Inerview question- How did you apply for I-485s without having their priority dates current

sarwarmd

Registered Users (C)
I appreciate your time on our cases.

Today, we had an InfoPass appointment in Baltimore DO office for our daughter's pending I-485s. Since the petitions are at the same offfice, officer decided to have an interview for us.

I-485s are applied in 2005 in employment based category. During the last couple of years, my wife had applied I-130s and now I-130s are approved...

Basically today officer need to convert I-485s from employment base to family based and approve or adjudicate.
Before the interview, officer has asked my wife to complete I-864. My wife did complete I-864s as per the instructions. Before calling for interview, officer asked me to complete I-864A and I honoured her instructions.

At the beginning of the interview, officer has asked my wife to sign a document to agree that we are attending the interview without the attorney. I could not understand that is it required to have an attorney to attend the interview.

She has asked us to take the oaths in the interview. We all family members took the oath.
Probably she has asked the standard questions like whether my wife is a biological mother of our daughters!

At the end, she asked that how did we apply in 2005 for i-485 when the priority date is not current. During those days, we can apply I-485 if we have I-140 approved. Now the law has changed. I have explained this situation to her and she just laughed. She said that she need to find out the facts and she can not go by my verbal information. She did not say clearly but these are the facts today.

We had to leave without conclusion to our interview. I asked her that how soon we can hear a decision on the cases. She said, she has no idea about that.

I think, I need to find the document or links which says that how we had applied for I-485s based on approved I-140. Can you please let me know if you find any links to this information!

Actually there is another officer who is on leave today asked Texas Service Center to transfer our petitions to Baltimore DO office. Unfortunately she was not there today.

My daughter's 18th birth day is in the next month and I have my naturalisation interview in the next month.
I have another InfoPass appointment in the next week. Can you plese suggest me the best approach from here!
Should I contact my congressman!
 
Jack or TheRealCanadian,

Any thoughts on this...

I appreciate your time on our cases.

Today, we had an InfoPass appointment in Baltimore DO office for our daughter's pending I-485s. Since
the petitions are at the same offfice, officer decided to have an interview for us.

I-485s are applied in 2005 in employment based category. During the last couple of years, my wife had applied I-130s and now I-130s are approved...

Basically today officer need to convert I-485s from employment base to family based and approve or adjudicate.
Before the interview, officer has asked my wife to complete I-864. My wife did complete I-864s as per the instructions. Before calling for interview, officer asked me to complete I-864A and I honoured her instructions.

At the beginning of the interview, officer has asked my wife to sign a document to agree that we are attending the interview without the attorney. I could not understand that is it required to have an attorney to attend the interview.

She has asked us to take the oaths in the interview. We all family members took the oath.
Probably she has asked the standard questions like whether my wife is a biological mother of our daughters!

At the end, she asked that how did we apply in 2005 for i-485 when the priority date is not current. During those days, we can apply I-485 if we have I-140 approved. Now the law has changed. I have explained this situation to her and she just laughed. She said that she need to find out the facts and she can not go by my verbal information. She did not say clearly but these are the facts today.

We had to leave without conclusion to our interview. I asked her that how soon we can hear a decision on the cases. She said, she has no idea about that.

I think, I need to find the document or links which says that how we had applied for I-485s based on approved I-140. Can you please let me know if you find any links to this information!

Actually there is another officer who is on leave today asked Texas Service Center to transfer our petitions to Baltimore DO office. Unfortunately she was not there today.

My daughter's 18th birth day is in the next month and I have my naturalisation interview in the next month.
I have another InfoPass appointment in the next week. Can you plese suggest me the best approach from here!
Should I contact my congressman!
 
At the end, she asked that how did we apply in 2005 for i-485 when the priority date is not current. During those days, we can apply I-485 if we have I-140 approved. Now the law has changed. I have explained this situation to her and she just laughed. She said that she need to find out the facts and she can not go by my verbal information. She did not say clearly but these are the facts today.

My understanding is that you could never apply for an I-485 without a current priority date. You may have an issue. What was your PD and country of birth?
 
At the end, she asked that how did we apply in 2005 for i-485 when the priority date is not current. During those days, we can apply I-485 if we have I-140 approved. Now the law has changed.
No, that aspect of the law has not changed. Ever since they implemented the annual quotas for family- and employment-based green cards (which was long before 2005), having a current priority date was required in order to file the I-485.

