November 2009 family based filers, post here

ahsieh said:
Just came back from interview.
There were just one other couple in the waiting room.
We were called 20 mins after our appointment time.
Very nice officer; she swore us in right after we entered her room.
Then, she seated us down and asked for IDs and my original naturalization certificate.
Surprisingly, she had only 3 questions for us.

1. Do you have a lease or you own a property?
2. Were you married before?
3. Do you have any children?

So it took only maybe 3 minutes but we were out in 30 minutes because she was very talkative and started telling us about the bad cases she have had before and this morning.
She said one time a couple came with FOUR attorneys and the guy eventually withdraw his petition after some grilling and her emphasis on the penalty of faking a marriage for immigration purposes.
I guess our background (living together for many years already) and the submitted information are enough to convince her our marriage is bona fide.
She didn't give us the stamp but said we can come back a week before our travel date, which is 3 week away, if we haven't received the card by then.
Before we left she also remind us to file the application for removal of the condition.
In short, very nice officer and it was good hearing her experience.
Oh, I just received an email about card production order.:D
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Congratulations!!!, well I hope mine goes as smooth as yours, since we dont have any lease or own any property, Im just 25 and my wife is 21 and we've been married since she was 18 and I was 23, and she still goes to school.
 
Just received 2 emails about approved I-765 & I-131
What's weird it happened about 8pm CST, are they working that late? :)

11/20/09: Sent (I-130, I-485, I-864, I-765, I-131)
11/27/09: notice date
12/09/09: Received FP letter for 12/18/09
12/18/09: FP done
12/21/09: I-765 "touched"[/QUOTE]
01/07/10: interview letter sent
01/11/10: interview letter received
01/21/10: emails received about I-765 & I-131 approval
02/18/10: interview date
 
My EAD email/text was at 6:45pm EST the other day. I have had one in the past at 6 a.m.!!!

Did your email say that you EAD was approved or card production ordered? I only got an email that said " EAD card production ordered".
 
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Hi Resident,

I personally think what the officer had raised is a very minor technicality, I am not sure if this is even a real problem. I am pretty confident that the officer will find a way to approve your I485. I wanted to say good luck, but then I realized you don't need any, I'm sure you will get your I485 approved soon.


resident1374 said:
My interview was good till the last question....

Our interview was scheduled for 10:30 and we were called in at 11:00. The officer was extremely nice and cordial. The only question was regarding - how are we Indian-Catholics? We explained briefly about the Catholics in India. We then talked about marriage. Showed him our wedding photos and he kept few of them for his records. He verified my employment status. All was good!

That was it. He verified my wife's name and other items on the I130 form and he shifted the focus to the I485 form and asked all the Yes/No questions. Questions were all good and he told me keep the I-94 till I get my GC.

The last question was "Did I travel outside US after filing?" and the answer was "yes - to Canada". Well, I traveled on my H1B which was sponsored by my company but I should have traveled on my AP which was based on the family-based GC. That stopped everything. He informed and explained the law once you file you GC the only way you can travel is on AP (which I received only when I came back from Canada). You can still travel on H1B as long as the it employment based GC. My GC was family-based but I traveled on H1B which was employer-based. Disappointment on our faces (wife and me)

He told me that he will try his level best to get my case approved. My employment-based GC papers are still pending at some other office and both the cases have to be merged.

He told I may have to re-file the I485 but he will try to approve my employment based GC (the I130 looks good for approval) so that I don’t have to go through the re-filling process. He told there will be money involved for re-filing and he will try to make me NOT go through that situation of the re-filing process and save some money along the way.

He told us to wait and he talked with his supervisor and 3 other officers to see what can be done about my case. But unfortunately, no one knew what to do….so, now we have wait on the USCIS decision.

What a day! We were almost there...and we all (including the officer) were disappointed.
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Congratulations ! I cannot wait for mine tomorrow morning.

ahsieh said:
Just came back from interview.
There were just one other couple in the waiting room.
We were called 20 mins after our appointment time.
Very nice officer; she swore us in right after we entered her room.
Then, she seated us down and asked for IDs and my original naturalization certificate.
Surprisingly, she had only 3 questions for us.

1. Do you have a lease or you own a property?
2. Were you married before?
3. Do you have any children?

So it took only maybe 3 minutes but we were out in 30 minutes because she was very talkative and started telling us about the bad cases she have had before and this morning.
She said one time a couple came with FOUR attorneys and the guy eventually withdraw his petition after some grilling and her emphasis on the penalty of faking a marriage for immigration purposes.
I guess our background (living together for many years already) and the submitted information are enough to convince her our marriage is bona fide.
She didn't give us the stamp but said we can come back a week before our travel date, which is 3 week away, if we haven't received the card by then.
Before we left she also remind us to file the application for removal of the condition.
In short, very nice officer and it was good hearing her experience.
Oh, I just received an email about card production order.:D
Click to expand...
 
