Michael&Susan

Thanks Jomo's Girl for the fast response.

We will bring both notices to the 1st one. Now I see the related messages... Guess many people are in the same boat.

Hi All,

My wife just received another biometric appt. notice, after we received an earlier one 1 week ago. We are puzzled by the multiple appts and didn't find any related postings.

The two notices are nearly identical, except for dates:

1st one: Notice date is 5/12/08, Appointment is for 5/28/08, 2:00PM

2nd one: Notice date is 5/16/08, Appointment is for 6/5/08, 1:00PM

Both appts at the same Application Support Center

Like many other folks in this Forum, we sent in the I-751 package to Nebraska SC and the case was forwarded to California SC.

We only paid for 1 biometric appt. per instruction, now what do we do? Go to the 1st appt. or both?

Thanks,

Michael&Susan

My Mom's NOA1 for her N-400 says 365 days. Her N-400 was filed on 10/24/2006 and she is still waiting for the interview notice (Fingerprint done already). It's been 6.5 months, the wait is very frustrating to say the least.

Hang in there, hopefully we can see the light at the end of tunnel soon.

Dear Meauxna,

Thank you very much for the tip. Yes, she filed with VSC. Friends of my Mom's who filed for N-400 recently got interview notices, some as short as 2 months. One thing I have learned after gone through the K1 visa with my wife is that never try to predict USCIS's timelines and just let the nature take its course.

Thanks again and I'll tell my Mom to relax.

Michael

Dear N-400 experts,

I helped my Mom filled out her N-400 and sent in last Oct., she has been a GC holder for more than 16 yrs so eligilibity isn't a problem. The NOA came back as follows:

"Receipt with Exception

Application Number: ESC*XXXXXXXXX (9 digits)

...the following exceptions

Missing Evidence(s) - your application was missing evidence(s) that you will need to provide at the time of your naturualization interview. You will be notified under separate notice of the necessary evidenc(s) that you will be required to bring to your interview. Do not submit any evidence(s) by mail."

So far she has gotten and completed the biometrics appointment but still waiting for the elusive interview notice.

Her case number cannot be checked USCIS's case status online check due to missing digit and the system doesn't recognize "ESC".

I double checked everything she sent against N-400 instructions and can't really think of anything missing. Has anyone encountered or heard this "Receipt with Exception" NOA? My Mom is getting anxious about the interview but I told her just be patient because technically USCIS has up to 365 days to get back to her and now it's only been 5 months.

I haven't tried to call USCIS as I doubt the agent will know the details about this case and tell me what's missing.

Any advice or suggestions?

Thanks, Michael

We had our interview yesterday at Chicago, we brought an updated I-864. The interviewer did not ask to see it, only asked for our 2005 joint tax return, which wasn't ready when we submitted I-485 back in January. Our case is pretty straightforward, but who's to say all interviewer are alike.

We wondered the same thing before the interview, but since I-864 is really easy to fill out, we just did it.

Hope this helps

We just finished with my wife's AOS interview at Downtown Chicago this morning and I want to share our experience with the rest of you:

Our appt. was for 7:45am, so we got up early and took the train to the downtown station, then walked several blocks to Kluczynski Federal Building about 10 minutes before. There are already a line of people there waiting to get through security in the lobby. We then took elevator at 2nd floor to wait in a big room. Moments later a lady came and told everyone here for the 7:45am appt. to follow her to the 23rd floor. About 30-40 of us followed her.

Once on the 23rd floor, everybody turned in their appointment letter (NOA's) and wait for the names to be called. We dressed respectfully but there are also some people in tanktops, shorts and sandals, like they're at home. We waited only about 10 minutes before her name is called by an Caucacian male interviewer. He was very polite probably in his mid to late 20's. His name was Kevin O'Neil.

Kevin led us to another room for the interview. We first took an oath for the truth, then we all sat down to get it started. I started to whip out all the paperwork, originals and copies altogether and was ready for all the questions there is. He asked to see our ID, we showed him the driver licenses. Kevin then started going through questions like her birth date and country, and a few questions from the list on I-485. He told us not to be offended by some of the questions and he even grinned a little on the "have you ever been associated with a terrorist." We went through this part fairly quickly. He then made sure we fulfilled the K1 visa obligation by checking the marriage license copy already in the I-485 package. He also asked for our last year's tax return so I gave him a IRS transcript copy.

What he said next surprised us, "All right, I'm going to approve your case and stamp on your passport." "Huh? This is it?" I asked with a puzzled look. Kevin comforted us by saying fiancee cases are fairly straight forward and usually won't take long. He told us we should expect to receive the actual green card in a month but he actually made the temporary passport stamp good until end of Sept. as a nice gesture, no complain from us. He finally asked us to surrender the AP and EAD since she won't need them anymore.

