piscesforever

Previously, it wasn't green, but I guess they decided to change it because everybody was already calling it a "green card".

Announcement

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=79bd3893c4888210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD

New Features

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=34233893c4888210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD

Q&A

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=ab8c3893c4888210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD

Oh, wow. Thanks for sharing that! Nice to know.

Thanks everybody for congrats!!! And on the EAD - they took mine at the interview, guess they figured i don't need it cause i alredy have a goverment issued DL and i didn't have any need for and extra ID, so there. But i think it would be best to just cut it up in little pieces and throw it away or just keep it like a reminder of all the waiting

Good luck to everybody!!!

P.S. My "green card" is actually GREEN!!!!!! lol

Yeah, it will remind me of all the waiting I did. =)

Good luck Rhiannercakes!!

Hey piscesforever, CONGRATS on your card, girl, that's awesome.

Thanks. It is.

Well, I found out that FOR SURE my EAD card was not produced.

They said I should get my green card by the 12th though.

Came home to another email saying they're sending another welcome letter.

And LA is hell for infopasses. We got there at 10:45am for my 11am appointment and didn't get called to a window till like... 1pm.

Geez. That's a longer wait than what I waited during my interview. I was called 30 minutes later after the scheduled time. At least now you know what happened to your EAD.

Got my card! It is green too!! heheeh

Yeah. When I never thought the green card is literally a green card. I mean, it became a household term already that you would not think of the literal meaning since you always hear it all the time. I would think: Green card = synonymous to US citizenship card, not Green card = green card. Haha. I don't know if you will agree. But that's how I thought about it before.

I would think that if you don't destroy it or damage it in some way, someone might get a hold of it and try to use it.

Yeah, that's the reason. Didn't they pass a new law though that will check if a person can legally work? and the ID too has our photo.

I am not against of giving it back. I was just thinking since there was no really instructions about it on the mail I got with the green card, I am assuming I can keep my EAD card. I know someone may be able to claim it as hers if she finds it... But I can destroy a portion of it so that it it won't be usable if I decide to keep it.

I was told to destroy my EAD card, but I might just clip the corner off and keep it for the heck of it... if I ever get it produced.

I wasn't told during my interview. What happens if you don't destroy it? I might do what you will do, clip the corner off... my mother-in-law suggests to keep it as remembrance.

Hello, everybody!!!

I got my green card yesterday n the mail, exactly 1 month after my interview!!!! Woo hoo!!!!

Done with USCIS!!!!

Congratulations. Isn't it awesome to get a long break from USCIS? Mine arrived about one month too after my interview. I got it yesterday. I didn't see any instructions on returning the EAD card though. What did you do with your EAD? Do we have to destroy it?

hello !

have my interview tomorrow,,confuse lng aq kc wala s akin ang passport ko ,kinuha nung nag medical kmi ng mga anak ko ,hnd nb hanapin yun pgpasok s usembassy,?

Sila mag-aabot nun sa embassy. Bring valid IDs para sa pagpasok niyo sa embassy.

Yeah, I think you've nothing to lose if you call USCIS to inquire about your cases. It's been a while anyway.

Thanks for the link!

Hmm.. maybe that's why all the CSC transfers have been held up! Perhaps they had been producing them with the new design and were waiting for the official launch!

yeah, that's probably it.

I'm really nervous. Especially since I asked Wes last night to make sure he gest his passport out, and we can't find it anywhere. Theres only one more place we can think of it being, so I will have to goto the storage unit tomorrow to see if it got put in there by accident.

Did you find it, Danu?

PS: Do I have to get my University degree transcribed for this? TOFEL? GMAT?

TOEFL is an institution that tests the English Competency of non-English native speakers. I took a test on this about 2 years ago, when I was still in the Philippines.

GMAT is a test that you take before you enroll for MBA.

If you want your transcript of records transcribe to a US grading system, you need to do this with WES or similar programs/service like ERES and IERF.

Spoom and Piceforever!

huge thanks

I was on the edge of insanity finding job here:-(

web freelancing give me the hope

again thanks A LOT

if you have any more suggestion/ advice for me how to start

my skills are different (more drafting,designing,illustrations,arch)

but I wish to learn more about web page designing and graphic, too

maybe just for fun, maybe more if I catch it

thanks again:-)

You have plenty of jobs in Odesk.

here's the design and multimedia (wide) category

Check other sites too mentioned here like Guru or Elance.

The process works by you, as the freelancer, searching for and bidding on projects that you feel you can complete. The "employer" (i.e. the person that posted the project) chooses whichever bid they feel is the best (usually a combination of competency, price, and speed) and awards them the project. The freelancer then works on the project, completes it, and invoices the employer who pays them through the freelancing website. The freelancer can then choose to withdraw their pay through any of the methods the site offers, which usually include a mailed check, direct deposit to a US bank account, PayPal transfer, or wire bank transfer.

