ranchomesa

Well we opened the mail today and guess what came?! Phil's green card!!! It got here even before the approval letter (without any e-mail of card production ordered)!! YAY!! :dance:

Done for 1 yr 9 mos!!

congrats rebecca and phil ... and have a nice weekend celebrating it

I assume you are a "Erzieherin" and completed a three-year apprenticeship?!

If you don't plan on going back to college in the USA, I would just go ahead and apply for various positions in early childhood education. On your resume just put "equivalent to an early childhood education degree (Associate's Degree?)" or something like that.

I have been applying for engineering jobs with my German "Dipl.-Ing. (FH)" degree. On my resume I just put "equivalent to Bachelor of Science". It seemed to have worked for me because I have an interview for an engineering position this week.

If you want to go back to college, you would have to get your German grades evaluated. There are several services out there. There majority uses WES.org. Just talk to the college you want to attend.

Good luck!

- Stefanie

Hi Stefanie,

I have the same degree with you "Dipl.-Ing. (FH)" i thought that it will be consider or equivalent to Master of engineering ? i just moved to US recently and still looking for engineering jobs, could you advice me which is the good "Jobs Suchmachine"

danke

Julian

My husband got his GC today... we are done with INS for now until in 2012. Thanks everyone.

Hey everyone!!! Guess what, WE WERE APPROVED!!! :dance: My hubby and I have been on cloud nine since we walked out of the immigration office! We keep saying to each other "Can you believe we're done? We're done! We're done!"

Anyway, here's how our day went:

Our interview was at the Philadelphia, PA office @ 8:30AM. We had stayed overnight at a hotel within walking distance the night before to ensure that we wouldn't hit traffic. We got up at 6AM this morning (neither of us are morning people so this was difficult lol) and started getting ready. We got to the office by 8AM and went through security (they move very fast but are generally nice). The IO is on the third floor so we went to wait in their big waiting room. There were only a few other people there and most of them seemed to be for family petitions rather than marriage petitions. We handed our interview letter to the front desk, she took it, stamped it, and kept it. While we waited we saw one other couple who were called in before us. They were separated since the IO called in one and then the other. While the woman was waiting behind us I asked her how it was. She said she was the USC and they grilled her husband more than her but that it was nothing to worry about. After her husband came back out and they left we waited about 5 more minutes and then the same IO who had interviewed them came back and called us. I just assumed he was going to separate us too but we both went back into his office. These are the questions he asked:

Am I a USC? Was I born in the US? I said yes to both

Asked to see both of our birth certificates & passports

Asked my husband what country he was from

Asked how we met

Had each of us met the other's parents? Also asked each of us to say their names

Asked what our address was & phone numbers

Did we have any kids?

Asked for pictures & evidence that we are married.

We provided him all of our evidence (we had join bank accounts, joint lease, joint cell phone plan, joint health insurance, joint car insurance, joint credit card). He seemed impressed with all the evidence and took copies of each to keep.

After all the questions he seemed to relax a bit and asked if we had any questions. I asked him (since I'm the beneficiary) if I'm allowed to change jobs and/or stop working when we have kids. He said "I don't really know but no one will check so you will be ok" He asked if we had been married for longer than 2 years and when we said no he said "You'll get a conditional GC in the mail within 1 month" so I said, "Does that mean we're approved?" and he said Yes! I asked if he was going to stamp my husband's passport and he said they were told they can't do that anymore. He didn't take the AP or EAD but said he would be entering the update into the computer by this afternoon or tomorrow.

In general, he was a nice guy (serious during the question asking but relaxed before and after) and it went really well!! I was so glad he looked at the documents I spent months preparing and he did mention "Thanks for being so prepared, it makes life easy." He paged briefly through our wedding album and that was that!!

Now we're DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :dance: THANK YOU for everyone's support

Congratulations for both of you

Congrats to all of you for GC approval, and for those who are going to have interview this and next week, good luck.. you guys will do just fine

Here's how our interview went yesterday. Very quick and easy.

