BULLWINKLE

You will be applying for an AP since you are still in the US and will (hopefully) receive it while in the US as well..

Reentry Permit is for those who have left the country e.g. with Green Card and stayed abroad for over 6 months - then, the reentry permit is mailed to your location abroad.. without the Green Card however, this does not apply to you. So yeah go ahead and skip to P7

I completed the application and sent it off this morning to Chicago. It should arrive in the next day or so... fingers crossed for a quick processing! Thanks again for your advice

No, actually they won't have to pay the fee all over again because they already filed I-485 just recently.

Check out the instructions on form I-131

As for a speedy process.. on form I-131 you may want to put down a date early October for you to leave the country and include a letter explaining why you would need an 'emergency' AP. It says that you can only put down an expedite request for Refugee Travel Doc and Reentry Permits but I would try it anyways. It won't guarantee any faster processing but go ahead and try!

Good luck

I'm looking at this I-131 attempting to complete the form. What is the difference between Advanced Parole and Re-entry Permit? Which one do I apply for?

PART 5 - Complete Only if Applying for a Reentry Permit

skip to Part 7 if you are applying for an Advance Parole Document....

Arrggghhhh!!!

Thanks! No way was I going to pay the fee.. that's ridiculous. I'm gonna fill out the form today and send it in. Spoke with my parents yesterday and they are out of the house by November 19th if not earlier so I better hurry! This is such bad timing for me...

Ok VJ'ers.. so here is a question. I just got word that my parents back home and have sold their house. Well of course, like any good kid.. I used my old bedroom as a storage space at their house. I never did apply for AP with my packet.. but now I am in a REAL NEED to get home to help my parents with packing, and to figure out what to do with all of my stuff.. get it down here to Texas, and of course, say good bye to the house that I grew up in

I haven't even done biometrics yet and I am worried that my AOS won't get processed within the normal processing times that they report. If AOS was done by November, even December at latest than I should be good with getting back home in time. I don't think I can chance it tho and wait to see what happens. I feel that I need to get my travel and documents sorted now.

Can I apply for AP now? And if I do, what's the chance of a speedy processing procedure? And costs involved now? UGH... FML!!!!

Went out to Target to do some shopping this morning. When we got home we noticed something in our mailbox. Yes! It's Su's greencard. Yay! Finally. We're done with this for nearly 2 years. Congratulations to those who have already been approved, and Su and I wish those who haven't completed this part of their journey tons of luck too. Hang in there everyone!

A big congrats to you and Su!!!! I bet it is a huge relief... I look forward to being in the same position one of these days here soon... lol!

Why some July Filers got there Interview Letter just after a month or so.....Our case has no movement since after Biometrics. I am getting worried now becoz we will be relocating next month for some house problems, and I dont want to messed up my paperworks. How i wish my interview letter arrived soon....i am sooo impatient of this whole process .........I dont have any idea where is our case now in Missouri still or here in Local USCIS .......hope it will arrived soon......God pleaseeeeeeee...

Shakira... some of us haven't even had a biometrics appointment yet and we have been waiting 2 months already! So continue being patient and happy with how far you have gotten along already... your interview letter will happen..

As someone who has filed as a student within the US, you NEED to file from January 2010 until the date you ceased to be a resident. That is the date on your green card.

Canada has claims to any money you earned outside of Canada, although your student tax credits (there is a whole form your school needs to fill out) should give you a nice return

Good luck

Hey Cdn Wife.. thanks for the info. Where might I find the forms for my school to complete? Any info would be great! Then I guess I claim my school and expenses on my Cdn income tax, in US $, correct? Since.. that is what I paid..

Hey all! So, I'm Canadian - left in mid January 2010 to come to the States for school. Got married, applied for AOS.. blah blah...

Question is - do I still need to file income tax in Canada for the 2010 tax season? I only resided in Canada for about 25 days of the year.

I have not had any income in Canada or the US for 2010, though I do maintain a bank account in Canada (with dwindling funds, I might add )

I would like to claim my school costs, unless my husband can claim then since technically I guess I was his "dependent" via his sponsorship.. right?

I *should* have my EAD and my SSN very soon (fingers crossed) and once I start working in the US, I know I will have to file with the IRS. But do I also need to file for the short time that I was still back home in Canada?

Thanks for any advice!

Congrats on all of the approvals!

A&B - I will keep you posted if anything changes

Just got off the phone with USCIS again to put in another service request...

The agent was very kind and helpful, escalated my call immediately... waiting waiting to be transferred... phone dies. UGH!

Call again, wait 10 minutes, get to an agent, transfer call.. spoke with an Officer for about 10 minutes. He had to wrap up because he says that they are supposed to limit calls to about 4 minutes.

Here is my status:

EAD Approved on Sept 2 (I knew this from my infopass appt). Card production not in place yet. BUT! They will *probably* mail my card out soon. WHAT?! REALLY?!

