satoru

Thanks for all the speedy and helpful replies! I'm feeling a lot better about their situation. Anyway they were obviously pretty lucky they got all their stuff approved and got into America before everything went upside down. 

I paid the fee like in February, so i hope they get it soon-ish?

20 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

No.  precovid you could go in to the SSA office and get one requested.

Oddly as part of the DS-260 (I think) it asked if I wanted to apply for an SSN as part of the application. I said yes (since like why wouldnt you??) so I wasn't sure if they were just going to get it mailed as part of the green card or something separate?

21 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

You mean the actual sponsor or primary beneficiary?

I guess I mean the primary beneficiary. The father is the primary beneficiary. The father/wife don't really care that much about the Green card, but they're more concerned about their son as he's coming out of college now. Since job opportunities are better in America compared to Hong Kong, and yeah HK is really getting unattractive by the week so they definitely want their son to GTFO. In know coming in their status depended on the father coming in first. But now that they're here, are their individual status dependent on the primary beneficiary too? 

I'm sure we're all super confused by everything so I hope I can get some clarifications

My mother-in-law's family was approved to come in on a family visa (husband, wife, son). In terms of timelines

June 2019 - Approval

Aug 2019 - Filled in DS-260, I-864

Dec 2019 - Interview at HK consulate

Jan 2020 - Immigrant visas issues 

June 2020 - landed in USA, did entry interviews (which didn't amount to much from what they told me)

So they're all here finally! But I'm a bit confused by well everything else 

1) When will they get their greencard?

2) The immigrant visa says 'upon endoremsent serves as temporary i-551 evidencing permanent residence for 1 year' - does this mean now that they're here they've got a 'temporary' 1 year green card until they get their real card?

3) is the whole thing with whatever the hell our president is doing, impact them getting their green card? I'm not sure if the ban refers to just the interviews or getting a green card once you land?

4) can they travel while waiting for the permanent card? I guess that depends on what #2 means in my questions.

5) I applied to get their SSN numbers, I assume that gets mailed? Is there a website where I can look up that status

6) here's a weird one, if 'in theory' the sponsor parent abandons his green card by leaving for more than 6 months, does that impact the son's status? Or is it more that once they're here they're all now kinda separate things?

Sorry if that's a bit rambly or unclear. I'll be happy to provide more information if needed. I realize they're pretty lucky to have even gotten in given everything that's going on.

Thanks!

Sorry my information seems a bit scatterbrained. Kinda being thrown into the volcano blind with this so I'm scrambling a bit.

Its an F4 petition (my mother in law's, brother's family)

The family is from Hong Kong/China SAR

Looking at the NOAs 

Priority date is Nov 16, 2006 according to one of the NOA's

The  NOA on Nov 8, 2009 seems to be a transfer of the case to the Texas service center. 

The NOA on April 20 2010, says "Notice type : Approval notice. Section : sister or brother of US citizen 203 (a)(4) INA" .  Indicates the petition was sent to the NVC

That's all the notices I got from my mother in law. 

The most concern is for their son who's 'just' over 21 now but I think he should be eligible via the CSPA? 

Again thanks for helping and being super patient. 

Sorry it took so long it was just hard to get some basic info

his date of birth  - Feb 27 1997

petition date  - Nov 6 2006

noa1 date - Nov 18 2009 - transfer notice

noa2 date - April 20 2010 - approval notice

I'm just confused how the CSPA applies in his situation? Also looking at the documentation I dont know if I need to specify the CSPA in teh petition or does it simply take it into account as part of the website filling in the blanks thing?

Hi

So my mother-in-laws family got notice of a Visa Case Creation for their petition on jun 18 2019, but their son just turn 21 like 2 months ago.

We're trying to figure out if their son is still eligible via the CSPA? Seems like via the calculator he would be eligible but its a bit confusing. I'm getting thrown in on this so I don't have a lot of deep knowledge of the process. Should we just pay the Affidaifid of Supoprt an IV fees and proceed? Or is there some mega specific process I need to follow for this (what am I saying of course there's some mega specifci process....)

Thanks

To give hope to those stuck in the Vermont Service Center hell. I just got notification that my green card is being printed Looks like they're finally catching up so stay postitive.

Hi just submitted my I751 but I made a huge mistake. I filled in all the forms and double checked everything in Dec, but got caught up with the holidays and didn't send it in until Jan. Now for some reason I check the forms and the fee changed! Has anyone else done this and will this impact my I751 extension? Mine expires on 2/10 (yeah I put it off.... my fault).

Something to ease my fears would be helpful.

Thanks

Hello everyone

I recently got my green card and I'm obviously pretty excited. I will be traveling overseas for several weeks soon. I'm not keen on bringing my usual 2 binders full of every document under the sun that I used to apply for my green card. Now that I have my green card, is lugging around all these documents necessary anymore?

I'm curious what people's experience has been and any tips you can share.

Thanks

Good news all around

I received my green card on 2/20! I'm just happy the process is finally coming to an end of sorts.

Good luck to everyone!

Good luck to everyone with interviews this week. Don't worry, be yourself and you have nothing to worry about. Take all the documents relevant to your marriage even if you think they won't want to see them. Its always safe than sorry. We took 3 big binders and we didn't need any of them so just take all your documents and wait for the green card.

Good Luck

My experience was pretty similar. I had brought along enough documentation to fill a small library. Originals, duplicates, triplicates! In the end they only looked at my passport, EAD and some wedding pictures (which were just inkjet proofs we gave to my inlaws to see because somehow I forgot to bring our wedding album). But having more documentation is much better than not having enough!

