FINALLY the day of Freedom has come for my wife, daughter and myself!!!
But that was in the most of the unexpected way. Here it is:
Not hearing anything about our AP renewal after 7 months in the process and seeing our planned trip overeas approaching real fast, I inquired to my company's attorney.
He found out that our AP's have been tranferred MULTIPLE times between TSC, San Antonio District office and...the NEBRASKA Service center...and they were apparently still in Nebraska....Yuuups!!!!
However, the attorney managed to talk to an officer (sic!!!) in San Antonio district office (obviously they have access we don't...), officer who recognized the MAJOR SNAFU with our AP's and offered to approve our AP's on the spot as long as we show up in San Antonio.
So we did with all of our pictures and passports and so on...Once over there, of course, the officer who offered to take care of our cases was not available(I had his name by my attorney -- again, these guys have access we don't...nice to know that after 7.5 years in the freaking process!)
So I had to explain the whole gazebo to the officer assigned to us (nice person overall). After 5 mins of surfing his computer, he could not corroborate the story the first officer told my lawyer, i.e. he did not see the multiple transfers of our AP's...
At that point I thought to myself: here we go again! We're all SOL one more time...But after 5 more mins of computer digging, the officer simply asked: " but do you know that your I485 has been approved?"...
"Huh? Are you sure? My attorney did not tell me anything and I haven't checked my status in a while (like l lost interest in regular checking because it sucks after a while to see the same message for three years...). So, no, I do not know."
And he replied "but Sir, I confirm, you have been approved! So what do you want to do now? Renew your AP's or process your permanent residency, Sir?"
"Hell, yeah, of course, process the Permanent Residency"
So here we go. We gave him all of our EAD's, old AP's, I94's, passports, took the single fingerprint and sign the form...and waited for about 1 hour to finally receive the long-awaited I551 stamp in our passports!!!
The part I liked the most is when after the officer gave us his congratulations on becoming permanent residents and told us the stamp is all we need to travel and work, he also declared "you are no longer bound to your employer". No mention of minimum length of time to stay with supporting employer following green card approval...So, sound to me like I'm really free...now...
And anyway, I already gave 9 freaking years to my "beloved" employer, so I paid my dues...Monster.com here I come!!!!
Bottom line: 9 years in this country, 7.5 years since I started the first paperwork to file for PR and 3 years to the day to get that damned I485 approved...FREE, FINALLY FREE!!!
To all the 2001 filers, hang in there, your turn will come real soon.
To all the following ones, well, you still may have to wait a little while as it's still a mega-mess at TSC...My case and many others are the evidences...
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!
Damerina
But that was in the most of the unexpected way. Here it is:
Not hearing anything about our AP renewal after 7 months in the process and seeing our planned trip overeas approaching real fast, I inquired to my company's attorney.
He found out that our AP's have been tranferred MULTIPLE times between TSC, San Antonio District office and...the NEBRASKA Service center...and they were apparently still in Nebraska....Yuuups!!!!
However, the attorney managed to talk to an officer (sic!!!) in San Antonio district office (obviously they have access we don't...), officer who recognized the MAJOR SNAFU with our AP's and offered to approve our AP's on the spot as long as we show up in San Antonio.
So we did with all of our pictures and passports and so on...Once over there, of course, the officer who offered to take care of our cases was not available(I had his name by my attorney -- again, these guys have access we don't...nice to know that after 7.5 years in the freaking process!)
So I had to explain the whole gazebo to the officer assigned to us (nice person overall). After 5 mins of surfing his computer, he could not corroborate the story the first officer told my lawyer, i.e. he did not see the multiple transfers of our AP's...
At that point I thought to myself: here we go again! We're all SOL one more time...But after 5 more mins of computer digging, the officer simply asked: " but do you know that your I485 has been approved?"...
"Huh? Are you sure? My attorney did not tell me anything and I haven't checked my status in a while (like l lost interest in regular checking because it sucks after a while to see the same message for three years...). So, no, I do not know."
And he replied "but Sir, I confirm, you have been approved! So what do you want to do now? Renew your AP's or process your permanent residency, Sir?"
"Hell, yeah, of course, process the Permanent Residency"
So here we go. We gave him all of our EAD's, old AP's, I94's, passports, took the single fingerprint and sign the form...and waited for about 1 hour to finally receive the long-awaited I551 stamp in our passports!!!
The part I liked the most is when after the officer gave us his congratulations on becoming permanent residents and told us the stamp is all we need to travel and work, he also declared "you are no longer bound to your employer". No mention of minimum length of time to stay with supporting employer following green card approval...So, sound to me like I'm really free...now...
And anyway, I already gave 9 freaking years to my "beloved" employer, so I paid my dues...Monster.com here I come!!!!
Bottom line: 9 years in this country, 7.5 years since I started the first paperwork to file for PR and 3 years to the day to get that damned I485 approved...FREE, FINALLY FREE!!!
To all the 2001 filers, hang in there, your turn will come real soon.
To all the following ones, well, you still may have to wait a little while as it's still a mega-mess at TSC...My case and many others are the evidences...
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!
Damerina
