PedroDaGr8

12 minutes ago, willnmahi said:

Thanks for all the responses. Yes, I've checked both those systems and the last message on both is that fingerprints were reused last August. There is nothing about a RFE or a denial. Our address has stayed the same and it is a house. If we were truly sent a RFE and given an eventual denial, should that be reflected online now when I type in the receipt number?

Print out the histories from those pages showing no steps indicating and RFE, that could be useful information later. The systems can take time to update so make sure you can show that as of today that there was no history showing an RFE.

14 hours ago, dayotutu1 said:

YSC = patience. I am in YSC boat. Fingerprint waived, no November filer has gotten approved.

Ours is at LIN, another one which demands patience. We haven't even gotten the fingerprint waiver yet. 

7 hours ago, Joshzes said:

Hi guys. 
 

My 4/1 update: “Case Was Updated To Show Fingerprints Were Taken”. They reused the ones they had taken when I got the first GC. 
 

On average, does anyone know how long it takes from when this finger prints stage happens to GC approval (removal of conditions)? On the Google doc, I’m seeing on average about a month. I’m YSC. 
 

thoughts? 
 

good luck everyone 

I'm not sure anyone can answer that, unless you find a YSC specific thread. I checked the Sept. and Oct. spreadsheets and nobody had been approved from YSC.

On 3/26/2021 at 12:10 PM, Harold_B said:

Guys! This is my first time posting, but I've been following for a while. I just got a call from my attorney with a letter of approval for 10 year Green Card with removal of restrictions. OMG i can't believe it. Just got pics and new GC will be recieved in 60 days?

Is this normal? I thought we were suppose to wait more than 2 years or so?

Filed: 11/6/2020
1st NOA: 1/4/2021
2nd NOA: 3/22/2021 (notice date) received by attorney on 3/26/2021

Which service center?

1 hour ago, Ana&Matt said:

I randomly checked my USCIS account and saw the approval!!! 

 

March 19, 2021 Case Was Approved

March 18, 2021 We ordered your new card.

February 9, 2021 The fingerprints relating to your Form I-751 Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence, were taken.

November 20, 2020 We received your Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence.

 

WOW! Congratulations!

21 hours ago, Jaimekr08 said:

Anyone else have their case at LIN? I feel like I've heard/seen limited movement for cases there

Since NOA1, no movement.

Thanks for bumping this, I never was able to find a LIN-focused thread! I will add my info to the sheet

3 hours ago, RS_ said:

I’ve noticed no movement on Biometrics lately! 

Yeah, we are at LIN and haven't heard a thing. Oh well, we knew this was going to be a long haul. 

On 2/2/2021 at 9:51 AM, emekus94 said:

That's interesting- from prior months, LIN seems to be one of the few up to date on the Biometrics game
Am seeing about 3/4 folks in the s/s that already got notice of it being waived
They just might be slower- but definitely is coming

That is great to hear! We are LIN and haven't heard anything yet about biometrics.

No need to worry yet.

Due to COVID and a large volume of applications, they are EXTREMELY behind on processing 751s. We submitted early-mid November and our card was not charged until early January. 

6 hours ago, Yuliia said:

After NOA1 , today I received Form I-797C that USCIS will use my previous fingerprints and it's unnecessary for me to visit their center. Did you guys received tha same info

Which service center?

3 hours ago, eatphyllosophical said:

Hi PedroDaGr8

Thanks for the reply. Could you please elaborate on the line " whichever processes first will post first" ? 

7 days is what most friends told me. Finger crossed that mine will arrive after 7 calendar days too!  Well, in the worst case, I have to start at ground zero again. But the good side is I can still sleep a lot everyday like my cat pic  . Big thanks to you!

 

 

 

Meaning normally "Approved" and "New Card Is Being Produced" likely get submitted to the system around the same time. That being said, for some reason, sometimes the Approved posts online first followed by New Card (which is the logical order), other times New Card posts online first which means that Approved come later (which is what happened for you). 

This isn't at all abnormal, I don't know if it is server backlog or what, but whichever processes first will post first. My wife received her GC around 7 calendar days from the date we received the SMS of approval. The "Welcome To America" letter came a couple days before the GC. 

