Month of MAY filers, here is your thread

Good luck on Wednesday! Do let us know what questions you are asked...

Thanks - I am going to do the best I can to remember all that they ask. I can't beleive that this process might finally be over. I've been in the US for almost 13 of the past 14 years and have had many H1's and TN's but it feels strange to think that it might actually be over soon. (the "temporary" part of it all that is)

My appointment is not until the afternoon and I live almost 6 hrs away from the DO - so it will be a very long day of driving and I won't be able to get back online until very late on Wednesday at the earliest.

I did notice online that my I-130 and I-485 has soft LUD's on Nov 6th. No change to the description, but the date changed. I figure they either pulled my file, transferred my file to the local DO or maybe my background check came back.

I'm going to sort through all my files tonight and make sure I have everything I need and have copies of everything and I have all out ID's and stuff. Then if I need to make copies of anything I have tomorrow to do it, and then I'll put it all in one big box so that I can easily carry that out to the car on Wednesday and I won't forget anything. Since it's a 6hr drive away, I can't just go home for something if I forgot it.
 
Approved

Finally home after my interview. After driving 12 hrs (6 each way) and waiting in the waiting room for over an hour, I finally got my 10 minute interview and was APPROVED! He did not stamp my passport, but did tell me I was approved and printed me out a letter stating that I was approved. Oddly, he did not ask for the EAD or AP. But told me I should get my card in about 10 days. I will write up a more detailed description of the interview tomorrow... right now I'm just tired... but also relieved :rolleyes:

:D
 
Finally home after my interview. After driving 12 hrs (6 each way) and waiting in the waiting room for over an hour, I finally got my 10 minute interview and was APPROVED! He did not stamp my passport, but did tell me I was approved and printed me out a letter stating that I was approved. Oddly, he did not ask for the EAD or AP. But told me I should get my card in about 10 days. I will write up a more detailed description of the interview tomorrow... right now I'm just tired... but also relieved :rolleyes:

:D

Boy! Congrats!:)
 
Finally home after my interview. After driving 12 hrs (6 each way) and waiting in the waiting room for over an hour, I finally got my 10 minute interview and was APPROVED! He did not stamp my passport, but did tell me I was approved and printed me out a letter stating that I was approved. Oddly, he did not ask for the EAD or AP. But told me I should get my card in about 10 days. I will write up a more detailed description of the interview tomorrow... right now I'm just tired... but also relieved :rolleyes:

:D

Congrats.
 
Finally home after my interview. After driving 12 hrs (6 each way) and waiting in the waiting room for over an hour, I finally got my 10 minute interview and was APPROVED! He did not stamp my passport, but did tell me I was approved and printed me out a letter stating that I was approved. Oddly, he did not ask for the EAD or AP. But told me I should get my card in about 10 days. I will write up a more detailed description of the interview tomorrow... right now I'm just tired... but also relieved :rolleyes:

:D

Congratulations!
 
nspatel112 is from the same DO as me and I have not gotten the Interview letter. Do you guys think I should make a info pass appointment.

Never hurts to make an appointment...I made one before I got my EAD, then I ended up cancelling because the EAD came 3-4 days before the appointment.
 
The Interview

Here is the sumamry of my interview...

We (my wife and I and our almost 5 year old son) left early in the morning and started our 6 hr drive to Memphis for our 1pm interview. We arrived at the office at 12:40 and went in and sat down. There were only two other people in the waiting room, so I was thinking – “Great – we should be in and out in no time”. In a short time one person came out and one of the people waiting got up and they left together. Even better I thought, now there’s only one person in front of us. Then another person came out and the one person left in the room got up and left with them. This was getting better…

But then the room started to fill up with people, but I still thought we were here first, so we should be first. But then one by one other people were called in. It looked like most of them were going in for their citizenship tests as most of them has study guides and even though some of them came with other people, when they were called, they only allowed one person to go back and the others had to wait. It was getting to be a long wait and our son was getting very antsy and wanted to leave.

Finally around 2pm I got called and we followed the officer back to his room and before we sat down he swore us in. He apologized for it taking so long and mentioned that this was originally someone else’s case, but he was doing it for them. So maybe there was an issue with the original officer and that’s why it took longer for them to get to us.

