Sambhar Sadham
Registered Users (C)
Hello Everybody,
My GC petition (EB3) was finally approved and stamped along with my wife yesterday afternoon. Here are some details, my company is incorporated in NJ and further I am contracting out here in Columbus OH. My petition was filed in Vermont, but I have chosen to post here rather as there seems to be more talk of Columbus OH cases in this board.
My case was relatively simple(EB3) with no RFE's or any such issues through the course of the case, although due to the vagaries of priority dates and other such issues the whole process took me 4.5 years.
About 2 months ago, my case was transferred to Cincinatti and further exactly a month ago I got my notification for interview here at the Columbus office. I also got the notice for my 2nd EAD to be picked up from the Columbus office.
My case was forwarded to the local office due to the fact that, about 5 years ago due to a small misadventure of mine, I was stuck at the Canadian border without any of my paperwork(passport/visa etc) and INS initiated "deportation proceedings" against me which were further thrown out by the immigration judge when my attorney supplied all my paperwork to show that I had been in status all through my stay in the US.
The officer here in Columbus mentioned this for just a minute and he acknowledged that, the above was a non issue. Further he wanted a letter from my employer that specificially alluded to my current client. He had given a letter about a year or so ago which alluded to a client that I was with on a long term project. Fortunately he was patient enough for my employer to fax a letter within 5 minutes to the INS office itself and he included it in my file. Further he wanted as many more documents & photos that I could produce that would confirm my being married and living with my wife. He made copies of a few joint credit cards, bank statements(which showed my wife's name), took some wedding photos(he asked me to give the worst possible photos as he wasn't going to return them back), 1040's(state & fededral) from last year which showed me filing jointly with my wife. So my suggestion to the folks who are interviewing in Columbus is to take as much new documents as possible, the officer I spoke with was thorough and he loves to add as much new paperwork as possible to each case as possible.
He further asked me briefly about my address, my INS records all had a friend's address as I was uncertain about my stay in Columbus. I explained this and he said thats fine and he further asked me whether I wanted to update my address to my current address for which I said no. He never asked me for any pay stubs, just a letter from my employer.
He was also puzzled that I had never worked in the "corporate" office in New Jersey. The officer seems well in tune with desi body shops and how they "farm" out people which he referred in a derisive manner which honestly did not bother me.
Initially we were quite intimidated by his tone, but gradually things seemed to cool down, as it became obvious that he had quite thoroughly reviewed my case even before I walked into the office and he had no intentions of not approving my GC yesterday. He was just trying to be a bit intimidated but ended up being facetious for most part. After about 30 minutes of us talking he told me that he was going to approve our cases and he asked us to go get a soda or so when he runs the State Department Security check. We waited about 10 minutes and he gave us the passport with the red stamp which identified as Permenant Residents, he also said that Nebraska took about a year to get cards out(although my case was filed in Vermont, who knows?).
My getting in trouble 5 years ago helped me in a weird way. I did not have to drive to Cinci for my approval stamp, further the process seemed to have moved quicker as my case was forwarded here to Columbus. I had to wait for just 10 minutes before my name was called out. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Further some dates of reference as ColumbusPrince had requested
Category : EB3
Date this whole thing started : June-July~ 1998
Labor Approved : 10-11 months
I 140 approval : another 12 months
Waited for PD to become current : another 12 months
Filed for I 485 : July 2001
1st EAD received : October 2001
Case Transferred to Cinci : August 2002
2nd EAD notification letter/Interview Letter(Columbus OH) : Sept 16th 2002
2nd EAD received at Columbus OH : Oct 2nd 2002
Successful Interview at Columbus OH : Oct 17th 2002
I was fortunate to have an excellent employer(an honest, easy to work with straight forward desi body shop), and despite all my delays I am glad the way things worked out, which honestly worked out to my convenience. I wish the best of luck for all you folks who are waiting for the GC process to be done and over with.