Some sites (like Guru) have an escrow option whereby the employer pays the site at the beginning of the project, the site holds the payment through development, and then the employer releases the money to the freelancer upon completion of the project. This way, freelancers can be assured that the employer isn't just going to disappear upon delivery at the end of a project, since in a disagreement, the site will offer mediation and/or arbitration services to determine correct payment.

In some sites (also Guru), employers can also search for freelancers directly, and invite them to bid on their projects. This is why it's important to keep a complete, professional, comprehensive profile on the site; it is competitive business, after all. I've actually gotten a few emails asking if I'd be interested in long term work based almost entirely on my Guru profile.

One of the things that you should remember if you go this route is that this is self-employment, and it's treated as such at tax time, meaning that since no taxes are withheld, you'll have to pay all your taxes on that income when you file your return. (No more tax refunds.) That said, you get the same advantages as a business when filing, such as having many more deductions and write-offs available.

Guru has a pretty good overview of the process, I encourage you to read that.

It's funny how Spoom is sharing his Guru experience, and me in Odesk.

I don't worry about the taxes since my husband knows what to do already, and he will file our taxes next year. He usually keeps track on our expenses like things we buy for our office at home, so that they can be deducted on our taxes.

Odesk has an about 10% fee per transaction. If someone hires you on $9 per hour, the client pays $10. You don't pay fees except when withdrawing your money from Odesk.

Payment withrawals in Odesk are through Paypal, direct deposit to a bank account, wire transfer, Payoneer, or moneybookers. There are certain fees that correspond to each payment method, except for direct deposit which is free when you withdraw.

Hourly jobs when logged already are guaranteed by Odesk. If you have logged 10 hours for an hourly job this week, you are guaranteed to get paid for that. They don't guarantee on Fixed jobs where you and the client just agree how much to pay you on an assignment or a project.

I don't know about other freelance sites like Guru or Elance.

Which city do you live in? You can definitely go to the library for free to study. To check out books you have to pay $80 a year if you are not a resident of SL County. I live in Davis County but drive past it every day since I work in Research Park by the University. The $80 has been worth it as I borrow a LOT of movies from there, especially British TV shows.

I live in Saratoga Sp. in Utah County. Thanks for that info. I didn't know about the fee. What's the maximum days you can have a book?

piscesforever, have you considered contributing to open source projects? It's a more hands-on way of learning something; try making a mod to an open source application like phpBB or Wordpress. You'll probably need to learn a lot all at once, but sometimes having an immediate goal helps (and I find that I learn better by doing rather than by reading or hearing... many geeks are the same way).

That's a great tip. I never thought about contributing to open source. I thought people who do that are already good at it. But I guess I can make simple programs. I will look into this. =) The reason I want to learn more is that I know this field pays well.

I've been freelancing for a while now (excluding my non-work-authorized period). I looked at Odesk back in the day but found that it was too overbearing (their signup process is extensive, and do I remember seeing something about requiring a webcam?).

Webcam is not necessary. I haven't encountered yet a buyer who asked me to get webcam shots. But it is an option. The sign up in Odesk includes sending your W-9 if you live in US. But it can be done online including a signature. The time I signed up in Odesk, when I was still in Philippines, I think I thought the same way that the sign up process was extensive, including taking tests. But after I passed through that stage, I thought it was worth it.

I use Guru for my freelancing and I can usually command a rate of about $35 per hour. Of course, I have a lot of experience and skills in web development. Guru seems a happy medium in considering the needs of both employers and freelancers, while most are heavily swung in the employer direction and don't care so much about the freelancers (I'm looking at you, Elance).

I haven't checked Guru, but I saw Elance.com before. I don't like Elance.com that much when I signed up on it. I like the job application process in Odesk. So I stuck with it. I'm glad Spoom were able to share his/her experience from other sites for freelancing. That gives you more options.

If anyone's looking for something to do and doesn't find technology scary, you can teach yourself web development. Just pick up a few books from the library or see if you can get older editions from places like Amazon Marketplace, since they're usually cheaper and not too far behind (though I wouldn't go too much older than, say, 2006). I find the Wrox Professional series pretty good in that regard. You could also learn it entirely online through tutorials, but I find that my learning works better when I have a physical book. If you're starting from scratch, learn (X)HTML and CSS, and then find a good book on PHP and MySQL to get into the actual development part. You could also go the Microsoft route and learn .NET. Once you've got those, you can expand in a bunch of directions; I'd take a look at what employers are looking for on Guru for ideas. Some of the work I've seen a lot recently involved Wordpress, Joomla, Facebook app programming (all PHP), Flash, mobile apps (iPhone, Android), and various online shopping cards (usually PHP). You can get a book on everything in that list except the shopping carts; they're usually just trial and error getting to know how their code works.

