DV 2014 AOS Only

[c1984]

I am quite surprised by how most InfoPass at FO are not that helpful. I got more information from this forum than my visits to FO. Total waste of time. Had to drive hours to get there and returned with least information or infos that I already knew from this forum. Moreover, they don't give clear instructions of the steps.

BTW does anyone from this forum have FO as Charlotte, NC?

I don't see your entry in the spreadsheet. Please take a moment to fill out your info so others can help you better. It is also going to be helpful for the future users.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqV9QL_-yUzJdDdvdFREMkNDeFNDVzFzblo2bkFYclE#gid=0

I would advise you to contact your representatives offices as well.

 

[Birahi_kancha]

Update:
Just got back from another disappointing InfoPass at Dallas field office.
Went back and spoke to the same lady I had spoken last time. This is what she says "oh I did not receive any response from my supervisor so I did not call you." I so wanted to pour my frustration and tell her does it really take more than 11 days for your supervisor to respond to his/her emails? Same as before, after waiting for 2 hours she tells me that supervisor who handles I-485 is out of office today.
Once again she said I will call you.Told her due to my previous experience with "I will call you", I need her to give me in written when can I come back this week since it takes 2 weeks in Dallas to get an InforPass appointment. I have to go back this Friday.
I give up with this field office

That must be so frustrating npts. I can feel your pain my friend. After two infopass appointments you have no fruitful answer from the field office. Looking at the spreadsheet, seems like there are 9 AOS cases for Dallas so far this year. I doubt there are a lot more. This implies that Dallas FO handles a lot DV AOS cases. So they must be aware of time sensitive nature of DV cases. I think they are putting everything for hold until they reach the second half of the year. Nobody has received IL letters because they may be taking DV AOS as any other AOS cases. I believe at some point they will definitely bring all the buried files for DV cases in the front desk. Good luck to you and all others doing AOS from Dallas FO.

 

[ispe4ak]

Today I got NOA by text and email, and in email it says in 7 days I will reicive the i797 form? Is it actually the biometrics ?

 

[c1984]

Today I got NOA by text and email, and in email it says in 7 days I will reicive the i797 form? Is it actually the biometrics ?

No. It's the official letter that your application was received and accepted for processing.

 

[plasmicshree]

Update:
Just got back from another disappointing InfoPass at Dallas field office.
Went back and spoke to the same lady I had spoken last time. This is what she says "oh I did not receive any response from my supervisor so I did not call you." I so wanted to pour my frustration and tell her does it really take more than 11 days for your supervisor to respond to his/her emails? Same as before, after waiting for 2 hours she tells me that supervisor who handles I-485 is out of office today.
Once again she said I will call you.Told her due to my previous experience with "I will call you", I need her to give me in written when can I come back this week since it takes 2 weeks in Dallas to get an InforPass appointment. I have to go back this Friday.
I give up with this field office

Hi npts,
Looks like all of us who has AOS at Dallas FO should make an infopass and go there to remind every now and then. I have already taken a infopass for Feb-20, and suggest everyone with dallas as FO do that in order to constantly remind them that they need to do their job. Timeline for 2013 showed 1 months after biometrics when people got interviewed and it is all messed up this year. I am worried on if our country quota finishes before our interview, even though we were current in October.

 

[ncriver]

Dallas FO

Hi npts,
Looks like all of us who has AOS at Dallas FO should make an infopass and go there to remind every now and then. I have already taken a infopass for Feb-20, and suggest everyone with dallas as FO do that in order to constantly remind them that they need to do their job. Timeline for 2013 showed 1 months after biometrics when people got interviewed and it is all messed up this year. I am worried on if our country quota finishes before our interview, even though we were current in October.

I am current in Feb and also at Dallas FO, I do have an infopass for this Friday 2/14. Let's see what will be the outcome.

 

[Twiny41]

Hello,

Our number (my wife and I) will be current in April, we decided to send our package tomorrow, as allowed based on the USCIS Memo. I know that so far on this thread people only got rejected when they filed so much in advance, but let's see.. If they send back our package we should be on time to send it again for March the 1st. I will let you know here

Other question that we had: today we received an e-mail from both of our sponsors (J1 Visa) to inform us that the Department of State may visit our enterprise to make sure the J1 regulations are respected. The main regulation being: J1 participant MUST NOT SEEK to work in the US directly after their J1 ends.
Question is: in our case (not subject to 2-years rules + DV Lottery selectee), we know it's legal for us to do AoS. In the event of the visit of the Department of State, should we try not to mention the DV Lottery and the AoS procedure? May this jeopardize in any way our AoS? I don't really know what attitude to adopt...

Thanks for your help !

PS: in my last message I was a little concerned about not receiving our 2NL, you can see in my signature that we eventually received it

 

[Aria]

Hi experts
I don't have Original Birth Certificate and National ID of my wife here. We asked our family to send her documents to us but DHL (and other courier service) said: "they can't send such documents via post because the government (here) most probably wont allow them in or will return them back to the original sender).
My wife's passport is here, of course.
We have certified translations of her Birth Certificate and National ID (all stamped and officially endorsed).
So, do you think, this will be a problem for us during interview?

