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Hi all, I'm new here and really hope some of you can help me by sharing thoughts and experiences. I came to NYC on a J1 Visa for a traineeship and moved in with my American boyfriend right away (we've been together for 5 years and did long distance for a long time as I was still a student in Italy). We got married 4 months before my J1 Visa expired. We filed everything at the end of November, also applied for a temporary work and travel permit (I have an offer letter from the company I did my traineeship for 18 months expiring in September 2023 and submitted in the application) but I still haven't heard about anything. It's been 7 months now and I know the process always take a looong time but I was wondering if you could share your experiences or just tell me anything I could do to expedite the process. I really miss home and I really want to be working again. Thank you!!

Hopefully my question is straightforward—a family member is keeping me up to date on her husband's case, who just received EAD approval (the card should be arriving in a week or so, I suppose) and Advance Parole approval. This is my first time seeing an I-512L Advance Parole form, and when I search the forum a lot of the posts are over ten years old. Am I wrong in thinking that a lot of approved I-131 cases are simply rolled into the "combo card" where the recipient doesn't get a separate Advance Parole document? For what it's worth, checking his cases, the EAD was approved on February 22nd, and the tracking said the card was produced today on February 28th. On the AP side, it says it was approved on February 23rd and produced on the 24th. Is this a case of strange timing where they were considered separately? If the AP had been approved before the EAD, does that mean it would have resulted in a combo card? He is still waiting for the EAD in the mail, but seeing that the AP paper arrived in the mail it seems like there would be no point in USCIS issuing that if they know they were about to issue the EAD a few days later. Also, he has a single copy of the I-512L Advance Parole form and I see old forum posts referencing that there should be two originals. Is there a problem or should there be a single? Finally, if the EAD that arrives in a few days says "Not valid for re-entry to the U.S." at the bottom but he has the just-received AP document, he can take those two items along with his foreign passport to leave the U.S. and then re-enter, right? Does it have to be an emergency or can it be for any reason? Thank you! Edit: Adding here that after googling around I have come to understand that in or around 2022, USCIS started decoupling the work permit and advance parole applications to speed along processing and therefore no longer issue combo cards, which answers all of my questions except if there are supposed to be one or two originals of the Advance Parole document. Leaving this up for reference and hoping someone can let me know if there is indeed only supposed to be one I-512L included in the mailing.

Hey, everyone! For starters, thank you all so much for creating and contributing to such a broad and deep repository of knowledge and stories about the various visa processes. It's no exaggeration to say that this forum has been truly life-altering. So, here's the story! My fiancee is in Canada, I'm in the US. She works as a freelance artist, primarily making her income on shops like Etsy, from YouTube, and through artistic commission work. We don't live together yet, but of course plan to change that when the K-1 is granted. My question is: Once she crosses into the US on her K-1 Visa, and our 90 day marriage timer starts, does her freelance art qualify as "work"? As in, is she legally disallowed from making any money from art while physically in the US until a Work Permit is granted? She also receives monthly royalties from YouTube (and other sources) for work she did in the past. Does receiving payments for past work constitute "work" that would require a permit? My hours of research have been very frustrating and confusing because most people don't have the weirdly specific situation we're in. I was hoping the VJ forums might have some people that could shed light on our problem! Thanks for reading. -Amber