The first step is to check whether the PD was actually current when the I-485 was filed. What was your priority date, country, and category, and when was your EB I-485 filed?
 
In the first half of 2005, some employment categories and countries were current for everybody, so you could file without paying attention to priority dates if you qualified for one of those all-current slots. But that's not the same thing as filing it when the priority date is not current.

I think I remember you mentioning being in EB2. All countries including India/China were current in EB2 from Jan. 2005 to Sep. 2005. So if you were in fact in EB2 and filed I-485 within that time frame, your priority date would have been current regardless of what your priority date was.
 
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And please stop creating so many new threads for the same situation. When you do that, it's hard to determine the entire context of the situation. If you kept things to a single thread we probably would already have seen your priority date and country and category.
 
TheRealCanadian,
I apologize for my late response. Our employment based I-485s priority date is 8/17/2004. Country of brith is India.

My understanding is that you could never apply for an I-485 without a current priority date. You may have an issue. What was your PD and country of birth?
 
No, that aspect of the law has not changed. Ever since they implemented the annual quotas for family- and employment-based green cards (which was long before 2005), having a current priority date was required in order to file the I-485.

The first step is to check whether the PD was actually current when the I-485 was filed. What was your priority date, country, and category, and when was your EB I-485 filed?


Jackolantern,
I apologize for my late response. I was out of station with my family.

Our employment based I-485s priority date is 8/17/2004. Our country is India. Category is EB3. My I-485 receipt date is 12/6/2004. My kids and my wife's I-485s receipt date is 7/8/2005.
 
And please stop creating so many new threads for the same situation. When you do that, it's hard to determine the entire context of the situation. If you kept things to a single thread we probably would already have seen your priority date and country and category.

Jackolantern,
i use to keep in a single thread but what I have discovered during the recent times that short threads are having better responses from more people. Regarding the category and origin country, I use to keep in my signature but I have deleted due to space limitations on the signature.
However, I apologize for the inconviniency and sincerely thank for your follow up and comments.
 
Jackolantern,
I apologize for my late response. I was out of station with my family.

Our employment based I-485s priority date is 8/17/2004. Our country is India. Category is EB3. My I-485 receipt date is 12/6/2004. My kids and my wife's I-485s receipt date is 7/8/2005.

All employment categories were current for everybody in December 2004. So your I-485 has no problem. http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1343.html

But I think your receipt date, or priority date, or wife's and kids' receipt date is wrong. I doubt they could have gotten the labor certification approved in less than 4 months back in 2004, then the original person leaves so quickly and you are added to the labor certification and get your I-485 filed so fast.

Didn't you say in an earlier thread that your wife filed her I-485 together with yours?
 
What date was the original LC filed?

TheRealCanadian,
I am searching for this correct information. If needed, I will contact my old attorney for this information. Actually I did search lot of files this evening but could not find the labor related document. That is why I might have to contact my old attorney who had filed our I-485s.
 
All employment categories were current for everybody in December 2004. So your I-485 has no problem. http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1343.html

But I think your receipt date, or priority date, or wife's and kids' receipt date is wrong. I doubt they could have gotten the labor certification approved in less than 4 months back in 2004, then the original person leaves so quickly and you are added to the labor certification and get your I-485 filed so fast.

Didn't you say in an earlier thread that your wife filed her I-485 together with yours?

Jackolantern,
Thank you and TheRealCanadian for your responses.
Yes, I remember that I was added to the existing labor by my then attorney. Yes this is correct.

Regarding receipt dates, I filed my I-485 first which is on 12/06/04. My wife and kids arrived in US later in 2005. I filed my wife and kids I-485s together. All of them ( my wife and kids) are having the same I-485 receipt dates which is 7/8/05.
 
If the priority dates and receipt dates you gave are accurate, that means your priority date definitely was not current when their I-485s were filed in July 2005. EB3 was unavailable across the board, so nobody in EB3 would have been current at that time. See http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_2539.html

Are you sure you're not in EB2? Based on one of your earlier posts, it appears that you thought you were in EB2 and then were surprised to find out you're in EB3 when you looked at your approval notice. http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?258267&p=1916401#post1916401

Sometimes USCIS makes a clerical error and change the classification to EB3 although it was properly filed in EB2. Do you have a copy of the I-140 receipt or approval notice? Does it say EB2 or EB3?

