Manchester_Man

Today I checked my status online and to my surprise it was approved and the card was ordered!. Case was approved Friday 13th 2009. Thank you for all the help you guys gave to me when I was preparing this, without you guys I think I would have been stuck and waiting a lot longer. Here's my story.

Mailed I-751 Received December 27th

Received Notice of extension January 9th

Received Biometrics Appointment January 12th - Appointment date 01/28/09

Did walk-in Biometrics January 14th at Seattle-Successful!!

Received notice of card order dated February 13th 2009!

Waiting 30 days for my card to arrive.

Alls I can say is WOW. I was really expecting this to take months and months and to be called in for a interview. This was all submitted to California who seem to be processing really quick. Hope everything goes as quick for everyone else as it did for me.

One quick question, once card is ordered can they call me in for interview or more evidence..or is that it?

Hello everyone, just wanted to give everyone a quick update. I received my biometric appointment letter last week, my appointment was for 01/28/09. This morning we drove to Seattle field office to see if we could just do a walk-in. We arrived around 7:30am. We walked up to the front desk and asked if we could get them done today due to my only ride being my mother-in-law who is a military nurse. Once I mentioned Military they waved us on through and after filling out a quick form we waited for about 10 minutes for my number to be called. Got all my fingerprints taken (Twice? Hope that means they got it right) Took a picture, the guy asked me if I wanted to see it, I said I didn't care as long as I get my Green Card...I'm regretting it now, it was a terrible picture lol...Mainly because of lack of sleep through nerves. But it was all worth while. I'm really happy I got it done, hopefully this speeds up the process a little!

So thank you to anyone who mentioned trying to do a Walk In...anyone who goes through the Seattle Office should be good to go, the staff were extremely nice and were joking around with me. I advise going early as possible though, because when we walked in it was pretty empty, 20 minutes later as we were leaving if was piling up real quick in there.

Fingers crossed for fast response from California!

Me and my wife were in the same boat here. We're both 21 only had tax returns and a few bills...we both also lived at her mums house, we did rent a place but was all in our roommates name. What we did is write a little letter explaining why we didn't have a lot of evidence. Tax returns are a huge one. Include affidavits including one from his parents saying you both live there and a couple from friends/family (The more the btter) there's no harm in going overboard here. Include pictures and letter that you may have sent or taken. Any trips you have may have taken together (Plan tickets ect) We only sent a little compared to most because of circumstances, we haven't been approved yet as we only just sent ours in before CHristmas. But my advise is to include as much as you can, even if it's little letters or even junk mail you guys may get in the mail. Bank Statements of a joint account is a good one to. Any of the parts that you may feel is missing you can explain in a letter. I included 3 seperate notes in mine just to explain why we didn't have that evidence. I hope this helps!

Good Luck!

I got my NOA a week before my Biometrics appointment.

If you don't receive a NOA, you can always make a Info-Pass appointment at your local field office and go and get your passport stamped. I had to do that once before when my Green Card was delayed (Apparently lost in mail) I just made a appointment, talked to a really nice guy at the office and he stamped my passport and said it was good for 6 months.

Hi Manchester_Man,

No need to reschedule for an earlier biometrics appointment. Just to a "walk in" at a time when the local center is not busy and when you are available, and you should be ok then. Make sure you bring your biometrics letter with you, no matter which day you go, as they won't do your biometrics without it. And yes, just in case they ask, have a valid excuse/reason (and provide paperwork if need be) as to why you are going earlier than scheduled on the letter.

Likewise, last September I had to do a "walk-in biometrics" earlier than scheduled too for my I-751 at my local office in Buffalo NY, and didn't have any problems with it at all. For more detailed information about my successful walk-in biometrics experience, you can read about it in this VJ post that I wrote here:

I-751: Biometrics Walk-In Gamble. A Detailed Review of Ant's Successful Day

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...=153099&hl=

Hope this helps. Good luck with the rest of your immigration journey too.

Ant (Still waiting at the VSC, Still waiting for Baby...)

Hello everyone, I just received mt appointment notice to go and have my Fingerprints taken at the local Seattle field office which is great news. I do have an issue with the date and time and I need to see if I can schedule sooner...Has anyone ever requested this before and got a good result? Or will this push the date even further out?

I'm hoping they'll take this walk-in. I wouldn't mind going on the date scheduled, but I have to make arrangements around other people to go anywhere as I don't drive and the only person who can take me is my Mother In-Law and she's a nurse, so it's kind of hard for her to get any time off. I'm hoping when I show up at that they'll understand. I'm planning on going Monday at 7am (As soon as they open) hopefully won''t be too busy.

Most places will let you do a walk in as long as you have an appointment letter.

Yes, I was just reading up about that. I think I'm going to try that method Monday. I have m Fingers Crossed as Seattle is a little bit of a drive for me. If by chance anyone has tried Walk-In at the Seattle office, please let me know if it worked!

Hello everyone, I just received mt appointment notice to go and have my Fingerprints taken at the local Seattle field office which is great news. I do have an issue with the date and time and I need to see if I can schedule sooner...Has anyone ever requested this before and got a good result? Or will this push the date even further out?

