AOS Success

[Old Dominion 26]

Having done our homework, prepared more than the necessary documentation, and arriving at the Norfolk VA office a few minutes early, we succeeded on Wednesday to get a heads-up for our AOS application. The interview was somewhat like a conversation among old friends. It will take about two weeks to produce the actual green card, and before that we will get a letter officially telling us of the outcome of our application.

After months of fretting over this and that -- things that might derail our application -- we were so pleased that none of these issues arose. There were no testy questions, perhaps because we replied to everything openly and honestly.

We submitted the everything early in December 2007 but it was rejected because the check payment was insufficient. We resubmitted early in January 2008 with the correct check. Biometrics in Charleston WVA at the end of February; EAD arrived in mid-March. Notified of the AOS interview at the end of June along with fairly clear instructions on what documents to carry with us.

In our case, the online status report for our AOS never changed after January. For the EAD, we did get advance notilfication of their actions.

On advice from a paralegal who specializes in immigration issues with her attorney, we did all of the paperwork ourselves. She said her office would be more than willing to take our case, but that their fees would be substantial and we didn't need their services if we paid attention to the instructions. Their office preferred to assist aliens who might otherwise be deported, and in that respect they were not in that business to get rich. The estimate of time she gave us -- perhaps nine months of waiting -- turned out to be quite correct.

So, all is well....thanks for the opportunity to review the experiences of others and to learn from them.