stardusted

Thank you for all your great advice. You're all right--I was going to figure out the right way to give up the status and not just fall off the face of the USCIS planet. I will definitely do whatever I have to to properly give up the green card.

I feel like I have a good grasp on the situation and have read lots of posts regarding the topic, but wanted to make sure I've got it right. My conditional status expires 08/11/11. My husband and I are planning to move back to Thailand early next year, likely at the end of January 2011. We are sure that this move will be permanent and so I realize that the best decision might be to let my status die a natural death. (I don't quite see the point of going through the ROC when I won't be there while filing, and we will probably be back in the States for only a couple of weeks over Christmas 2011.) Does it make sense to simply give up my permanent resident status? I will probably just get a tourist visa for our visits back here. (I had a 10-year B1/B2 visa before my K1 so don't think it'll be a problem to return to the States for visits.) I just need a few different opinions on the situation to be sure I'm choosing the best path. Suggestions are welcomed.

PS. We have considered filing the I-131 for a reentry permit, but don't see the point when we are planning to live in Bangkok. Paying that $300 fee just to put the status on hold isn't going to change our decision, and we've moved so much already that we're not planning to bounce around anymore.

So much good news. Yay. I received my GC in the mail today! I am glad to be done with USCIS for a couple of years.

Card production ordered, baby! Huzzah!

I got an e-mail from USCIS today that my case has been transferred. Yay for me. I think.

Received my AP in the mail today. Tomorrow we're having our delayed wedding reception, on our fifth anniversary. I can't believe we've come this far. Totally worth the ride.

Got my EAD card in the mail today, dated June 22, 2009. Now if I could only land a job.

Yet another e-mail for the EAD, this one "approval notice sent." Enough already. Every time I get one I get excited it's my AOS.

I received another "card production ordered" e-mail today. Strange.

Congratulations to everyone with interview dates. It seems to be moving so fast.

Went back to try and add my AP case and finally could, and it was also approved today! Awesome. (I have tickets for home already.)

Card production ordered! Good lord, I've been anxious. I think I checked the USCIS site more today than all the days before combined.

So for all of you with the happy card production news, are you finding out via email? Do you see a corresponding touch on the same day as the email?

I'd been checking the USCIS site the entire day and finally it was an e-mail from them that notified me of the approval. There hadn't been a touch since right after my biometrics. I can't add my AP case so have no idea what's going on with that.

Card production ordered! Good lord, I've been anxious. I think I checked the USCIS site more today than all the days before combined.

Congratulations to everyone on their EAD approval. I know it can take 30 days or more, but as more and more people get their EADs approved so quickly after the biometrics, I'm starting to get all anxious. I really need to start working and bringing in some money. Here's hoping the process continues to move quickly and smoothly.

Went in for biometrics this morning. Appointment was for 8 am and got seen probably about 8.40 am. The lady was very nice and it was done quickly. Yay for that.

Headed to the license office to try again to get my DL renewed. Success! (Sort of.) The lady gave me an extension of three months and if my EAD comes through before then I can go back and get the license renewed on that basis. If not I can go back before expiration date and get another extension. So here's hoping the EAD comes through quickly. I'm just relieved to be legally driving again.

Got my biometrics letter today, with notice date of May 18. So fast. Appointment is for June 4 at 8 am in Downtown, about a 20-minute drive away. I like progress!

Oh, I am so aggravated right now. Went to the license office here in St. Louis to renew my driver's license and showed up with everything: all my NOAs, my passport, my SS, my marriage license. They wouldn't renew my license! She wanted an "approval" notice of the I-485! I tried to explain to her that those things take a long time, but she just shrugged and said there was nothing she could do and asked me to call Jefferson City. I just went online to look at requirements for renewal and it says on the DOR site that for "applicants of adjustment of status" you just need immigration document indicating status (the NOA!) and either an EAD or passport. Either one! I'm going to call up a different license office and PRINT OUT THE PDF FROM THEIR WEBSITE and take with me. Today I'm really not enjoying being an immigrant.

As for what I miss from home? Food. I've been here almost three months now and I cannot get used to the food. I miss Thai food on the streets. And I miss my mom a lot.

The three NOAs came in the mail today, issued on May 14. Awesome.

Thanks...

and the waiting begins.. =)

Im getting anxious because I still have not received NOA and my check hasn't been cashed either..

First I was happy to have money taken out of my bank account, now I just found myself that the weekend would hurry up and be over already so that USCIS could get back to work!

I feel the same....can they not work 24/7??

same here. I check my case status online twice a day but there is still no record of my receipt numbers yet. It says that my case can not be found at this time Wish they would hurry up and update their site LOL!