Look below for answers:

Konxvetka said:
Received IL yesterday
Updating my signature..
11/23/09 sent to Chicago
11/25/09 Delivered
12/05/09 NOA received for all three applications(I130, I485, I765)
12/21/09 I765, I485, I130 touched
12/22/09 FP note received(I guess it was lost in the mail as note date is Dec 8 2009) for 12/31/09
12/23/09 Fp done(walk-in)
01/01/10 I765, I130, I485 touched
01/05/10 I765, I130, I485 touched
01/20/10 IL for 2/23/10
I have 2 questions.
1. Do everybody receive a white paper that states about criminal record papers. Because I got scared, it makes me think they found something I don't know about.
>> That white paper doesn't mean anything. I received one too and I have a clean record. I think they send it to almost every one.

2. Do I have to take original birth certificate? Because I only have original certified copy. And it states that my husband should bring BS and proof of US citizenship. Does he really need BS as he is naturalized USC and when he had GC he had already submitted his BC. Help please because I'm getting ready. Thank You and congratulation to those who have passed their I's.
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>> What do you mean by original certified copy, who certified this?, if this was certified by the same authority that issued your original BC, then it's ok. As for your husband's Birth certificate, I heard from a friend before that he was asked for his Birth certificate even though he was a naturalized USC and he was helping his wife adjust her status. If it's relatively easy to get your husbands BC then get it, if it's hard I think you can tell the officer that his BC is not there and that he can probably verify his Birth Date from his naturalization certificate.
 
Naas said:
Thanks IrishExport. I know I thought i would receive it by not but who knows? I hope i get it soon.

As for the SSA, everything went smoothly. The only thing was the person working there did not seem to really know what was going on. I don't know maybe it was a bad day for her.

She seemed very surprised that i did not haven American passport. She looked through every page and asked when my passport expires and that the dates were written in Turkish. She also made a comment on how "not everyone speaks Turkish".
SO i had to show her that it was infact written in English. :)
But other than that it was fine. SHe looked through the passport and asked for my EAD and verified all info on it and gave me a receipt that shows that I applied for it.
She said I will have it in 2 weeks max.

R u still thinking about waiting till after ur interview to apply for ssn?
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Have to, Naas, just can't physically get to a SSA office and my interview is only a week and a half away. In fact, though, I'm going to wait until I get the green card probably - then I won;t have to go back to get it changed.

Sounded like she definitely was having a bad day, and maybe a little anti-immigrant sentiment thrown in there too, which is always nice. :)
 
Resident1374, I am so sorry to hear that. It sounds like it might be easily sorted out, but that doesn;t help with your stress levels when you thought you were at the finishing post. I'm really sorry! :-(
 
Congratulations ahsieh! I hope ours is as smooth sailing as yours since we have been married for 8 years and have 2 kids. Still, we have a lack of photos (I'm always *taking* the pics, not in them) and DH and I have a big age gap, eeek.
 
Thanks everybody for the congrats.

Alboto, we don't have a lease or own a property either.
That's a question I expected because in all the evidence we sent there was no lease or deed.
However, our interviewer was more concerned about how we answered the questions than the actual answer itself.

IrishExport, we don't have a lot of pictures either (<30 for 8 years). My wife just doesn't like to take pictures and we had just a simple marriage registration with one friend present.
Our interviewer explained a lot about how she sees couples.
She said she had no doubt at all because of our background and how we behaved in the room (e.g. if we talked and answered questions with confidence and comfortably, etc)
But, I think it all depends on the individual interviewer.
That said, I think yours is an easy too; who would fake a marriage for 8 years and with 2 kids?
 
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Just got back from my interview, my I485 was approved. The interview was laid back and easy. We went about half an hour ahead of our schedule of 9:00AM and were called in at 9:15AM. The interviewing officer was a pleasant Asian lady (an immigrant herself), who took us to her room, swore us in and made us sign some waiver letter as our attorney wasn't joining us. She then started with verifying my and my wife's information on the application forms. She then verified the originals for each document we filed along with our application (our birth certificates, my wife's naturalization certificate, our passports, our drivers licenses, my wife's employment verification letter and pay stubs, etc.). She then went through the usual yes/no questions on the arrests and so on in the I485 application. She then asked us how we met, and if our marriage was an arranged marriage, as we were from India where arranged marriages are kind of common(ours wasn't and we explained to her how we met). She then asked me if my employer as well (I'm on a h1b visa) had filed a I485 petition for me in the past (mine didn't). After that she asked me for evidence of mingling of financial resources. I showed her the original house deed (also gave her a copy of it), joint car insurance, joint vision and dental insurance, wife as primary beneficiary on life insurance and vice-versa, joint electric and water utility bills. The officer was ok with this and said some thing to the effect that she was happy as her job was made easy with all the documentation. Then the officer verified my medical forms, and then asked for photos of our marriage. We carried a large album with us and she went through it all, we also took a few separate copies for the officer to keep with the file and she took 2 of those pictures.

The officer then said that she was satisfied and that she was going to approve my I485, and that I will get a 10 year card as we were married for more than 2 years. She then started filling in some online forms on her computer, while chatting with us on the weather, state finances, etc. Finally she congratulated me, gave me a paper which said that my application's been approved and that a card has been ordered. All in all it took 30 minutes, by the time she walked us out of the office.