When we were leaving, I joked with him to let him get on with the next 30 or so interviews for the rest of the day, he replied and said they each get 10 interviews a day, some other cases could last 1-2 hours (yikes!) but he didn't say what kind of cases. We didn't feel to ask them either.

I was surprised by what Kevin didn't ask to see: passport (well, not until he stamped on it), birth certificate (we asked him to correct her birth date entry error on the I-485 form during the interview), and most importantly, evidence of our relationship and living together, you know, the bills, insurance papers, house deed, bank statements, pictures. None of that was even mentioned by Kevin. We felt he already made up his mind during the first 30 seconds of the interview about the decision and he actually quietly admitted it when I brought it up on our way out.

All and all, we knew we were prepared and shouldn't have any problems for the interview but didn't expect it to be SO EASY!

Good luck for other folks still waiting for their interviews, as long as you have everything in order, you should be approved like the rest of us!

Finally, we want to thank everyone in this site who kindly helped us along the way, we couldn't get to this point smoothly without your help.

Sincerely,

Michael and Susan

Your passport identity page copy should suffice to prove your US citizenship for the AOS package. That's how I did mine and didn't get any RFE's. Naturalization paper also satisfies this requirement. You only need to include one, both would seem redundant.

-Family Name: not sure on that one, but I tend to agree with you to use the husband's last name. My wife kept her maiden name after the marriage, so it wasn't an issue for us

-You don't need to do the full I-693 medical as long as her original medical was done within 1 year from the date of AOS application, which is the case for most K-1'ers. You only need to take the vaccination from Toronto to your local designed civil surgeon, s/he will give you a vaccination supplement for a small feee. You will need to include the vaccination supplement with your AOS package, not the full medical.

-SSN card: your wife should be able to apply 2 weeks after entry into the US as a K-1 holder. That's how my wife got hers, before we even filed for AOS. SSN is not contingent on EAD approval. See VJ Step-by-Step guide for applying a SSN, it has a special section for K-1 visa holders.

Hope this helps

To rebeccajo,

Yes, I understand what you said, we submitted the VAC. Supplement with AOS package so I do have a copy of it. See my dateline.

Sorry I'm beating an old subject without doing some search first.

I would get the vaccination supplement done ASAP if I were you. It's just another potential bump in the process you don't need if it becomes an issue.

I used the IRS transcripts. It's free, fast, officially accepted and you don't have to worry about any W2's or 1099's. Just call IRS at (800)–829–1040 and follow computer menu to order your copy. Make sure you order the free transcript only and not the photocopy (that'll cost you $36/copy). You can order multiple years in the same call.

Now I have I-485 NOA2 for the interview, and no RFE's.

Thank you both, we did not get a RFE, and now having the NOA2 in hand, I doubt we will get a RFE before the interview date.

On I-485 NOA2, one of the items to bring to the interview is:

"A completed medical examination (Form I-693) and vaccination supplement in a sealed envelope (unless already submitted)"

Since for K1 visa holders, both are already submitted by now, however, having learned a couple of other VJer's AOS denial because of the stupid I-693 mistake by USCIS, I'm curious to ask what do you think of our I-693. My wife had her medical done overseas on 6/7/2005 before K1 via; after arriving in the US, she completed the vaccination supplement on 12/22/2006. The AOS interview is set for 6/28/2006, technically just over 1 year from the date of her last full medical, does she need to do the full medical again before the interview or would the one from 6/7/2005 suffice?

Can someone been through this before lend their expertise or just add any helpful comments if you know the answer?

BTW, we don't have a copy of the original I-693 since it was turned over to the CBP officer in a sealed envelope when she arrived. We only have the vaccination supplement copy.

Thanks.

And just out of curiosity: You said the online status hadn't changed, that seems to be the case a lot, but did you get any kind of email notification and are you signed up for them? Just wondering how it works for others to have an idea of what to expect.

Yes, I signed up for the email notification and did not get anything. Back a month ago, I got email notification for EAD approval, but not AP approval, even though both were approved within days of each other. In my view, it's more important to get the actual NOA in hand than worrying about whether I get an email notification.

The NOA2 finally arrived yesterday, the interview is for 6/28/06 (2 months notice, very nice). Without hestitation, I passed the good news to my wife, who went back to China to prepare for our wedding reception there in 6/10 (this is after our official marriage in the US of course), she can't be any happier as you can imagine. The interview date is especially good since we will be returning to the US 10 days before it. Back when we planned the trip, we often wondered what if the NOA2 and the interview date was during the week we are staging the reception in China? Glad we don't have to face that dilemma, whew!

