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DV 2021 AOS Only

sultiik said:
We sent money order April 26. It was cashed May 3. Still waiting the receipt. USPS says label created, but not yet in their system to track.
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I am like you waiting, cashed April 20. I am afraid my Medical has now only 35 days to expire. I was too slow to send the DV payment
 
Sm1smom said:
That equates to your wife coming into the US with a preconceived intent of filing AOS which is frowned upon. I’m sorry I can’t answer your direct question in this case
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Thank you for your reply, do you think sending a money order should be done for each couple at the same time or can it be done separately?
 
Has anyone's check cashed by USCIS from lockbox today? I feel that people forget to write their data to the spreadsheet.

It has been 22 days so far sending my AoS package to Chicago lockbox. My check is not cashed yet.

Waiting continues for a NoA.
 
raphael1899 said:
Interview Experience -- Boston FO

I just came back from my interview, and here's my experience. My interview was at 9:30 and I got there at 9:00. My lawyer was there to meet me. We checked in and waited in the waiting room for about 5 minutes before an officer called my name.

She checked my driver's license, passport, and SNN card. She started with questions about my education (what I studied, where, and for how long). She asked me to see a transcript from my undergraduate college to prove that I attended. She said the I-20 is not enough. I did not have a transcript for my undergrad (only my current Master's program) but I had my official Bachelor's diploma and she said that it was totally fine.

Then she moved on to all the yes/no questions from the I-485. The only question she asked about my finances was "How do you pay your bills?" and I said that I have an on-campus job and savings, and she never asked for any documents.

Interestingly, I did not include my DV fee receipt in my AOS package and she did not ask for it at the interview, so I am not sure if she knew whether I paid the fee or not in another way.

At the end of the interview, which lasted exactly 12 minutes, she said that she approved my case and I will receive my card soon and if I don't get it within 30 days to get in touch with USCIS. When I left the building, I checked my case status and it said "Interview was completed and my case must be reviewed." It updated again after 2 minutes to "New Card is Being Produced."

Mom, Susie...there are no words to express my gratitude for all the help, support, and patience. I would not have been able to do this without you. What you both do here truly helps people change their lives, and I will always be grateful for that.

I will keep updating my timeline and help others! If there is anything anyone would like to know about my experience that they think could be helpful to them, please ask!
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Congratulations!!! What a great news.

And definitely, Mom and Susie are the magicians here!
 
dhanu159 said:
Thought I would also share my full experience with DV process as I had a roller coaster experience and will benefit people to circumvent from hitting walls


My case is a AOS and FTJ

October 2 – File sent to USCIS . I did early filing ( 1 month ahead). No issues

November 2 -payment cashed

November 9 – NOA received – I realized the DOB was wrong in my receipt. It was an error on my side where I had the the year wrong . Called USCIS the same day – the front desk person put in a typographical error request. About 4 days from the request I got an email from FO saying I can get the DOB error corrected at the interview so I let it be rather than filing another application with correct DOB ( This was Moms advice too).

Waited till February 2021 – did not get a bio notice. I made a request to talk to a tier 2 agent. Got a call after 16 days. Luckily this agent was very helpful. Explained my situation and told him that I was on a tight timeline since I have to do FTJ. He scheduled my biometrics over the phone and said my notice will arrive soon.

Tip - when calling USCIS - on the first prompt say technical support ...on the second prompt also say Technical support - you will be connected to an agent right away .

March 2 – did my bio – I just told the lady at the location about my DOB error. She said to get it adjusted at the interview . No issues bio was done

March 5 – FO sent an email stating they had an interview cancelled on march 16 and if I would be willing to take it. I replied yes. I also requested them to send the interview notice via email just in case.

March 7 – received interview notice

March 16 Interview – Interview took abt 10 minutes. The officer went over the i485. That was it. I got the DOB error fixed. I had a huge file with me to provide any originals if he asked.. but he did not ask for anything in fact I didn’t even have to open my file. The officer said "I can approve your case"- and tried to do it on the system and said there is a clerical error and KCC had not sent the file. He said this is his first time handling a DV case and needs to contact a supervisor. I said do you have a timeline- the officer said 2 days max. That’s was it I left the office !!

