DV Experience
First I want to thank those who have routinely made postings in this forum. It has taken me a while to get my registration so I can post something. Anyway, Capeolive and Summet, you have been doing a wonderful job educating prospective immigrants. You are honorable.
My wife and I were lucky to be winners of the DV2010, we received our selection on 29/5/2009. Here is a summary of the progress
CN DV2010AF49XXX
06/12 submitted DS docs to KCC
06/27 Payment receipts received
2010
05/12 Case current, mailed docs to Chicago. Included bankers check.
05/18 NOA receipts
05/22 Biometrics appt for 06/22
06/04 Did walkin biometrics in a different location
06/18 Interview letter for 07/05
07/06 RFE
07/08 Responded to RFE via infopass
07/28 GC approval, card production ordered
Experience.
Documents processing- No need for a lawyer, but if you are doing AOS and were an F1 student, please carry transcripts.
Biometrics- Do not only carry the documents indicated in the letter. We had a tough time because we only took our photo ID's without 1-94, they needed I-94s and 2 photo IDs. We were kept waiting for 40min while the lady was doing some checks.
Documents submission- Be first, no wasting time. Have everything ready. Do not wait until case becomes current that is when you start running around. That should be the date you submit your docs.
Interview experience
We (My wife and daughter) got there at 8:00 and my wife was had an appointment at 8 while I had mine at 9am same time my daughter. However, we were both called in at 8:45am. My son who is a citizen came with us. The male officer ushered us in and took a chair from a different office. We walked in and found a female officer waiting. We were told that she will observe the process.
We took the oath, and then he started asking my wife to identify herself and then went through the normal questions in form I-485. The toughest piece here was responding to questions that needed specific dates e.g when did you leave US and came back, when did you start college in US, when did you finish. A few times my wife got mixed up with dates and I also got mixed up with dates because we had been in the US for 11yrs and went through F1,F2s H1 and H-4s many dates to deal with. Plus acquiring 2 Masters Degrees (My wife and I).
The male officer then the female observer if she needed something from us, then she said she wanted our educations records. I then stood up and went to look through a big pile of documents to pull out our Diplomas. When I went to give her, she told me that she only wanted our transcripts. I responded to her that "Wow, I almost left them home because I thought the diploma certificate would suffice. I then opened 2 envelopes that had my wife's original transcripts (I had ordered them in 2006 and never opened). She took them and went to photocopy. When she came back, she found that I had already handed mine to the male officer and I only had the diploma and partial transcripts from one of the universities. The male officer told me that that was fine.
My daughter went through questioning and when she was asked if she has been married, she looked at me and smiled. She was then asked when she came to the US, she said, "I do not know about that". My wife then jumped in and helped the rest of the way. She is 14yrs.
When the processes got done, I was asked if I had any question. I told them that I need my EAD expedited because I had just received a job offer and the card was taking too long. I asked if they could stamp my passport. They told me that they do not do that, and then I asked if they could give a document- they told me that the process was not done yet- that I should do an infopass. So I was left wondering- how is it possible that some people get these things on the spot?. When we stood to leave, the officer escorted us outside and told me that wait for your green card in the mail. It will take 2 weeks. Yet the lady inside told us they had not made a decision. She looked mean and somehow jealous. Her facial expressions were tight.
I did an infopass to inquire about my EAD, when I got there, I found a very nice officer, he told me that we mailed you a letter a day after your interview. I felt good that our welcome letter was coming. He told me that no, we need some evidence from you. I almost collapsed. I said, "What!" we carried turns of documents during the interview and all they wanted was transcripts and I-94. They did not ask for anything else. The officer then told me that I will do for you a favor; I will go to the 3rd level and pull your file to get you a copy of your letter so you do not have to wait.
When I read the letter- I found 3 things
1) in our I-693, the document missed to check a box in all our forms.
2) They wanted an explanation of why my birth date was registered late.
3) My transcripts for all the yrs I have attended school in the US.
We got all this documents ready in 1day. I called home and told my parents to draft a letter. I also had a high school leaving cert that indicated my birth dates. Went to my University and got the transcripts. It turns out that I had been carrying spare transcripts from my former University in a different state. We did an infopass once again and turned in the documents.
Our frustrations.
After turning in the RFE documents, were not given any proof of receipt. I called the 1800 numbers several times. This line is a waste of time. Do not bother to call it if you can do an infopass. 3 weeks passed after responding to RFE and no action or status change was taking place. I learned that those same infopass officers actually do the interviews (They rotate).
We got so frustrated that when we asked for another infopass, I found a very mean officer that did not even want to check the computer and tell us what was going on. They told us to wait for 110days- which is definitely after Sept 30th. I tried to explain that this was DV case and he could not listen. I then demanded to see the supervisor. She came and told us to go to another window. We explained our situation and reminded her that it was almost end of July and DV numbers are getting exhausted. She told us that rarely do they deny people green card because the numbers are not there. She said it only happens the last week of the DV process. I made one last push by telling her that as a head of the household, I needed to bring closure to this process so my famiy do not continue living in suspense. We have been extremely law abiding and done everything as required, why is it that after all this now it comes down to somebody keeping our file on the shelf and not attending to it. She then told us to wait until mid Aug.
So as usual, we left the office again, walking like penguins and went home. I did another infopass for mid august. We pretty much started making up our mind that this was it with this whole process of stress. Then strange enough, 3 days letter, we got WELCOME NOTICE" letters. and to our surprise the green card was approved the same day we spoke to the supervisor.
So we are done with this process. I hope everybody will share their experience to educate others. My final advice to everybody. If you leave in the US and your case happens to be such that it will be current in May onwards. Please do a CP. I took a chance and found out that there are so many unforeseen landmines that can derail your process. Do CP and carry all the documents to can lay your hands on. It will be quicker and peaceful. If you do an AOS, be very educated and cover all the based. I did not know that a birth certificate would be a problem. Nor did I know that I could be carrying a sealed I-693 that had errors.
Good Luck and work hard. Go to school first before you start worrying about dollars and American goodies.
