Want GC Soon
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Has anyone in this forum with receipt date October 2003, on I485 started receiving Finger Printing Notices???
Any October 2003 filers receiving Finger Printing Notices???
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Want GC Soon
Registered Users (C)
Have you got your 140 approved?
Want GC Soon
Registered Users (C)
My gut feeling is that they are not issuing Finger Printing Notices until they can adjudicate the case. If any of us get finger printing notice anytime, then we can probably bank on getting our 485 done within 2 months(max, my guess) after our finger printing is done..
Even May/June Cases 2003 havent started receiving Finger Printing Notices..
Let me also know what you feel about this issue.
Even May/June Cases 2003 havent started receiving Finger Printing Notices..
Let me also know what you feel about this issue.
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Want GC Soon said:
This is my interpretation also.
The last time I looked at the 2003 tracker and other trackers, it looked like FP notices had stopped at/around June 2003 (that is, some people with ND's in June 2003 got their FP notices several months ago but then the FP notice seem to have stopped).
This makes sense -- if they wait until the I-485 is about to be adjucated before asking for FP, this should save everyone some time due to not having to redo FP multiple times.
That said, it would still be nice to at least have an idea as to when we'll be processed.
ETA
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Want GC Soon
Registered Users (C)
Appreciate your inputs. Same thoughts.. Hopefully, even if we can get our Finger Printing done within next 3 months, we should be safe..
Want GC Soon said:
I hope it's done within 3 months but I think it's quite possible that we'll have another 1-2 years to go
.There currently seem to be 2 or 3 "waves" of processing going on for I-485's. The leading wave is at around Jan/Feb 2003. There is another wave at around July/Aug 2002. And, there are still many cases from 2001/early 2002 which aren't approved yet.
The optimistic view is that many October 2003 cases will be processed by the leading wave in about 10 months (maybe less if you assume that they are processing > 1 day's worth of cases per day).
The pessimistic view is that many October 2003 cases will be handled by one of the trailing waves in about 15 months or even later if they start to allocate more resources to older cases (it's totally unfair to concentrate only on newer cases).
IMO what we'll see is some (simple?) cases being handled by the leading wave but many cases will wait longer (as we have seen with the I-140's).
The bottom line is that there are still tons of cases out there with earlier ND's than October 2003 and from what I can tell the FOM approach will actually slow down non-concurrent cases / cases for which the I-140 is already approved...
ETA
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vicky007 said:
Not necessarily.
To switch from AOS to CP, you have to file form I-824 and the processing date for these at the VSC is currently showing as May 20, 2002
. Unless your consulate accepts Attorney Certified I-140 (so you can apply for CP as soon as the I-824 *receipt* is in your hands without having to wait for it to be completely processed) you could be looking at 1 year or longer just to switch. Then there's the wait to get the CP interview. This seems to vary a lot depending on where you go but it seems that the waits are getting longer these days due to increased security. The last time I checked (about 1 year ago) it was taking between 3 - 11 months to get an interview at the Montreal consulate (I'm Canadian so this is where I'd have to go) with an average of about 8 months. I think I got these stats from rupnet.
Plus, if you switch to CP you can't use AC21 (assuming your I-140 is approved prior to the I-485) so you are SOL if you lose your sponsoring employment. And you can't do CP if you need your pending I-485 to maintain your status in the US (e.g. you need to be able to work on an H visa etc.). If you have family members who are using an EAD to work then afaik they'd have to stop working as soon as you switch to CP.
(Afaik there is a gray area as to what happens to the existing 485 application if you switch to CP but there is some indication that the USCIS considers this to be abandoned in this case, although I'm not sure at what stage -- e.g. it could be only when the I-824 is approved).
Add in the inconvenience / expense of needing to travel to the foreign consulate (with your entire family if applicable) and needing to have security checks and medicals done over there.
When most of us started this process (and chose AOS over CP), the processing times were definitely > 1 year for AOS (beyond the processing time for the I-140 itself) afaik. If AOS was the best choice then, I don't see why it wouldn't still be the best choice now for most of us.
Unless you are planning to switch fields / are worried about remaining employed in your field (in a job which matches the job for which the I-140 was done) before getting your GC it seems that switching to CP is a bad idea (unless you can use AC-140 *and* your consulate has a low wait time).
ETA
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