The NOA2 came with a bit of surprise because the USCIS online status check hasn't been updated since 2/27/06, even after I received the actual NOA2 in the mail. Oh well, who cares, as long as we got the appointment date.

Having read recent posts about other Chicago AOS interview experience on this forum, we are not too stressed about going into it. There's no stopping us now!

Good luck to everybody else on their journey!

Congratulations!

I just received our AOS Interview Notice today for June 28, also in Chicago. Your post is definitely very timely and helpful for our preparation.

To Vegangirl,

AP is only needed if you need to travel abroad during the status adjust period (before conditional green card). It's really a personal choice. We sent everything to the Chicago Lockbox address like everyone else.

The only potential downside is if you apply for AP, EAD and AOS, and the AOS is approved before AP or EAD (which is pretty rare), then you just wasted the $$$ on AP or EAD. However, we won't complain if that happens to us for the obvious reasons.

Michael

Just one question, how would we know which Center is handling our I-485 case? We cannot tell from the USCIS online status check. If it is any clue, both our AP and EAD are sent from National Benefits Center, yet NBC's processing times doesn't have I-485 case type???

The Chicago Office is the closest one to us, shall we assume Chicago is the office working on our I-485, if so, it looks like they got a serious backlog (Nov'04). If it's that bad, maybe we are worrying for nothing here.

We just received the AP for my wife, which is great considering we only waited for 2 months for it. We planned to another wedding party back in our hometown in China in June. Originally my wife planned to go there in early May to do the party planning, etc. and come back with me in Mid-June.

Here's the thing we are afraid: what if the AOS interview appt. comes at a time while she's China between May and June? Considering we filed for AOS at the end of January, and the case status online is saying it takes 90-180 days (3-6 months) for this kind of case, so there is a real possibility it may fall in May or June. What kind of advance notice do people usually get for AOS interview date? Days? Weeks?

Should the worst thing (also a good thing depending on how you look at it) happen, I guess we have no choice but to cut her trip short. What would you do in our shoes?

Thanks,

Michael

My wife's AP is finally approved and arrived in the mail today, it took just under 2 months to get hers. Now we can start planning for our trip back in June...

In case you were wondering, we did NOT list the reason to apply for AP in our I-131 application as it was filed together with I-485. We saw several people in this site didn't and still got their AP, so we followed their examples.

On the AP itself (form I-512L), just above the check box for "Approved", it says:

"Each parole period shall not exceed one year from the date of parole at the port-of-entry."

All in lower case, no bold face or underline.

What does this sentence mean? At first we thought it means the person uses AP can spend up to a year abroad before returning to the US on the AP, then I thought that's too good to be true, any ideas?

Thanks,

Michael

Is Infopass appt my only option? Would I be better off waiting for a RFE (if USCIS is smart enough to find the mistake) or wait to clear it out when the AOS interview comes?

Well, we went to the biometrics appt last Weds, during which we found out that the DOB for my wife is mine instead of hers. The biometrics folks were helpless as far as getting the situation rectified on the spot because they basically take the picture and fingerprints and nothing more. They told us we have 2 choices: go ahead with the wrong information on the biometrics and correct it later, or, get the information corrected with USCIS and have them re-send the biometrics letter. Unsure of which way to go, we immediately called the 800 number on the biometric letter, however, since our case isn't found in the database, we cannot even get a hold of a live person on the phone (apparently there are more people like us who got the biometrics appt but case not in the system).

Fearing it'll take who knows how many more weeks to get the DOB corrected, my wife went ahead and did the biometrics.

When we got home and looked at all the copies of AOS paperwork, we found out that only I-485 form with my DOB for my wife while all other forms used her correct DOB (I-765, I-131, G325a).

I admit it's our mistake this time, can anyone advise how we can get this corrected, especially when our case isn't in their "system" yet (either via phone or the online status check)? We have not received any RFE's asking about the DOB discrepancy. Is this something we can explain to the AOS interview officer when the time comes (there's enough evidence to prove her DOB)? The last thing I want is to have the wrong DOB appearing on my wife's future green card.

Thanks,

Michael

We just got NOA's and biometric letter for our AOS case and our case number still "does not exist" in the database, a few other people are in the same situation as us.

Let's hope it's not some office worker spilled hot coffee on the servers and wiped out the computer database and didn't bother to tell anyone about it. Just kidding!

We just got our biometrics appt letter for AOS/EAD 2/22 also, until you mentioned it, I didn't even know AP/I-131 also requires biometrics taken, certainly can't tell from USCIS Form/Fee's instruction page.

Thanks for the heads up and I'll definitely bring all NOA's.

Michael