We arrived at the USCIS office about an hour before our appointment. At the window we were asked for our appointment letter, which was date/time stamped and returned to us along with a number. We were directed to walk down a hallway and wait until our number was called. There was one other couple waiting there also. About 10 minutes later a lady came out and called our number. Our impression was that she was very pleasant and easy going. She asked us to follow her to her office and swore us in before we sat down.

The interview lasted about 15 minutes. She first asked for my wife’s passport (the applicant) and my ID. She examined both, then removed the I-94 from the passport and returned them to us. She then explained the conditional permanent residence is granted for a two year period and we must file Form I-751 during the 90 day period prior to expiration. She had us sign an acknowledgement that we understood this requirement.

Then she started asking basic questions from the I-485 form, like name, address, phone number, etc. She moved on to asking a few of the yes/no questions on page 3, then just asked “are all of these answered correctly”.

At this point she started thumbing through the file double checking that she had all the required documents, like marriage certificate, birth certificates, I-864, etc. I commented that the file looked big. She laughed and said “this is a small file”; take a look at that one. In the corner of her office was a 3 foot stack of files. One of them looked 5 inches thick.

Then she took out a form to take notes and started asking relationship questions. These were like: describe how you met; when was the first time you met in person; when did you decide to get married; have you met each others’ families; which family members have you met; did you have a civil or religious ceremony; did you have a reception; etc. She took notes the whole time. She asked what joint accounts we have: checking/savings, insurance, etc. She didn’t ask to see any proof of these. Darn, I brought tons of copies and pictures. She didn’t ask to see any.

Then there was a few minutes of chit chat and finally she said she would update the computer that we were approved. She said we should receive the green card in about three weeks and not to leave the country in the meantime. She said if an emergency comes up and you have to leave, come into the office and have a stamp (I-551) put in the passport. She said she didn’t want to stamp it unless it was needed. I asked about the EAD and AP documents. She didn’t collect them, but said not to use them.

That was it. She walked us to the hallway and said to enjoy the rest of our time in Honolulu. A few hours later we received the “card production” email.

congrats greg

Congratz to savaleta, hakuna matata and greg for approval!

To Mike: I was able to register/check my case online right after we got the receipt # on NOAs.

And this is what I've got on my emails :

The last processing action taken on your case

Receipt Number: MSCXXXXXXXX

Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: Notice mailed welcoming the new permanent resident.

On January 7, 2010, we mailed you a notice that we had registered this customer's new permanent resident status. Please follow any instructions on the notice...

================================================================================

======

Receipt Number: MSCXXXXXXXX

Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: Card production ordered.

On January 8, 2010, we ordered production of your new card. Please allow 30 days for your card to be mailed to you. If we need something from you we will contact you. If you move before you receive the card, call customer service at 1-800-375-5283...

=======================

Fo everyone who still waiting..keep the faith..my prayers are for you guys.!!

Congratulations SnS

Thanks ReeRee, laurelmike, Rebecca and hudons for the well wishes.

Our "documentation package" is complete. I keep adding to it each day with more evidence, but I think it's more than enough. I get the feeling the more organized you are, the less they are likely to ask for things.

Tomorrow we fly to Honolulu for a 2PM interview. I'll post our experience when we get home.

Good luck to hakuna matata who also has their interview tomorrow. Then we have a bunch of folks with interviews next week.

Greg

Good Luck tomorrow Greg.. you guys will be fine...

First Congrats!!!

But second WAIT!! Do they take your EAD and AP if they approve you right then??? What do you use to work and how do you travel?? We've got plans to go to Ireland for a family gathering in May and they wouldn't have the card to us by them (our interview is the 14th). Guess we'll need to discuss this with them at the time.

