IntegerOverlord

Thanks, everyone. Luckily, I will not need to bother with any of this. Almost a month later, USPS found my wife's card and delivered it. Surprised it took them this long, considering it was lost in last-mile delivery and not a massive sorting center, but I'll take it. It's such a relief, we are moving permanently to the US next week, and this is a bit of stress I wasn't looking forward to

Yes, but I assumed I need confirmation from USPS that they lost it. Or can I just file it without waiting for the missing mail search to complete?

Well, that's a bit too much time to waste for my liking. I will try to get a confirmation that they lost the package within 1-2 months; otherwise, I'll just stomach the fee for an I-90. I thought it was around 700 bucks for some reason, but it's actually 415, which is still a lot but much more manageable

@top_secret I wonder how that would be, since I think now all GC and EAD envelopes require personal delivery with a signature Thanks to everyone, will be waiting for the missing mail request, hopefully it turns out successful. In the mean time, my GC got to the "being produced" stage, hopefully it comes in one piece at least

@Edward and Jaycel yes, we submitted a request. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with mail recovery. Because online I read very mixed things about USPS in general, some people say they had zero luck with missing mail claims, others say almost all of theirs got found

My wife's green card seems to have gotten lost. Tracking follows it to the post office, with the last status being "Awaiting delivery" since August 4th. There were no delivery attempts at all during this time, and the package didn't even show up in the Informed Delivery, which is weird. At the post office, they advised submitting a missing mail request. Is it possible that the envelope gets recovered, or are they just going through the motions, and I shouldn't get my hopes up? I know we can request a replacement, but I just don't want to deal with all that. USCIS status tracker says if we don't get the card by Friday, we should submit an e-request to replace it, but here's the kicker, the e-request says it doesn't support our type of form. I guess it's since we got permanent residence through the consulate abroad, but IDK If anyone has experience with recovering lost documents from USPS, please share. I appreciate it

@appleblossom thanks, appreciate the first-hand experience. Hopefully it turns up within a few weeks, but yeah, I know it's not a big deal, we still have the visa with a stamp to prove status for up to a year

Not sure if this is an appropriate forum/topic, so if not, feel free to delete My wife and I entered the US for the first time several weeks ago with our EB1A visas (E11 + E14) (at the same time, and we paid fees before entering, also together as a same transaction). My case status changed to "Card is being produced" early this week, and now, it's already been produced and shipped, all in an extraordinary short timeframe (the "being produced" update appeared just shy of 3 weeks after entry) Her case, however, is still at the "Fee Payment Received" stage. I am wondering if her card will also be produced soon since it's the part of the same original case, or it's just all random and can take full 90 days. What is your experience? Looking for the experience of people who entered as a family on immigrant visas

A quick update regarding the first entry: it was very anticlimactic. We landed at JFK airport and went to the visitor line as instructed by the staff. The line moved very fast, mostly in front of us were tourists from Switzerland, Austria and other EU countries, so in 10-15 minutes it was our turn. I handed over our passports and envelopes, the officer asked if the address for the GC delivery was correct, what my job was, and whether we had food to declare. That's it, then he proceeded to open the envelopes, quickly look over the documents, stamp our passports, and send us on our way. No secondary, no waiting, easy The only stress point was boarding the flight itself. We flew with Swiss Airlines through Zurich airport. Before boarding the flight to the US, you have to go through what they call "passport control", which is the airline worker checking that you have documentation in order to enter the US. It's not actual passport control because it's a makeshift booth in the middle of the gate that they roll out before boarding. Anyway, the worker had questions about my wife's visa. As a dependent, her visa says "Only valid for FTJ if Acc by Spouse/Parent/etc.". She started asking if my wife had parents in the US, likely because of our different last names and her assumption that we couldn't be spouses or something, despite us having approached a booth together and me handing over both passports. When I said it's my wife and we are perfectly aware her visa is valid only if we enter together, she demanded to see our marriage certificate with an attitude, she said something like "Didn't the embassy tell you that you have to present it?". No, dummy, because it's not a requirement, the CBP in the US can see she's my wife without a certificate because they have access to the Department of State records. Anyway, I avoided a scandal because I brought a copy of our marriage certificate just in case, but I was pretty pissed. She then proceeded to ask some more unrelated questions like "So you're gonna live there now?" and "Will anyone pick you up from the airport?". I know they do it to avoid getting fined, but funnily enough, fine print when booking the flights says that I am responsible for any fines the airline incurs because of bad documentation on my part, so it's not like they would have to pay anyway I will try to avoid Swiss going forward. This attitude from the employee towards us, plus them downgrading a young lady on my flight from Business she paid for to Economy because she showed up in sweatpants and crop-top is ridiculous

