RooDee

In our case my wife came on a K-3 and we were able to apply for her license with her passport, visa, I-94 and social security card. You will need an EAD in order to apply for a SSN ...

-D

I envy you guys looking to buy a new home right now. The conditions are so much more favorable now with the low interest rates, rock-bottom prices (compared to the peak of the real-estate boom), $8K tax break and of course a buyer's market (at least in most parts of the country). I bought my house back in 2005 and although I have no regrets about the decision, it is disheartening sometimes to see how much home prices have fallen since then (guess it doesn't really matter as long as we have no intentions of selling the home in the short term).

-D

Your friend can apply for AOS as long as her husband is willing to cooperate. She will need an affidavit of support from him as well as proof of a bonafide marriage. If she gets called in for an interview, her husband will be asked to attend it as well. This is of course under normal circumstances. There may be ways around this requirement in case of clearly documented abuse by the USC husband (I think VAWA can be invoked in that case but perhaps others can chime in).

-D

Wife got her GC in the mail yesterday ! I guess that is it for us ... at least for the next 2 years ... Will be checking the forum whenever I can and see most of you in the ROC section in 2011 !

-D

My wife got her GC yesterday as well ...

-D

We got the same approval notice sent mail too.

-D

We got our second card production mail yesterday too. So the card should show up by Saturday. Woo hoo !!!

-D

We got my wife's welcome letter too. I heard that when the card gets mailed you get another "Card Production Ordered" e-mail and I am hoping that happens soon ...

-D

We had the AOS interview today and it went without a hitch. In fact we got back home and saw a "card production ordered" mail in our inbox. That was fast ! I have to say that the post-POE process went very smoothly and quickly - as if to make up for all the waiting we had to endure for the K3. Wifey should hopefully get her GC in the mail in a week or two and then we will be done with USCIS for the next 2 years.

-D

Our interview went very smoothly as well. We got called in exactly at our scheduled time of 10:00 am (which was a pleasant surprise). The lady who interviewed us told us right off the bat that she did not see any problems with our case - especially since we had already been through the whole process for the K3 visa. The rest of the interview was more of a formality. She asked a few basic questions, looked over a few of our pictures and that was it !

We got back home and saw a mail saying our card production was ordered ! We should hopefully get the card in a week or so ...

-D

Our interview is tomorrow too. Thankfully it is just an hour away in Philadelphia. We went overboard with the preparation for the K3 visa interview and didn't get asked anything. Same for the port of entry. This time we are a bit more relaxed (although we do have all our paperwork together). Hoping we don't get a grilling tomorrow.

Good luck to Starburst for tomorrow and wish us good luck too !

-D

We got an AOS interview appointment letter for my wife. The interview is scheduled for 09/24. I was hoping we would sail through without an interview since we already had one for K3. But no such luck. I guess we can still be thankful that the AOS process is much faster these days and that the wait is nowhere near what it was for K3.

Deepak

My wife got her interview appointment letter today. Interview is scheduled for 09/24.

-D

Wife got her EAD in the mail yesterday. We went to the SSA this morning and applied for her social security card. Next step is getting her learner's license (once the SSN card shows up) and then driving lessons ... Hopefully the AOS also gets approved by then ...

-D

Wife's EAD card production has been ordered. Took about 6-7 weeks. Much faster than what we had gotten used to with K3. Based on the current trends doesn't seem like it will take much longer for the actual GC (my brother applied for AOS in late April and got his GC a few weeks back !).

-D

Updates since our last post. My wife had her biometrics appointment on 08/08 (we did not do an earlier walk-in), both applications (I-485, I-765) got touched 08/11 and today we got a mail saying the EAD has been ordered. Seems pretty much in line with others in this thread who applied around the same time.

-D

I just did that myself. Got married in India in July 2008 and came back with my wife in June 2009. I stayed in India (Bangalore) for a whole year while the K3 process went through. I had a friend take care of my home and my employer was flexible enough to allow me to work from India (in fact I worked from home in India on most of the days). This never caused a problem (they asked my wife about it at her K3 interview but didn't make a big deal out of it). I realize that this may not work for everyone - especially if they cannot stay employed with their US employer.