Good luck with your application. Im guessing you are here on a work visa? or one of you are, i got kinda of confused sorry.

K1 Visa. I came to USA, Met my then girlfriend, few months later flew back out again and got married here in USA, then filed Paperwork. Now we've been married since 2005. I have my Temp 2 year Greencard and just filed to remove conditions. And I'm just wondering if working out of state will cause issues with my case. Sorry didn't explain to well.

First off, I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

A quick update I overnighted all my info off on 12/23/08 with about 30-40 pages of info off...I'm guessing the more the better right? lol Hoping for a speedy response from our friends at USCIS.

I did have a quick question. Me and my wife moved here to Washington to help out with her mum as she hasn't been to healthy as of late and I'm having a hard time finding work. My old job offered me a position again but it's back in Oklahoma. I guess my question is do you think this will effect my case if I'm working in Oklahoma and my wife is in Washington and my mailing and psychical address (Which was on my Form) will still be here in Washington. Unfortunately this is my only quick fix to working at the moment but on the other hand I do not want this to mess up my long hard work with immigration. Any thoughts or answers would be greatly appreciated.

I haven't had the exact same situation...but to try and help answer your questions...It can take that length of time for them to decide, sometimes longer (Depending on which Center it is going through) I too was unable to work as I was stuck without a Green Card

and was waiting as they lost mine in the mail. What I suggest you do is go here http://infopass.uscis.gov/ you can setup appointment to see an immigration officer (It's usually setup like a DMV window) Go there and explain the situation as far as his greencard expiring and his case pending, they should be able to stamp his Passport to say he can work and reside in the States for X amount of Months. In my case they give me a 6 month stamp.

Hope this helps!

Thanks so much- I did go to infopass but ours in Seattle requires a court order or 75 days without an answer for another specific type of inquiry in order to get an appointment. They do not have informational appointments available at all. What's worse, his application number is not accessible online!!! It's not showing up and we checked it several times.

He can work (he has a letter- more than one letter, actually) but he needs a green card in particular for the job he wants, which is an army job.

For checking online, did you use the application number on the "1 year extension" or the one on the "biometrics"? For i-751 the number that works online is the biometrics one. Also I have read in the forum that they put up new slots for infopass appoinments around 5pm or very early in the morning (sorry I don't remember), try searching for an appoinment around those times, maybe one for "information requested" will open up

Cheers. We did use the biometrics one, and after four tries (and yes, I double- and triple-checked it the first, second and third tries) it worked. Maybe the system was down. As for the infopass, they have four categories all requiring an order of some sort, and for information requested, it just shows one sentence: "There are no infopass appointments for requesting information available at this time." No calendar, no nothing. Really discouraging!

As he has a letter from the army we have applied for accelerated processing via the DoD. I hope that works!

I also live in Washington state and now reading about Infopass here, it's a little discouraging like you said. But here's another option, you can actually get free immigration help through congress, you can call ahead to the office and maybe they can give you some advice and be able to get things going.

I would have thought if he was Military they would be able to assist you also, but if that's not the case check out this website to locate your local congress office for free help. Here's the link http://free-immigration-help.com/washington.html good luck! and keep us updated.

You guys have just made my day, I've been stressing about all this for time. On the two affidavets I have 1 from In-laws showing we stayed with them and they saw us on a regular basis before moving and then also from an old room mate we had an apartment with up until recently which covers those 2 years since my 2 Year was Issued. Like I said most of my info is mostly for this year apart from the affidavets and the tax returns.

*Fingers Crossed For A Speedy Response*

Now when I go to get my fingerprints taken do I get my passport stamped while my case is being reviewed?

Good luck with everything.

No, you don't get the stamp on your biometrics appoinment. For the i-551 stamp you need to make an infopass, but you really don't need that yet if you receive your NOA with "one year extension" of your GC before your GC expires.

Anyone know when you get the NOA? is that usually the same time as the Biometrics notice or around that time?

My husband just did his biometrics. We are quite busy and I don't spend a lot of time here but... does it really take them SIX MONTHS to decide on these??? My husband was set to join the army but he needs the card. He does not have a temp card because it never came to us. Maybe we should just replace the temporary card for now?

How can we contact them to give them the letter he got from the army (which they refused to take when we were there for the bios, said we needed an infopass)? Any similar experiences? We have the letter allowing him to work but he doesn't want to get a job and just quit.

I haven't had the exact same situation...but to try and help answer your questions...It can take that length of time for them to decide, sometimes longer (Depending on which Center it is going through) I too was unable to work as I was stuck without a Green Card

and was waiting as they lost mine in the mail. What I suggest you do is go here http://infopass.uscis.gov/ you can setup appointment to see an immigration officer (It's usually setup like a DMV window) Go there and explain the situation as far as his greencard expiring and his case pending, they should be able to stamp his Passport to say he can work and reside in the States for X amount of Months. In my case they give me a 6 month stamp.

Hope this helps!

