ManuFred

Frankly, I'm not so concerned about the ROC process. What does bother me is the hassle it has been to get my driver's license renewed.

Here is mine:

* Got my first US (Utah) driver's license in Feb 2006 while being here on J1 VISA. At that point no body seemed to bother about VISA expiration so was issued 5-year license through March 2011

* Left US for about a year to return to my girl friend (now wife) on K1 VISA. She had moved to Missouri at the time.

* At MO license office in Sept 2008 I was told they could get me a license up to the expiry date of my VISA (K1) which was Oct 2008 (1 month). No thank you! They didn't care for AOS letter at the time. Fine I'll keep driving on my old license. Sure, that's fine, the lady said.

* Went back after conditional GC received in Dec 2008. I was told same thing so they were able to issue me a license till December 2010. My thought: By that date most likely my ROC will not be approved so what am I gonna do at that point. They had no clue about AOS letter the first time so will they care for extension letter. Probably, maybe not?! Kept the old license.

* Now, we have moved to Arizona few months ago and tried to get it renewed over here. Same thing so was able to get a new license upto Dec 2010. Kept the old license again.

* It is Dec 2010 so beyond expiry date of conditional GC and not approved so far. My status is in crappy condition for which a service request is being processed now. So my case could take little longer than march 2011, the date my drivers license expires. Will probably be hard to get it renewed.

I'm interested to know what your experiences are with this. Sounds familiar?

hi everybody,

i filed to remove my conditional residence yet things were not good.the immirations thought that our marriage is not bona fide....now i had a lawyer who said i have to privide extra doucments and evidences + having witnesses,ect. i know now its up to the judge who will decide. my question what will happen then at the court hearing? what are the chances to get my 10 years green card? i ll really apreccaite helpful replies thanks

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, none of us is able to answer what your chances are but the judge hasn't decided yet so there is still a chance. I asume you have a lawyer who must know your case in detail so ask your laywer what he/she thinks about your case. Assuming the court case will be judged honestly result depends on how bona fide your guys' relationship is. The people who know best are you and your significant other.

I have to say USCIS people are pretty clever in their customer service. Called them a week ago and a service request was initiated. Service request required USCIS to respond in 30 days I was told.

Yesterday they did respond:

"The status of this service request is: Your case is currently being adjudicated. You should receive a notice of action* within 45 days.

*A notice of action may be in a form of Approval Notice, Denial Notice, Transfer Notice, Request for Evidence, Notice of Intent to Deny or Notice of Intent to Revoke."

There's an interesting detail about the approval letter I want to share. The letter itself shows a sender as if it was issued by my local Tucson office and shows a date of 12/14, the envelope shows that it was sent from Laguna Niguel, CA (CSC) and was stamped on 12/17. It looks like the approval is actually issued by the local office but then centrally mailed from the Service Center.

Anyway, I wonder if I should switch of the text message notification now as I am kind of expecting a wake up call in the middle of the night when their computer system finally updates all our approved cases to their actual status

This would at least be an explanation for the sudden aproval letters some people have received without notification. It would also explain why the sequence is sometimes completely of even though USCIS claims to handle cases in order of receival.

Another thing we might be able to see (and I'm hoping to see ) in the next few days is a bunch of approvals from Tucson ASC. Perhaps local offices collect piles of cases and have a person reviewing those every few weeks.

ok... so I just finished my Biometrics and glad that's done. I, however, was a bit upset because the picture taken of me was unacceptable in my criteria my eyes on the photo were half closed and I looked silly! I asked the guy who administered my biometrics if he can re-take my picture because my eyes are half closed but his only reply was "no, they're good to go"... and didn't even offered a smile or say have a nice day! geez... isn't he aware that I would have that photo on my new greencard and that I am stuck with it until I apply for citizenship?!? I would have complained a lot more but I thought is it really worth it? and who knows what they can do with my photo/signature and fingerprints right? oh well! it is what it is... I just hope and pray that I'll get better service next time I go to a USCIS office. And that my ROC gets approved soon!

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well, if you ever get in trouble entering the US with this GC blame USCIS. Unlike passports, it is them issuing the GC and producing the photo. Wouldn't worry about it.