But I haven't done biometrics yet... Officer put me on hold and put a request in .. a "reminder message" to please issue biometrics appointment ASAP IF NECESSARY.

Usually the notes show that the biometrics are complete before granting an approval. Officer has heard of cases being approved in past without a biometrics appointment being complete. But no one has ever followed up to say if they have received their cards or not. Thinking back, I had submitted fingerprints to Homeland Security in the past for another project. It may be that they took my finger prints from that time!

OMG... I soooooo hope to receive my card soon. That would be so awesome! And if I do need to do biometrics, that is fine too.. I hope I get that appointment soon! He said that if there still has been no movement as of first week of October, call back and they will resubmit the requests.

Feeling a bit of hope after that call..

Bottom line, if it's part of the processing routine then we all need to go with it... If Agnes really wants to be a part of the United States of America then she needs to play by the rules.

If she is not into it and wants to throw a hissy fit then stay home in Luxembourg!

Knowing that she is a part of the medical community is totally invalid in this case. Rules are rules and they apply to anyone going thru this process -your profession does not make you exempt.

For whatever reason, the US is not interested in your DNA test. For whatever reason, they rely on a physical exam. So Agnes should stop with the self-righteous attitude because she is a medical *professional* and stop with trying to pull rank above the Government and the rules that they have in place. What if patients in your field protested and disagreed with certain procedures that take place? What happens then? Either they are denied service, or delays take place. OR if it is in a public space and the patient throws a tantrum about what they deem to be fit or not, then security is called to remove them from the premises.

Agnes - you do not write the rules of immigration... keep that in mind.

First, make sure you're well prepared. I personally like to get all the documents in chronological order to make sure I have everything that I need and that I can find it in an instant. Be organized.

Secondly, just stay calm and be confident but do not get cocky.. that's the best advice anyone can give you basically!

I see it this way - as long as you have a genuine, loving relationship and sufficient evidence, you will be absolutely fine!

Getting here was the hardest part, sticking around is much easier

All the best tomorrow!

I agree with being organized. When I was at USCIS office, I saw many people there for their interviews. I saw one couple with a very organized accordian folder, with all of their evidence ordered neatly. It made me excited to get my evidence together that same way! Yes.. I am totally OCD about organizing.. lol!

GOOD LUCK!

Kayla & Krautlaus... Correct - I had entered the US on a F1 (student) visa. My *then boyfriend*, now hubby and I got hitched spur of the moment in May 2010.

I had gone to the Social Security office before being wed to apply for a non-working SS#. I have a state licensure test that I will be taking for school/work and the board said that I could go to SS and apply for a #, receive a refusal because I was not eligible and use that refusal letter to apply for my state test. So that's what I did and that's what I got. The lady at SS was not very pleased with me. In fact, she was pretty pissed off saying the state board had given me wrong info, and they can't be giving out advice like that because it's a waste of everyone's time, yada yada...

Now that I am married, maybe I can take my marriage certificate, I-94, Form 797's (is that right?) etc and see if they won't issue me a SS#. Then once I get my biometrics done I can just switch over to a working SS#... I'm just trying to bypass some steps so that once I get my EAD card I can work/do my test sooner than later.

Thank you!!! Seeing that I do not even have biometrics done (but know that my EAD has been approved) I guess I am not even eligible for any sort of Social Security card.. but good to know what the process is with it and I will just wait it out

Hi everyone,

I just had my EAD in the mail.. woohoo.. finally I can say yes to jobs! Woop woop!

Good luck to everyone else, hang in there! And have a wonderful weekend

Can we apply for jobs with our EAD cards? Or do we need to take the EAD cards first to SS and get our SSN???

I did not read the entire thread... but given that there is alot of immigration fraud and dare i say.. in the height of terrorism threats these days... the US want to be absolutely sure that they are granting status to a legitimate applicant. It may sound ridiculous but in this day and age, anything is possible. What if a male terrorist disguised themselves as female in order to gain entry into the US? This is just one possible scenario and homeland security need to cover all of their bases. This is part of the application procedure so.. get over it! It's a routine procedure.

I didn't mean to sound mean to you. I just meant that what the officer said didn't seem to be consistent with other things I have heard.

Things are read the wrong way all the time in online forums.. I guess that's why the tech nerds created the "emoticon" LOL! See all the cute ones I used in my reply post?? See... I didn't read it as mean at all.

Hi everyone, some interesting things happened the past day or 2 in here. Since I'm posting from my phone I can't reply to individual posts. But Congrats to bullwinkle for his EAD approval pending his biometrics.

Immigration never cease to amaze me. On 9/13 I got an email and text that the EAD was approved and everyday after that I would get another status update saying they mailed the card and approval notice etc. I NEVER got any texts/emails that the AP was approved and it only had a last updated date of 9/13 but doesn't say approved. So I'm expecting the EAD in the mail and what shows up? AP document!! So now I don't know if the EAD was ever approved OR they were both approved...