That's actually true. I taught myself Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, and Wordpress. I learned basic HTML, CSS, and PHP; and web hosting. I want to learn more on PHP and CSS so I can create web programs.

I find reading a book not enough though. I want to enroll in a school. My husband is learning through a book, and practice. I can't do it myself without someone supervising me, but we don't have money to enroll in a school.

(I wish we live in Salt Lake City so I could go to the big library for free. They might have PHP books that will keep my attention. )

Thanks for the advice! We want me to work from home, too, we are trying to get pregnant now and I want to stay home to raise my child - just because that is the way I grew up, and I think it is a good one. I have been an accountant for 20 years, so I did my time in the workforce LOL.

Good luck on your job hunting. Just be patient on your first set of job applications and take some Odesk tests to increase your job application quota.

When you sign up for an account, you sign up as an Independent Provider, or Freelance Provider. I forgot the whole term but provider should be in the choices, buyer is for clients.

Coincidentally, I looked at this site for the first time last night, and was intrigued. When I get my EAD, I am going to set up a profile and see how it goes. A little disturbed by how cheaply some were offering accounting services, but I figure companies will know that you get what you pay for.

You have to compete with people who are from non-English speaking countries. But there are plenty of clients willing to pay $10 or more, especially if they are looking for experienced people. To start with though, I suggest, you start in a low rate, and apply on jobs that are short-time. There are some assignments done in one week or in a month. These kind of assignments will give you plenty of feedbacks that will be checked by other clients. But you can also just put your normal rate in the profile, but offer lower rate when applying, so that when a client check your profile and wants to interview you directly, your rate is already high.

My husband started with $8 per hour for jobs that last only a week. Now he charges $20 and he can find clients who are willing to pay that high since he has enough feedback in Odesk already and can back it up with offline work experience.

My husband just want to work at home.

Hi,

I just want to share a website that I know that works. I am sharing my experience because I know looking for a job now is hard.

Last week, when I got my EAD, I immediately looked for jobs in Odesk and now I have work, a decent hourly rate to start with.

I have experience with Odesk when I was still in Philippines. That time, my hourly rate is $4, but I increased the rate now that I am in US. Although I could have start looking for jobs that are not work-from-home, I decided to work through the website again to gain more skills in my field of profession.

Anyway, my husband is also working through Odesk. He just want to work as a freelancer, and the website is perfect for him. He found a lot of clients through the website.

There might be odd jobs in this website, only if you are willing to work on those odd jobs. But I assure you that there are plenty of decent jobs to apply for and accept.

Jobs here varies, from Data Entry to Virtual Assistant, to Customer Service, Graphics, Programming, Writing, Researcher... etc.

I found a lot of people from US offering their services through this website. Some of them has a $6 hourly rate. I know that's low, but I think they just made it low for experience, since they had to compete with other people that are not from US and who offer less rate.

But I found other people from US that has $10 hourly job or more...that includes my husband. Really, hourly rate depends on your skills and work experience, and how you will present yourself on each job application. Interviews are done through the website, or through chat in YM, or call in Skype, or call over the phone.

And there are several methods to get your money from the site.

If you have personal questions, you can PM me. Else, share it through this thread.

I was just thinking about it too!

What a week(end) its been. So apparently I somehow injured myself, been in pain all weekend to the point I could pretty much only lay down and even that hurt. Turns out I have tendonitis in my glutes...not fun. I had my driving test this morning and passed (woohoo!!) so now thats out of the way, and then next week is my GC interview. I think I finally have everything ready for it.

Oh I also decided not to take the job I got...too variable in wage ($4/hr + commission...ew) so I'm back to looking there too. Somehow I think if my head wasnt attached to my body that I would lose it.

I promise I will get the spreadsheet updated in the next day or so, I'm just loopy on my meds and fresh home from working at the FIL's so I don't have the energy right now lol.

If you want to work at home, you can try looking for a job here.

It's hard at first, but you will get higher paying jobs once you gain more experience in the site, or at least convince the client you are worth hiring. My husband and I got our hourly jobs from that site. I withdraw my pay from the site through Paypal (when I was in Philippines, and maybe now too) or through my bank account (now).3

It's amazing how everything went by already. I love this thread and I hope to see more of you on removing of conditions.

No EAD, so I guess I'm either going to have to send it back to them when I get it or destroy it... whatever they want.

Our IO didn't take my EAD card. I'll probably return it, or whatever the instructions say.