I never heard that before. Millions of people have paid with a single check. Did you submit the correct amount?

Absolute ####### indeed! I even think most people have filed it with one check combining the fees.

I'm getting a letter to send for ROC from my credit card company stating when my husband was added as a joint account holder. His name shows up on the account when you look it up online, but not on the monthly statements. The CC company tells me this is the norm, only my name is shown.

So do I need to print out any statements to show that the card is actually being used, or is a letter from the CC company stating when he was added good enough?

Thanks!

Use of the creditcard is not important so you don't need to show account activity. Your husband just needs to be on it as additional account holder. Therefore, the letter the CC company is sending you is perfect. You could, if you want, also make copies of the creditcards themselves.

try to call them. its better to call them early than wait for how many days or weeks before you call.

At this point nothing weird is happening. You're just 4 weeks after NOA1 got in. That is not abnormal.

Yeah, notary in public can only verify that real people are involved in writing this letter. It still doesn't say anything about the friendship you're claiming. It always good to describe the circumstances you met etc etc. That can sometimes be verified.

Hi, thanks to all of you guys who have being posting and updating information regarding this problem. As you guys I am struggling with the same thing, I just did my biometrics today (12/16), but previously I got the "odd letter" twice, dated November 19th and 24th.

Please continue updating changes in your case to give us tips or reassurance, man this thing is stressful =S

ManuFred I wanted to ask you: What do you mean when you say that you were able to get a "service request"?

Well, I called them and this lady told me she would open a service request as my status is still "in suspense" and no RFE letter has been sent out. It basically means that someone is gonna review the case, "fix" the problem and get back to me in 30 days. In my case the result would be an update of my case status or a letter with the information on the RFE. Looking forward to the latter

What I received today from USCIS is showing they don't have there stuff together:

I sent them copies of stamped ASC bio-notice and copies of the two errorneous letters they send me with following cover letter:

"Dear USCIS examiner:

On the 19th and 26th of November 2010 USCIS send me I-1797C, Notices of Action with the same information. Both letters requested me to make an appointment with my local Application Support Center to have my biometrics taken. As I have been for biometrics earlier on 11/8/2010 I presume these letters were sent in error. Hereby I send you copies of these letters and the ASC Appointment notice stamped at the local ASC in Tucson, AZ.

The online case status report on uscis.gov indicates my case is in suspense as of November 26th. If any additional information is required to resume my case please let me know."

Guess what I got back today:

"Dear Sir or madam:

Thank you for your recent inquiry to the California Service Center (CSC) via fax or letter for information regarding your case status. USCIS has launched a new referral tracking system through our National Customer Service Center. To ensure that customer inquires are handled as effectively and quickly as possible, we ask you to call our National Customer Service Center, which is available Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM PST at 1-800-375-5283. The National Customer Service Center will track your with us to resolution.

Most importantly, USCIS provides a case-status online inquiry service on our website at www.uscis.gov just click on the "Case status & Processing Dates" link. Finally, the USCIS website also includes a chart that reports current processing dates for particulair applications and petitions in relation to the date the application or petition was filed. The USCIS processes case in the order received.

Sincerely,

SERVICE CENTER DIRECTOR

Rev. 4-17-09 General Inquiry Response letter"

Included with this letter was everything I sent them, even the envelope. Just got everything sent back to me and a generic letter. Not happy. Fortunately with this information I was able to put in a service request. They'll get back to me in 30 days. Hopefully with an approval letter.

Just got a letter this morning to say - Congratulations! Your request for the removal of the conditional basis of your permanent residence status has been approved.

You should receive a new permanent resident card (green card) within 60 days.

I filed on October 22nd, biometrics on November 30th and approved on December 10th.

Just 7 weeks, thank you California for being so quick

Oh and the last touch on USCIS was 12/01/2010 LOL

AWESOME!!

I seem to be the only CSC May filer still waiting. I'm passing the 7 month mark - over a month outside the posted processing times - and I am beginning to wonder what might be wrong. There has not been a touch on my case since biometrics.