Good news! I had my interview yesterday and my Green Card application was approved! Horray

I also did not get a stamp in my passport. Another friend of mine asked if I did, and I just had assumed so because the officer took my passport. However when I look inside it now I have noticed it was not stamped. Not sure if that's good or bad?

In any case I'll be watching my mail carefully

Hello!

I got an early Christmas gift! My AOS interview is now scheduled for February 10!!

My only concern now is the interview itself..... My wife is, how shall we say, a tad sassy/sarcastic/evil. If you've seen that Korean movie "My Sassy Girlfriend", I definitely see my wife in that character. I just hope I can reign her in long enough to get through the interview.

In any case, Merry Christmas to everyone

BTW is it just me or is this thread really really active compared to the other monthly AOS threads? It seems almost more like a twitter feed than a forum

Another random question. My AOS case is still at the NBC like a previous poster. Is it typical that a case would stay at the NBC instead of being transferred to the another service center? Also, if it doesn't get transferred, then which processing date should I be looking at, for when my AOS case should hopefully be looked at?

I figure I won't hear anything till late January/February... but hey you never know right?

I guess it might depend if you lived out in a rural area or in a major city. My assumption is that these fingerprinting facilities are located mostly in major metropolitan areas. So it is conceivable that you might have to travel significant distances to get to one if you live in the boonies.

Heck I lived only about 25 miles from where I had to do it, but with morning traffic and finding parking, it took about 1 hour

Hello

Well thankfully I can contribute some good data points today! I finally received my EAD in the mail this morning. My wife almost threw it away though! If I even thought of throwing away her precious Ikea catalog, I'd be 6 feet under in about 2 minutes flat. I'll have to talk with her about prioritizing the mail.

In any case a few more data points for me

AP - Nov 25

EAD - Dec 1

I'm on a TN right now

Thanks Envy

Hello.

I have a quick question. I got my AP approved recently and finally got the papers mailed to me (woo hoo). There were 2 odd things though:

1) they sent me 2 copies of the AP document. Maybe this is normal, but it seemed odd.

2) There's a big box for "National Benefits Center Parole Stamp" but it wasn't stamped on either document. Is this normal?

Woo hoo some good news finally. My EAD and AP were approved today. Hopefully my AOS will be soon as well.

At least now I can travel

I wanted to ask a silly question since I'm getting a tad nervous about at least the EAD/AP situation, what with the economy and all! When I did my biometrics the case was I suppose 'touched' in the sense that it was updated on the website. But the website actual text for the case just says that they received the application in Sept. Not sure if this is normal procedure or if my application is lost in space somewhere

In any case congrats to all who are progressing through! I'm envious though

I noticed that a lot of people have been getting RFEs for tax information. What kind of info are they asking for?

My RFE was for my joint sponsor, she forgot to include all of her IRS tax documents, she just had the form and her 1040, but not her w-2 or 1099-R. And we also didn't include any proof of her status as an american, so we had to have a birth certificate or passport page. Basically stuff we should have included if we had read the instructions properly!

I believe right now the RFE's are just for initial evidence, but later on they may scrutinize and thats when you get other RFEs.

I think getting the tax forms transcripts from the IRS seems to be the best way to go. It seemed like the easiest way to go and heck if it's from the IRS how much more 'proof' do you want that I paid my taxes It only took like 1-2 weeks to get it, so surprisingly fast for a bad government agency.

Obtaining Tax Transcripts. You may use Internal RevenueService (IRS) Form 4506-T to request tax transcripts from the IRS. Complete IRS Form 4506-T with the ending date for each of your three most recent tax years listed on line 9.Follow all instructions for completing and filing Form 4506-T with the IRS.

I haven't had much progress on my cases online since my biometrics.... I'm hoping by November I'll at least see some movement.

Submitted mine on the 3rd. Hoping this all goes smoothly

Kind of tricky. I would think that using the passport is the way to go, because the passport is a Travel document. Your green card can't really be used for identification outside the USA.

However your problem might be when you return to the USA and they note your passport and green card are different! For this I would definitely bring extensive documentation about your marriage, as well as the name change. This way they have all the documentation they need to reconcile the difference. You might not need it to be honest, but having it is much safer than not.

For future travel, you may want to get her passport in sync with her current married name, just to make things easier.

While you are allowed to waive on getting vaccinated there are very few exceptions to this rule. Other than having a medical contraindication for the vaccine (being pregnant, being sick, etc), you can object on moral/religious grounds. But you have to sign for a waiver for this which is I-601. Unless you do, you will be denied entry due to not completing the vaccination requirements.

To me the vaccination requirement is a no-brainer. It's almost zero risk to you to do it. But not doing it creates a significant risk that you might not be admitted. If you do have a legitimate moral/religious objection, then that's fine, but just understand the consequences of it. Also remember that just a few decades ago people were keeling over by the millions due to polio, small pox, and other now-preventable diseases.

Hello all

I'm curious what the processing times for an AP are for the Chicago lockbox? It's nice the EAD has a 90 day timeframe but the AP doesn't seem to have one and I'm somewhat anxious to get one when I submit my AOS in August.

I'm looking at the I-130 again and I'm a bit more concerned about the question there, than in the I-485. The I-485 mentions "exclusions within the last year", so I'm safe there since the incident was a few years ago. However on the I-485 it just gives a general "Exclusions/Deportations" check box.

Again, I'm unclear if my previous encounter at the airport counts as an "Exclusion" from the USA. Any advice would be helpful!