Long journey finished. I-485 approved.

A

acrossjz

Registered Users (C)
Received the magic emails this morning for both (spouse and me). I got many useful information from this forum.

Graduated in 2001 with a Ph.D. Started working in industry
Applied for the labor certificate in 2002.
Labor approved in 2003 but decided to change job.
Started everything over again with the new position.
EB1 I-140 submitted 1/14/2004.
I-140 approved 4/30/2005.
Hit by retrogression in October, 2005.
Knew name check stuck since 1/2004.
Contacted senators, congressman for FBI name check.
Sent hundreds of fax/letters to FBI, senators, ombudsman, congress judicial committee.
Name check cleared on August 7th 2006 (known from Senator's office).
Received the magic emails on 9/19/2006.

The senator and his staff deserve my respect but the congressman's office is just like USCIS and FBI. I stopped contacting the congressman's office after a few times bad experiences.

Guys: Never give up hopes. Try to do something rather than sit there and wait. This forum has many very useful instructions to contact different people and agencies to clear the Name Check. Consider trying all if you time allows. You only need one person/agency to show the mercy and you will be relieved.

Good luck to everyone. I will certainly be with this forum for a while.
 
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Congratulation!
Did you ever check LUD (Last Updated Date) for 140 & 485 since Jan 2004. If so, please post those LUD(s).
 
No. I did not check the LUD for a long time becasue I do not remember the password to log into the USCIS website.

As a matter of fact, one month back I checked the status with the senator's office and got confirmation that the results will be out with 30 to 60 days.
 
GC_NOV_2003: Your turn will come soon. I feel the system does work, but very slow. You might want to push it a little bit. It is time and money consuming, but I think it worths. I spent many nights after work drafting letters and gave hundreds of dollars to Fedex and USPS in the past year. Think about what a pain it is to apply for EAD and AP every 9 month. Freedom worths more than money gain in my view.
 
Thanks, acrossjz, for your good wish and understanding. We tried to contact the USCIS by either email or phone. We were told it's under review and have assigned to an officer. You still got to have patience. 30 days, 60 days and 6 months are USCIS's standard time slot.

Yes, it's time and money consumming. Being working with the same employer for over 5 years, still got the same entry level salary as the time I went on board. Had to separate with my spouse for over 3.5 years, double daily cost, flight cost, cost of your family life, even relationship

Hope all will be gone in 1 month.
 
acrossjz,

Congratulations to your approval.

When did you submit your I-485?

My case is similar to yours, the PD is just a little bit later, and I am stuck in security check. I have contacted my senator and was told to give them 30 days to hear from the USCIS.

Difference is that I am not using EAD, but H1B throughout, hopefully to save a couple of hundred $$$. :p

Enjoy your life.
 
I can totally feel the pains you have. The #1 I decide to give up the approved labor certificate and change job is that I want to saty together with my spouse.

My personal opinion is that you cannot trust any message from USCIS. During the long waiting, I made a number of inquiries from USCIS and each time I was told different reasons like "under secrurity check", "needs more background check", "assigned to an officer". I believe these are just pieces of shits they randomly chosen to throw out and let you wait for anothe 90 days or 6 months.The information from Senstor's office is the source I trust.
 
Shokaido,

I guess you are stucked at the notorious name check in FBI unfortunately. My suggestion is to confirm it from your senator. I do not trust the emails/letter from USCIS in response to your inquiry. My suggestion is to do somthing. It may not work immediately but if you insist, it will work one day. In my case, I started sending fax/letters every few weeks in September, 2005. There was no positive response until June, 2006. Very frustrated at that time. I almost stopped my efforts But I continued another few rounds of sending letters to senators, FBI and ombundsman. Appears it worked two months later.

I do not believe my NC would have been cleared automatically if I had not done the tremendous homework.

I have a few colleagues in my prior and current companies. Many of them chose to wait and they are still waiting. Seeing a few luck guys around got the GC within one year without doing anything does not necessarily mean you have the same good luck.

I am in H1B also but my spouse is in EAD. To renew the H1B is a pain for me. A few months back when I renewed my H1B, my boss asked me a few times how come I still need to use the company's money for H1B and implied that I should work harder to pay back. I hate the cold face and the ugly mouth.

To answer your question, my I-140 and I-485 were submitted the same time, 1/2004.
 
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I believe the ultimate bottom line of GC approval is the date when one files the I140 (if labor cer. then date of that) i.e. PD. USCIS does everything (ie. name check, security check etc) in between.
 
My PD is 1/2004. Since I did not submit the I-140 with my first company, I did not own a PD of 2002 though my labor was submitted in 2002.

I do not think name check is dependent on PD.
 
Senator letter

Would any of the guys would share a template or copy of the letter you had written to Senator/Congressman.
 
Green Cards received on Saturday 9/24/06

for both my spouse and me. Long journey finally came to the end. There was so many pains during the whole procedure that we did not feel so happy when we received the cards. It is a procedure that tortured us since 2002. During the period, many times we thought about going back to our home country. I do think it is unfair for us, well educated legal applicants with a decent position in industry or university, especially for those from India and China, to wait for so many years, while it sounds so easy for those illegal guys who can get their green cards. Believe or not, the workers the roofing company hired for repairing the roof of our home appears all green card holders/citizens but could not even speak simple English.

I wish USCIS and FBI could be reformed and be much more effective to help employment-based applicats out within the time frame the president proposed.

I thank those who provided informative instructions for me to find ways solving the name check issue in this forum. I also thank the people who made encouraging comments when I was in deep depression. I wish all who are still waiting good luck in geting your green cards in the near future.
 
Hi,

Congrats! I am stuck in the name check crap. So far, I have received letters from the VSC of USCIS stating (a) stuck in security check, no time frame when processing would be complete; (b) stuck in background check, contact after 6 months.

Contacted a senator in NJ, who replied back stating that I was stuck because of FBI name and date of birth checks - that was about a month and a half back.

Meanwhile, I received the "no records found" FOIPA letter from the FBI within 10 days of requesting.

I got frustrated and stopped writing, but may be I should write to the other senator in NJ. The senator that I wrote to earlier is busy with his reelection campaign!

I sometimes do feel frustrated. Don't know why I got stuck in this random process - I am sure nothing personal, but still!
 
My suggestion is to try all methods.

Stuck with name check for many EB applicants are ONLY because of the inefficiency of FBI. Homeland security is PURELY a lie to conceal their inability. The problem is, after 9/11, no politician wants to risk for us to push FBI. We are victims.

Try all people who are related and good luck.
 
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