DV 2018 AOS Only

[Sm1smom]

We had our AOS interview last Wednesday. Officer said in the end that he doesn't have a problem approving our case. But he should check with the DOS for availability of visas. He also said that he will be re-reviewing our case and will let us know if anything else is needed. 3 days have passed and we don't see any updates online. Do you think we should just wait and see or is it ok we make an infopass appointment and go there to ask about this?

If your interview was on Wednesday, then it’s only been two business days since the interview so you need to exercise some patience especially if your IO aalready said he was going to re-review your case. Give it about two weeks at least before going on an infopass to follow up.

 

[roshan725]

I'll wait. And Thanks!!

 

[Tobi1]

Hi Mom,

As you can imagine, I am now in the "overthinking phase" while preparing for the interview.
1) Do you have to wear rings to the interview? Or, if you don't could that lead the IO to question the validity of your marriage?

Thank you~

 

[Sm1smom]

Hi Mom,

As you can imagine, I am now in the "overthinking phase" while preparing for the interview.
1) Do you have to wear rings to the interview? Or, if you don't could that lead the IO to question the validity of your marriage?

Thank you~

Showing up with wedding rings (if you don’t typically wear them) isn’t necessarily proof of a genuine marriage, same way pointing at a child/children can’t be used as evidence of a bonafide marriage.

 

[Lcky7]

My interview is tomorrow and i'm in the European region. I'm so nervous about visa availability!

Hello, I am also in EU. What was your number? I am at 23***. Just got my Fee paid receipt after 3 weeks .

Got 44 days left. Deciding whether to file AOS or just leave this dream alone.. Very Very Very few people got interviews date within 40 days from the time they sent AOS Package. I am risking at this point a lot

 

[Hyori]

That’s great. It’s not unusual for some IOs to call and provide interview updates as we get closer to the end of the FY. We’ve even heard reports of some that received such phone calls and were asked if they were ready to come in the following day. It’s so nice when an IO recognizes the urgency involved and do their best to work with the petitioners assigned to them.

All the best with your interview.

Hey mom, since the interview was set up through a phone call, I have checked and I haven´t received yet my IL. Would it be okay if I just go there with the email printed that the IO sent me with the interview date and time?

 

[Sm1smom]

Hey mom, since the interview was set up through a phone call, I have checked and I haven´t received yet my IL. Would it be okay if I just go there with the email printed that the IO sent me with the interview date and time?

Yep, go with the email print out. There shouldn’t be any issue admitting you with the print out into the FO building.

 

[Beatrice22]

Thank you for your help. My case became current in July and am waiting for my interview letter. Today I went for infopass in Houston office the office with my case. The person I met told me the immigration officer for DV is not there and the most he can do is send him an email regarding my case.
Am currently on proceeding on immigration court but I came through a point of entry and never overstayed but applied for asylum.
The officer I met informed me there is not much he can do and I should wait if I will receive the interview letter or not.
1. My question is can immigration officer decide not interview some people and interview others?
2. Can due to the nature of my case the immigration officer decide not to schedule me for an interview without an explanation?
3. Before time runs out, what is your best advice on what I can do to ensure am interviewed?

Thank you

 

[D.D]

Thank you for your help. My case became current in July and am waiting for my interview letter. Today I went for infopass in Houston office the office with my case. The person I met told me the immigration officer for DV is not there and the most he can do is send him an email regarding my case.
Am currently on proceeding on immigration court but I came through a point of entry and never overstayed but applied for asylum.
The officer I met informed me there is not much he can do and I should wait if I will receive the interview letter or not.
1. My question is can immigration officer decide not interview some people and interview others?
2. Can due to the nature of my case the immigration officer decide not to schedule me for an interview without an explanation?
3. Before time runs out, what is your best advice on what I can do to ensure am interviewed?

