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DV 2013 AOS Only

Hexa said:
SAGIRL, best of luck to you and your husband.

My previous experience with a CIS receptionist wasn't very pleasant either. She had this attitude that she couldn't be wrong because she had been doing this job for years. Well, it is a job for her, but it's a life-changing matter for me. Seriously I have spent thousands of hours reading the pertinent law plus all sorts of obscure court decisions and CIS internal memos, as well as accounts of fellow applicants on this forum. When it comes to my particular situation, I'm probably more knowledgable than all but the most experienced IO, CO, and immigration lawyers.

If I hadn't insisted upon my understanding of the regulations, this lady at CIS reception would have had us submit a wrong (and costly) application that would have been denied anyway, while all she needed to do was to take us to the CBP on the same floor. She was darn sensitive too, and was offended by my mere suggestion that the rules are different from her understanding. I knew better than to be rude to an immigration officer, but I'm not going to just accept her mistaken interpretation that would cost me money and cause my wife to be out of status at the same time.

Back in my country the CO was clearly green as well. He was puzzled by my H-1B I-797 with attached I-94; he obviously had never seen one before, and had to ask how come I could stay in USA without flying out to get an H-1B visa. He fret over things that's actually very solid, while completely missing things that could have been shaky. At that time it worked for my advantage, so I'm not complaining. But, it could have easily gone wrong.

Now I understand completely why many Americans have little faith in their government. I can tolerate inefficiency, but I can't accept glaring mistakes and sheer incompetency.
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Thank you for your good wishes Hexa

I can tell that you know exactly what I am am talking about. You echo my sentiments on this subject. I am very pleased that everything worked out well for you and your wife.
In the past week, for the first time whilst living in the USA, I had misgivings about the competency of the way some of these government departments are run, and I too understand the frustrations of the American people. This problem is very big in my home country, but I definitely didn't expect that attitude here.
 
sep04 said:
My situation is similar to yours, SAGIRL. The process was close to a nightmare sometimes, but fortunately I was approved last week (the very end of the fiscal year). I had a high case number and was current in July. Of course, I did not think of submitting my application earlier, and now I regret it. Within two months of sending the AOS package, I had an interview at my local USCIS. The IO officer told me that I was going to be approved by the end of the week. Three weeks later (mid September), and I still have not heard from them. I decided to spend every single day scheduling an info pass and talking to an IO. At first they did not understand my worries and told me to stay home and relax. They said that they were waiting for another document from KCC and that they cannot approve my application without it. They were not even able to track the document. I called KCC and they told me that they sent it and it will take up to 2 weeks. I then realized that if they were aware of the deadline, the IO should have sent the request to KCC before scheduling my interview. Anyway, I was lucky to talk to a very helpful IO (after talking to many indifferent ones) who really understood the situation and wanted to help me. She kept calling KCC, and finally located the document. Then she gave it by hand to the IO who interviewed me. I was approved the same day.

During this process, I realized two things. First, it is very important to keep asking and to trust my intuition. Very few people know about the specificity of this process. I have even talked to an immigration lawyer who clearly did not know anything about DV lottery (not even the september deadline) but pretended to know all about it. (later I talked to another one and he said that I could do everything by myself and that he will feel bad to take my money for such a simple case.) Second, nothing bad can happen with winning the lottery. The first lawyer scared be by saying that I might loose my current F1 status if my application does not get approved. He even discouraged me from travelling outside the country even before filing the I485 because winning the lottery is an intent to migrate (that conflicts with my non immigrant status). Luckily, I talked to another lawyer who told me that was not true...

All in all, this forum is the best resource ever.I was not active, but read all the threads. That helped me a lot! Thank you all for your contributions.
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Sep04- you have hit the nail on the head, so to speak!
All your points are 100% accurate, valid, and helpful to those embarking on this journey.
Congratulations on your success!!
 
SAGIRL said:
Sep04- you have hit the nail on the head, so to speak!
All your points are 100% accurate, valid, and helpful to those embarking on this journey.
Congratulations on your success!!
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Thank you, SAGIRL. I wish best of luck to you and your husband! I am looking forward to hear the good news.
 