Hi Stinkerpotsam, yes the officer took my husband EAD and AP. She didnt stamp his passport, but she gave 2 papers which stated his I-485 has been approved and the other paper it stated it is a conditional permanent resident which needs to be removed in 2 years. We asked about what to use for work and travel. She told us, the approval can be used as work permit, but she suggested to not leave the country until he gets the actual green card in the mail. It should arrive approximately 90 days, cuz we were planning to leave out of the country in Feb, but I guess we are going to wait until he gets the actual card, dont want to jeopardize anything...

hope this helps...

Hi Everyone, thank you for all the prayers.... My husband and I had our interview this morning. The interview went very well. The officer was very pleasant and friendly. She only asked my husband (the beneficiary) of pg 3 of I-485 and asked when did we get marry, who attended the wedding and how we met. The interview was lasted only about 10 minutes. She said she approved my husband's application and took away his EAD and AP.. and the INS will mail the Green card within 90 days. She gave us 2 papers: approval notice and notice to conditional...

She went over how to remove the conditional residence in 2 years....

It was not as bad as i thought it will be...

YAY... no more INS for 2 years (I hope)... for everyone thats gonna go for interview next week or this month... good luck and you guys will do just fine....

thanks to all my friends in VJ

To the four people who have their interview tomorrow, rpt, laurelmike, ReeRee, & Rachomesa...GOOD LUCK!! I will be thinking & praying for you

Thanks Rebecca for the thoughts... we are nervous but we will try to be at ease at the same time, our interview tomorrow at 930, well let u guys know

Hey everyone, sorry in advance for the long post! So, my husband and I have our interview on Jan 14th but I'd like to share the list of what we've compiled and placed in an organizer. If you don't mind, please look it over and share your suggestions of anything else we could possibly add (especially for the bona fide section, I'm hoping we have enough).

Here are the subsections of our folder:

Identifications documents including:

• Each of our passports
  
• my husband's form DS-2019 for his J1 visa
  
• copy of my husband's entire passport (with his I-94 paper)
  
• Each of our birth certificates
  
• copy of my hubby's EAD & SS card
  
• My social security card
  

AOS forms including:

• Copies of all forms we sent in; 130,485, 131, 765, 864 and his medical exam
  
• all the forms USCIS sent us (NOAs, interview letter, bio letter)
  
• His AP & EAD documents
  

Work/Income:

• My husband's...1040, tax transcripts, W2, letter of employment, and pay stubs for the past 6 months
  
• My (I am the petitioner but we included my husband's income on the 864 as well)...1040, W2s, letter of employment, pay stubs since I started my job in July
  

Evidence of bona fide marriage:

• marriage certificate
  
• Joint lease
  
• joint health insurance (we printed the page on our insurance's website that has me listed as the co-insured on my husband's policy)
  
• Car insurance with both of us insured with Geico
  
• statements from a car loan we have out in both our names
  
• statements from joint american express credit cards
  
• Joint bank account statements (savings & checkings)
  
• wedding registry
  
• wedding photos
  
• receipt from our wedding rings from Kay's
  
• old letters we wrote back and forth to each other while we were dating (the envelopes are stamped with the dates)
  

Honeymoon:

• Ticket stubs from our trip
  
• receipts from places we went to
  
• photos
  

Anything else you can think of? We have originals and copies of EVERYTHING in our folders Thanks for reading & for feedback!

thanks Rebecca... we had our stuff together in the folder and we had pretty much the same stuff... our interview is next weds wish us luck

Thank you. Following Greg's comments (thank you Greg!) we did call back. Each time the first person we talk to can not find our case either and then they pass us to a real case officer.

This officer was nicer than the last. She assured us that were had not missed any mailings. She said our application was still in process - but literally had no information about why. She made some silly comments about FBI checks after the fingerprints are done. We did the biometric on November 4th. She did not know why we can not see the case on line and has no way to deal with it - a separate office. All it looks like is that we are in her database. But that there has not been any activity since November 4th.

My money is on the likelihood that the case file is misfiled/lost. But we will have to wait another 45 days to find that out. That's the four month time frame.

Did you try to make infopass appointment?