Note: I suggest that you carry the original and also one copy of all the documents you filed along with the application, as sometimes the copies filed with the application can be missing. My house deed copy was missing in the application packet though I filed one with the original application. However, I happened to carry a copy of the deed just in case.
 
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Hi Guys,

What do you mean by certified marriage proof. I do have the original marriage certificate that I got from the county. Do I have to notarize it or anything for the interview?
 
GeekinSanjose said:
Just got back from my interview, my I485 was approved. The interview was very laid back and easy. We went about half an hour ahead of our schedule of 9:00AM and were called in at 9:15AM. The interviewing officer was a pleasant Asian lady (an immigrant herself), who took us to her room, swore us in and made us sign some waiver letter as our attorney wasn't joining us. She then started with verifying my and my wife's information on the application forms. She then verified the originals for each document we filed along with our application (our birth certificates, my wife's naturalization certificate, our passports, our drivers licenses, my wife's employment verification letter and pay stubs, etc.). She then went through the usual yes/no questions on the arrests and so on in the I485 application. She then asked us how we met, and if our marriage was an arranged marriage, as we were from India where arranged marriages are kind of common(ours wasn't and we explained to her how we met). She then asked me if my employer as well (I'm on a h1b visa) had filed a I485 petition for me in the past (mine didn't). After that she asked me for evidence of mingling of financial resources. I showed her the original house deed (also gave her a copy of it), joint car insurance, joint vision and dental insurance, wife as primary beneficiary on life insurance and vice-versa, joint electric and water utility bills. The officer was ok with this and said some thing to the effect that she was happy as her job was made easy with all the documentation. Then the officer verified my medical forms, and then asked for photos of our marriage. We carried a huge album with us and she went through it all, we also took a few separate copies for the officer to keep with the file and she took 2 of those pictures.

The officer then said that she was satisfied and that she was going to approve my I485, and that I will get a 10 year card as we were married for more than 2 years. She then started filling in some online forms on her computer, while chatting with us on the weather, state finances, etc. Finally she congratulated me, gave me a paper which said that my application's been approved and that a card has been ordered. All in all it took 45 minutes, by the time she walked us out of the office.

Note: I suggest that you carry the original and also one copy of all the documents you filed along with the application, as sometimes the copies filed with the application can be missing. My house deed copy was missing in the application packet though I filed one with the original application, and I was carrying a copy just in case to make it easier for the officer.
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Congrats!! We have our interview in few days and hoping for something like yours :)
 
You do not need any certified proof for the interview, other than your original marriage certificate.

sandy_2009 said:
Hi Guys,

What do you mean by certified marriage proof. I do have the original marriage certificate that I got from the county. Do I have to notarize it or anything for the interview?
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sandy_2009 said:
Hi Guys,

What do you mean by certified marriage proof. I do have the original marriage certificate that I got from the county. Do I have to notarize it or anything for the interview?
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I guess they keep original and give U only certified copies. At least that's what they told us in Va.
 
Hi folks

I applied for my wife in November, but haven't heard anything from USCIS since FP, which was completed on Dec 8th. It has been a while since then and no sign of EAD/IL. The detailed timeline is below.
People who applied around the same time have received EAD and IL a while ago. What should I do? Do EAD/IL timelines depend on the DO you're applying in, or are they processed centrally? I'm in NYC and don't know timeline specific to my DO (anyone on this thread applying in NYC?).

Is it time for me to take some action, or should I still give it some more time? How long should I wait before doing something?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Good luck to everyone whose interview is coming up!

Thanks!

-------------------

New York, NY
11/21/09: Application sent (I-130, 485, 765, 131 and 864)
11/23/09: Application received by USCIS
12/05/09: Received NOAs (dated 12/01/09)
12/07/09: Received FP letter for 12/24/09
12/08/09: FP done (walk-in)
12/09/09: I-485 touched
12/17/09: I-130, 765, 131 touched
IL ???
EAD ???
 
hobbes100 said:
Hi folks

I applied for my wife in November, but haven't heard anything from USCIS since FP, which was completed on Dec 8th. It has been a while since then and no sign of EAD/IL. The detailed timeline is below.
People who applied around the same time have received EAD and IL a while ago. What should I do? Do EAD/IL timelines depend on the DO you're applying in, or are they processed centrally? I'm in NYC and don't know timeline specific to my DO (anyone on this thread applying in NYC?).

Is it time for me to take some action, or should I still give it some more time? How long should I wait before doing something?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Good luck to everyone whose interview is coming up!

Thanks!

-------------------

New York, NY
11/21/09: Application sent (I-130, 485, 765, 131 and 864)
11/23/09: Application received by USCIS
12/05/09: Received NOAs (dated 12/01/09)
12/07/09: Received FP letter for 12/24/09
12/08/09: FP done (walk-in)
12/09/09: I-485 touched
12/17/09: I-130, 765, 131 touched
IL ???
EAD ???
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I would contact 800 customer service or do an InfoPass appointment to ask at least about the EAD. In terms of the interview, I believe NYC is one of the offices that takes a long time.
 
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