Thank you for your congrats! Maybe call USCIS to confirm approval of EAD? Either way, congrats to you also!

That seems a bit far fetched. AP really has nothing to do with anything and is processed separately. There is no reason why they would transfer your whole case just for that.

just repeating what i was told... it doesn't need to be taken as gospel

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/260857-biometrics-and-infopass-appointment/

Read the last post. Guess an IO can print a biometrics letter. Of course, the appointment might have been set already, the letter just never reached it's receiver (unlike with our cases). But who knows I'm planning on doing an Infopass after the 60 days are up, but I'm really hopping they find a slot for me somewhere by then

I had asked the agent if she could issue me the biometrics letter.. since I was already there I could just go right on in to do my biometrics. She was not game

Hopefully the second SR will be a red flag for them, and remind them you're still out there.. waiting.. But you'll have to call on Monday, as far as I know they're closed for the weekend

Oh right! Tomorrow is the weekend... see how I lose track of the days when I am not working!

I think the Dallas office is super busy because the reality is that there is a huge number of immigrants here... as my lovely husband says "of course it's backed up... look at all of the Mexicans here!" Oh boy.. bless his sweet redneck heart

I got the impression that the agent did not mean that EVERY case filed with AP is automatically transferred to CSC. Obviously, if they see reason for an interview, they will keep you at the local office vs. transferring you out. So for those who filed AP along with their packet it does not guarantee an automatic transfer. I think what she was getting at was that those packets filed with AP that looked good to go are transferred out. Does that make sense? After hearing that tho, I do wish that I had filed AP to BETTER my chances of quicker processing/transfer. At the time, I figured I would just wait it out and travel once everything is said and done. Now I'm not sure if I will make it home for Christmas, at the rate things are going...

Anyway.... I'm pondering the idea of heading to another state to see if I can't do a walk in. I think I will call USCIS again tomorrow for a 2nd service request and see what happens. Worse case scenario if I try to walk in is that they will say "no"... right?

Hey Bullwinkle, there's nothing specific i want you to ask them... but i definitly want you to tell me everything when you come back! good luck with the infopass appointment, hope to hear some good news!

Well, I'm back! My appt was at 9am.. I struggled thru stupid rush hour traffic to get there.. almost got rear ended by a truck, got lost twice.. but finally made it there right on time. Phew!

There were tons of people there, dressed up for their ceremony, for interviews, biometrics. I have to admit.. I had some huge envy! But I will be there one day too

The wait was short... I made it home by 10am and I live a good 30 miles away. The agent was kind and good humored. Here's the deal:

MY EAD WAS APPROVED!!! On September 2nd!!!! However, there is nothing I can do until I get my frickin' biometrics! Grrrrrr I feel so tormented, but happy about the approval. She said that once I get my biometrics done, the EAD card will follow pretty much immediately. No idea how backed up the Dallas office is.. I just have to wait. They are closing down for a few days next week to put in a new system (hope it's better than their current one!) and that will cause further delays. She could absolutely give me no estimate. I asked about doing a walk in, or going to another location, another state... she said "no way!" they will just turn me back around.

As for my AOS - it won't get touched again until they are ready to interview me. They are still projecting a 4 month processing time from the date of receipt.

I asked about transfers to CSC and she said that only happens to those who file separately, not as an AOS packet. Or those who also filed an I-131 (I did not file for Advance Parole) Does that seem accurate???

So that's it in a nutshell... here's hoping STILL for a speedy biometrics appt. It felt good to be there tho, to meet with someone face to face and to get some answers.. even if it was all very vague.

At least I know where the office is now, and I found a better route on the way home!

Thanks guys.. I have all of my documents in my purse and ready to go.. info pass first thing in the a.m.!

Wow, so many good news, congrats to all for your AOS interviews, EAD, AP, etc..!!

I'm trying not to come on VJ too much these days, i'm trying to do everything i can do to help me be patient about this whole process.. It's helping so far. I still haven't received my biometrics letter, it's been 8 weeks today since NOA1.

At least, i received my AP today in the mail. But the only thing i want right now is to work, i don't care about my AP! Anyways, i hope everybody who's still waiting on their biometric letter gets it soon.

Good luck to all who have their AOS interview soon!!

A&B... I feel you on that...no bio letter for me either. It's tough. I soooo want to be able to work. It's really bringing my spirits down.

Now that everyone is getting their approvals, it's even more difficult to come on here. Of course, I'm happy for y'all... it just makes it harder for those of us still waiting all the way at the back of the line.

Anyway, I have my infopass appt tomorrow so hopefully I can shed some light for ya! Is there anything specific any of you Dallas folk wanted me to ask or find out???