Ranchomesa, are you going at the San Bernardino Office? I guess it's in Rialto... OMG.. Let's just pray they won't ask us too many questions.. I'm now preparing the documents for the interview..

YEs ours in Rialto... so hopefully it will go ok.. I just realized that our interview will be a week from today

Congrats Flyer! and Good Luck Hudons.. Keep us posted.. whew! Our interview is on Jan 12... =)

Congrats Flyer... yes please post how the exp went and what time of questions did they ask you? ours will be on Jan 6th... we both are nervous... i heard from other people that the INS office where we are going to have the interview, the officers are not very nice and they asked really personal questions.... so nervous...

For anyone in the area, the Civil Surgeon that did the transcription for $20 is:

Dr. Brian Morris

All One Health

The Summer Exchange Building

101 Arch Street, Ste. 20,

BOSTON, MA 02110.

Phone: 617-357-4140

Does anybody know any civil surgeon in the Los Angeles area that can transcribe the immunization record for reasonable price? I called Dr Arnold, shes not doing it anymore as 12-1 and I called one of the civil surgeons close by my house, she wants 110 dollar just to transcribe....

I don't wanna quote everybody, but CONGRATS to all who received their EAD cards, and of course their GREEN CARDS!!

what a nice present for this christmas eh?

Does anybody know how long does it take to get the SS card in the mail? I applied on Dec 17th. On the receipt I got, it says it takes about 2 weeks or so. But I wanna know if anybody here got theirs earlier than 2 weeks. Thank you!

my husband got his about 2 weeks but he applied SS card before the EAD. He applied in 3 weeks entering US using the K-1

My hubby got his EAD yesterday!

Congrats Rebecca and to all of you that received AP, EAD and IL... Have a very nice holidays to all my friends in VJ

The EAD card is finally here. We got it in the mail today finally... and went to DMV renew his DL now we are gonna try to organize all the paperwork for our interview in 3 wks...

wahhh everyone is receiving good news of approval,i hope to recieve some good news soon...

Congrats to everyone!

gennyangel, based on our averages you should be receiving approval anyday now.

My husband finally received his EAD card today on the mail and able to go to DMV to renew his DL, now we are getting ready to go for our interview in 3 weeks

hI I SENT A COPY OF MY MEDICAL EXAM IN THE PHILIPPINES BUT THEY STILL REQUIRE ME TO SEND I-693! what do i need to do? I am in Georgia the place I'm living is far from Atlanta where the local civil surgeon located. can other doctor in my place do the transcribed?

Please let me know what to do? to redo the medical all over again is to expensive

We received the AOS interview letter. It has a checklist of what to bring listing the I-693 first stating ( if not already submitted). However, I sent the DS-3025 & 3026 with my AOS package and I never got an RFE for the I-693. Do I need to get on from a civil surgeon?

Please read post #1 of this thread:

Q: Why are K non-immigrant visa holders asked to include a vaccination supplement when filing Form I-485 to adjust status?

Some countries allow K non-immigrant visa applicants to defer their vaccinations until after they arrive in the U.S. If the beneficiary's vaccinations were not completed as part of the visa process, it is necessary to include form I-693- part 1, part 2-vaccination section, and part 5 in the application.

If the beneficiary's vaccinations were COMPLETED as part of the visa process, IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO INCLUDE FORM I-693 IN THE AOS SUBMISSION. All your medical information is enclosed in the brown envelope which was handed in at the POE. The envelope is then forwarded on to USCIS where it will be consolidated with the I-485 submission, once received. If you received a copy of the Vaccination Documentation Worksheet (Form DS-3025) from your Panel Physician, you may include a copy of that form in your AOS submission in place of Form I-693.

I think it depends on the type of "entry" you had... K1 or whatever. My husband came to the USA on a K1 and now we just have to have the vaccination transcribed, b/c his medical was done on March 2 in Toronto by Dr. Seiden. Hope that info helps.

