danimead

My husband's bank wouldn't let him add me to his account let alone open a joint account with him. I've never had a SSN and was desperately waiting for the EAD to finally get one! Well, my interview is Monday, still no EAD, no SSN, no real financial co-mingling to speak of other than paying for cable. *sigh* I am a nervous wreck about the interview!

The IO I had asked us for bills that we paid together whether utilities, doctor bills or veterinary.

Make sure you take your cable bill and anything else that has both yours and your husbands signature/name and address on it.

Good luck!!

Guys, I had my interview this morning and right now a decision hasn't been made but it went EXTREMELY WELL!! (sorry for the long post):

The appointment was at 10:30am and we got there at 10:00am. Went through security, these guys were awesome, they made jokes with us and then wished us luck. We got in to the office, checked in, and dropped the interview letter into a slip by the door and waited. We were called at exactly 10:30 but a nice and pleasant lady.

She asked us how we were doing and then we got into her office she told us that we had to stand up because she's going to swear us in, raise our right hand and then say you'll tell the truth.

Once that was done we got seated, she asked us for our IDs, actually i think maybe we gave the ID's before swearing in but i can't remember.

WE gave our drivers licenses and she photocopied them.

Then she said she's going to go through the application to make sure she has everything correct. She started with my husband, verified his name, date of birth, place of birth, address, social security number. Then she asked him when we got married and where.

Then she asked me the same questions.

After that she went through the questions of espionage, terrorism, weapons, communism etc. (all the questions i answered 'no' to on the application.

It was funny because when she came to the question about espionage I almost BURST OUT LAUGHING (I tried to hold it in and instead made a strange noise) becasue I started imagining James Bond movies... , well the interviewing officer thought i was confused and said ' you know what that means right? espionage?'

and i said 'yes, like spying?' and she said yes and i finally answered 'no, no espionage'. anyway I got serious again and we continued.

After that, she asked me AGAIN what date we got married, then she asked me if I have any children anywhere in the world. and i said no. Then there was a pause, and my husband kind of chuckled and i looked at him and jokingly asked him what about him, and he says 'She asked you, not me!' So I knew he was joking, he's very silly like that so i pretended to gasp, and then he laughed and the interviewing officer laughed and said no that question was for me and not him.

Anyway, then she asked us if we have any documents of joint assets etc, we gave her our health, vehicle insurance, mortgage document, life insurance beneficiary stuff. Then she asked us if we have a joint bank account which we do have but somehow i forgot to include that document. She told us that everything else we submitted was good but she's going to have us submit that to her also. Then she told us that the Medical report wasn't filled out completely by the doctor so we'll have to take that back to him and have him correct it. We asked if we'd have to drive all the way back to USCIS but she gave us the address and told us we have 30 days to mail everything. Then she said once she has that she'd be able to make a decision whether to approve our case.

Then she printed off the removal of conditions stuff and gave it to me and explained it.

After that she asked if we had any questions, and my husband just confirmed again what we need to send in, bank stuff and corrected medical report.

Then it occurred to me that she never asked to see pictures!! so I said 'well, what about our albums? don't you want to see pictures? So she started laughing and my husband too, he told her 'she's just excited to show it to everybody'

And the lady was so sweet she said 'ok yes, let me see them' and then she looked at them and said they were nice and then said 'ok let me take a few'. so she took about 3 pictures, scanned them and put them back in.

Then that was it!!

It was actually really fun. I was expecting it to be soooo different (yes we watched the movie 'the proposal').

So basically she didn't ask us any questions about how we met, how we got engaged, nothing. Just the questions on the application forms and that was it!

So anyway I went back to the doctor right after the interview and came home for the bank documents, and sent everything by overnight mail so it should get there by 12pm tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get the decision soon!!

to all the other April Filers, PLEASE do not be nervous for the interview, there is absolutely nothing to be worried about, I would say make sure you have your documents together, the most important thing seemed to be co-mingling of financial assets so MAKE SURe you have a joint bank account. Good luck to everybody else, I hope all the rest interviews go smoothly and everyone who doesn't have the interview letter yet I hope you get it soon!!!

p.s my husband just asked me if I was typing to my 'invisible friends' i.e you guys

Yea. We're hiring for a secretary. Salary is not negotiable. Perks: You can logged on VJ all day. With no monthly charge. LOL

Yes I would LOVE to interview for this position. I think my typing speed of 80wpm will be very desirable

I LOVE WATCHING HOW EVERYONE IS GENUELY HAPPY FOR EVERYONE

ITS BEAUTIFUL

DIS IS LIKE A FAMILY...A VERY DISTANT ONE...LOL

I feel the same way. You guys are all great!! I would have never been able to fill all the application forms and be so prepared for the interview without the valuable information on this forum.

