Finally my day has come
. My I485 is approved on July’29 and I have received the approval letter on Aug'4 and got it stamped yesterday(Aug'6). I wanted to post the whole story once after the stamping and that's why i have waited till today for posting the message.
My FP2 was done on 06/23 and I have approached my congress man and Senator in July’04. I don’t know which has helped, but based on the approvals I have seen in the last 3 or 4 days, I would assume that most of the people who have done their FP2 in June, are getting approved now. My EAD3 and AP3 were applied in June’04 and both are still pending. So my FP2 seem to have triggered my approval.
It is so relieving and my spirits are fully up. It’s time to explore Full Time job positions. No more middle layers to eat my earnings.
Though there are a lot of people with longer waiting here, it was a painful 21 month waiting for me, especially so because of my decision to stick to the sponsoring consulting firm till I get my GC. I was prepared for 18 months waiting and the last 3 months were very difficult (too much GC worry). I was with the same company through out the GC process, and there was no gap in employment between the two companies. So i never had any doubts or fears about my case.
Let me express some of my views topic by topic so that it might help some people in this forum .
Using AC21
Last month, I have decided to use AC21 if I don’t get my approval by Aug’15. I am glad that I got much bigger freedom (than the one AC21 gives). In the ultimate analysis , not using AC21 was a BIG mistake by me and I wish no body does the same mistake in this forum. We have never seen any one getting his I485 rejected just because of AC21 issue. I am not a risk taker in critical issues and that’s why I have hesitated to use AC21. But I have ultimately lost at least 30K in the last one year due to my decision to continue with the small consulting firm.
Name Issue
I have a long first name (consisting of 3 words) in my passport and the computers in this country couldn’t accommodate the whole name. I have used the last word of that name as my first name because that’s how I was always called by others in India . While filling the SSN form, I have entered that last word of my name as the first name. Subsequently all my credit cards, employment records etc go with the first name “Raju”. But while issuing the Driver’s License, they have insisted that the first name should be the first word in the passport and they have issued my DL with that first name
. My GC process has also gone with the first name on my Driver’s License. So I have two official first names : One name being mentioned in my SSN , Pay slips, Credit cards, employment etters etc and the other one being mentioned in DL, GC process etc. I am glad that they didn’t issue RFE and waste my time.
LUD
I really hate monitoring this LUD, but I know that a lot of people here does it all the time. I have monitored it daily till 10 days before approval. I got fed up with hourly monitoring and started monitoring it only once in 2 days during the last 2 weeks. After approval, I am monitoring it daily once. Before the approval, my LUD has always showed Nov’2002 as the LUD and the message was saying that they have sent me FP1. It never changed even after FP2. It changed only on the day of my approval . So it suddenly changed from 11/21/2002 to 07/29/2004. I have got 2 Emails for myself on that day. My wife got Emails to her Email ID. After the approval the LUD has changed on 7/30, 8/2 and 8/3.
I strongly suggest to every one to STOP monitoring LUD till you get approval. When you get approved, you will get Email. That’s how I came to know my approval. Don’t jeopardize your job / concentration at work for this silly LUD tension.
Those who are going through End less Wait
To all those whose I485 is pendig for more than 18 months, I suggest that you keep putting more and more pressure on INS. Send Email to Khatri. Send Fax to congress man. Send Fax to VSC. Try to do these things in 10 days interval. Though it may not work for all, I am sure that it works for many people. When you send Fax to VSC, appreciate VSC for their good work in recent days and ask them to help you. You can mention several difficulties like lack of professional growth, difficulty in getting mortgage loan etc.
Similarly those who are waiting for FP2 should send a Fax to VSC asking them that every body who has filed much later are getting approved and they are still waiting for FP2. Do everything till all the options are exhausted and then repeat the options at rgular interval. I am telling you based on experience, nothing will happen due to too may enquiries as long as you don’t do all of them in a week. Try different routes at 10 day intervals.
Speeding Tickets
I have about 4 speeding tickets in the last 5 yrs and 1 at fault accident (major) ticket. That caused no problems for GC. So fellow speedsters, don’t worry.
Thanks
First of all I thank my Lord Venkateswara / Balaji (one of those Hindu Gods) who has been my saviour at every moment of my life. His blessings are my strength and belief.
I thank Rajiv Khanna for giving us full freedom to chat what ever we want (unlike other lawyer web sites) and also taking great pains and losing money by filing Lawsuit on behalf of this community. You will rarely see such people in this world. Believe me.
This forum is a wonderful one and I am happy that every one behaves in a very matured way here. We should all restrain ourselves from making comments on others. That is very important. The only time I lost my cool was when some one pulled my leg. Ofcourse this form taught me enough patience and so does to every one else. Let’s help each other here.
I thank every one who has made good contributions here. Special thanks go to Kashmir, rajum, rk4gc,140_takes_4ever, Edison, MrCoolz, Feb6361,Frantic, TheRealCanadian, yjay, ar888, Edison_nj, umyal, isGCtheKey , Ajay92 etc. Sorry, there were so many people I know, I can’t put all the names here.
Note: I will write more (Part2) later. I will write about immigrationportal.org etc.
Thanks all,
Raju Dantuluri (dsatish)