Stressful 1 month after the interview- I heard nothing after the interview. The status said DOB updated. I was on h1b and to makes things worse.. I get a call from my staffing agency stating they are closing down and to transfer the h1 ASAP. (Cherry on top!)…..

KCC nightmare - Week after the interview I emailed KCC to ask if USCIS requested my file. After 2 weeks the reply they sent was –“ Call USCIS at 1800…” BS. I sent them an email again clearly mentioning what was going on – guess what after 2 weeks they emailed the same template –“ Call USCIS at 1800…”.
Patiently I replied again – then some one at KCC replied that “I had a case of 2 and only paid for 1”. I was fuming at this point!!. I replied to them that the other person is FTJ. They could not still fig it out although I had ds260 filed and also sent them a cover letter stating clearly the other person is my wife doing FTJ. Anyways after explaining all that the reply I got was “Call USCIS at 1800…” BS. At this point I had enough. I literally sent an email with block capitals which might have shook the whole KCC yelling at them to stop sending template replies and to read the emails properly – Luckily it worked they replied the same day telling my file was sent to USCIS. Lost about 1 month here with KCC cos they take 2 weeks for a reply!!

Waited 2 weeks after that – checking the status everyday no change!

May 3rd-submitted a congressional inquiry

May 10th– received response from congress case worker – the response said “The case is under review with IO and we have alerted the Officer"

May 11th– New card in production- I don’t know if it was the congressional inquiry but it worked

May 14th– “we mailed your new card”

Next burden is FTJ. I hope itll go smooth and hope to not to go bald by the time I meet my wife from all the stress :D
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Congratulations! And thank you for sharing!
 
Hello @Sm1smom

I’m reading all of these stories of resilience and thinking if I can do more than I already have and just sit and stoically exercise patience:)

1/7 - filed the application
3/1 - interview was scheduled but it didn’t happen. FO said my case looks fine but I should complete bio first so I’ll be re-invited for an interview
3/8 - biometric done
End of March my H1B expired so right now I have no salary and no insurance
4/20 - Reached out to one of the NY senators, properly filing the release form. No response from the senator, no update from USICS.
5/5 - Reached out to the congresswoman’s office. Right away, their chief of staff responded with, “I have sent your inquiry to USCIS and will let you know as soon as I receive a response.” From others’ experience, they usually get something going within a week, but my account still says "Case Was Updated To Show Fingerprints Were Taken.”
I’ve spoken to a couple of Tier 2 agents, tried to explain the hardship but they're basically saying I should wait at least till mid July (after which it’ll be outside of the normal processing time and I can request infopass).

I imagine my FO most likely batches since they're one of the busiest, but there are also clearly cases that get stuck somewhere because of an error or because an applicant doesn't follow up. (Like in my case they might see that the interview has already been scheduled and keep in in the drawer thinking it took place already). Is there anything else I could do here?

1. contact the other less busy senator?
2. give it a try and request to expedite the process of my case based on severe financial loss
3. maybe a wild idea - I somehow remembered the name of the field office director that was on my first interview letter and found him on a leadership email directory. The only thing is, I moved from Queen to Manhattan after filing but everything is in the same building anyway, just different floors.
4. Or something else?

Thank you again for your time, and for this forum!
 
Wow_277 said:
Hello,
Has anyone here tried eaerly feeling? Can tell me your experience?
Thank you!
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I did a month ahead. Included the early filing memo with the file . I had no issues. Again its your call.. as per the excel sheet provided by mom..there has been cases which were rejected due to early filing
 
IAM2001 said:
Thank you for your reply, do you think sending a money order should be done for each couple at the same time or can it be done separately?
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The typical practice is for the payment for eligible family members processing AOS to be made together
 
MayaA said:
Hello @Sm1smom

I’m reading all of these stories of resilience and thinking if I can do more than I already have and just sit and stoically exercise patience:)

1/7 - filed the application
3/1 - interview was scheduled but it didn’t happen. FO said my case looks fine but I should complete bio first so I’ll be re-invited for an interview
3/8 - biometric done
End of March my H1B expired so right now I have no salary and no insurance
4/20 - Reached out to one of the NY senators, properly filing the release form. No response from the senator, no update from USICS.
5/5 - Reached out to the congresswoman’s office. Right away, their chief of staff responded with, “I have sent your inquiry to USCIS and will let you know as soon as I receive a response.” From others’ experience, they usually get something going within a week, but my account still says "Case Was Updated To Show Fingerprints Were Taken.”
I’ve spoken to a couple of Tier 2 agents, tried to explain the hardship but they're basically saying I should wait at least till mid July (after which it’ll be outside of the normal processing time and I can request infopass).