If you're really in EB3, they will deny your daughters' I-485s, because you being in EB3 would mean their I-485s were technically invalid since filed, which would disqualify them from interfiling. You need to naturalize as soon as you can and then withdraw their old I-485s and file new I-485s for them ASAP after your oath. It is important to withdraw their old I-485s because if those are accidentally approved USCIS can undo the approval if/when they find the mistake (as long as they initiate action within 5 years after the approval).

You being in EB3 would also mean your wife's citizenship is theoretically in jeopardy, because her green card was granted in error. However, it is unlikely they would attempt that, because even if they succeed she would revert to permanent resident status. She should not lose permanent resident status, because there was no fraud in her green card process and it is already past the 5 year statute of limitations to rescind a green card that was granted because of USCIS error.
 
It's strange, because checking for a current priority date is the first thing USCIS does with a filed I-485; and if the EB3 dates were all unavailable it would have been really easy for them to check - reject all EB3.

I'd hold tight and see what they do with the derivative I-485. There's no harm in them getting rejected so long as the children remain under 21.
 
If the priority dates and receipt dates you gave are accurate, that means your priority date definitely was not current when their I-485s were filed in July 2005. EB3 was unavailable across the board, so nobody in EB3 would have been current at that time. See http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_2539.html

Are you sure you're not in EB2? Based on one of your earlier posts, it appears that you thought you were in EB2 and then were surprised to find out you're in EB3 when you looked at your approval notice. http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?258267&p=1916401#post1916401

Sometimes USCIS makes a clerical error and change the classification to EB3 although it was properly filed in EB2. Do you have a copy of the I-140 receipt or approval notice? Does it say EB2 or EB3?

If you're really in EB3, they will deny your daughters' I-485s, because you being in EB3 would mean their I-485s were technically invalid since filed, which would disqualify them from interfiling. You need to naturalize as soon as you can and then withdraw their old I-485s and file new I-485s for them ASAP after your oath. It is important to withdraw their old I-485s because if those are accidentally approved USCIS can undo the approval if/when they find the mistake (as long as they initiate action within 5 years after the approval).

You being in EB3 would also mean your wife's citizenship is theoretically in jeopardy, because her green card was granted in error. However, it is unlikely they would attempt that, because even if they succeed she would revert to permanent resident status. She should not lose permanent resident status, because there was no fraud in her green card process and it is already past the 5 year statute of limitations to rescind a green card that was granted because of USCIS error.


Jackolantern,

Yes, the priority and receipt dates given by me are very correct. Actually all of my I-140 and all family members I-485 processes are initiated and applied thru attorney. I had a high regards to my then attorney. I am still dependent on the same attorney for the information like actual date of labor certification applied.

No, we do not fall under EB-2 category. The same old attorney tried to use another approved labor under EB-2 but due to categorisation issues the second approved labor converted back to EB-3 now. By saying that, now we do not have any EB-2 labors or I-140s. We have two I-140s but both of them are under EB-3. I had one I-140 under EB-2 but the same I-140 is converted back to EB-3 couple of years ago.

I am rigorously following up with Baltimore DO office where I-485 petitions are pending. I have another InfoPass appointment on 01-03-2013. We had another InfoPass appointment on 12-28-2012. On 12-28-12, Immigration officer took my family members I-485 interview. You are suggesting that now we can directly apply for new I-485 for our both the daughters. You feel that I do not need to worry about my wife's naturalisaction. This is since it is more than 5 years after the approval of her Greencard. During the interview on 12-28-2012, officer was saying that I can go ahead and complete my naturalisation and that does not impact I-485s of our daughters. May I believe that? Now you are also suggesting to complete my naturalisation and apply new I-485s for our daughters as soon as possible.
 
You are suggesting that now we can directly apply for new I-485 for our both the daughters.

You can, but why? I wouldn't do anything unless their existing I-485s get denied. If you want to throw away $2000 you can just give it to me. :D

During the interview on 12-28-2012, officer was saying that I can go ahead and complete my naturalisation and that does not impact I-485s of our daughters. May I believe that?

I wouldn't.

Now you are also suggesting to complete my naturalisation and apply new I-485s for our daughters as soon as possible.

I wouldn't. USCIS may be clueless, but I'd be personally rather shocked if after all these opportunities to deny the I-485s they have not done so.
 
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