mellowgeorge

Just wanted to update everyone that I received my permanent resident card in the mail today. The date on the card says that I was approved on 3/13. Thanks for all the helpful tips and the never-ending support through this whole process. Since we've been married for more than 2 years, I received a 10 yr card so my next step would be citizenship in 3 years.

update on my interview:

I had my interview on March 10, 8AM. I was right, it was the first slot for the day. My wife and I were interviewed together. The first thing that the IO wanted to see was our corresponding birth certificates/passports etc. He then saw that we have a son and he quickly mentioned, "Good. this will be really easy, then."

He asked some basic biographical info like full name, place of birth, address, social security #, etc., and had us give the spouse's biographical info.

He then looked at my documents, noted that I'm an F-1 visa, and asked to see my I-20. *gasp*. I didn't bring my I-20. For those who don't know, the I-20 is a document that the school/university provides to show that I'm in good student standing. I graduated more than a year ago and have been working using the OPT provision of the F-1 visa. The IO didn't make a big deal out of it and I kept myself to 2 "I'm sorry"'s.

He went over the I-864 affidavit for quite a long time but it was all satisfactory.

He went through the questionnaire with the yes/no questions.

He asked about our wedding, when we got engaged (even asked who proposed to whom), wedding date, location, etc.

He then looked at our photos and asked us to identify who are in the photos (my parents, my wife's parents).

He then asked for other proof of marriage like car insurance, lease, car titles, etc. We don't have a joint account and most of our bills are in my wife's name. He didn't really comment on that. All he asked was if we found it easier to have separate bank accounts. My answer was NO. It used to be ok before but now that our finances are getting complex, we're planning to get a joint account in the future.

He then wrapped up the interview, saying that he is recommending approval but my application still has to go through background checks, etc. He said that I should expect a response within 90 days.

So aside from me forgetting my I-20, I think the interview went well. He did take my I-94 so I guess the only way I'm leaving the US is either with my green card or via deportation. The interview probably took around 25-30 minutes. So I guess this is pending approval then.

my interview will be tomorrow at 8am. Early, may even be the first slot. Wish us luck.

Hello all, I also received my AOS interview appointment letter today (which my son almost tore up! ). Mine will be on March 10 at 8AM. Time to start gathering my documents.

Speaking of which, my wife and I were married in the Philippines. We have a government-issued certified copy of our marriage certificate and the document is in english. That should be ok as far as official documentation proving marriage, right? Of course, we will include photos, etc, but that's the only legal document I can think of for that category.

hi guys just wanna ask, how many biometrics letter did u receive? i got mine yesterday for i-765 only, my question is should i also have one for i-485? i mean separate appointment letter? or one will cover both? appreciate your replies, thanks..

hurray! your biometrics letter arrived! This is like what happened to me but I only received the biometric letter for the I-485. I set up an infopass appointment on the same day and right after my biometrics appt and they were able to give a walk-in form to do the other one. Hopefully, your ASC isn't very busy and that you can get an infopass appt on the same day.

You can also let the people at the biometrics office know that you're expecting two biometrics letter (esp. since the I-765 is based on the I-485 application) but there's no guarantee that they will be able to help you.

Good luck!

thanks mellowgeorge and congrats u got ur ead!!! dunno what will i do if i will re-sched my bio so i can sched an infopass same day too (cause Jan 21 is not anymore avail) or will go on Jan 21 for just i-765 bio... i waited for my bio letter for 3 months and im afraid that if i will re-sched i might wait 3 months again!!!!

oh, definitely go to your Jan 21 schedule, even if it ends up doing only the I-765.

my EAD arrived in the mail today. yey! I can finally stop worrying. They can take as long as they want on green card (half-serious).

aomary: I see from the table that you had your AOS interview but no date on your biometrics entry. Let us know how they were able to sort that one out.

Also, I tried to log in to CRIS today and after the first attempt (and I entered the password correctly), the login failed and it said that my account was locked due to several unsuccessful attempts. It may be hard to believe this but I haven't even been on CRIS since Dec or Nov 08. How do I resolve this issue?

hi guys just wanna ask, how many biometrics letter did u receive? i got mine yesterday for i-765 only, my question is should i also have one for i-485? i mean separate appointment letter? or one will cover both? appreciate your replies, thanks..

hurray! your biometrics letter arrived! This is like what happened to me but I only received the biometric letter for the I-485. I set up an infopass appointment on the same day and right after my biometrics appt and they were able to give a walk-in form to do the other one. Hopefully, your ASC isn't very busy and that you can get an infopass appt on the same day.

You can also let the people at the biometrics office know that you're expecting two biometrics letter (esp. since the I-765 is based on the I-485 application) but there's no guarantee that they will be able to help you.