 

[slim2020]

Totally wrong! Those who sign up for case updates WILL receive texts/emails when there are updates such as mailed bio or interview letters. I just don't get why someone would opt to spend hours on the phone trying to get the same information that would have been sent directly to them in the first place though.

Got the interview letter in the mail the other day. No text, no email, though I had signed up. There has been only one letter delivery. So it's probably a good idea to call every once in a while and check if they've mailed it, in case delivery fails and you don't know it.

 

[Sm1smom]

Got the interview letter in the mail the other day. No text, no email, though I had signed up. There has been only one letter delivery. So it's probably a good idea to call every once in a while and check if they've mailed it, in case delivery fails and you don't know it.

Congratulations on receiving your IL, and I'm sorry you did not receive either text or email notification when your IL was mailed, that was the process for most all the way down to the DV 2013 applicants.

For the purpose of anyone, (not privy to the back and forth discussions we had about case status updates), reading your last post in which you've quoted a post I made in Dec 2013 or so, I should like to make clear it I wasn't advocating calling USCIS to find out if your IL had been sent was a waste of time or that people shouldn't do it.

 

[dvlottery2014]

DV AOS Interview - Chicago FO - Approved

As I have said many times, I am so grateful to this forum and people here who helped, supported and guided us along the way, during the entire AOS process. We were approved yesterday.

Our interview was originally scheduled for Jan 6th but the Chicago FO was closed due to snow. We were re-scheduled to 12-Feb. My wife (Primary) is on H1B and I am on H1B too. Our appts. were at 10:15 and 10:45. We went to the FO at 9:45, went to 2nd floor. Guy at the reception took our letters and gave us a pager. At 10:30, our number was called (pager doesnt work I guess) and we went in together. The IO was a nice young woman and she had our files open in front of her. She made us take the oath and asked to sit. As we were sitting down, she asked us to take out our passports, ids, birth and marriage certs.

She then turned to my wife and went through the I-485 form. Basic Info like last entered, which visa, and Yes/No questions. She then did the same for me. She asked us to sign at the end of a paper stating that we have given all this info. She then asked for original marriage certificate and original birth certificate. She just compared with what we had sent in the file. Didnt read through. She then asked if we had any additional proof of our marriage. We had taken an album that my wife had gifted me for our 5 year anniversary. It had pics from our marriage and subsequent 5 years. She went through the entire album, our trip to europe, carribean, etc. I guess she was just seeing the places ....

Well, after this the golden words: I am approving your case and allot you a visa number. You should receive ur card in 3-4 weeks. All this time, she was writing continuously in our file, making notes (She did Nothing on the computer).

She didnt even take our I-94s. We told her, do we need to submit these? she said: hmm....they are still valid, you can keep it....??

Anyways, we came out happy since she said we were approved.

Two things I would like to mention:

1.) Our status is still in "Acceptance". Seeing the past Chicago FO experiences, I think I will wait for 3-4 days.
2.) We weren't given any "interview results" letter. I think I read somewhere that they give.

Anyways, hopefully everything has went fine. Once again, Thank you ALL.

 

[Britsimon]

Congratulations DVlottery2014

 

[dvlottery2014]

National ID not so much but you should try to have the original Birth Certificate to be safe.

Hi experts
I don't have Original Birth Certificate and National ID of my wife here. We asked our family to send her documents to us but DHL (and other courier service) said: "they can't send such documents via post because the government (here) most probably wont allow them in or will return them back to the original sender).
My wife's passport is here, of course.
We have certified translations of her Birth Certificate and National ID (all stamped and officially endorsed).
So, do you think, this will be a problem for us during interview?

 

[Sm1smom]

As I have said many times, I am so grateful to this forum and people here who helped, supported and guided us along the way, during the entire AOS process. We were approved yesterday.

Two things I would like to mention:

1.) Our status is still in "Acceptance". Seeing the past Chicago FO experiences, I think I will wait for 3-4 days.
2.) We weren't given any "interview results" letter. I think I read somewhere that they give.

Anyways, hopefully everything has went fine. Once again, Thank you ALL.

Wow! Congratulations and enjoy your new green status

Regarding the Welcome Letter, not everyone receives it right after the interview, even when the IO tells you your case has been approved. Give your online status a few more days, I'm sure there will be changes pretty soon.

 

[Sm1smom]

Hi experts
I don't have Original Birth Certificate and National ID of my wife here. We asked our family to send her documents to us but DHL (and other courier service) said: "they can't send such documents via post because the government (here) most probably wont allow them in or will return them back to the original sender).
My wife's passport is here, of course.
We have certified translations of her Birth Certificate and National ID (all stamped and officially endorsed).
So, do you think, this will be a problem for us during interview?

I'm not quite certain how true it is that the US government does not allow certain documents to be mailed into the US. Get your family members to make another attempt at sending the birth certificate, especially since it sounds like the the original is not in English. Your family members do not have to tell the courier company precisely what is in the envelope, they can simply declare the contents as "Documents" or "Personal Documents".

