sman76 said:
I have been a silent member of this forum for a few months. I am pleased to report that I just received an email from USCIS that my 485 application has been approved. I have a few questions about the next steps..
1) I understand that I need to go to the local office to get my passport stamped. Where can I find the address and phone number of the office in Atlanta?
2) Do I need an appointment for this or can I just walk-in?
3) Is email approval sufficient to get an appt and get the stamp?
I appreciate your advice and wish everyone good luck.
Thanks
Hi sman76. I'm just getting up to speed on this myself. My family and I were approved at the VSC on 12/16/04 (we now live in the Dallas area, details here:
http://www.immigrationportal.com/forumdisplay.php?f=96) and I will also need to do stamping for my wife and myself.
I'll answer with what I know so far...
1) / 2) Make an INFOPASS appointment here:
https://infopass.uscis.gov/infopass.php. The zip that you specify will determine where you go (as I understand it, you can make an INFOPASS appointment for any location although some have reported needing to show ID that proves you live in that area). Many centers refuse to accept walk-ins so I wouldn't chance that. You need a separate appointment for every family member who is being stamped.
3) No. You generally need the I-797C (your mailed approval notice) to be stamped. Also bring your old documents (H / L, EAD, AP), your passport, ID (e.g. drivers license), 2 passport style photos* for you, spouse and any older kids (see below). I'm personally planning on bringing anything that I think they might ask for -- I don't intend to have to do it more than once
.
*Don't bring the old ADIT (side facing) style photos even though the approval notice might ask for those. Bring 2 passport-style photos (front facing).
Note that, from what I can tell, kids who are less than about 12 years old don't *need* to be stamped -- they should receive their green card automatically. They apparently use the photos from the I-485 application (which probably used the old ADIT style in many cases) and there won't be any fingerprint on the card (not needed apparently). You *can* have the kids stamped if you want, e.g. if they need to travel soon and you won't have the physical cards before then. In that case, make an appointment for the kids and get their passport stamped (you *need* to do this for older kids and for them you'll need to bring passport-style photos and they'll be fingerprinted).
In our case, the status for my kids' cases changed to "Card Ordered" the day after we were approved. I expect we'll have their cards before my wife and I even get stamped.
Also, unless you have an older SSN card, you might want to visit the SSN office (which might be near the Dallas ASC -- I don't know) to have the "work requires INS approval" message removed (that's not the exact message but it's something like that). You don't *need* to do this right away, but it might be convenient. They'll take your card and send you a new one (with the same SSN) without the restriction about 2 weeks later.
ETA