Hey everyone. I am glad to report that last week, I received our passports with EB1A (E11 for me and E14 for my wife) visas inside. Below is my full timeline and a short write-up about the experience regarding my medical and the interview at the US Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic I-140 Sent: October 11, 2024 I-140 Receipt notice: October 15, 2024 I-140 Approved: October 18, 2024 NVC Welcome letter: November 1, 2024 DQ: November 29, 2024 IL: April 24, 2025 Medical Exam: May 26, 2025 Exam results sent to embassy: June 2, 2025 Updated some data in DS-260: June 18, 2025 Interview: June 23, 2025 Status changed to "Issued": June 24, 2025 Passports ready for pickup: June 26, 2025 For medical, you have MyClinic as the only choice. The process was fast, and communication was also great; my wife and I were done in under 1.5 hours. The staff is extremely nice, and the clinic itself is also very cool and modern. Since it's the only clinic in the Czech Republic authorized to perform these exams, the price is very high, 750 USD per person. The price listed on the website doesn't include age-specific tests, like blood and urine. It's around a 20 USD upcharge, but it still feels kinda wrong that they charge extra for it Before the interview, you need to register the appointment with USTravelDocs to select the preferred passport delivery method. I started the process but couldn't finish it since I was getting stuck on a calendar screen that was empty. And the calendar screen didn't make sense anyway, since my appointment was already scheduled by NVC. I called the support, they said it's a bug in the system, and assured me I can leave the thing unfinished since I already went through the steps with passport data and delivery preferences I had to update some answers in the DS-260 form due to some circumstance changes (not errors). My mother died between the DQ and interview date, and my wife's parents got new passports with new name transliterations. I initially planned to just correct these minor things at the interview, but then I called the support number on the embassy website on June 16. They said they prefer to reopen the form and told me it would take 2 business days. Indeed, the form was reopened on June 18th, and I submitted the corrections right away Now, for the big day, the interview itself. You pass through the standard airport-style security checkpoint to get in, and then it's mostly a lot of waiting. Judging by the ticket numbers, there were 3 immigrant visa applicants that day, the rest 20 people at the embassy were for non-immigrant visas and some US citizens. We got called at almost exactly our appointment time, went to the window, and this first officer just took our documents and asked some questions to verify we had everything we're supposed to, and told us to sit down and wait. So we did, it took a bit over an hour of waiting, and pretty much everyone else has gone home already; we were last. Finally, our number appeared again, we went to another window, and this was the actual interview. The officer took an oath that we were telling the truth, took my fingerprints, and started asking the actual interview. The questions he asked were: 1. Why are you extraordinary? Tell me what you submitted to USCIS I gave him the elevator pitch of what I do, and then went over all the criteria I submitted to USCIS, summarizing them very briefly 2. Are you guys married for a long time? No kids yet? Yes, almost 5 years, no kids yet 3. Are you planning to work in the area of expertise? Yes, and also I told the officer I am currently interviewing for positions in my area of expertise at several big companies The interview took like 10-15 minutes total. That was it, he then proceeded to take my wife's fingerprints, and went to grab a piece of paper, told us the visa is approved, and handed us this sheet which said when we can expect our passports (5-6 business days), and some next steps. The officer was very nice and professional, and it felt like he warmed up to us towards the end of the conversation I got the "Administrative processing" status in CEAC right after the interview. People dread AP, but every visa goes through this process; it's only bad when you are refused under 221 (g). For normal cases where the officer tells you are approved, it shouldn't take long, as it's just an automated background check from what I've read online. The next morning after the interview, I checked CEAC and saw that the visa was issued In the morning, both my wife and I got the SMS and email that our documents are ready. I drove to the central branch of DHL, which is the default free pickup location, and got a huge envelope for each of us. I expected everything to be electronic, since I spoke to the CR1/IR1 visa applicant at the same embassy, and he got just his passport and no visa packet. I suppose, just like with NVC steps, some stuff that's electronic for immediate family members is still on paper for employment applicants I want to thank the staff of the US Embassy in Prague for being very professional and on point Let me know if I missed anything or if you'd like to know more. I genuinely hope this helps future applicants for EB1A and people applying from Prague specifically

By the time USCIS and DOS approve you, I don't think a border officer would have much reason to question anything. Such are these categories, they allow foreign nationals without a job offer to permanently live in the US

It's not that uncommon, EB-2 NIW and EB1A are very popular now, with them, you can get an employment-based green card without having a US employer first And as a GC holder, you at least get to say that you will never require visa sponsorship, which simplifies things But I agree that depending on the industry, Zoom interviews might not be an option

This is a website for the UK, so no. I will be interviewing in the Czech Republic, so this is the place: https://www.ustraveldocs.com/cz/en/immigrant-visa That's where I ended up after following the instructions setforth on the Department of State website: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/PRG-Prague.html#interview_guidelines https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-us/countries_list/iv has a selection of countries, but Czech Republic is not listed here, so I assume the instructions are still correct and I should've been using US Travel Docs

I tried to register for passport delivery service, and there's some issue that doesn't allow me to finish the flow; it requires that I schedule an interview that NVC has already scheduled for me, even though I selected "NVC Appointment Registration" option. I called the support, and they said it's okay, I can leave it as is, since I already entered my passport data and preferred passport delivery method. US Travel Docs is something else @Oyoafin thanks, I will share the interview experience when it happens, of course

I finally got my IL for EB1A in Prague, and I hope this info helps someone in the future. My timeline: I-140 Sent: October 11, 2024 I-140 Receipt notice: October 15, 2024 I-140 Approved: October 18, 2024 NVC Welcome letter: November 1, 2024 DQ: November 29, 2024 IL Delivered: April 24, 2025