Good luck!

hmm, I didn't attach any of my I-20s to my AOS application as it wasn't asked for in the instructions. I did send a photocopy of my F-1 visa and my OPT EAD card.

Lots of things happened within the span of 3 hours.

So I went to my biometrics appointment for the I-485 where they pressed and pulled and lotioned and wiped and scraped my fingers just to get all then fingerprints. I didn't bring up the issue about the EAD biometrics because I overheard another person say the same and they said they could only do what's on the appointment notice. The whole thing took about 45 minutes.

Next, I went to my infopass appointment where I brought up the issue of the delay in my EAD application. The officer looked at my application and he said that the EAD was ready for production since Dec 6 2008! What!? He told me that they were just waiting for the biometrics to come in. I told him that I just did my biometrics for the I-485 that same morning. So he double-checked my mailing address and it looks like the biometrics appointment letter for the EAD was never generated. So he called the people in the biometrics office (it's all in the same building) and asked if maybe they can just link my EAD application to the biometrics I did earlier. No luck.

So he wrote me a walk-in form, I went back upstairs and it's a good thing that the EAD only required 1 index finger print and a photo. Whew, it was now 1115 AM.

Took the bus back to work and I checked my email. Wow! There's an email from CRIS time-stamped at 1145AM saying that my EAD card production has been ordered.

I guess they can be fast at times.

So I now feel so much better that my EAD is definitely on its way as my current F-1 OPT will end this March. I could've extended that OPT for another 17 months but that means paying another $375.

fallingspeaker: did your partner get a degree on a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics field (STEM) ? If so, STEM graduates are allowed to extend their original OPT for 17 more months (you have to pay the filing fee again). That's more than a year so no need to rush things if she's eligible. Plus, as long as you file the extension before the OPT expires, you can continue working for as long as 180 days while you wait for the new EAD card.

The only requirement is that the employer has to be part of the e-verify system.

Hi folks,

So I'm doing my biometrics tomorrow morning (finally) but the appointment letter that I received is only for the I-485. Can I do the biometrics for the EAD as well on the same appointment?

In our group I know of one person (aomary) who got the EAD without the biometrics so I guess it's not required?

Also, I was able to get an infopass appointment tomorrow morning as well to bring up the issue of my EAD as it's been 90 days since I applied. Wish me luck.

Nao: congrats on getting your EAD. After my appointments tomorrow, I will email the ombudsman, as well.

Well..... I got good news in the mail today.

My Biometrics appointment letter came...FINALLY. After almost 3 months since I sent the application, it's here. Mind you, it's only for the I-485 and not for the EAD but I'll bring it up on the appointment day itself.

I'm scheduled for January 6, 2009.

I'm happy that it arrived. I was almost at the point of believing that they lost my application. It just took sooo long that I'm not excited anymore, just relieved.

Now to bug them about my EAD which would be 90 days on Jan 2.

i know.. im an industrial engineer..

the reason why im tryin to get an entry level job is cos i know people wont hire me cos i dnt have exp here in the US..

and it sucks that even at a secretarial job they'll be askin me for that f*ckin history..

how am i gonna have that if nobody wants to give me a chance..

.

hi envy_me, don't sell yourself short. A college degree is a big thing in the US, even if received from a foreign country. Don't waste it by doing something 'entry-level' and unrelated. I suggest that you still apply to positions commensurate to your qualifications. Include in your resume any work you've done outside of the US (especially if you've been working for a long time). Even if you haven't worked a long time, you can show your qualifications. Think of it this way, you're just like any other fresh US college graduate who's working for the first time in their field. These college graduates don't go and work in unrelated fields.

If you do decide to apply for an 'entry-level' job, think of it as a stop-gap measure of getting some income while you actually hunt for the job appropriate for your qualifications.

Good luck!

still no update after service request on monday. This is so frustrating, I hope nothing is wrong, the EAD should have been approved by now. The sad thing is we can't do anything.

:crying: :crying:

Same here. I filed on 9/19. Called them for service request on Monday but no updates. They haven't even touched my application since monday. I am depressed.

-- I just called USCIS this morning too for my bio sched and she gave me 2 service request numbers, yeah she said my case is outside processing time already coz today i still dont get a bio and today is my 72nd day since they received my packet... she told me if within 45days that i dont here any from them i should call back.. she also told me that i can call anytime if ever i have a question.......... question that they cannot answer and will only say blah blah blah wait wait wait!!!

same here, mamada. I filed a service request last Dec 3 for my biometrics appointment. I called today and they said that the service request hasn't even been processed yet. They said that I should call them back by Jan 2 if nothing has happened, still.