That being said, you are cutting it VERY close because of the Thanksgiving Holiday. 

Follow up with them regularly, the BKK location is good when it works but a HUGE headache when it doesn't. My wife was living in BKK at the time and they wanted to independently verify all her Viet documents. So they gave her the blue slip and her passport. She emailed a couple weeks later to follow up and they told her she was approved and they were preparing her visa, which was kinda surprising since they didn't have her passport. We emailed them about this and they asked her to rush ship the passport to the same address as the Packet 3. We waited, as Songkran was in the middle, she emailed and nothing. Suddenly, 10 days later, the packet shows up in her mailbox. 

On 4/2/2019 at 10:48 AM, Mark and Pooky said:

When you send directly via an ACH Transfer, does your bank charge anything for this?

My bank (Chase) did not charge any fees for the ACH either. 

On 7/16/2019 at 10:03 PM, P Cas said:

Hello. I applied in December and was waiting for my work permits and still haven't  received. But I already received my interview notice for August.

 

 Because I never got my EAD card Im not able to have my name on our bills or have a conjoined account at navy Federal since they need Social Security.

I would like to know if having the apartment lease in both our names, pictures, proof that I am in his car and health insurance is enough for the interview? 

 

 I have no criminal record or deportation so never had any complication with my case

They look at a number of factors, not just commingling of finances. They look at commingling of lives (SMS messages, emails, shared friends, meeting family, etc.), they look at commingling of finances (shared accounts, authorized user on credit cards, etc.), cohabination (joint lease, proof that you receive mail at said address, etc.), and of course a valid relationship (gifts, pictures showing celebrations together, etc.). All of this can be used to judge the validity of the marriage. 

Always show up for appointments early. If your appt is noon, they will want you there BEFORE noon to fill out all of the paperwork. They will then take your fingerprints and expect to be done a bit after noon. It is honestly a fast process, as long as you are on time. 

2 hours ago, Lebanese23 said:

how are they going to know if she's not on payroll or anything? I know it's illegal but how are they going to find out? 

What do you mean if there is no potential of direct benefit? is that when you decide to change work when you get EAD?

Anybody could report it, even years after the fact. All it takes is ONE disgruntled employee who happened to know about this to cause problems. This would be considered a material omission and could open the person to having their GC revoked (and if they are a Citizen, their citizenship as well). In the end, when talking about unethical acts and getting caught, the discussion will revolve around weighing risks versus rewards; in this case the reward is essentially none and as for the risk, while the likelihood of the risk happening is low, the severity of the risk is VERY high.

As the wording of potential or direct benefit, the following link does a great job of explaining this (including some of the relevant case law):

https://www.usavisanow.com/h-1b-visa/h1b-visa-resources/uscis-views-on-volunteering/

Quick summary of the article:

A foreign national cannot perform work as a volunteer in a position that would normally be a paid position or if the foreign national believes that some form of compensation will follow. This form of volunteering would be considered as work by the agency and would require employment authorization. Furthermore, an applicant may not offer their services to a prospective employer on a trial basis. If any type of benefit could accrue to the alien, though it may not be wages or fringe benefits, the services will be considered unauthorized employment.

6 hours ago, Danny70 said:

Oh, I thought it K1 was a Non-Immigrant visa?

 

Now it says "Ready" when I searched it under Immigrant visa and put in my case number I got from NVC. 

 

Do we have to wait for Packet 3 email or can she send the Packet 3 to the Embassy and schedule her interview? 

K1 is a non-immigrant visa with immigrant intent.

Basically, it is a non-immigrant visa because it does not automatically convey immigrant rights to the bearer upon entry to the USA.  Compare this to a CR-1/IR-1 visa where the immigrant automatically gets a green card.

That being said, it is understood that the non-immigrant will adjust status once here, this is where the immigrant intent comes in. Because of this immigrant intent,  the state department often treats it as both a non-immigrant and immigrant visa. For example, the interview is much closer to an immigrant visa interview than a non-immigrant interview. Simiarly, the evidence requested is much closer to an immigrant visa than a non-immigrant visa. It seems that the state department treats the K1 as an immigrant visa (I checked four different embassies and all had Fiance(e) Visa under the Immigrant section). 