Thank you

Schedule for another infopass not on a Monday. The DV officer is not there Mondays. I once had an infopass on a Monday and didn't get much information. I went for another infopass another day and requested for the officer at the front to please go talk to the DV officer and the officer came back with specific information. Remember to specifically ask them to talk to the DV officer. Houston here as well. Good luck.

 

[Sm1smom]

Thank you for your help. My case became current in July and am waiting for my interview letter. Today I went for infopass in Houston office the office with my case. The person I met told me the immigration officer for DV is not there and the most he can do is send him an email regarding my case.
Am currently on proceeding on immigration court but I came through a point of entry and never overstayed but applied for asylum.
The officer I met informed me there is not much he can do and I should wait if I will receive the interview letter or not.
1. My question is can immigration officer decide not interview some people and interview others?
2. Can due to the nature of my case the immigration officer decide not to schedule me for an interview without an explanation?
3. Before time runs out, what is your best advice on what I can do to ensure am interviewed?

Thank you

1. No
2. No
3. Another INFOPASS.

 

[febzz]

I haven't received any decision from USCIS but my interview's done, so I'm going to share my Interview experience. Will update with more information later once I hear more from USCIS regarding my case.

So here's how the Interview went down: my wife's the Primary Applicant, I'm the Derivative. Our number became current back in May. Our case falls under the Asia Region. Field Office is Chicago, IL. On the Appointment Letters, I was supposed to get interviewed at 8.30am, my wife at 9am. We arrived at USCIS around 8am. We got called together around 9.30-9.45am. The Interviewer made us take an oath to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, then we sat down and he started opening our files and shuffled around documents. He asked for our Passports, Driver's License, State ID, Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate. Then he started asking us Qs and we took turns to answer:

1. Name and DOB
2. Address
3. Did we ever leave the country again after our last arrival date stated on I-94
4. If we live together
5. A lot of the Yes/No Qs from the I-485 Form such as practicing poligamy, being spies etc.
6. He asked if I've ever got caught for speeding? I said yes, once. But it's not a big deal to him.
7. How we first met.

After all of the questioning, in the end he said since our application is not marriage-based and so there's no need for him to question us further on our marriage.

Didn't get an immediate decision and the IO told us to wait until after (or did he say "in" instead?) September to see if there'd be visa available for us. He also asked if I could ask my employer to sponsor my GC application as back up in case no visas are available for me. My first thought was "this IO has no idea about DV at all", so I naively corrected him, saying "my number became current back in May and so technically our Visas should be available now and that's why we're doing AOS and the interview". Now looking back, maybe that's indeed the case - that no Visas are immediately available for me? I just learned lately that AOSers do not get pre-allocated Visas. But it could still be the case that my IO doesn't know enough about DV - that's the feeling I got from the contradicting statements he gave me and also he asked if I received a letter at all saying that I have visas available already and I just gave him the 1NL and 2NL. He said he'd follow up on my case. So now, i'm just hoping and praying that I'll get approved soon and hear back from USCIS.

Another problem I ran into was the I-693 form. My Civil Surgeon didn't use the latest/most recent version and the IO pointed it out to us and said he'd look into it - whether we'd need to give them the most updated version, but he did say most likely, yes. I reached out to the Civil Surgeon as soon as the Interview was over and she transferred all of the information over from the old form to the new form and I now have the new form, in a sealed envelope. Just waiting for USCIS to request it from me. I also have an InfoPass appointment for next Monday, and the Monday after that as well.

So, I'm back in the waiting game. Anxiously waiting. Checking USCIS Case Status websites (there's two of them) almost every hour. No change in status so far.

But I'd like to thanks everyone who has been a huge help, and special thanks definitely to @Sm1smom and @Britsimon. Their dedication, time, and relentless effort in answering to our questions, have all been invaluable.

As I've said, I'll update when I know more about my Case. At this point, just waiting...

