Our I-485 applications (WAC-02-047-xxxxx) got approved on February 23rd, 2004. We received our cards a week later.
We started our process at CSC in November 2000 (EB-2 RIR). Labor certification was approved in 2 months and I-140 took about 6 months. We filed our I-485 applications in November 2001.
I am the primary applicant. I lost my job in November 2002. I was 8 months pregnant at the time. Since I couldn't go back to work immediately, we pretty much gave up on our applications. We moved to Texas in March 2003 Since my husband found a new job. We received our 2nd fingerprint notices in April 2003 and we flew back to CA to do our fingerprints.
In September 2003, we received our RFE notices from our lawyer (old employer). My husband's RFE was for birth certificate and mine was for employment verification. We were required to respond to our RFE's by first week of October! Apparently, the lawyer did not think it important enough to send us our RFE notices earlier. We were in a state of panic since I hadn't found a job yet. I was interviewing in a few places but nothing had materialized. We decided that we would respond to the RFE citing "maternity leave". We thought this would buy us some time and by then, hopefully my husband's H1 would come thru. We didn't use a lawyer to respond to the RFE because by then, we were much more knowledgeable about the immigration process (THANKS TO THIS BOARD!)
It was really a miracle when I got a job offer just 2 days before our RFE responses were due. Two weeks later, we were notified that our applications had been transferred to the local office in Texas. We received our interview notices in November 2003. We appeared for the interview in December 2003. The interview experience was a big joke! We had 2 bags ( literally) full of documents with us. All the IIO asked was for my employment verification letter. At the end of the interview, he said that my information had not been entered into their local system. So, we would have to wait 60 days before he could approve our applications.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, we received our approval notices in Feb 2004. This board has been a great help through our 3 and a half year ordeal.
Thank you all for posting your experiences!
We started our process at CSC in November 2000 (EB-2 RIR). Labor certification was approved in 2 months and I-140 took about 6 months. We filed our I-485 applications in November 2001.
I am the primary applicant. I lost my job in November 2002. I was 8 months pregnant at the time. Since I couldn't go back to work immediately, we pretty much gave up on our applications. We moved to Texas in March 2003 Since my husband found a new job. We received our 2nd fingerprint notices in April 2003 and we flew back to CA to do our fingerprints.
In September 2003, we received our RFE notices from our lawyer (old employer). My husband's RFE was for birth certificate and mine was for employment verification. We were required to respond to our RFE's by first week of October! Apparently, the lawyer did not think it important enough to send us our RFE notices earlier. We were in a state of panic since I hadn't found a job yet. I was interviewing in a few places but nothing had materialized. We decided that we would respond to the RFE citing "maternity leave". We thought this would buy us some time and by then, hopefully my husband's H1 would come thru. We didn't use a lawyer to respond to the RFE because by then, we were much more knowledgeable about the immigration process (THANKS TO THIS BOARD!)
It was really a miracle when I got a job offer just 2 days before our RFE responses were due. Two weeks later, we were notified that our applications had been transferred to the local office in Texas. We received our interview notices in November 2003. We appeared for the interview in December 2003. The interview experience was a big joke! We had 2 bags ( literally) full of documents with us. All the IIO asked was for my employment verification letter. At the end of the interview, he said that my information had not been entered into their local system. So, we would have to wait 60 days before he could approve our applications.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, we received our approval notices in Feb 2004. This board has been a great help through our 3 and a half year ordeal.
Thank you all for posting your experiences!