Do you have SSN already? Good luck on your interview

Btw, I received my 'Welcome to United States' letter today.

I was born in Tagum, and lived there until 9 years old, and visited in 2008 and 2009. I went to school in St. Marys until 1995.

Just interesting =)

I am in US now, happily married

EAD came in the mail today. First, notification received on the 24th of April. Got the card in hand today. NICE, Praise the Lord.

Congrats

AP came in the mail today.

Picture looks terrible! I look like a criminal.

My husband keeps laughing at it

Haha! I looked mad on my picture.

Congrats

It's exciting we all have good news. Congrats to all. :dance: I hope we'll be here together again when we file our removal.

Thanks and your feelings were conveyed perfectly, but please share your approval with excitement...despite our lack of progress we share the same joy of everyone's success.

As for being transferred early in the process, I don't think any of us really understood exactly what that meant or USCIS reasoning behind deciding to transfer our cases. From reading other prior VJ AOS threads it seemed that being transferred was the way to go. It is very clear that even though VJ gives us great advice and support through this process, everyone's case is handled differently. We were not trying to dampen your experience but this thread is here so that we can share the good and the bad experience of this process. So our heartfelt CONGRATS!!!goes out to you and your SO.

Take care and God Bless

To you and ImWaiting, thanks. I just felt I need to voice that out, but yes I am still happy. But I guess I'll rejoice now!

For everyone's benefit, my interview went well this morning. We came 30 minutes early but the officer picked us up in the waiting area 20 minutes later from the scheduled time. So, I can say we waited about an hour. Her question that was really related to our relationship was how we met. The rest of the questions were those information already found in the forms. It's a painless interview. She approved us, and told us at the end that it was her first time conducting an interview.

Okay so my fiance got his visa approved on March 3rd...his currently still in Mexico. I live in California and I called my lawyer to let her know he would be crossing in the next two weeks and she was freaking out and telling me that we have 60 days to get married from the day he got his visa...which means were pretty much screwed since it will be 60 days by the end of this week. I am so confused because I thought once he crossed with his visa, then we would have 90 days to get married, which was what the lawyer told me at first and now she's changing things around for me. So if anyone can please help!! I'd appreciate it....because this is really frustrating! PLEASE HELP!

But you know what, your lawyer may have a point. Now that I remember my wedding. We actually decided to have a 1 month space before the 90 days will expire. So our wedding took place the first week of January, and my stay would expire a month later. The one month period was for us to get ready for the marriage certificate, for I-693 (so it would be under my married name), and for my SSN ID application (so it would be under my married name too). One month would be ample time for us to do all those things, including our honeymoon, and then we can submit our AOS application by the time my 90 days allowed stay would expire.

Although, the 90 days allowed stay does not necessarily have to include the start of AOS paperwork too. It was just our choice so that I would not overstay. AOS applicants has 180 days grace period but of course that still is out-of-status even if you are already married. Since my husband and I wanted to avoid that, we did our wedding 60 days after I got here.

Actually it was around 55 days. It was doable. We had around 100 guests in our chapel. The reception was held in there too. We did our invitation by two weeks I arrived in US; my father-in-law took the pictures for our invitation. Printed the invitations in FeDex Kinkos and sent the first prints to the most important relatives and friends. Then my mother-in-law and I did all the shopping for wedding decorations. I guess we were lucky that one of my husband's uncle is a bishop so we didn't have to hire someone to officiate the wedding. Also most dishes that were included in our dinner menu were ordered from Asian Buffet a week before our wedding. Like $15 for a big pan of fried rice. Something like that, and one of his relatives just picked it up before the wedding.

yeah Liz, I think this process is the hardest thing I've ever had to endure...but I have to admit...it's much easier than K1

I hope things will go well for you and Liz, and for everyone who is still waiting. There might just be a lot of backlogs in CSC right now. Who really knows?

I don't want to hurt anybody, but I just want to share this thought. When most Feb filers got their cases transferred to CSC before, I was so envious of them that they didn't had to undergo an interview. It seems like a golden ticket, and not having that golden ticket to CSC is sad news. When I got an interview appointment, I felt not special at all but still grateful this journey was almost over. Now, members with CSC transfers aren't happy than they used to do. It seemed like the world turned upside down.

I am really sorry you had to endure this especially with all the updates from those who got interviewed like me.

I am actually wanted to shout how happy I am to get approved today, but reading your messages makes me feel your pain. A little over a month , I had no updates from USCIS regarding my EAD, so I understood how it felt to wait for the unknown. I really hope you will get updates soon.

Again, I don't know if I worded my feelings right. I'm not a native English speaker, and sorry if I may have offended anyone. Godspeed everyone.