This reminds me of the early days of the K-1 when it would almost become an obsession waiting and watching for a *touch*, or for a letter in the mail box.

At least this time around I have my SO with me wouldn't change that for the world!

Absolutely! During the K1 I used to check the status several times a day....like there was nothing else to do

I remember being OBSESSED with Igor's List and know my numbers by heart, and even my colleague who sat next to me would know if we'd moved up or down. Doing this all over again--checking my mailbox a million times a day--is such a weird sense of deja vu. Like, didn't I just spend six months of my life doing this? And now I'm doing it again? Argh. But you're right, it's much easier to play the game when you're with your partner.

I used www.squaremouth.com to get international medical insurance for three months and just recently renewed it for another three. I paid about $150 for each three-month period, and that's with no co-pay on my part. There are a number of different plans to choose from. I went with Atlas, which is affiliated with First Health and Hygeia here.

Anyone know where I can find sticky rice? Is this something one can find at a typical Asian food store? I'm also trying to figure out where to find a rice steamer and non-instant rice. Oh, and does anyone know if it is possible to get jackfruit in the U.S.? Has anyone seen it in this country. I haven't personally.

Thai jasmine rice and glutinous rice are both available at our local international foods supermarket. Also haven't seen any fresh jackfruit, but frozen ones at the store as well as canned. Not sure about the rice steamer; I've never seen any around.

hey chelsea! I'm glad you all are doing well!

Yader just went to take his driver's license exam yesterday (passed!!) and we were told by Highway Patrol (who gves the test) that we just needed his passport and I-94 (this is in MO). THey just looked it up under K-1. But when we went to the other side at the DMV, and they said, oh yeah, that's right we only need his I-94, passport, etc. but ths I-94 expires on 5/22, so they wouldn't give it to us!

they said we have to wait until he has work authorization. He has a SSN already and I took that and showed it, but they said no just EAD.

So ... I don t know! Confused. I looked it up on the MO DMV website and it has a list of all the necessary documents for immigrants, and "adjustment of status' is listed sayng that he only needs a passport...so I guess we are gong to wait for our NOA1 and try again.

HEADACHE!

Good luck!

Hi, Sarah. I'm in St. Louis too! My driver's license expired (at the same time as my K-1 did) so I'm going to wait for my NOA for the AOS and then head back to the license office to renew. I hope I can do so without my EAD or that would seriously suck. I'll let you know how it goes.

My check was cashed today so that's one step forward, a million more to go.

@ WeAreTogetherNow - have you gotten your driver's license yet? The DMV gave us trouble saying Josue needed to show proof of residency and I had added him to my bank account and had the bank print out that we had a joint account at the same address but they wouldn't accept it; they said we needed a utility bill or a bank statement actually mailed to the house in his name.

My issue with the driver's license was they would only give it to me to last the length of my K-1 visa so that was just three months. It expired yesterday and I'll head down to the DMV tomorrow, but I don't have utility bills in my name either so I'll take our lease (which does have my name) and our marriage certificate. I'm hoping they'll extend it based on that. (Our NOA would really help right about now.)

This thread takes me back to the K-1 days. So weird! I mailed my I-485 with EAD and AP on Friday, May 8th and it arrived at USCIS on Sunday morning.

A little bit about us: I'm from Bangkok, Thailand and my husband is from House Springs, MO. We met almost five years ago and finally decided to go the K-1 route. I arrived in St. Louis in February and we were married on March 18, 2009. We're not sure yet if we'll live here or live in Bangkok; we're going back at the end of the year on vacation and will decide then. It's definitely been on hell of a visa journey for us, but we've had a pretty smooth journey (touchwood) and hope it continues that way.

Mailed off my AOS along with EAD and AP this afternoon. Let's do this paperwork thing all over again. Argh.

After carefully reviewing the checklist these items also appeared

two frontal photographs and

a photocopy of a passport photo page

together with what I already listed:

1)DS-230 Part 1

2) the checklist itself, acknowledging all items have been aquired or completed as required

When you say needed, do you mean that they need to be mailed back to the Cosulate, or are they brought to the interview?

All documents are needed to be mailed back to the consulate and bring the original of birth cert, cert of no marriage, passport and evidence of relationship to the the interview.

I was confused when Packet 4 came and it gave a list of documents to take to the interview when Packet 3 asked everything be mailed in. I was a little unsure if I'd gotten it wrong, but that's how it's supposed to be. You send it all in with the checklist except for the originals of a few things and your medical, of course.