Actually, if you don't mind, @Sm1smom and @Britsimon, I'm still at this point not clear on how Visa Allocation works for AOSers. It's been mentioned a couple times that CPers get pre-allocated Visas and AOSers don't. I've tried my best to dig around but still don't get a clear answer. I even asked a question on Avvo.com and got shot down by a lawyer who said "You pretty much 'heard' wrong... As the saying goes, it is dangerous to have little information about something than not having any information at all..". I hope you'd be able to shed some lights on this - how Visa Allocation works for AOSers? And if let's say, all Visas for a particular region have been all exhausted/pre-allocated to CPers, does that mean that AOSsers will only get what's remaining i.e. maybe some CPers didn't show up in the end, and that's when AOSers get these unused Visas?

It's now been officially 2 weeks since my Interview, still no decision yet. At this point, I've had 2 InfoPass Appointments (once a week) since then.

• Monday, Aug. 6th - first InfoPass Appointment: I submitted my updated I-693 form, without the RFE letter. On this day, I learned that an RFE letter dated July 31st was mailed out. But this July 31st letter only arrived at my place on Aug. 9th. The postmark date is Aug. 7th. That means, it took USCIS 7 days just to get the letter out.
• Today, Monday, Aug. 13th - second InfoPass Appointment: A week had passed since the 1st InfoPass, still no status update, so I went for another InfoPass appointment this morning. At first, the officer kinda gave me a push-back but I kept being persistent. She said she knew about Diversity Lottery, but I don't think she really did. She didn't even know about the Sept. 30 deadline. I kept pushing and she decided to consult her supervisor. The supervisor's aware of the Sept. 30 deadline. I also asked if the RFE Letter's still needed? On the RFE Letter, it specifically says that a copy of this RFE letter must be submitted along with the I-693. I asked the InfoPass officer if that's really true or am I good? (I had submitted the updated I-693, a few days before I received the RFE). So the InfoPass officer photo-copied my RFE letter and stamped it with today's date and she said she would add it to my case. I also gave her a letter I'd prepared for the IO. In the letter, I basically "beg" him (nicely and professionally) for a status update and for his assistance on my case as we have just a few weeks left to Sept. 30. I also mentioned about checking Visa Availability on IVAMS, in the letter. Now another round of waiting.
  
  * by the way, the RFE letter mentions that the new I-693 would need to be received by USCIS by October 26? I mean, the DV year will end on Sept. 30. Why does it say Oct. 26?

What's really slowing me down is the wrong I-693 form used by the Civil Surgeon. At least so far, that's my impression.

I have InfoPass Appointments scheduled for the next two Mondays. By then, I'll have remembered and known every single InfoPass officer that works in the Chicago Field Office, I guess...

Additional info: It seems like, at least in the Chicago Field Office, the InfoPass Officer has no way to communicate directly to the IOs. From what I've been reading from this thread, I feel like many other applicants in other Field Offices could somehow talk directly with the IOs during their InfoPass Appointments. That doesn't seem to be the case for/at the Chicago Field Office. I asked to meet with my IO every time but I kept getting an answer along the line of "it's not possible", "we (InfoPass Officers) work differently from the IOs and we could only route whatever you need to ask to the IO, but it's not possible to talk with them directly during InfoPass".

 

[Maitham Aljishi]

How can I make 2 info pass appointment in advance?

 

[febzz]

How can I make 2 info pass appointment in advance?

Normally for Chicago FO, if I check InfoPass availability today, I'll only see availability for 2 weeks from today, unless someone else cancelled and that's when sometimes I see openings for sometime this/next week.

I scheduled my next week's appointment since last Monday. I scheduled my Aug. 27th appointment earlier today.

I usually do these to get multiple InfoPass appointments:

1. Since there's two of us (my spouse and I), I can have two InfoPass Appointments with two different names.
2. At one point, I was able to schedule 3 appointments - 2 with my name but different phone numbers, and another one with my wife's name.

And leave the Receipt Number and A-number fields blank. They're not mandatory. This reduces the chance of the appointment system detecting/knowing that you already have an existing appointment.

