Hello,
My case status was changed to 'Card has been mailed to me', and hence I really want to thank the members of this forum, and Mom (especially) for your support and timely answers to my questions. I am forever in your debt, and it truly is an amazing forum that you guys run here.
I have updated the timeline spreadsheet, and following is my interview experience at the Minneapolis FO:
My interview experience went quiet smoothly. It was about 15-20 minutes total. I was asked to provide my passport, SSN, EAD Card, driver's license and the interview letter of course. Officer was extremely friendly, and high-fived me for winning the lottery. I was made to take an oath and then we began. Essentially he went over my ENTIRE original submission including all of the supporting documents with me. He scanned through everything quickly (only stopped at my birth certificate, job offer letter, and college degree). He confirmed my job start dates again, and took my paystubs from the last 3 months. (PLEASE bring your last 3 paystubs considering all this recent public charge drama going on.) We then proceeded to go over my i-485 application and he just confirmed my name, DOB, address, and other stuff as we went along. We went through all the yes/no questions, where when he got to the 'citation' question - I disclosed my recent speeding ticket and provided him with a copy. He took the copy of the ticket and wrote detailed notes, however he assured me it won't be an issue. I still haven't paid the ticket yet) That was about it!
At the end of the day - he was happy that I had a thorough application, and said that there will not be an issue from his side at all. He just needed to "follow some policies and interface w/ other government agencies". I asked him if he had requested my case from KCC, to which he replied that he will as soon as I leave. However, I did not inquire about the status of my background check. Beyond that, he repeatedly assured me that he is very aware of the September 30th deadline, and informed me that USCIS is also conscious of the deadline as a whole, and is working fast to get the applications processed. I also asked how to contact him (local FO doesn't allow infopass or anything) - to which he told me to relax and that if there's anything he needs - he will send it to me in the mail. That was that! Important to note my lawyer also attended the interview, which personally was a peace of mind factor for me. She really didn't do anything other than take notes, but she joked around with the IO which contributed to the light atmosphere.
Next morning, I got up and habitually checked my case status --> and it said card is being produced! That's it! Hopefully the Welcome Letter arrives soon, but I won't celebrate until I have it in hand.
Some information that may be of importance:
My case status was changed to 'Card has been mailed to me', and hence I really want to thank the members of this forum, and Mom (especially) for your support and timely answers to my questions. I am forever in your debt, and it truly is an amazing forum that you guys run here.
I have updated the timeline spreadsheet, and following is my interview experience at the Minneapolis FO:
My interview experience went quiet smoothly. It was about 15-20 minutes total. I was asked to provide my passport, SSN, EAD Card, driver's license and the interview letter of course. Officer was extremely friendly, and high-fived me for winning the lottery. I was made to take an oath and then we began. Essentially he went over my ENTIRE original submission including all of the supporting documents with me. He scanned through everything quickly (only stopped at my birth certificate, job offer letter, and college degree). He confirmed my job start dates again, and took my paystubs from the last 3 months. (PLEASE bring your last 3 paystubs considering all this recent public charge drama going on.) We then proceeded to go over my i-485 application and he just confirmed my name, DOB, address, and other stuff as we went along. We went through all the yes/no questions, where when he got to the 'citation' question - I disclosed my recent speeding ticket and provided him with a copy. He took the copy of the ticket and wrote detailed notes, however he assured me it won't be an issue. I still haven't paid the ticket yet) That was about it!
At the end of the day - he was happy that I had a thorough application, and said that there will not be an issue from his side at all. He just needed to "follow some policies and interface w/ other government agencies". I asked him if he had requested my case from KCC, to which he replied that he will as soon as I leave. However, I did not inquire about the status of my background check. Beyond that, he repeatedly assured me that he is very aware of the September 30th deadline, and informed me that USCIS is also conscious of the deadline as a whole, and is working fast to get the applications processed. I also asked how to contact him (local FO doesn't allow infopass or anything) - to which he told me to relax and that if there's anything he needs - he will send it to me in the mail. That was that! Important to note my lawyer also attended the interview, which personally was a peace of mind factor for me. She really didn't do anything other than take notes, but she joked around with the IO which contributed to the light atmosphere.
Next morning, I got up and habitually checked my case status --> and it said card is being produced! That's it! Hopefully the Welcome Letter arrives soon, but I won't celebrate until I have it in hand.
Some information that may be of importance:
- I recommend disclosing all tickets/citations you have gotten before or after you have submitted your application. There's some discussion online about not disclosing it if it is under $500 or so, but just be honest. Also maybe don't behave a like a idiotic college kid (me) and speed 1 week before your interview. I was lucky to get off with a petty misdemeanor.
- Lawyer: You don't need one, mom's right. However my university offered free legal services, and my lawyer had handled DV cases before me - so why not? She did an amazing job however with writing a cover letter, and indexing every single supporting document that I provided. The way she had organized it - you'd have to be extremely stupid to miss out on anything So I was very lucky with getting free legal representation!
- Patience: Reading this forum was helpful but often made me nervous thinking my case would just get 'stuck' or lost anywhere between Chicago Lockbox and Local FO. There are anomalies of course, but cases do go smoothly through the process. However, if you still can't exercise patience - then just repeatedly speak to Tier 2 support and have them generate service requests to find out what is going on with your application. I didn't have to go through the congressman/senator/ombudsman/whatever route, but maybe that is necessary given there's only 45 days left.
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We have interview on August 27th and I don't have any hope anymore. Because I heard another case 1 month ago got denied because they were pending asylum. This is so sad because I think they are the only office that they are not accepting pending asylum. I knew one from Baltimore with the same case was approved recently. 