the email. Anybody else get a similar notice?

Same for us. Filed in 2004, passed interview April 2005, namecheck pending since then.

We had the same experience. We applied for AOS summer 2004, passed our interview in April 2005, but were told we were pending namecheck. We're still waiting.

My advice is to think about what you need if this takes a long time. Get AP so you are free to travel. Get authorization to work. Yeah, it costs a few hundred dollars and it will be wasted if your namecheck comes through quickly. But on the other hand, it allows you to settle down a little and not be quite as obsessed with the delay in your green card. When ours finally comes through, maybe we will be pleasantly surprized.

I hope yours is faster than some of ours have been. We just got a letter telling us to come in for more fingerprints, so I guess that means at least that they haven't lost our file.

Good luck.

Hmmm. . . I don't know the answer to your question, but it sounds like something you might want to talk to an immigration attorney about. You'd hate to take advice from a "knowledgeable" member here and find out later that it torpedoed your application. (Of course, you could get bad advice from an attorney too -- but still. . .)

Hope everything comes through quickly -- maybe it will become a moot point.

I like to tell myself that I'm glad the namecheck delayed us, because now we won't have to file to remove conditions. But . . . I'm not. It's annoying, but what can we do.

I don't know if you are required to bring updates, but it seems to me that you might want to bring evidence to answer any questions they might have if there have been substantial changes.

We got to our interview and found that we had forgotten some important documents (like our joint bank account statement, for example), but I guess the overall picture was convincing. We were told we passed, but then we're still held up 15 months later by FBI namecheck. It's hard to predict whether the lack of a document or piece of evidence will trip you up, but it's better for your peace of mind to take extra.

Good luck.

David

We are still waiting for FBI Namecheck after being told we passed our interview in April 2005.

I called USCIS three times in the past couple of months to inquire about this. Once they said they would email the FBI and try to find out what was holding it up. The next two times they just said it was pending and there was nothing they or I could do about it.

I got the email address by calling the main office of the FBI in Washington DC and emailed them a couple of months ago. No reply so far.

But, this week we received a letter telling us to report to the local FBI office for fingerprinting on August 7. We had our fingerprinting/biometrics appointment in October 2004 at USCIS.

Were we being held up because the FBI needs their own fingerprints? Did the others expire? Is the need for fingerprints what was holding up the namecheck?

I haven't got a clue.