SAGIRL said:
Thank you for your good wishes Sm1smom

I knew all along that our situation was tenuous, and certainly having a hign CN, and having to do AOS, as well as follow-to-join, was not a good situation. However, due to our circumstances, this was our only option. Everyone has their personal reasons as to why they choose, or are forced to follow, a particular DV path. We have been living in USA for the past six years, and what with spending copious amounts of money on immigration lawyers, and various other issues we have had to contend with, this path was our only hope. I went back to college for 4 years in USA, and I redid all my professional qualifications, so that firstly I could remain in status by being an F1 student, and secondly so that I could ultimately work here, as my medical qualifications from my country were not recognised here. My husband was not allowed to work in USA, as I was on a F1 visa, so financially the only way we could make it work for us was for him to return to our country of citizenship. So let me say that I hope beyond hope that it will work out for us, as this has been a very difficult journey. Also, winning the lottery is just the beginning of the journey.
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Wow. I'm really happy for you that it is over (well, almost over but I have high hopes).

I feel to be one of the unlucky ones when it came to immigration. I could have my citizenship by now if my former employer did the job properly.

But, there are always people that had have to go through a lot more challenges. You should give yourself a pat on the shoulder for the perseverance.
 
My case status just moved to "Card/ Document Production" again this morning. Phew! Now I can really relax.
 
SAGIRL said:
Thank you for your good wishes Sm1smom

I knew all along that our situation was tenuous, and certainly having a hign CN, and having to do AOS, as well as follow-to-join, was not a good situation. However, due to our circumstances, this was our only option. Everyone has their personal reasons as to why they choose, or are forced to follow, a particular DV path. We have been living in USA for the past six years, and what with spending copious amounts of money on immigration lawyers, and various other issues we have had to contend with, this path was our only hope. I went back to college for 4 years in USA, and I redid all my professional qualifications, so that firstly I could remain in status by being an F1 student, and secondly so that I could ultimately work here, as my medical qualifications from my country were not recognised here. My husband was not allowed to work in USA, as I was on a F1 visa, so financially the only way we could make it work for us was for him to return to our country of citizenship. So let me say that I hope beyond hope that it will work out for us, as this has been a very difficult journey. Also, winning the lottery is just the beginning of the journey.
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I totally understand and do agree people have different and personal reasons for deciding on the DV process path that is best for them. I wasn't knocking you for opting to do AOS + follow-to-join with a high CN. My comment was intended to shed some sort of light on possible risks someone reading this thread (without a clear understanding of the process) who simply want to try such could possbily run into.

So again, I'm happy that this process seem to have worked out for you and your family.
 
My husband's file arrived at the Consulate this morning, and he had his interview this afternoon. All went well, thanks to a supreme effort by an employee at the Consulate in locating our file, and having it electronically sent to them. They took his passport, and told him to collect it on Thursday. We aren't yet celebrating, but I assume this is good news? Talk about cutting it fine. My husband said there were other DV winners there who still had to hand in a few missing items from their paperwork, but that they received their visas. Also, there were people there with higher CN numbers than ours. I guess my country was the one which was allocated the high CN numbers for DV 2013. I wonder if it's always like that, or if that is also a random choice done by the computer.
 
C1984 Now you are the lucky one in that you won the DV lottery! Sometimes things just work out that way, and there may be a reason for this happening that we will never know about. I think out of many bad experiences comes something good. I certainly can vouch for that.
Follow the advice in this forum and you will be fine:) Did you mean you would have permanent residency by now if your former employer hadn't messed up, or citizenship?
 
I think I'm gonna stick around for a little bit more and help out, as I still have a couple more entries to make to my signature.

The status update this morning says that "On September 27, 2013, we mailed the new card directly to the address we have on file...", so I would receive it around Tuesday. The welcome letter should come anytime today.
 
DV lottery 2013

hi every one , i really hope i can get help in this forum, my wife and i have applied for asylum and our cases are still pending, my wife won the dv lottery 2013 , with our lawyer we prepared everything for AOS and we went to interview on September 21 . 2 days ago while checking our status on line we found out that our application has been denied and they mailed us the letter which we didn't get till this moment.
we don't know on what ground the application was denied, but we know that on September-30-2013 our chance of getting the green card through dv lottery will be difficult.
my question is do you think will we have a chance to file a appeal or a motion to reopen and reconsider.
 