You guys have just made my day, I've been stressing about all this for time. On the two affidavets I have 1 from In-laws showing we stayed with them and they saw us on a regular basis before moving and then also from an old room mate we had an apartment with up until recently which covers those 2 years since my 2 Year was Issued. Like I said most of my info is mostly for this year apart from the affidavets and the tax returns.

*Fingers Crossed For A Speedy Response*

Now when I go to get my fingerprints taken do I get my passport stamped while my case is being reviewed?

Just an update to what I have currently included in my package. I didn't want to tell the story over so I figured I'd add it to this post. This is what I have so far, anymore suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I think evidence is still lacking.

Copy Of Green Card

Two Passport Photos Me and Wife

Bank Statements from Oklahoma bank throughout 2008

Bank statement and copy of bank cards for Oklahoma and Washington account (Newly opened) Just moved to Washing 2 weeks ago

Joint Tax returns for '06 and '07

Internet bill

Phone bill

2 Affidavets

Dental issurance

Life insurance

Letter explaining lack of evidence for 2007 (Including letters from Social Security denying application due to no Greencard and notice from USCIS)

Marriage cert

Birth certs

Copy of passport stamp

Now all the bills are from January 08 upon current date. For the year 2007 im lackin but affidavets explain where and who me and my wife were living with.

Again, all replies are appreciated and I wish I had found this website back when I first got here!

How will you receive a NOA or bio appointment after they cashed your check? We sent our docs to USCIS California,they cashed our check nov 26., just curious

I'm about to send my stuff of this week to the same place. From what i've been reading and seeing it looks like approx 7-10 days for notice to be sent out then appointment is usually within the next 2 weeks following your notice. Keep in mind cases may vary on how many applications they are processing.

Hope you get a speedy response!

If I'm understanding this correctly.. you entered the US I'm assuming using a visa waiver.. met the woman you wanted to be with... stayed, got married and eventually applied for your green card? You where issued with a conditional green card, good for two years which you didn't receive until early this year and it expires early next year? I have to ask.. Why where you without the conditional card for an entire year? Waiting for it to arrive, unaware you could get the I-551 stamp, used a bad lawyer? The more info you provide the better picture people can get and the better the advice you'll likely get if there's less blanks to fill in.

I'm sure you must have some bills, receipts, rent agreements for part of the year? Ask your in laws for a written letter, signed by them and maybe notarized(?) stating that you both stayed with them from x to y and then moved out. Hunt out any mail sent to you from back home.. e.g christmas cards, pictures letters, notice of SSA showing when you applied for and got your SSN, bank states, online and paper, car titles, phone bills, utility bills... That might help cover some of the gaps?

If you're removing conditions on residence, USCIS should only be interested in anything after the issue date on your conditional green card so I wouldn't worry about 3 years unless theres another reason? Check the issue date on the card and the expiry date.. let us know what it says!

If you can please fill in a time time or something we can use to track your progress, even though I'm sure a lot of the dates may be blurry now.

Good luck! and welcome to visa journey I'm sure you'll get plenty of help here!

First of all, thankyou for all the advice so far. To fill in a few gaps...We didn't use a lawyer at any point in this process, I had just turned 18 when me and my wife decided to get married (I know age should not be an excuse) Anytime we contacted USCIS they never mentioned anything about getting a stamp in my passport until the month before my Greencard arrived. I know most of this could have been avoided if I had got a lawyer ect. And for anyone else there reading these. Seek legal advise as USCIS are not much help. Like I said I have alot of info from this year, it was the first year of my Greencard where I have nothing as (Stupidly) I thought I was unable to put my name on anything until I had my Greencard in my hands, I guess that was just fear of breaking any laws. But here is all our dates so far in this process.

Married!.....................................11/15/2005

I-485 Recieved...........................05/09/2006

Biometrics.................................06/23/2006

Interveiw...................................Oct/2006

Conditional Greencard approved...01/18/2007

Greencard arrived in Mail..............01/06/2008

Conditional Greencard expires.........01/18/2009

My long, long stressful Journey so far.

Hey guys, I'm new on here. I just needed some help with getting my package together to send this in to get conditions removed on my 2 Yr Green Card. Now before I go any further I'm going to include my story so far (Hope this doesn't bore you all)

I met my Girlfriend over the internet and moved here in August 2005 and Married November 15th 2005. We went and got my Greencard all approved, now I had to wait an extra year for my Greencard to be in my possesion (Recieved Green card 01/05/08 and my Greencard expires 01/16/09. Now while all this was going on we were living with my Wifes parents for awhile and then we got an apartment (Which was all in her name because we didn't know the legal standings on Rental without a Greencard) so I was left stuck not able to work all because as I was minsinformed by USCIS Customer service about working. So, when I finally got my greencard I started working and had a great job and we were finally able to start getting things in both our names and possesion, but I know they require to see info regarding all 3 years, which we really don't have.

Any Suggestions? We have alot of evidence for the past year and the two letters from friends. But We just don't have any evidence for the years before that where I wasn't working. Any suggestions or help with this would be greatly appreciated.