Questions on the plastic card...

[indianh1b]

1. Why does it take a long time to receive the plastic card? Have they started performing security checks to manufacture the card?? I wish it was as simple as ordering a book from Amazon.com. They process millions of requests per week.

2. Some of the posts by people on this board state a "card ordered" date, which is different from the date of passport stamping. I thought the card is automatically ordered when the passport is stamped on the same date. Please clarify.

3. Does the I-485 status online change as the manufacturing of the card progresses??

Thanks in advance!

 

[clisp]

this is reply to Q#2 and also its a wild guess

I thought only minnesota was testin this procedure , that once u get apprved they do the whole thing in a week or so and u get your permanent resident card
Also I dont think u need a passport stamp no more , since its suppose to take less then a week

 

[v_a_rao]

From what i understand, cards are manufactured by a third party contractor. The immigration deplartment sends out these requests to different contractors. The speed with which they manufacture these cards are based on the backlog they have. The online status will not change or progress during this period. In my case, the cards ordered message was still there 5 months after i got my card. So the bottom line - don't rely on the messages you receive from the website or the phone system. in most cases, you should receive it within 2-3 months. But who cares, the stamp is good enough. I travelled with it about 4 times before I got the card with no problems. It is recognized everywhere, within and outside the country. So no problems.

 

[indianh1b]

Thanks