I imagine my FO most likely batches since they're one of the busiest, but there are also clearly cases that get stuck somewhere because of an error or because an applicant doesn't follow up. (Like in my case they might see that the interview has already been scheduled and keep in in the drawer thinking it took place already). Is there anything else I could do here?

1. contact the other less busy senator?
2. give it a try and request to expedite the process of my case based on severe financial loss
3. maybe a wild idea - I somehow remembered the name of the field office director that was on my first interview letter and found him on a leadership email directory. The only thing is, I moved from Queen to Manhattan after filing but everything is in the same building anyway, just different floors.
4. Or something else?

Thank you again for your time, and for this forum!
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1. I’ll suggest you exercise more patience, it’s only been 6 working days from when you got the response from your congresswoman’s office. You can’t necessarily go by “others’ experience, they usually get something going within a week”, each FO operates independently of each other, assigned IOs have different workloads/schedules. Don’t rush into initiating another congressional inquiry at this point.
2. You can give it a shot, a “NO” response is going to be worse than were you are at the moment.
3. I wouldn’t recommend doing that. In fairness, your case is not outside of the normal processing timeline. And while the two FOs may be in the same building, it is not unusual for filed cases to further get delayed when an applicant moves after filing and has subsequently initiated an address change with USCIS, so that may be contributing to the delay you’re experiencing.
4. It is not yet time for “something else” outside of the ongoing patience. Although you can try Emma online, @gg96 did, as another form of attempt at bringing needed attention to your case file.
 
@Sm1smom another question please. sorry for asking it now. On I485 part 8 question # 23: have you ever applied for any kind of relief or protection from removal, exclusion or deportation. I am on status, I am on my opt which expire in October and I also had legit cause for asylum and applied and it is still pending application, never used any benefit from it. this is why I am still on status and my form i94 says D/S. on the above question, do i answer yes or no? TIA
 
alves.sebastiao said:
@Sm1smom another question please. sorry for asking it now. On I485 part 8 question # 23: have you ever applied for any kind of relief or protection from removal, exclusion or deportation. I am on status, I am on my opt which expire in October and I also had legit cause for asylum and applied and it is still pending application, never used any benefit from it. this is why I am still on status and my form i94 says D/S. on the above question, do i answer yes or no? TIA
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Answer NO.
 
alves.sebastiao said:
@Sm1smom Just have a question, when I print my form I485, the barcode on the bottom of pages doesnt print. I am just wonder if it is okay. has anyone had this problem? TIA
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That happened to us and we figured out that that was because we used PDF viewer other than Adobe Reader. We re-did many of the forms to fix the barcode just in case.
 
Sm1smom said:
That is fine, no problem with not having the barcode on the form.
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alves.sebastiao said:
@Sm1smom Just have a question, when I print my form I485, the barcode on the bottom of pages doesnt print. I am just wonder if it is okay. has anyone had this problem? TIA
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Mom Already replied that's okay. But, you may change the paper size option to "US" from A4 while printing. That helps.
 
Sm1smom said:
1. I’ll suggest you exercise more patience, it’s only been 6 working days from when you got the response from your congresswoman’s office. You can’t necessarily go by “others’ experience, they usually get something going within a week”, each FO operates independently of each other, assigned IOs have different workloads/schedules. Don’t rush into initiating another congressional inquiry at this point.
2. You can give it a shot, a “NO” response is going to be worse than were you are at the moment.
3. I wouldn’t recommend doing that. In fairness, your case is not outside of the normal processing timeline. And while the two FOs may be in the same building, it is not unusual for filed cases to further get delayed when an applicant moves after filing and has subsequently initiated an address change with USCIS, so that may be contributing to the delay you’re experiencing.
4. It is not yet time for “something else” outside of the ongoing patience. Although you can try Emma online, @gg96 did, as another form of attempt at bringing needed attention to your case file.
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Thank you so much! As always, it make a lot of sense.
 
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