I've called a few times and have gotten replies like "we're processing cases filed 2 days before yours" and "can do a service request because my computer is down" etc. while speaking to reps and officer level. They clearly don't want to do a service request. InfoPass is too far. I have emailed the service center as per instructions from the USCIS website, but haven't had a response either. So while thinking about what I can do to get this over with, I've come up with a few of questions...

I've read that you can make inquiries with the USCIS Ombudsman's office and/or the local congressman.

- Does anyone know which is more effective?

- Will an inquiry by either of those just tick officers off and put a bad light on my case?

- Are there any other things we can do to find out what's going on?

Filing for citizenship to force adjudication of the ROC is not an option (I can't do the three-year thing - I filed based on death of spouse). I was informed that under a certain memo, I'm not even considered a waiver filer like divorce cases, but that I'm merely exempt from joint filing based on my spouse's death. The memo clarified that that's not like a divorce waiver, so it shouldn't take longer to process than any other joint applications. (Yet here I am waiting seven months...) Well, in case my ROC is denied, could I file the I-360 as a widow afterwards?

Well, you're not denied or out of status at this point so I wouldn't know if Ombudsman or Congressman would be very helpfull at this point. Infopass might be the best way to go even though it's far.

In addition to the post above.

I called USCIS and was told to ignore those two letters. One of the three agents I talked to knew there was an error in CSC system. My online status still says that they were sending a notice for additional evidence, though. I asked the agent on the phone if she could send me an official note that I could ignore those mysterious letters and status online, but she said no.

When I will contact them in January if online status has not been fixed then, they could say because I didn't respond to RFE, that's why your case is suspended. They could say that. WE really need to have something official to prove to them, because they don't do a good job on tracking each applicant's case. Back on a track of waiting for a good response...

Does your online status still say that??

Yes, mine does. It is anoying as I expected them to show some response to the copies I sent them. Nothing, not even a touch on my case status since I sent those. You're right, I think we need to keep an eye on this as there might be an underlying suspense to our case afterall. I'm not confident that there isn't. I'll give it few weeks and will call them in January if nothing changes.

Is there a way that we could check out our application status after we passed our 4 months of processing?

Sooner on December 25th,2010 i am going to passed my 4 months and still my application status says Initial Review on USCIS File check status link.

I just wanted to know that where are they (or at what stage) with the Review process of my application. Is everything so far is OK or not. Because i haven't got any mail or EMAIL updates after i did my biometrics 3 months ago.

Nope, sit back, relax and enjoy the ROC process is the answer to this.

Your statement that you have to send your I-751 packet on the 15th of this month tells me you may be confused. Your 90 day window begins on December 16th.It is 90 days not 3 months. Your I-751 packet can be recieved by the USCIS anytime during the 90 days prior to your green card expiration. If your I-751 packet arrives before Dec 16th it will not be accepted. You have until March 15th for the I-751 packet to be recieved, but the sooner it is received the better in case of an error.

I would include the properties in the Phils. I would rather have too much evidence than not enough.

In this case it is exactly 3 months as DEC and JAN have 31 days and FEB only 28 which equals 90 days. I would add this information too as long as things are written in English or translated into English by official translator. It might not be recognized but it won't hurt to send it.

I have no clue if Ricard90027 statement about ownership by Americans is true or not. All I know is that it only matters if it is the US government imposing this. If so, don't submit it, if not, do submit it.

Hello VJ Friends,

My husband and I are little over 3 months away from filing I-751, I am a USC spouse. I just want to start preparing ahead so when it comes the time to send things, I am not in panic. One thing I noticed today was sample cover letter for I-751 provided on VJ. It appears to be written by USC spouse and mentioned the words Joint few times. Mu questions are:

1. Shouldn't the cover letter be written by the applicant (spouse of USC person and in my case, my husband) instead of the USC spouse?

2. Do we really have to mention the word 'joint' in the letter? I'd think the checkbox selected for Part 2 on the application would tell the reviewer whether the application is filed jointly or not. This question is not a big deal, I just want to make sure I am not missing any information.

Thanks for the help in advance!!!

The cover letter is actually not as important. You can use it to give the examiner an easy overview on your case, some explanation/background information on documents you submit. It doesn't mean much more than that as both of you will already sign form I-751.