 

[Lcky7]

Normally for Chicago FO, if I check InfoPass availability today, I'll only see availability for 2 weeks from today, unless someone else cancelled and that's when sometimes I see openings for sometime this/next week.

I scheduled my next week's appointment since last Monday. I scheduled my Aug. 27th appointment earlier today.

I usually do these to get multiple InfoPass appointments:

1. Since there's two of us (my spouse and I), I can have two InfoPass Appointments with two different names.
2. At one point, I was able to schedule 3 appointments - 2 with my name but different phone numbers, and another one with my wife's name.

And leave the Receipt Number and A-number fields blank. They're not mandatory. This reduces the chance of the appointment system detecting/knowing that you already have an existing appointment.

Hello,

What is an info pass and why do we need it ?

I thought we just file AOS Package and wait for Acceptance, Bio, Interview and that is it ? Please correct me if I am wrong, so I could call and schedule for info pass too.

 

[febzz]

Hello,

What is an info pass and why do we need it ?

I thought we just file AOS Package and wait for Acceptance, Bio, Interview and that is it ? Please correct me if I am wrong, so I could call and schedule for info pass too.

It's basically an appointment with a USCIS officer where you'd be able to ask questions directly to the officer. They are, however, not Adjudication/Interviewing Officers.

You could make an appointment online: https://my.uscis.gov/appointment instead of calling and waiting for a long time to get connected with someone.

 

[Lcky7]

1. No
2. No
3. Another INFOPASS.

Hello mom,

I am filing my AOS package because Today I received fee paid receipt.

I had questions if you do not mind.

1. I did not include form I-765 employment auth, because I am not employed and never been since I am on F-1, is it ok for not filling ?
2. I did not include form I-797 Notice of Action because I never had it. Is it ok ? I only got I-20
3. I included old i94 from 2012 when I entered U.S because when I go online I can't print new I-94. My embassy said I got old one at the airport and that should be my I-94. Is it correct, tell me if you know please?
4. I did not include evidence of financial support I mean form I-134 Affidavit of Support, because my father already wrote one financial support to my University, and I thought to include that paper instead along with my Degree in Chicago and I-20 showing I have a sponsor and am enrolled in the University until at least 2020. Will this be a problem or its fine that I did not include I-134?

5. Finally, Yeah. in 2 hours I am sending my AOS package to Chicago Lockbox, hoping it will get there tomorrow. Should I send my package and just go there tomorrow on the third floor and check if they got it? Not sure if its a normal practice

Thanks

 

[Sm1smom]

It's now been officially 2 weeks since my Interview, still no decision yet. At this point, I've had 2 InfoPass Appointments (once a week) since then.

• Monday, Aug. 6th - first InfoPass Appointment: I submitted my updated I-693 form, without the RFE letter. On this day, I learned that an RFE letter dated July 31st was mailed out. But this July 31st letter only arrived at my place on Aug. 9th. The postmark date is Aug. 7th. That means, it took USCIS 7 days just to get the letter out.
• Today, Monday, Aug. 13th - second InfoPass Appointment: A week had passed since the 1st InfoPass, still no status update, so I went for another InfoPass appointment this morning. At first, the officer kinda gave me a push-back but I kept being persistent. She said she knew about Diversity Lottery, but I don't think she really did. She didn't even know about the Sept. 30 deadline. I kept pushing and she decided to consult her supervisor. The supervisor's aware of the Sept. 30 deadline. I also asked if the RFE Letter's still needed? On the RFE Letter, it specifically says that a copy of this RFE letter must be submitted along with the I-693. I asked the InfoPass officer if that's really true or am I good? (I had submitted the updated I-693, a few days before I received the RFE). So the InfoPass officer photo-copied my RFE letter and stamped it with today's date and she said she would add it to my case. I also gave her a letter I'd prepared for the IO. In the letter, I basically "beg" him (nicely and professionally) for a status update and for his assistance on my case as we have just a few weeks left to Sept. 30. I also mentioned about checking Visa Availability on IVAMS, in the letter. Now another round of waiting.
  
