Yippee-yi-yaaaaaaaa!!!
Yesterday, my wife and I got our GC/Permanent Resident approval after completing our scheduled interview. What a huge burden unloaded off our backs!!! I've been an avid user of this forum (on and off) for about 5 years now and so it has been so nice to have this so-called "handcuffs" or "ball & chain" removed.
Our case from start to finish was just about 3 years. What made things aggravating was that our I-485 case had been transferred from INS to the slow Chicago INS office. This transfer occurred at almost the 1 year point since filing our I-485. And so I knew that the hold up was going to be for an additional several months. Indeed, the January transfer to the eventual interview yesterday meant a hefty delay as oppose to our apps being approved by NSC.
We married within a month prior to filing our I-485 applications and this is most likely the reason why the INS will transfer these types of cases to the local INS office to interview the applicants.
My lawyer (from Kempster, Keller and Lenz-Calvo law firm located in downtown Chicago and a former Chair of the Executive Board of the Chicago Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)) accompanied us for the interview. That was a good feeling knowing that we had legal assistance right there to guide us. For example, there have been cases where the officer couldn't find the applicants' file and would send them home. A lawyer there on-hand could intervene by speaking to a supervisor to request a search for the file. Most applicants would feel handcuffed and wouldn't know what to do except oblige by their words. There can be a number of idiotic things that could trip up an officer. My lawyer seemed well experienced in the process and spoke with us continually as we waited to be called for our interview. She also brought along our entire file with everything in it as a backup. Moreover, I felt more comfortable too knowing that my lawyer knew all the INS officers as well as the supervisors. Everyone's case gets assigned to an "Examiner" and she knew which examiners were notoriously slow - running an hour behind on appointments and which ones were efficient and on-time.
My appointment was actually scheduled in the morning and my wife's was scheduled in the afternoon. Since this is an employment-based case where I was the primary applicant and she was the derivative, my lawyer requested on the spot that the Examiner handled both our cases in the morning at the same time. We were fortunate too because both my wife and I were orginally scheduled with the same examiner. On the appointment notice, it will state the examiner number (eg. Examiner 1) that will be conducting your interview.
One slight worry we had was whether or not the Fingerprints had expired (they last 15 months)...we were very very close but it turned out not to be an issue. They may have squeezed in my case for an interview knowing that my FP's were about to expire -- I can't say for sure.
There was not a whole lot of questioning from our Examiner -- some basic stuff such as whether I am still working for my petitioner. For my wife, he wanted to review the document to show that since her original B1 status back when she first entered the US, that she has been in proper status up until the point we filed her I-485. Also, I guess since this was not a marriage-based GC sponsorship, the examiner did not drill us with any questions regarding the legitamcy of our marriage.
Voila! The magic words came out..."Well today I am going to approve of your Permanent Resident status" *Sigh...* What a relief. He stamped our passport right on the spot and we were done!
Between the stress of foreseeing a long and arduous process at each stage of the GC (including the needles for the medicals), the somewhat tumultuous and nerve-wrecking process of obtaining TN's and the economic collapse of the past year and a half -- I would have to thank God for helping me to make it through all this.
p.s. Our lawyer and the INS officer said that hopefully our cards will be in the mail in about 3 months, maybe 6 months. I said "so fast? possibly within 3 months?" They both said that there's a decent chance since recently they've ramped up the process and have been pumping them out quickly. On the other hand, there are many who are still waiting since last year for their plastic GC's. That's just the way INS works.
Yesterday, my wife and I got our GC/Permanent Resident approval after completing our scheduled interview. What a huge burden unloaded off our backs!!! I've been an avid user of this forum (on and off) for about 5 years now and so it has been so nice to have this so-called "handcuffs" or "ball & chain" removed.
Our case from start to finish was just about 3 years. What made things aggravating was that our I-485 case had been transferred from INS to the slow Chicago INS office. This transfer occurred at almost the 1 year point since filing our I-485. And so I knew that the hold up was going to be for an additional several months. Indeed, the January transfer to the eventual interview yesterday meant a hefty delay as oppose to our apps being approved by NSC.
We married within a month prior to filing our I-485 applications and this is most likely the reason why the INS will transfer these types of cases to the local INS office to interview the applicants.
My lawyer (from Kempster, Keller and Lenz-Calvo law firm located in downtown Chicago and a former Chair of the Executive Board of the Chicago Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)) accompanied us for the interview. That was a good feeling knowing that we had legal assistance right there to guide us. For example, there have been cases where the officer couldn't find the applicants' file and would send them home. A lawyer there on-hand could intervene by speaking to a supervisor to request a search for the file. Most applicants would feel handcuffed and wouldn't know what to do except oblige by their words. There can be a number of idiotic things that could trip up an officer. My lawyer seemed well experienced in the process and spoke with us continually as we waited to be called for our interview. She also brought along our entire file with everything in it as a backup. Moreover, I felt more comfortable too knowing that my lawyer knew all the INS officers as well as the supervisors. Everyone's case gets assigned to an "Examiner" and she knew which examiners were notoriously slow - running an hour behind on appointments and which ones were efficient and on-time.
My appointment was actually scheduled in the morning and my wife's was scheduled in the afternoon. Since this is an employment-based case where I was the primary applicant and she was the derivative, my lawyer requested on the spot that the Examiner handled both our cases in the morning at the same time. We were fortunate too because both my wife and I were orginally scheduled with the same examiner. On the appointment notice, it will state the examiner number (eg. Examiner 1) that will be conducting your interview.
One slight worry we had was whether or not the Fingerprints had expired (they last 15 months)...we were very very close but it turned out not to be an issue. They may have squeezed in my case for an interview knowing that my FP's were about to expire -- I can't say for sure.
There was not a whole lot of questioning from our Examiner -- some basic stuff such as whether I am still working for my petitioner. For my wife, he wanted to review the document to show that since her original B1 status back when she first entered the US, that she has been in proper status up until the point we filed her I-485. Also, I guess since this was not a marriage-based GC sponsorship, the examiner did not drill us with any questions regarding the legitamcy of our marriage.
Voila! The magic words came out..."Well today I am going to approve of your Permanent Resident status" *Sigh...* What a relief. He stamped our passport right on the spot and we were done!
Between the stress of foreseeing a long and arduous process at each stage of the GC (including the needles for the medicals), the somewhat tumultuous and nerve-wrecking process of obtaining TN's and the economic collapse of the past year and a half -- I would have to thank God for helping me to make it through all this.
p.s. Our lawyer and the INS officer said that hopefully our cards will be in the mail in about 3 months, maybe 6 months. I said "so fast? possibly within 3 months?" They both said that there's a decent chance since recently they've ramped up the process and have been pumping them out quickly. On the other hand, there are many who are still waiting since last year for their plastic GC's. That's just the way INS works.
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