Danimead GOOD LUCK TOMORROW~!!

Thank you so much Jannah!!

I just got home from buying a new dress to wear to the interview tomorrow. I'm so silly

COngrats to all the people that have received the interview letter I don't have my work permit yet, but I do have my interview today at 2PM! , I will let you know how it goes.

Timeline:

04/02/2010 - Sent to Chicago Lockbox

04/06/2010 - Packet Delivered

04/13/2010 - Acceptance confirmation received by e-mail for all 3 forms

04/14/2010 - Checks cashed

04/17/2010 - NOA1 received

04/21/2010 - Biometrics letter arrived

04/22/2010 - Walk-in Biometrics done

05/13/2010 - Received letter for interview

06/14/2010 - Interview

Good luck! Mine is on Thursday and i'm so excited

Hey April Filers. My interview is next Thursday and we're so excited!

I have copies of the entire AOS packet we submitted but the only supporting evidence that was originally sent was our marriage certificate.

To the interview we also plan to take:

Both our Passports, birth certificates, drivers licenses and my EAD card.

Original Certificate of marriage

Copies and original of joint health and vehicle insurance cards.

Copies of my husband's life insurance policy with me listed as spouse and benefactor

Copy of joint residential loan/mortgage agreement for our home

We're not huge picture takers and only have a few pictures from throughout our relationship but we do have a wedding album with a significant amount of photos that we'll carry.

Also we plan on taking cards from family and friends from our engagement and wedding.

Hopefully all this is sufficient!

Just got back from our interview today - approved

It was much more relaxed than we expected and the officer didn't ask us any of the uncomfortable questions I've read in guides. We were both called into the office of the IO and he made copies of our ID's. Then he briefly went over our application, asking trivial questions from time to time, such as what kind of visa I entered the US with and what our address is (on this one he also asked my USC husband if it was on the east side of Hwy X, and later he shared he lives in this area as well).

After that he asked what evidence we brought (I had a big accordion folder full of all kinds of documents + 2 picture albums). He only wanted to look at and make copies of specific things - our lease, our joint bank statement, and joint insurance. He did not care about anything else and did not even look at the pictures, just told us to find him one from our wedding where we were together with my husband's parents.

He gave us a piece of paper with instructions about removal of conditions and went over it in detail.

At that point we were sworn in. Then he went on to ask me the I-485 questions and I had a hard time keeping myself from laughing. I don't know how IO's stay serious when they ask everyone if they're a terrorist! Once we were done, he complimented our application, saying we did a great job without even speaking to an attorney (I have to thank VisaJourney here!).The IO said he is approving the I-130 and congratulated us.

The one negative thing about the interview is that he said that the moment he approved the I-130, the EAD application is automatically canceled and I would never get it. They have changed the format of the green card however, so it will not arrive right away, which means I will be unemployed for at least a few more weeks. I had a job offer and was hoping to start the beginning of next month...but at least for a while I will not have to deal with any more paperwork

Congrats on your approval.

I have my interview in Des Moines in a few weeks so I really appreciated this review.

Thank you guys! Today I got yet another e-mail with subject :Current Status: Approval notice sent. we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I765 APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION. Please follow any instructions on the notice.

Now what does that mean ..did they send the EAD or they just mailed the notice that we approved your case and you still have to wait or something...

As always, I appreciate your helping replies...

This means they sent the EAD. The actual card comes with an 'approval notice' on paper.

I got that same message this Monday and i just received my EAD card and approval notice in the mail!

My husband recieved his biometrics appointment letter yesterday, did a walk in the same day and called USCIS last night to expedite EAD. We were thinking we would be denied due to many others being denied, but they sent us an email this morning requesting additional information to fax by June 1!

This is promising because now we have the opportunity to plead our case and ask for the expedite. The problem is, I need help on suggested evidence to send!

So we chose severe financial loss and the reasons why are:

1. My 4 year old son has a disability and severe ADHD which requires him to use extra services from the school district and go to Dr. appointment in another city. During the summer he doesnt recieve the services through the school district and if we want him to improve, it would be beneficial for him recieve services from an outside agency. This can be very pricey and requires me to take time out from work and school to accompany him.