I went overboard making sure we were not lacking for anything the interviewer might have wanted. I used simple manila envelopes and organized all of our evidence as follows:

1. Wife's biographical documents (EAD/AP Card, Passport, birth certificate, birth certificate translation, etc.)

2. My biographical documents (Passport, Global Entry Card, Birth Certificate, Previous Marriage Certificate, Divorce Judgement). 

3. Evidence establishing our married life together: Certified copy of marriage certificate, pictures of us, all of her facebook posts tagging me, pictures of either of us with the others friends/family/etc., pictures of our families meeting

4. Evidence of commingling of finances: adding her to my accounts, adding her to my insurance, showing she is a beneficiary to my life insurance policy

5. Evidence of cohabitation: our leases with both our names on it, utility bills with both names on it, print outs of USCIS Informed Delivery emails showing mail for both of us in one email.

6. Evidence of communication: online chat transcripts, emails, etc.

7. All letters received from USCIS

8. Copies of everything we sent in the I-485 plus her medical related stuff from the K1

9. My updated financial information: most recent tax transcripts, letter from employer, pay stubs, etc. 

Now certainly some of the evidence might fit in more than one category. It is more important that you remember which category you included said evidence, than you have perfect organization. 

During the interview, this system allowed us to dig VERY rapidly through our evidence. Additionally, it seemed that most of the questions the interviewer asked were easily grouped in these categories; making it easy to provide evidence. 

3 hours ago, jlee4790 said:

Hi my wife and I got married and are in the process of waiting for her greencard application to be approved. Also waiting for her EAD which we applied for.

  

Her dad has a company in the states. They are not sure if unpaid work will be against the terms of her visa application. Mostly training from home and being CC'd on some emails. No payment or any records of employment.

  

 Does anyone know how in depth they go with their checks? We don't want to risk it but her potential supervisor seems to want to get her started asap. kindly let me know. thanks

Job training, where there is no associated job or benefit at the end? Theoretically legit.

Job training, especially as part of a future job, let alone the same company. Not at all legit.

It doesn't matter that she is training from home, what matters is that the training would be from the company she will work for and directly relate to her future job. The fact that they will be CC'ing her on these emails is a HUGE red flag. USCIS says that a person can do volunteer work, training, etc. ONLY if there is no potential of direct benefit once the applicant has work status. This is intended to crack down on employers that have the employee work "voluntarily" or "as an intern" while they wait for work authorization; your situation sounds like exactly what USCIS was trying to crack down on. 

I know it is hard to wait, but don't risk it! 

On 12/31/2018 at 12:35 PM, Ehri&Mark said:

Wondering how long after you got an update abt interview before you got a mail?

It was about a week between SMS and receipt of the letter with details.

12 hours ago, quelinda said:

If his passport was not taken, does that mean it’s a denial? 

Keeping the passport typically means an approval is very likely, the reverse is not true though giving back the passport DOES NOT mean a denial is likely. At the end of the day, each embassy and case are different, oddities included. Remember, if they REALLY wanted to deny him, they would have already done so. So just provide the info they requested and wait for the final result.

I speak about the above from experience, ours was a huge mess:

For my wife, she had a crazy time for the K1 interview. The day before the appointment it disappeared from the website, she went anyways and had a 5 h wait. At the actual interview, she was asked no questions, simply told they want to verify her documents and as such there would be no interview today. She was then given her passport back and a 221G (Visa Refusal Form) with it stating "Administrative Processing of her Vietnamese documents". Oddly enough, a couple weeks later, she sent an email to them and they informed her that she was approved and should expect her packet (including passport with visa) in about 10 days; an interesting feat considering she still had her passport in her purse and had not had an interview.  In the end, it all worked out; they requested she mail her passport to them,  she ended up here, and now has her GC. 

A letter written in formal business letter format should suffice, though a "letterhead" is certainly easy to make in word as well.

18 hours ago, hwk said:

We will be having our interview on Jan 22nd! 

 

It says to bring petitioner’s birth cert. did any one bring that or is a US passport good enough? 

I brought it, but the interviewer said they just needed to establish my citizenship so a passport was good enough. I can't say this holds true for all interviewers, but for mine that is how it went.