He asked for our ID’s and had us state our full names and our addresses. My wife’s address on her driver’s license was our old address, so he questioned that a bit. She had changed the address online with the state, but never got a new license printed. He asked to see my license - which did have our current address so that was okay.

His first real question after that was asked of me here on the forum a couple of weeks ago.
“Why did you wait so long to file?” We said that we had to decide which country (US/Canada) we wanted to live in before we filed. He said he figured it might have been something like that.

Here are rest of the questions…
“Do you have any children together?” – My answer was yes and no. I recently adopted my stepson, so originally no we didn’t have any together, but now we do since the state now considers me to be the biological father of my wife’s son. He understood exactly what I meant and understood why I said yes and no. He then asked our son what his name was, when his birthday was and how old he was. My son was not very cooperative but the IO got enough of the answers that he saw the true relationship there.

Asked to see the originals of our Birth Certificates and Marriage Certificate.
Asked when we got married and if we had been previously married.
Asked when and how we met and if we had been separated from our previous spouses prior to our meeting.
Asked what I did and what my wife did for work.
Asked what evidence I brought – I said that I brought originals of everything I had submitted, but he wanted to know what else I brought that was new. I showed him current bank statements for the same bank that I had previously submitted. I showed him a certificate to show were approved by the state last week to become foster parents (so the state approved us as a “family”). He spent some time going through all my evidence already submitted and made notes.

Then he went to a different page and put down a series of checkmarks.

Then said he didn’t recall seeing an Affidavit of Support and he asked my wife if she filled one out. She said no as she didn’t have to because I was exempt. He looked again and saw that I filed the I-864W form since I have over 40 quarters of credit with Social Security. He read the form and read over my evidence from Social Security and said, “okay” and made a couple of more checkmarks.

I also stated that I brought some photos but he stopped me and just blurted out that he was approving the application and he would give me a letter saying so.

He explained that I was getting a 10 year card and that I can apply for citizenship in 2 years and 9 months from now, or I can just keep renewing my GC. He said not to travel until I get the card, but he never did ask for my EAD or AP, so I still have them – but I can’t use them anymore.

So that’s it… once we got in, it was pretty straight forward. And no questions about my previous visas or anything about work history and he didn’t even ask for any current work information other than “what do you do?” – that was it. (The I-864W form sure was nice to have)

This morning my 485 case online was updated to say “Card production ordered”. :D

Relief!!!!!! Now I can exhale... :p
 
Congratulations bro.

If your EAD doesnt good anymore and you don't have GC yet, how will you work then?
 
Congratulations bro.

If your EAD doesnt good anymore and you don't have GC yet, how will you work then?

I can use the approval letter I got as proof that I can work and I can use it to get a new job as long as I follow up with the actual green card later. But the big thing is the AP - I cannot travel out of the country without my GC now, or in case of an emergency I will need a stamp in my passport - the AP is no longer valid. The reason is that the EAD and AP were granted as a condition of having a pending 485. The 485 is no longer pending therefore the EAD and AP are no longer valid.
 
done for now!

Hi all,

I got my shiny new GC in the mail today. As you can see from my timeline, it was a pretty quick process for me (less than six months). In fact, it would have been about 40 days faster if Hurricane Ike hadn't come my way.

Thanks to all of you for keeping me company through the process. Congratulations to those who are already done, good luck to the ones waiting, and best wishes to everyone. I hope to see everyone again in either 1 year nine months or two years nine months!
 
Here is the sumamry of my interview...

We (my wife and I and our almost 5 year old son) left early in the morning and started our 6 hr drive to Memphis for our 1pm interview. We arrived at the office at 12:40 and went in and sat down. There were only two other people in the waiting room, so I was thinking – “Great – we should be in and out in no time”. In a short time one person came out and one of the people waiting got up and they left together. Even better I thought, now there’s only one person in front of us. Then another person came out and the one person left in the room got up and left with them. This was getting better…

But then the room started to fill up with people, but I still thought we were here first, so we should be first. But then one by one other people were called in. It looked like most of them were going in for their citizenship tests as most of them has study guides and even though some of them came with other people, when they were called, they only allowed one person to go back and the others had to wait. It was getting to be a long wait and our son was getting very antsy and wanted to leave.

Finally around 2pm I got called and we followed the officer back to his room and before we sat down he swore us in. He apologized for it taking so long and mentioned that this was originally someone else’s case, but he was doing it for them. So maybe there was an issue with the original officer and that’s why it took longer for them to get to us.