Amgad said:
hi every one , i really hope i can get help in this forum, my wife and i have applied for asylum and our cases are still pending, my wife won the dv lottery 2013 , with our lawyer we prepared everything for AOS and we went to interview on September 21 . 2 days ago while checking our status on line we found out that our application has been denied and they mailed us the letter which we didn't get till this moment.
we don't know on what ground the application was denied, but we know that on September-30-2013 our chance of getting the green card through dv lottery will be difficult.
my question is do you think will we have a chance to file a appeal or a motion to reopen and reconsider.
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Anything you do must be done on September 30th, and they must approve it on the very same day. If I were you I would visit the local field office (even without an appointment) and press your case, get them to reconsider and either deny or approve it to you face-to-face. After the 30th your chance of getting green cards through DV would be zero, as the law is very specific about the deadline. Not even the court can compel CIS to give you the green card after 9/30, so forget about any lawsuit.

Have you made sure that you meet all the DV requirements?
 
SAGIRL said:
As I expected, having such a high case number, 2013AF0007****, me doing AOS, and my husband having to do Consular Processing in our country of citizenship, my experience since I became current in August has been a nightmare.
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Sagirl,
First of all BIG CONGRATS!!!
I can totally relate to ur situation. We went through exactly the same thing, but our running around went on for 1n half month. We consider ourselves very very lucky to do our aos from MN. People in MN r very nice, and tas why every1 say "MN Nice". If it would have been any other state than we probably have never got approval for my husband.
I wish you & ur husband all the luck for your further journey here in USA. Cheers!!
 
Last day of DV2013. Congratulations to all who got recently their green card. It's the end of a formidable journey. Thank you everyone for your help and your support.
 
SAGIRL said:
C1984 Now you are the lucky one in that you won the DV lottery! Sometimes things just work out that way, and there may be a reason for this happening that we will never know about. I think out of many bad experiences comes something good. I certainly can vouch for that.
Follow the advice in this forum and you will be fine:) Did you mean you would have permanent residency by now if your former employer hadn't messed up, or citizenship?
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I meant citizenship. If my employer did it the right way, I could have had my GC more than 5 years ago. Alas, they didn't. First my EB case was hit with an audit, then a denial, then petition to reopen, etc. Almost 5 years later, about last year, I decided that I had enough with them and left.

Congrats for your husband's successful interview. A new chapter of life is ahead of your family and I'm very happy for you.
 
Amgad said:
hi every one , i really hope i can get help in this forum, my wife and i have applied for asylum and our cases are still pending, my wife won the dv lottery 2013 , with our lawyer we prepared everything for AOS and we went to interview on September 21 . 2 days ago while checking our status on line we found out that our application has been denied and they mailed us the letter which we didn't get till this moment.
we don't know on what ground the application was denied, but we know that on September-30-2013 our chance of getting the green card through dv lottery will be difficult.
my question is do you think will we have a chance to file a appeal or a motion to reopen and reconsider.
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Were you out of status before you applied for asylum? That could have been the reason for rejecting your AOS petition.

Do everything in your power today to talk to a person at your local field office as Hexa suggested. Otherwise, I'm sorry to say that it's a done deal. I hope your asylum case goes through with not as much headache.
 
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I already read that on this forum. Asylum cases can be tricky, sometimes people are out of status and not eligible for AOS.
 
Phew!! got my GC;) Thanks everyone,this forum has great suggestion and tips.

btw,for social security do I need to go to the ssc office to apply for replacement?
 
Amgad said:
hi every one , i really hope i can get help in this forum, my wife and i have applied for asylum and our cases are still pending, my wife won the dv lottery 2013 , with our lawyer we prepared everything for AOS and we went to interview on September 21 . 2 days ago while checking our status on line we found out that our application has been denied and they mailed us the letter which we didn't get till this moment.
we don't know on what ground the application was denied, but we know that on September-30-2013 our chance of getting the green card through dv lottery will be difficult.
my question is do you think will we have a chance to file a appeal or a motion to reopen and reconsider.
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DV i-485 filing whilst on asylum proceedings is very complicated and I wonder whether you got 'proper' legal advice.
If what I remember is correct, BEFORE filing DV i-485 you should have had with you an imm. courts judge's ok for you to proceed in that route. And with that 'approval' you send your DV i-485 NOT to Chicago but to some other special service center in Texas.

Hope your asylum case/proceedings would work for you.

Best!
 
Thank you united1
Well, now it's all behind us. My husband has had written confirmation from USCIS that his visa has been issued. He will collect his passport tomorrow, and his flight is booked on Thursday. My GC arrived in the mail today.
After all the stress involved, I am at last starting to unwind, and to live a normal life again.
Congratulations to you and your family too
 
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