Long post incoming. Important parts
bolded at the bottom. Skip to them if you don’t want to read it all.
We have tracking numbers for our green cards and I think they should be in our mailbox tomorrow.
This whole process for me has been a big bag of luck. I got a job in the USA and then got my E3, which is a visa for Australian professionals, within the space of 2 months. Sitting with my computer at some time during October of 2017, just before I left, I had a bright idea to Google the green card lottery which I had heard about once or twice before, just to see if it was real.
It was, and entries were open! I threw one in for good luck and embarked on my journey to the USA, mostly forgetting about it.
I’m enjoying myself in Chicago and around rolls May when I knew the results came out. Declaring to my wife that “I don’t think we would have won but I better check it anyway,” I typed in our confirmation code and we’d been selected with a single digit case number. I had no idea of the significance of that, I just thought it was cool.
I feel a little weird about it to be honest. I can see OC people in the 2020 thread who have entered for the last 7 years in a row with no result, and here I am entering it immediately after confirming its existence, and being selected. I wish everyone in there the best of luck. You definitely deserve it more than me and I sincerely hope that your number comes up next year.
I have a friend that also got selected. Some time in May he said he was just going to make an appointment, go down to the field office and do an interview. We both had no clue. I had no reason not to believe him. Luckily I found the instructions on the DV lottery website and realised that it started in October, so that set us straight. This was after rushing to do our medicals (the second stroke of luck as they changed the medical rules after we were current) and pay the DV fee. I didn’t even know what adjustment of status was!
Knowing that I had time to relax and compose myself, I did more reading, researching and eventually found this forum, that was around the time I learned of immigrant intent. I started to freak out because we had an overseas trip planned. I had already submitted the DS-260. This turned out to be a non issue.
While all this was happening, we were being pressured to schedule a date for our “other wedding” in Vietnam for my wife’s family, as my family were going to come along as well. After looking at the timelines for October current Chicagans, all of them were approved well before March 30, so we set that date.
The next couple of months went by and I was still reading and learning, but had somehow missed anything about the 90 day rule. As a pilot, we are frequently assigned trips into Canada. I was bidding normally, but managed to avoid international trips by coincidence. In September I was assigned one, but I decided a few days out to swap it for one that didn’t go international in case it caused any issues. The fact that I could do that was unique to September only, for reasons that are too complicated to explain. Third lucky strike.
October rolls around and we submit our i-485 and advance parole application, learning more and more along the way and going through the usual motions.
Our interview was scheduled for Jan 30. “Perfect, We’ll have green cards by March, according to last year’s timelines” I naively thought to myself.
That date was one of the coldest ever recorded in Chicago and the whole city closed. We received a call the day before by a man (actually maybe an angel) who notified us of a date change to March, right before our wedding. I pleaded with him for anything earlier and he let us go in on the day he called us. We interviewed and got donuts on the way home to celebrate. Surely the green card will arrive in a few weeks.
Nothing for months. I started to make plans for abandonment and to move back to Australia.
At the beginning of March we got our letters advising of advance parole approval. This was such a relief. We would be able to travel and keep our application alive! Great. One week goes by, 2, then 3 and then we are maybe 10 days out from departure. We visit the congressman’s office (again) and the lady spent a good 30 minutes on the phone to the NBC for us. She was so great. She came out of her office and told us that our letters would arrive “next week.”
We got our advance parole 6 days before departure. Fourth time lucky. Suffice to say up until that moment was the most stress I have ever experienced.
Travelled, got married again, went home to Melbourne for a bit and then re entered to US on our advance parole with no issues, then we got a status update the next day.
Both of our statues now include a tracking number. My wife’s went Card production order - case approved - card mailed while mine went card production order - card mailed.
Mom asked us to sign up for egov and test the text messaging feature. I got messages for both card production orders and then for the case approved status for my wife. We didn’t get one for the “card mailed” status. The same was true for “my uscis” which sent emails only.
My lessons learned and advice for future and current selectees:
- If you think you have read the spreadsheet, you haven’t. Read it again.
- Seriously. The spreadsheet. You definitely missed something important. Go back and read it again.
- See above.
- If you have just found this forum. Stop everything you are doing, sign up for an account, contribute and be successful. What you think you know is probably incorrect.
- Everyone’s timeline helps. It is not too much of an effort to give back to the community through the timeline spreadsheet, even if you never post, and it will help others for years to come.
- Consider CP if you are making any travel plans for the fiscal year or your job requires you to travel internationally.
- Read through previous years threads to learn more about the process.
- The timelines are a fantastic resource but remember new data will always be coming in, and you could be that statistic. Do not make potentially life altering decisions based on the timelines.
To Simon, Suzie and Xarthisius, your continued efforts in making this place such an amazing resource are very much appreciated. Thank you so much for everything.
To Mom. I have never encountered anyone in real life or digitally, so selfless and willing to help. You are online every day and reply to us every day, often even when previously answered questions are asked again. You are undoubtedly offering millions of dollars worth of knowledge and time to everyone here for free and my wife and I are eternally grateful for your effort. I have found myself more recently taking more amounts of time to help out strangers with things I know about, and it’s absolutely your efforts here that have inspired me.
Irrespective of the green card result, you have substantially altered my outlook on life and my willingness to help others for the better. This whole thing could have collapsed around me at any moment, you can see it almost did multiple times, but I would have still would have come out of it a better person.
The amount of people you change the life of every year, including the lurkers and non posters, would be well in the hundreds, maybe thousands, and on behalf of us all, thank you so much.
Simon, Suzie, Xarthinisius or Mom, if you ever find yourself in Chicago, let me know, dinner is on me.
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