He asked for our ID’s and had us state our full names and our addresses. My wife’s address on her driver’s license was our old address, so he questioned that a bit. She had changed the address online with the state, but never got a new license printed. He asked to see my license - which did have our current address so that was okay.

His first real question after that was asked of me here on the forum a couple of weeks ago.
“Why did you wait so long to file?” We said that we had to decide which country (US/Canada) we wanted to live in before we filed. He said he figured it might have been something like that.

Here are rest of the questions…
“Do you have any children together?” – My answer was yes and no. I recently adopted my stepson, so originally no we didn’t have any together, but now we do since the state now considers me to be the biological father of my wife’s son. He understood exactly what I meant and understood why I said yes and no. He then asked our son what his name was, when his birthday was and how old he was. My son was not very cooperative but the IO got enough of the answers that he saw the true relationship there.

Asked to see the originals of our Birth Certificates and Marriage Certificate.
Asked when we got married and if we had been previously married.
Asked when and how we met and if we had been separated from our previous spouses prior to our meeting.
Asked what I did and what my wife did for work.
Asked what evidence I brought – I said that I brought originals of everything I had submitted, but he wanted to know what else I brought that was new. I showed him current bank statements for the same bank that I had previously submitted. I showed him a certificate to show were approved by the state last week to become foster parents (so the state approved us as a “family”). He spent some time going through all my evidence already submitted and made notes.

Then he went to a different page and put down a series of checkmarks.

Then said he didn’t recall seeing an Affidavit of Support and he asked my wife if she filled one out. She said no as she didn’t have to because I was exempt. He looked again and saw that I filed the I-864W form since I have over 40 quarters of credit with Social Security. He read the form and read over my evidence from Social Security and said, “okay” and made a couple of more checkmarks.

I also stated that I brought some photos but he stopped me and just blurted out that he was approving the application and he would give me a letter saying so.

He explained that I was getting a 10 year card and that I can apply for citizenship in 2 years and 9 months from now, or I can just keep renewing my GC. He said not to travel until I get the card, but he never did ask for my EAD or AP, so I still have them – but I can’t use them anymore.

So that’s it… once we got in, it was pretty straight forward. And no questions about my previous visas or anything about work history and he didn’t even ask for any current work information other than “what do you do?” – that was it. (The I-864W form sure was nice to have)

This morning my 485 case online was updated to say “Card production ordered”. :D

Relief!!!!!! Now I can exhale... :p

HEY TNguy, Congratulations. By the way i got my GC in the mail on friday. you should get yours pretty soon to.
 
HEY TNguy, Congratulations. By the way i got my GC in the mail on friday. you should get yours pretty soon to.

Thanks. I'm hoping it will come soon. I'm really just thankful that he told me it was approved right then and there and that I got the update online too. Based on what others went through, it would not have surprised me to hear him say "Well, we'll review it and let you know..." sort of thing.

And when it comes - it will be my unconditional 10 year GC - and that's even better news. :D
 
Expired Passport

My wife's passport expired while the application was being processed. My interview is on the 9th of Dec and we haven't renewed it yet. Should be take the expired passport to the interview or have it renewed before the interview?
 
Passport

My wife's passport expired while the application was being processed. My interview is on the 9th of Dec and we haven't renewed it yet. Should be take the expired passport to the interview or have it renewed before the interview?

I also had an expired passport and even though I took the new one to my interview it was not necessary. I was not among the lucky ones who get their passport stamped: and for that very reason I would recommend you to get a new passport. It's not a big deal to get it, and you're just in time to get it without any hurry. My IO explained that they check the passport to verify that you came here on the visa you stated in your application. She (IO) didn't even look at, nor wanted copies of the new passport. Good luck!
 
My wife is the USC. So they wouldn't be stamping her passport. Her's is the one that is expired. Lawyer says not to renew until after the interview.
 
Unnecessary

My wife is the USC. So they wouldn't be stamping her passport. Her's is the one that is expired. Lawyer says not to renew until after the interview.

Then why is she taking her passport?
She doesn't need it: her birth certificate or naturalization certificate will do...

Good luck :)
 
I received my GC in the mail on Nov 22nd, exactly 10 calendar days after I was approved. He said I should get it in about 10 days... :rolleyes:
 
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