Of course there have been situations where the IO never bothered to ask for the original certificate, but you don't want to take any chance of a final decision been delayed following your interview until you're able to send in the certificate.

 

[Sm1smom]

Hello,

Our number (my wife and I) will be current in April, we decided to send our package tomorrow, as allowed based on the USCIS Memo. I know that so far on this thread people only got rejected when they filed so much in advance, but let's see.. If they send back our package we should be on time to send it again for March the 1st. I will let you know here

Other question that we had: today we received an e-mail from both of our sponsors (J1 Visa) to inform us that the Department of State may visit our enterprise to make sure the J1 regulations are respected. The main regulation being: J1 participant MUST NOT SEEK to work in the US directly after their J1 ends.
Question is: in our case (not subject to 2-years rules + DV Lottery selectee), we know it's legal for us to do AoS. In the event of the visit of the Department of State, should we try not to mention the DV Lottery and the AoS procedure? May this jeopardize in any way our AoS? I don't really know what attitude to adopt...

Thanks for your help !

PS: in my last message I was a little concerned about not receiving our 2NL, you can see in my signature that we eventually received it

Rule of thumb, don't volunteer information when it comes to immigration matters. Should the DOS pay you a visit while you're still waiting, you don't volunteer information about your DV selection and subsequent AOS process unless they pointedly ask about it, but if they ask, then you tell the truth. While it is never a smart idea to lie about immigration matters, just remember that not volunteering information is not the same as concealing it and you should know where to draw the line.

 

[romerro]

Congrats dvlottery2014! We were probably in the waiting area at the same time actually.

So yes, I had the appointment at 10:45 but I got there at 10 since the letter said don't arrive more than 45 min early. My pager number was called and my IO was a woman too. I got in around 10:30, by 10:45 we were already done. We went through the yes/no questions, discussed them and she asked about my employment, but when I pulled out my company's (i own a tech startup) legal docs she didn't even want to go through them and just asked me to update my current employment on the original i485. She asked if I will stay in Chicago and I said I'm planning on staying here for a while. Though she seemed positive, she never said the magical "approved" word. At one point she even mentioned that my visa number is available and said that it's standard procedure that she has to give me a notice letter. At the end she printed the notice letter which marks the first option which to me basically reads as further revision. During the entire interview she kept emphasizing that I should get the electronic notice later that day and even said that again when she said bye to me.

Now, it's over 24 hours from the interview and I didn't get any e-notice. The case is still in "Acceptence" on the website too.

What do you guys think?

I'm quite worried especially since she said so many times that I should get a notice during the same day after the interview... I already looked at available info pass appointments but the system says that there are no empty slots for informational visits at the Chicago Field Office.

 

[Britsimon]

Congrats dvlottery2014! We were probably in the waiting area at the same time actually.

So yes, I had the appointment at 10:45 but I got there at 10 since the letter said don't arrive more than 45 min early. My pager number was called and my IO was a woman too. I got in around 10:30, by 10:45 we were already done. We went through the yes/no questions, discussed them and she asked about my employment, but when I pulled out my company's (i own a tech startup) legal docs she didn't even want to go through them and just asked me to update my current employment on the original i485. She asked if I will stay in Chicago and I said I'm planning on staying here for a while. Though she seemed positive, she never said the magical "approved" word. At one point she even mentioned that my visa number is available and said that it's standard procedure that she has to give me a notice letter. At the end she printed the notice letter which marks the first option which to me basically reads as further revision. During the entire interview she kept emphasizing that I should get the electronic notice later that day and even said that again when she said bye to me.

Now, it's over 24 hours from the interview and I didn't get any e-notice. The case is still in "Acceptence" on the website too.

What do you guys think?

I'm quite worried especially since she said so many times that I should get a notice during the same day after the interview... I already looked at available info pass appointments but the system says that there are no empty slots for informational visits at the Chicago Field Office.

It sounds like she picked the visa number already - relax - all will be well.

 

[Twiny41]

Rule of thumb, don't volunteer information when it comes to immigration matters. Should the DOS pay you a visit while you're still waiting, you don't volunteer information about your DV selection and subsequent AOS process unless they pointedly ask about it, but if they ask, then you tell the truth. While it is never a smart idea to lie about immigration matters, just remember that not volunteering information is not the same as concealing it and you should know where to draw the line.

Thanks for your answer Sm1smom, I will indeed neither volunteer nor hide any info
Let's just hope that DOS won't bother visiting us, this could avoid us potential complications!

 

[Fiefia]

As I already mentioned in my message, my parents sent me both my birth certificate and my national ID (passport) by DHL and I didn't have any problems receiving them.

Hi experts
I don't have Original Birth Certificate and National ID of my wife here. We asked our family to send her documents to us but DHL (and other courier service) said: "they can't send such documents via post because the government (here) most probably wont allow them in or will return them back to the original sender).
My wife's passport is here, of course.
We have certified translations of her Birth Certificate and National ID (all stamped and officially endorsed).
So, do you think, this will be a problem for us during interview?