well, friends, this part of my journey is over. my wife's and my i485 cases were approved yesterday. i came to know about it this morning through emails sent out by the new "case status portfolio" service of the USCIS website. oddly enough, though, my 5-yr old son is still not approved, nor does his case status show any "internal processing update" (which is a feature of this new USCIS service) for over a year. as a matter of fact, i am typing this while on hold during what seems to be an interminable call to the USCIS customer service center to ask about my little sonny's case.
okay, the rest of this post is after i hung up after my conversation with the IIO... he said that, (paraphrasing) "NSC is currently processing employment-based cases from dec 1, 2001... yadda, yadda...." when i pointed out that my wife's and my cases had the exact same dates as that of my son's, yet ours were approved, he said, "each case is unique... blah, blah...." same old drivel.
anyway, i am quite certain it is only a matter of time before my son's case also comes through. meanwhile, my own feeling in reaction to my approval was that of - to best describe it - closure, rather than relief. which i suppose also implies that a denial should have led to the same reaction, but i would be less than candid if i did not admit that, on the whole, i like this outcome a whole lot better
(note to orca and sankrit: my diction has been taking on a midwestern hue, and i can't hardly help it.)
which brings me to what i have been itching to say to all of you: thank you all for your help, support, counsel, wishes and kind thoughts. there were so many of you that i came know, almost as it were, personnally. if i name all of you individually, then that would be all i do today. instead, i will simply say, it has been a privilege for me.
i have also said many times before, and i'll say it yet again: this forum and all its participants have been more than a source of information, vital though that aspect of it has been for me: it has been a support group and sounding board for me, and countless others like me. for which i offer my gratitude to rajiv khanna for enabling this great community. two other resources that i found very helpful on this journey were the excellent websites www.immigration-law.com and rupnet.com, for which i would like to thank matthew oh and greaty-k, respectively.
while still in a candid vein, i will admit to some ennui resulting from this stultifying adjustment of status process that set in toward the end of last year and kept me from participating in these forums with as much enthusiasm as i used to a couple of years ago. when i did drop in every once in a great while over the past few months, it found that the bright new members of these forums were supremely adept at the task of learning and sharing information regarding the i485 process, and i did not want to add anything which was not altogether postive or helpful. even when i got rfe'd last month, i just thought i'd post my details all in one go. so here they are:
LC was regular (i.e., non-RIR), filed late march 2001, approved late aug 2001.
i140 filed sept 2001 (just before 9/11) in EB-3 category, approved late nov 2001.
i485 filed feb 2002, RD 2/14, ND 2/25.
FP1 may 2002
FP2 dec 2003
RFE sent out to me march 29, 2003, and receipt of my reply to it acknowledged by USCIS on april 8. RFE was for EVL for me, birth affidavit for my wife.
another case status update without any change in status showed up on april 13 on the case status portfolio website, then finally approval yesterday.
i will update rupnet right afer this post. i guess i will go ahead and post all of this before i think up of anything more to add.
okay, the rest of this post is after i hung up after my conversation with the IIO... he said that, (paraphrasing) "NSC is currently processing employment-based cases from dec 1, 2001... yadda, yadda...." when i pointed out that my wife's and my cases had the exact same dates as that of my son's, yet ours were approved, he said, "each case is unique... blah, blah...." same old drivel.
anyway, i am quite certain it is only a matter of time before my son's case also comes through. meanwhile, my own feeling in reaction to my approval was that of - to best describe it - closure, rather than relief. which i suppose also implies that a denial should have led to the same reaction, but i would be less than candid if i did not admit that, on the whole, i like this outcome a whole lot better
(note to orca and sankrit: my diction has been taking on a midwestern hue, and i can't hardly help it.)which brings me to what i have been itching to say to all of you: thank you all for your help, support, counsel, wishes and kind thoughts. there were so many of you that i came know, almost as it were, personnally. if i name all of you individually, then that would be all i do today. instead, i will simply say, it has been a privilege for me.
i have also said many times before, and i'll say it yet again: this forum and all its participants have been more than a source of information, vital though that aspect of it has been for me: it has been a support group and sounding board for me, and countless others like me. for which i offer my gratitude to rajiv khanna for enabling this great community. two other resources that i found very helpful on this journey were the excellent websites www.immigration-law.com and rupnet.com, for which i would like to thank matthew oh and greaty-k, respectively.
while still in a candid vein, i will admit to some ennui resulting from this stultifying adjustment of status process that set in toward the end of last year and kept me from participating in these forums with as much enthusiasm as i used to a couple of years ago. when i did drop in every once in a great while over the past few months, it found that the bright new members of these forums were supremely adept at the task of learning and sharing information regarding the i485 process, and i did not want to add anything which was not altogether postive or helpful. even when i got rfe'd last month, i just thought i'd post my details all in one go. so here they are:
LC was regular (i.e., non-RIR), filed late march 2001, approved late aug 2001.
i140 filed sept 2001 (just before 9/11) in EB-3 category, approved late nov 2001.
i485 filed feb 2002, RD 2/14, ND 2/25.
FP1 may 2002
FP2 dec 2003
RFE sent out to me march 29, 2003, and receipt of my reply to it acknowledged by USCIS on april 8. RFE was for EVL for me, birth affidavit for my wife.
another case status update without any change in status showed up on april 13 on the case status portfolio website, then finally approval yesterday.
i will update rupnet right afer this post. i guess i will go ahead and post all of this before i think up of anything more to add.
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