Deepak

I feel really bad for my wife because I have been working for the last 3-4 weekends (including the weekend of our first wedding anniversary ). I can only be thankful that I can work from home but it is not like that makes things any better. This seems to be becoming the new reality for a lot of people - just be happy you still have a job and do whatever it takes to keep it

Wife has her AOS fingerprinting appointment on Saturday (I am surprised they scheduled it for a Saturday).

-D

I think there will be a few of us in the near future applying for AOS close to our anniversaries. There were only about 5 of us that went the k3 route(seren doesnt count since she's going back for the CR1 interview ) and I think we're all doing AOS later to get the 10 yr GC.

We must be gluttons for punishment then Things are going quite fast with AOS these days and to be sure you get approved only after your second anniversary, you'd have to apply like a month or so before the anniversary. That would be another year away for us (we are like 10 days from our first anniversary !). Since I consider citizenship for my wife as the end of the immigration journey, applying for AOS now would get us to the end sooner. Having a green card sooner rather than later also has other minor advantages (like being able to go to Canada without a visa - something we hope to do when we visit Niagara later this year).

-D

Like queue I had to work all weekend and that was a real bummer. But we did get to spend some quality time on the beach (2 hours away) Sunday evening.

I don't see any familiar faces in the AOS forum. I guess I am the only one from this batch that is going down that route ...

-D

Got our NOA1s (I-485, I-765 - we don't need AP because my wife is here on K3) yesterday. Check was cashed last Friday. The wait begins ...

Deepak

We sent our AOS packet off on July 1. Haven't received the NOA yet. My brother is going through the same process (adjusting status from H1) and he got his interview date just 2-3 months after he applied ! Hopefully our AOS goes that fast and hopefully without the interview (since we already went through the whole nine yards for K3).

Wife seems to be adjusting to life in the US pretty well so far - keeping herself busy with improvement projects inside and around the house (it helps that she has professional expertise in architecture and interior decoration). So I get home every evening wondering what new thing she has thought up that day (yesterday it was ripping out all the plants in our flower beds and redoing them along with new edging, mulch and all that stuff). Our local Home Depot and Lowes have just found themselves another loyal (and daily) customer !

-D

Mailed on July 1, received by USCIS on July 3. No NOA back from USCIS yet ...

Deepak

Thanks everyone for their wishes !

Great Roodee. How does your wife like it here? Poor thing she must be all jet lagged.

Not at all. Surprisingly she has no jet lag at all. I don't have any jet lag either - usually the timings of the westbound flights is such that the jet lag is well managed (can't say the same whenever we fly to India).

It was an unusual situation for us because I was in India myself for the whole of last year. I was in the enviable position of being able to work from India while waiting for the visa approval and so we did not have the kind of separation that most couples here have endured. However since I continued to work for my US company and stayed with my wife's family I did not have the kind of documents I would have needed for DCF (which might have been considerably faster).

In any case we have already lived together a year and so we don't have to go through the phase again of getting adjusted to each other's habits, likes and dislikes. Besides my wife is well traveled - having briefly lived in the US among other places and so she seems to have no trouble getting used to her new surroundings. She seems to like the place where we live (our house included) and is keeping herself busy cleaning, organizing and cooking while I am at work.

However like Que mentioned the weather is a major spoilsport. My wife has been dismayed that it has been raining constantly since she arrived. If the forecasts are to be believed it won't get any better anytime soon. We do hope to get to NYC, DC, Altantic City among other places around here (we are in PA) - weather permitting.

Deepak

My wife entered the US at Newark this past Friday and everything went very smoothly. Since I was traveling with her we were able to go in the citizen's line which was considerably shorter than the one for non-citizens (the wait was hardly 5 minutes long). The immigration officer took my wife's fingerprints and photograph and opened the mysterious brown envelope. He handed it to another officer who asked us to follow him to a secondary checking area. We waited there another 5 minutes before my wife got her passport back stamped and with the I-94 attached. No questions asked throughout the whole process.

Overall other than the long wait at USCIS I would say that the K3 process has been a lot smoother than we had anticipated. Hope that the rest of the journey goes smoothly as well (we will be filing AOS papers soon).

-D