Cheers,
SS
My GC petition (EB3) was finally approved and stamped along with my wife yesterday afternoon. Here are some details, my company is incorporated in NJ and further I am contracting out here in Columbus OH. My petition was filed in Vermont, but I have chosen to post here rather as there seems to be more talk of Columbus OH cases in this board.
My case was relatively simple(EB3) with no RFE's or any such issues through the course of the case, although due to the vagaries of priority dates and other such issues the whole process took me 4.5 years.
About 2 months ago, my case was transferred to Cincinatti and further exactly a month ago I got my notification for interview here at the Columbus office. I also got the notice for my 2nd EAD to be picked up from the Columbus office.
My case was forwarded to the local office due to the fact that, about 5 years ago due to a small misadventure of mine, I was stuck at the Canadian border without any of my paperwork(passport/visa etc) and INS initiated "deportation proceedings" against me which were further thrown out by the immigration judge when my attorney supplied all my paperwork to show that I had been in status all through my stay in the US.
The officer here in Columbus mentioned this for just a minute and he acknowledged that, the above was a non issue. Further he wanted a letter from my employer that specificially alluded to my current client. He had given a letter about a year or so ago which alluded to a client that I was with on a long term project. Fortunately he was patient enough for my employer to fax a letter within 5 minutes to the INS office itself and he included it in my file. Further he wanted as many more documents & photos that I could produce that would confirm my being married and living with my wife. He made copies of a few joint credit cards, bank statements(which showed my wife's name), took some wedding photos(he asked me to give the worst possible photos as he wasn't going to return them back), 1040's(state & fededral) from last year which showed me filing jointly with my wife. So my suggestion to the folks who are interviewing in Columbus is to take as much new documents as possible, the officer I spoke with was thorough and he loves to add as much new paperwork as possible to each case as possible.
He further asked me briefly about my address, my INS records all had a friend's address as I was uncertain about my stay in Columbus. I explained this and he said thats fine and he further asked me whether I wanted to update my address to my current address for which I said no. He never asked me for any pay stubs, just a letter from my employer.
He was also puzzled that I had never worked in the "corporate" office in New Jersey. The officer seems well in tune with desi body shops and how they "farm" out people which he referred in a derisive manner which honestly did not bother me.
Initially we were quite intimidated by his tone, but gradually things seemed to cool down, as it became obvious that he had quite thoroughly reviewed my case even before I walked into the office and he had no intentions of not approving my GC yesterday. He was just trying to be a bit intimidated but ended up being facetious for most part. After about 30 minutes of us talking he told me that he was going to approve our cases and he asked us to go get a soda or so when he runs the State Department Security check. We waited about 10 minutes and he gave us the passport with the red stamp which identified as Permenant Residents, he also said that Nebraska took about a year to get cards out(although my case was filed in Vermont, who knows?).
My getting in trouble 5 years ago helped me in a weird way. I did not have to drive to Cinci for my approval stamp, further the process seemed to have moved quicker as my case was forwarded here to Columbus. I had to wait for just 10 minutes before my name was called out. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Further some dates of reference as ColumbusPrince had requested
Category : EB3
Date this whole thing started : June-July~ 1998
Labor Approved : 10-11 months
I 140 approval : another 12 months
Waited for PD to become current : another 12 months
Filed for I 485 : July 2001
1st EAD received : October 2001
Case Transferred to Cinci : August 2002
2nd EAD notification letter/Interview Letter(Columbus OH) : Sept 16th 2002
2nd EAD received at Columbus OH : Oct 2nd 2002
Successful Interview at Columbus OH : Oct 17th 2002
I was fortunate to have an excellent employer(an honest, easy to work with straight forward desi body shop), and despite all my delays I am glad the way things worked out, which honestly worked out to my convenience. I wish the best of luck for all you folks who are waiting for the GC process to be done and over with.
Cheers,
SS
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