I just want to clarify something, if you entered as K1, u dont need to do the whole I-693 form? just have the doctor transcribe the vaccination record? Can you family doctor transcribe it? or does the civil surgeon have to do it? thanks

If you decide to go the I-693 route, it has to be completed by a civil surgeon from USCIS' list on their website. A family doctor (unless also a civil surgeon) will not be accepted.

Thank you for the clarification... wish us luck

We just got our interview letter, scheduled for Jan 14 @ 8:30AM Guess I better start becoming a morning person!

Wonder how the IL showed up before the EAD

Well Rebecca, you are not alone. My husband received his IL but he hasnt gotten his EAD. First they said the EAD was undelivarable and yesterday he got e-mail, the re-mail his EAD, well hopefully this time he will get it or they wont make mistake anymore...

Ok guys i have a question and i know that i'm getting paranoid. Few weeks ago i received this notice:

The I485 APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS was transferred and is now being processed at a USCIS office. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you.

The question that i have is does it meant that it's transfer to California or to my homestate office. Thanks for any replys.

It means that your I-485 was transferred to California. This is a good news because you won't have an interview for your AOS.

Thank you, that"s what i thought in the biginning but than i started to doubt myself.

Dont worry you still have time to be transfered to CSC if it is still early on in your processing.

ok now i'm getting confused. What was the transfer for? Can somebody explain? Thanks

if it is not to CSC then MSC transfered it to local office for processing.

thanks inky

hI I SENT A COPY OF MY MEDICAL EXAM IN THE PHILIPPINES BUT THEY STILL REQUIRE ME TO SEND I-693! what do i need to do? I am in Georgia the place I'm living is far from Atlanta where the local civil surgeon located. can other doctor in my place do the transcribed?

Please let me know what to do? to redo the medical all over again is to expensive

We received the AOS interview letter. It has a checklist of what to bring listing the I-693 first stating ( if not already submitted). However, I sent the DS-3025 & 3026 with my AOS package and I never got an RFE for the I-693. Do I need to get on from a civil surgeon?

Please read post #1 of this thread:

Q: Why are K non-immigrant visa holders asked to include a vaccination supplement when filing Form I-485 to adjust status?

Some countries allow K non-immigrant visa applicants to defer their vaccinations until after they arrive in the U.S. If the beneficiary's vaccinations were not completed as part of the visa process, it is necessary to include form I-693- part 1, part 2-vaccination section, and part 5 in the application.

If the beneficiary's vaccinations were COMPLETED as part of the visa process, IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO INCLUDE FORM I-693 IN THE AOS SUBMISSION. All your medical information is enclosed in the brown envelope which was handed in at the POE. The envelope is then forwarded on to USCIS where it will be consolidated with the I-485 submission, once received. If you received a copy of the Vaccination Documentation Worksheet (Form DS-3025) from your Panel Physician, you may include a copy of that form in your AOS submission in place of Form I-693.

I think it depends on the type of "entry" you had... K1 or whatever. My husband came to the USA on a K1 and now we just have to have the vaccination transcribed, b/c his medical was done on March 2 in Toronto by Dr. Seiden. Hope that info helps.

I just want to clarify something, if you entered as K1, u dont need to do the whole I-693 form? just have the doctor transcribe the vaccination record? Can you family doctor transcribe it? or does the civil surgeon have to do it? thanks

Here is a recent thread with several links to changes in vaccination requirements that will be effective 12/14/2009 (HPV and Zoster are no longer required).

Also, the I-693 states that if the DS-3025 has been completed correctly that the I-693 is not required.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...t&p=3553624

Rin and John, I would like to know, my husband entered US as K1 and he did the medical exam (DS 3025) and gave the doc when he entered US. We are going to have interview next month and asking about I-693, we didnt submit I-693 as part of our I-485 package. My question, during your interview, did the officer ask for I-693? Im kinda worry whether we should do I-693 or not, cuz we didnt have copy of DS 3025 cuz the medical office in his home country didnt give any copy except the vaccination record... your reply would be helpful thanks a lot