I'm looking at the same thing and see that September has more cases that already are completed compared to August. So that means instead of working on August's back logged cases first, they already started working on September's cases and also has completed more cases in September while there are still 2,716 cases pending from Aug? That kind of piss me off .. to be honest.

I don't think the green September column represents cases submitted in September. It represents the amount of cases that were completed in September. If your case was submitted in September and gets approved in e.g. December then your case will be counted toward December. In other words your case is not among these cases and it doesn't say anything about the cases USCIS is currently working.

The only statistics that say anything about the cases USCIS is working on are the ones we have submitted on this forum. This data shows that USCIS is primarily working on August cases but also started working on some random September cases.

There is no evidence early bio expedites the GC process. It is nice though you just have to sit and wait till USCIS gets back to you as the ball is in their court now

1040 is what you wan to send. Even better would be a transcript as this is printed by the IRS

Yeah, I thought Tucson was close to CA but it seems like it takes USPS a while to cross the desert.

Thanks for your replies. We didn't file a tax return last year because 1) my husband is unemployed and receives full disability benefits from VA, and 2) I didn't work last year so there was nothing to report. We'll be seeing a tax preparer to help us file this coming tax season. This will be my first time filing. My husband got an old student loan forgiven and I believe it counts as taxable income. So we'll talk to the preparer about that. We will file jointly if that is best. But if we decide file separately, does this mean we don't have to submit any tax returns to USCIS?

We already explained to USCIS and NVC before that my husband is on disability and is not required to report it to IRS. We have letters from VA to prove it.

Well, I was thinking of applying for a Chase credit card (forget which but it's for those with average credit). If I'm the primary cardholder and I add my husband, this shouldn't be a problem since it will increase his credit line, right?

By the way, both our names are in the house rent bills and auto insurance bills/cards. He is also shown as guarantor for our baby and pays the co-pay for that. We are covered by health insurance as his beneficiaries. We also have letters from VA bumping up his pay for having a spouse and child as dependents. I hope this is strong enough.

USCIS can not ask you to produce something you don't have. So if you did not file taxes during 2008 and 2009 then you don't have to send them in. I think sending a copy of the VA letter you have is a very good alternative. If you have those for 2008 and 2009 I recommend sending them both.

The statement I made on not sending in tax returns if filed MFS is not an official statement by USCIS but what I recommend as in real life MFS filing status is usually applied in case husband and wife are living separate lives. That's not the signal you want to send USCIS.

Since your husband has a good credit score it is probably best that he'll be the primary on it and you the additional card holder. As he is the primary his credit score is evaluated and the line of credit you'll get will be based on his credit score. However, the funny thing is that this line of credit will eventually be used to determine both your credit scores. If the card is used right, you will benefit from being an additional card holder on your husbands card. It is true that the primary's credit score is affected when he applies for new credit but that is usually just a few points. Nothing to worry about.

To avoid losing anything on the credit score it is even better to add you to an existing card. That won't affect his credit score at all as he won't be applying for new credit. Just call the credit card company and the'll add you.

Either a copy of the return you received after filing electronically (like through TurboTax or HR Block) or physically (by mail), or an original tax transcript requested from the IRS if the return is no longer available.

However, several people have gotten RFE's stating a copy of what you mailed to the IRS was not considered as evidence. Doesn't mean you can not submit it but if you want it to be valuable then transcript is best.

Re tax returns: not all couples file jointly. Whether you file jointly or as married filing separately depends on which filing status is more financially advantageous to you. Surely USCIS is aware of this.

Talking as Former Taxpro: Above is right, however Married Filing Separately (MFS) is as far as taxes is concerned never advantageous compared to Married Filing Joint (MFJ). IRS promotes people to file MFJ and has for that reason taken out, or applies lower limits to, some of the deductions for people filing MFS. You could generally say that MFS is only for people who are legally still married (and therefore only have the option of choosing MFJ or MFS filing status) but don't want to deal with each other anymore. If you have filed MFS for whatever reason, don't convey this to USCIS as it could support a claim against you rather than it proofs your relationship.

For future I-751 filers I would recommend always filing taxes with filing status MFJ.

Congrats to the first 2 September filers getting approved! Let's hope for many more approvals in near future. Good luck to all!

Nice, even late September filer. Congrats!