  * by the way, the RFE letter mentions that the new I-693 would need to be received by USCIS by October 26? I mean, the DV year will end on Sept. 30. Why does it say Oct. 26?

What's really slowing me down is the wrong I-693 form used by the Civil Surgeon. At least so far, that's my impression.

I have InfoPass Appointments scheduled for the next two Mondays. By then, I'll have remembered and known every single InfoPass officer that works in the Chicago Field Office, I guess...

Additional info: It seems like, at least in the Chicago Field Office, the InfoPass Officer has no way to communicate directly to the IOs. From what I've been reading from this thread, I feel like many other applicants in other Field Offices could somehow talk directly with the IOs during their InfoPass Appointments. That doesn't seem to be the case for/at the Chicago Field Office. I asked to meet with my IO every time but I kept getting an answer along the line of "it's not possible", "we (InfoPass Officers) work differently from the IOs and we could only route whatever you need to ask to the IO, but it's not possible to talk with them directly during InfoPass".

The RFE language is a standard one, the no later than date is not modified to accommodate your DV based AOS petition.

The INFOPASS IOs at the Chicago FO definitely have access to the IOs adjudicating petitions just like he other FOs. They are however not obligated to initiate the contact others have reported back here. They use their discretion, and if it happens to be a busy FO like yours is, the tend to say no to the request to meet with them.

The good part of your last INFOPASS is the fact that you got to speak with the supervisor in charge of the FO, you’re creating the right attention to your case. So hang in there.

 

[Sm1smom]

Hello,

What is an info pass and why do we need it ?

I thought we just file AOS Package and wait for Acceptance, Bio, Interview and that is it ? Please correct me if I am wrong, so I could call and schedule for info pass too.

You’re not eligible to schedule an INFOPASS or do a formal follow up until at least you’ve done the bio.

Meanwhile, you can however learn more about what an INFOPASS is used for:
https://www.uscis.gov/tools/your-guide-infopass

 

[Sm1smom]

Hello mom,

I am filing my AOS package because Today I received fee paid receipt.

I had questions if you do not mind.

1. I did not include form I-765 employment auth, because I am not employed and never been since I am on F-1, is it ok for not filling ?
2. I did not include form I-797 Notice of Action because I never had it. Is it ok ? I only got I-20
3. I included old i94 from 2012 when I entered U.S because when I go online I can't print new I-94. My embassy said I got old one at the airport and that should be my I-94. Is it correct, tell me if you know please?
4. I did not include evidence of financial support I mean form I-134 Affidavit of Support, because my father already wrote one financial support to my University, and I thought to include that paper instead along with my Degree in Chicago and I-20 showing I have a sponsor and am enrolled in the University until at least 2020. Will this be a problem or its fine that I did not include I-134?

5. Finally, Yeah. in 2 hours I am sending my AOS package to Chicago Lockbox, hoping it will get there tomorrow. Should I send my package and just go there tomorrow on the third floor and check if they got it? Not sure if its a normal practice

Thanks

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. If 2012 was the last time you entered the US, then yes that is the I-94 that should be included.
4. No, that will not suffice if the IO needs you to demonstrate you will not become a public charge.
5. Not a normal practice. You most likely will not be allowed into the building, you can give it a short if you like.

 

[febzz]

The RFE language is a standard one, the no later than date is not modified to accommodate your DV based AOS petition.

The INFOPASS IOs at the Chicago FO definitely have access to the IOs adjudicating petitions just like he other FOs. They are however not obligated to initiate the contact others have reported back here. They use their discretion, and if it happens to be a busy FO like yours is, the tend to say no to the request to meet with them.

The good part of your last INFOPASS is the fact that you got to speak with the supervisor in charge of the FO, you’re creating the right attention to your case. So hang in there.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying, Mom!

I'm hanging in here, still, thanks to your continuous support!