2. Although I work, I am supporting a family of 5 on $12/hr. My mother recently moved in with us and she has some severe health problems which have hindered her from working and for some reason she has not been able to get disability. Not that I would change helping my mother, but this is another mouth to feed and results in higher utility bills.

3. As of right now, I am a full time student trying to finish my BA degree by next Summer. I am required to take an internship class which requires me to cut my working hours down by 10 hours a week! I have delayed this course since I could not possible take this amount of a pay cut but if I keep delaying the course, my graduation will be postponed.

I have more infomation but i HAVE TO GET TO WORK! Please add anything that can help! Thanks guys!

Am,

I think you should write a heartfelt letter to the immigration officer explaining eveyrthing you wrote above.

In addition to this letter try and see if you can get a document from your son's school stating the medical services he NEEDS aren't available to him in the summer. Also can you get a quote from the outside agency for the price of his medication/treatment?

Lastly if you have bills/quote for medical treatment your mother needs you can attach a copy of that.

These immigration officers are people, with hearts and I'm sure they will realize that you qualify under the Extreme Emergent/Humanitarian criteria and approve your expedite request.

Good luck!

Wanna update my status and thank danimead again for the useful suggestion (contacting congressman). I called congressman's office again around noon today. I was told my I-765, along with I-131 (guess the congressman just threw that in. great!) have been approved this morning.

I was confused since I did not receive any update notification. I went on case status online and it still showed case received. I freaked out and called USCIS again, and after numerous transfers I was told they cannot locate the congressional inquiry. But they did find my first expedite request, filed by myself. So I was very confused and stressed out, planning to bug congressman again tomorrow.

At 6pm, I finally got a text message that my I-765 and I-131 are approved! I guess there was just a long delay in their system. So, moral of the story: 1) congressional inquiry really does work, at least in all the cases I read online from various forums. 2) Be patient if the status doesn't update right away. Sometimes there might be delays.

YAY =D

YAY!! congrats

After talking with the person who handles immigration issues at my local Congressman's Office, I faxed in the expedite request and supporting documents yesterday. This morning, the expedite request was approved and my I-765 is in "Card Production Ordered". I'm glad I found this forum!! Thanks for all your help =)

Good for you Millau!!

I faxed all my stuff to my congressman too and it's been two days, so far no news =( Maybe the congressman in my district doesn't really care =(

Summerluv, maybe you can call and check in with the congressman's staff to make sure they got it and remind them to work on it etc.

After I faxed my stuff I called soon after to confirm everything. Maybe if they hear the urgency in your voice they will move quicker.

good luck!

How do you know what time the biometrics office opens? I can't find any info. Walaa wants to try a walk in. Thanks guys.

You can find the office hours for your local office here

Just scroll down, enter your zip code and your local office info will be shown including the office hours.

After looking through the threads related to this, it appears that if the person has a job offer that will provide a good portion of the couple's income then that equals severe financial loss. ***I'm not entirely sure how the evidence was submitted but I suspect it might have been included in the AOS package or sent in later with a copy of the NOA1, before a phone call was made.

***My evidence was submitted to the National Benefits Center (where my application was filed) by FAX.

This fax was sent by the staff of my district's US Congressman on my behalf.

Ok so I just called again and the agent said they cannot create another case because it hasn't been 5 days since my last request. arggghhh!!

BTW to reach a live person you can press 2 for pending case and press 3 for lost receipt.

Summerluv,

The same thing happened to me (got denied by the USCIS Customer Service) and I got my Congressman's office to submit another expedite request on my behalf to USCIS, about 7 hrs later I was approved (card production ordered):

I think you should try that way instead.

you can read about it here

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/255492-it-is-possible-to-expedite-ead/page__p__3924020__fromsearch__1entry3924020

you can PM me if you have any questions

good luck

Hi,

Can you please tell me what your reason for expedite was? How did you elaborate, and did they ask you to submit any evidence?

Thanks!

My reason was: "Severe financial loss, Emergent situation."

I wrote a detailed letter addressed to to the immigration officer explaining my emergent situation and why I needed my work permit forthwith to be able to legally accept employment which would prevent severe financial loss to my family. Then I attached one sheet of my evidence so that they wouldn't have to issue me an RFE which I heard would delay the process further.