Thanks for the response. So it is only for people that have not recieved their biometrics appointments?

not sure. I guess it can also apply for the EAD and maybe even for AOS interview, but the 'normal' processing time for the AOS interview balloons anyway.

Whats is this service request everyone is speaking of?

It's for people like me who still dont have a biometrics appt more than 60 days after sending the application. I don't exactly know what it does to our application aside from flagging our app as being past the normal processing time for certain items.

I don't know how effective it is.

I have a question about the EAD and the 90-day waiting period. From everyone's experience or research, do they really 'expedite' the EAD application once the 90-day period has passed? Or is it more like a service request and you're still waiting for weeks.

Thanks.

I have a service request put in last week for my MIA biometrics letter . They said I'm going to get an email about it. What will the email say? (I failed to ask the person this at the time).

Everyone, guess what?

I got a email from CRIS and my EAD and AP were approved!! I can't believe it!!

The approval date is yesterday (Dec 5). I didn't check email last night because I was very tired, but I wake up this moring very early and I couldn't sleep back, so I checked email and found those two mail!!!

But I still have a question. What happend to my bilmetrice? I haven't recieved my biometrics letter yet. I hope the approval notice says something about it.

Anyway, I'm so excited!!

Wow, aomary!

Congrats!!! (Omedeto~ )

I can imagine how surprised you were to find the approval e-mail from CRIS.

Well, it is a little odd that you did not have to have biometrics. But, you win cuz they already approved your petition!!! hehehe

Nao

wow! congratulations! I guess there's hope for me still? haha. I still have no idea where my biometrics is. I was able to put in a service request for the missing biometrics but other than that, nothing much else. I have to wait for the 75 day / 90 day time point to call again.

Hello folks.

It is now exactly 8 weeks since my concurrent I-130/I-485 was received. I have all the NOAs showing that they've received it and the fees are correct.

I called USCIS 2 weeks ago and they basically couldn't do anything but told me to call in when it has been 60 days since the receipt of the application. I haven't called yet (I'll call tomorrow) but is there anything else that I can do?

This is so frustrating.

@aomary and @mamada: When I spoke with USCIS phone support, they told me to call back after 60 days of receipt date / NOA date (not sure which one). I don't know what they'll do then but she said that before 60 days, they're just going to make us wait for it. So I'll call them again and maybe even set up an infopass appointment. It can't hurt and I'm near a USCIS local office anyway.

im waiting for aomary to post how the infopass appointment went (we are sharing the same problem where we still dont have our biometrics letter).

wow, things are starting to roll in. congrats everyone!

Personally, they can take as long as they want on the AOS (but not too long) as long as I get my EAD quickly.

I assume you're under the '40 credits of work' category on the I-864W? It's rare to find someone who also qualifies for that as the majority of the people here are coming in to the US as K-1s.

If you qualify, then you can use it.

@aomary and @mamada: so I called USCIS customer service and I got elevated to their higher customer support people. They were able to tell me that:

1) even though I can't pull up the case status for my I-485 online, they said that it was filed. Does this make sense? How come there are two different databases?

2) They told me that no biometrics letter has been issued and I should wait 2-4 weeks.

The first level of customer support also mentioned that if it wasnt 60 days since the receipt of my application, then she couldn't really do anything to push my biometrics letter out. 60 days is coming up soon (Dec 2).

So aside from the 2 pieces of information above, will an infopass appt give me any more information? can they do something more than what the (really helpful) customer support people can?

@mamada and @aomary: though i would prefer it to be good news, I feel a little bit better knowing that I'm not alone waiting for my biometrics letter. I'll try to set up an infopass appointment as early as possible.

edit: Ok, I'm currently looking at the options on the infopass site. I selected 'service on a case that has already been filed' then these 4 options came up:

Order from Immigration Court - If you were directed to us for processing based on an order from the Immigration Judge. You must bring all documents required in the post order instructions given to you by the court.

Case Processing Appointment - If you received a notice to go to your local office for further case processing.

EAD inquiry appointment - If your I-765 employment authorization application has been pending for more than 90 days.

Case Services follow-up appointment - If it has been over 45 days since you contacted NCSC and have not received a response to your inquiry. You must bring the Service Request ID Number related to your inquiry to the appointment.

Which one would be right for my case? (no biometrics letter after 6 weeks)

Hi mellowgeorge,

Did you make an infopass appointment? I did... my appointment is next Monday morning. I don't know if it would work, but anyway, I wanna do something. I'll let you know how it turn out.

No I havent made an appointment yet. Which option did you choose when you signed up online!? I'm stuck at that step.