kvsch said:
Thank you very much running_swede and triangle,
I feel much better with all your information.
I went to the interview the beginning of the month, and they give me 1 month to send back the I-612 approved. I don't have much time...I will try to go to Advisory Opinion first... How do I do it?
Of course Triangle, I would like to see all your steps and paperwork...this is my email
tone33012@yahoo.com.
Thank you very much again you were very helpfull
You are very lucky that at least they give you a chance to fix the problem. They close my case right away after they saw the notation in my pasport, so I have to pay them more money to have them reopen the case. I was so panic because I thought I had to leave right away......
Anyway, I feel that 1 month is probably not enough to get the result from DOS. Usually, it takes them about 2-3 weeks to get to your request. That means your mail will sit in the mail room for security screen and all other stuff that they have to do before they can put your request into the system. Then the review process begins, which can take as early as 2 weeks after they put your request into the system or up to 4-6 weeks for longer review process.
When I did mine, I only sent the request by mail. But I learn that somehow you can first register for the review process online and submit the paper work right after. That way, you can reserve your case number. I haven't done that but I'm sure if you go to
this website, you can go from there. Follow the link that say
Online-New! then
Complete an online application. You don't need to pay the fee because you ask for advisory opinion. But if you want to try to get the waiver too, you can do it at the same time and pay the fee.
Again I personally think you don't need to get a waiver and waste your money because you have a great chance that you are not subject to the rule. But if you prefer to get a waiver process started, just in a REAR case that DOS say you are subject, you can always try to do both at the same time. In that case if advisory opinion falls through, you get your waiver process started. Again this is your choices that you have to decide. I did only advisory opinion because I strongly beleive that it's a mistake, plus at that time I didn't have money to spend for waiver process. My friend did both but she ended up wasting her money for the waiver process since the result shows that she is not subject. We both were au pair. I knew a few au pair that were subject but we all got away from it.
So, get to the website today. It's good to start from there because you will get your case number right away. When I sent mine by regular mail, I didn't get mine after 3 weeks. It's very frustrating. After youa re done registering via the website, send them a copy of IAP-66 and a request letter. I would recommend you do it over night since time it's very essentail for you. In the meantime, I would recommend you try to contact your local CIS and ask them to give you more time since they haven't yet close your case. It is not likely that you'll hear from DOS within 1 month, so it's not a bad idea to ask CIS to give youa break. You can inform them you already contact DOS but the process can take up to 6 weeks so you ask for additional 30 days or what so ever. The worst thing that they can do is to say 'no' and that's is o.k. If they don't give you more time, you have another 30 days anyway from the day that they close your case to file a motion to reopen, but this time you haev to pay the fee $385. And again if you happen to fall off that 30 days to file MTR, you can always repply for I-485, which means you ahve to start all over again. Don't worry, there are a lot of ways to get things done. It'll just take time and cost more money. But now contact DOS and in the meantime write to local CIS and ask them to give you more time. At this step you don't have to pay anything sicne CIS haven't yet close your case.
How about do that first and we'll be in touch. I don't want to confuse you. When you get that done, let me know. I'll tell you more what would happen next and what mroe to do.
Good luck!
P.S. You don't need a lawyer. They cost a lot of money. I don't know how much mine would end up to. I paid $500 so far, but I'm sure he'll ask for more when the whole things is done.