Good to hear that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained indeed. Is there a cost associated with the expedite? I am seriously considering it. I am guessing I have to wait until i get the NOA before I can do anything as well.

No there was no cost for me to expedite my EAD.

How can you call your congressman if you aren't even eligible to vote. Better yet, you the OP doesn't even have a CG in hand.

Just because I'm not eligible to vote and don't yet have a GC in hand doesn't mean I can't find the number for Congressman's office and call it.

If it were illegal for them to help me then I would not have received help.

And I don't see why you have to reply with such a condemning tone, I posted my experience so that it might help someone else who needs to expedite their EAD but reads all the other posts on these forums saying it doesn't work or they should not request an expedite because it will slow down their case even further.

Like I mentioned above, 7 hours after my expedite request was submitted by the Congressman's staff I received the Card Production Ordered' update.

Care to tell us the "magic words" to use to get your results also?

I don't think I necessarily had any magic words, I think it was the fact that I had evidence to support my case (severe financial loss).

I was unable to submit this evidence through the customer service reps and could not find the fax number for the National Benefits Center, however the Congressman's office had that number and was able to fax this information on my behalf - if there was any magic I think this was it.

I don't feel comfortable posting the complete letter I wrote on an open forum since it is quite personal, however you can PM me if you want more details.

To everyone who applied for EAD based on AOS and qualifies under expedite criteria, I just want to let you know that you do not have to wait 60 or 90 days to request it.

I want to share with you what I did and what worked:

I first called the USCIS Customer service (April 29th 2010)and put in an expedite request. They created a service request and said they will get back to me within 45 days.

On May 6th I received in the mail a letter from USCIS dated April 30th stating:

Due to the high volume of expedite requests for this case type, we are strictly enforcing the criteria that has been set for these expedite requests. While your situation appears serious, you have not provided evidence of an extreme emergent need

I was never issued an RFE and had no idea how to send my supporting documents.

On May 7th I sent a fax to my Congressman's office asking for assistance in Expediting my pending EAD application.

I included a Letter to USCIS explaining my situation and why I qualified, my evidence/supporting documents, copies of NOAs for I-765, I-485 and Stamped Biometrics Appointment Notice.

I then called the Congressman's office and spoke to the member of his staff who is responsible for immigration matters.

He told me that he could indeed help me with this request and will update me every step of the way.

7 hours later I received an email from USCIS stating "EAD Card Production Ordered". I logged in on the USCIS website and saw that my I-765 was updated from Initial Review to Card Production Ordered.

It worked! My expedite request was approved today. I received this email from USCIS 1 hour ago.

The last processing action taken on your case

Receipt Number: MSC**********

Application Type: I765 , APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION

Current Status: Card production ordered.

On May 7, 2010, we ordered production of your new card. Please allow 30 days for your card to be mailed to you. If we need something from you we will contact you. If you move before you receive the card, call customer service at 1-800-375-5283.

If you have questions or concerns about your application or the case status results listed above, or if you have not received a decision from USCIS within the current processing time listed*, please contact USCIS Customer Service at (800) 375-5283.

*Current processing times can be found on the USCIS website at www.uscis.gov under Check My Case Status and Check Processing Times.

*** Please do not respond to this e-mail message.

Sincerely,

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

I was very nervous after hearing that I could have possibly delayed my case further, but I guess it's true: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Good luck to everyone else who tries to expedite.

Hey guys,

From what I've been hearing, it usually takes at least 30 days after biometrics to receive the EAD and up to 90 days on a regular basis.

I know that most people say it doesn't make sense to request an expedite because you won't get it, well i requested one today because I need to start working ASAP and i figured I didn't have anything to lose

I spoke to someone at the USCIS customer service number and told them i was calling to Expedite my I-765 application.

He asked me a lot of information such as, receipt number, A#, my name, DOB, address, phone number, alternate phone number, what basis am i filing the I-765 application.

Then he asked me what was the reason for my expedite, I said selected 'severe financial loss to an individual'

and he asked me for more info so I elaborated on my situation.

He then asked me if I filed the application in April, yes I filed it April 8th.

The conversation lasted 15 minutes, at the end he gave me a number to write down and said that the expedite request will be forwarded to the USCIS office for my area.

So fingers crossed, I hope this speeds up my process.

When I first received my NOAs by text I immediately tried to view my case online but it was invalid. About 3 days later I was finally able to see it online. I think it takes a while.