January 2009 AOS Submitters

[dbears 1]

Just went for infopass on the RFE for my daughter's case which we have not received yet. They said they can't pull out RFEs in their system, the only office who can do that is the office holding our case. They advised us to write a request letter to Missouri center to resend the RFE letter and also told my husband to get our congressman involved by asking them to place a congressional inquiry about the RFE.

I called the 1-800 service center number after we got home from the infopass and the 1st person I talked to said that she can't find any status information for my case and my son's case, only my daughter's case can be located in their system (in the system she was using) and she then place a request to resend the RFE letter, she said she can't do anything for the other 2 cases (mine and my son's). Then, she transfered me to another person who can check my case and my son's case. The second person was able to locate my case but said there was no RFE request for my case, she was in the process of trying to locate my son's case when I was cut off. I called again and went through the whole process again, so on to the 3rd person. The 3rd person I talked to was able to check on my case and my son's case and said there was no RFEs for the 2 cases so I had her check my daughter's case and she said the Request for Initial/Additional Evidence was cancelled for my daughter's case so we will not be getting any RFE for any of the 3 cases. I asked again for biometrics and she said we just have to give it some more time.

I don't know if I am supposed to be relieved or not. I checked online again and it still says my daughter's case is placed on hold due to RFE, but then again the online case status is very unreliable.... but so are the call center agents in the 1-800 service center line... .. I am simply lost right now.

[happy_girl 0]

I have a question for the people who did their biometrics appointment. When I was done with a picture and fingerprints, the woman didn't say anything to me, so I figured that everything is done and instead of going to the direction with the sign "exit", I went to the direction where my husband was sitting and waiting for me... So now I am curious if I completed everything correctly... and If I missed something afterwards.....I have my biometrics appointment letter with a stamp. Did I miss something? Thanks for the answer!

[happy_girl 0]

dbears, at least you got some good news!!! Now I wonder if I really want to see MY case stutus online. ;- ))))))

I hope that you will get your biom. appointment very very soon!

[JulianDavid 0]

Dbears, I think this is good news. I guess the persons that you were transfered to were the imigration officers (not just operators) and you can trust them more than the status on-line (which is, as you said, is very unreliable). So, they just must have forgotten to change the online status after the RFE was cancelled.

[SAT 9,609]

I have a question for the people who did their biometrics appointment. When I was done with a picture and fingerprints, the woman didn't say anything to me, so I figured that everything is done and instead of going to the direction with the sign "exit", I went to the direction where my husband was sitting and waiting for me... So now I am curious if I completed everything correctly... and If I missed something afterwards.....I have my biometrics appointment letter with a stamp. Did I miss something? Thanks for the answer!

Happy, as far as I remembered, that was it......nothing else. Tiff got her prints and photo taken, I was befriending the ASC manager, she waited for me to finish talking. We left. You should be ok. Good luck.

[Henry Dg 0]

To happy girl : that's all set. Waiting for the next

[SAT 9,609]

Well just thought I would post this to start us all off in the new year for those that will be filing for AOS in January! We are working on our package right now and hope to have it mailed out next week! Good luck to all!

Steph n' Gareth

OK everyone. I've been trying to find answers to why we've been called to the interview in such a timely manner, and I have no answer. So I'll tell you what I did for this AOS......

First, I asked myself, what does the USCIS want from us? Well, the answer to that is, they want possitive ID of the both of us. Then they want to make sure that I am a USC and that I can support my wife, and that we have a bonafide marriage. Then, they want to know that Tiff's intent when she came here was purely tourism, and not to find a man to marry.

Secondly, I placed myself in the mentality of a USCIS examiner. What kinds of supporting documents am I looking for? Well, I would want everything under the sun, from both parties, and third parties. Birth certificates, financial stuff, pics, affadavits, marriage certificates, taxes, IDs, passports, etc.

Third, I have a friend who is an immigration attoney, who advised me that his people can NEVER fill out the forms as detailed, and as flawless as I can. Simply because it's my form, and my wife's forms. And that no one else can pay this kind of attention to details, simply because they don't care about it as much as I do. And so, I proceeded to fill these forms out for Tiff and I, and gone over them may be 3 times, line by line, leaving no questions unanswered, and leaving no questions for the USCIS to ask.

Finally, in my cover letter, I breifly described our situation in a single paragraph, explaining to the USICS what we want to do. And I listed all the supporting documents, in the order they are filed in the 2 seperate files in the package. And I am a very good preparer of business/legal papers, so I'm sure I wrote a clear, concise, and detailed cover letter in the least amount of words possible.

Here are some facts about us.....

Neither of us have ever been married.

Neither of us have ever been arrested for anything

I have a good income and a long work history

We have many aspects of financial co-mingling

We have several supporting affadavits from friends

We have every piece of documentation that they ask for in the instructions of the forms

In closing, the above is my advice to those of you whom haven't filed for AOS yet. And good luck. And we will definately let you guys know how our interview goes in March. (Wish us luck )

[Amy&Xin 0]

Finally, I sent the RFE back. It took us almost two weeks to get it ready. Hope this was the only RFE we get.

[JulianDavid 0]

SteveandTiff, congtratulations on your smooth and quick process! However, I don't think that any of the factors described by you could have that much of an influence. We also filled out all the forms very accurately and attached all possible supporting documents. I also remember that when I was waiting for my fiancee visa, it surprised me that some people with previous marriages, not big income or even criminal records were able to get approved by USCIS much faster than us, even though we seemed to have much better background: no marriages, no criminal records, etc. I guess the same is with this AOS process - to some extent it's the matter of luck and what immigration officer gets your case (human factor). Sometimes you can just be unlucky and your case might be burried in the pile of other cases on somebody's desk... And another big thing is what state and local office you belong to. Most often the states that have bigger number of immigrants are busier than the others, and of course have longer waiting time for the interview. I don't know what state you are from but it looks like you were both lucky and your local office has shorter processing time. Anyway, whatever reason it is, congratulation once again and good luck at the interview!

[SAT 9,609]

SteveandTiff, congtratulations on your smooth and quick process! However, I don't think that any of the factors described by you could have that much of an influence. We also filled out all the forms very accurately and attached all possible supporting documents. I also remember that when I was waiting for my fiancee visa, it surprised me that some people with previous marriages, not big income or even criminal records were able to get approved by USCIS much faster than us, even though we seemed to have much better background: no marriages, no criminal records, etc. I guess the same is with this AOS process - to some extent it's the matter of luck and what immigration officer gets your case (human factor). Sometimes you can just be unlucky and your case might be burried in the pile of other cases on somebody's desk... And another big thing is what state and local office you belong to. Most often the states that have bigger number of immigrants are busier than the others, and of course have longer waiting time for the interview. I don't know what state you are from but it looks like you were both lucky and your local office has shorter processing time. Anyway, whatever reason it is, congratulation once again and good luck at the interview!

Thanks Juli and Dave, I just provided all that info in hopes of guiding new filers, as well as providing our background for reference. May be it will help others with a smooth journey.

I live in NYC, so may be there goes the idea of not being in an area with a busy local office? However, my case is in MSC. <shrugs> I don't know, but I'm not complaining. And I wish everyone a speedy process. Talk soon.

[Amy&Xin 0]

Hi, Steve&Tiff,

Did you send the tax return of 2008? We got two RFE asking for that. I was bummed by that for a few days.

SteveandTiff, congtratulations on your smooth and quick process! However, I don't think that any of the factors described by you could have that much of an influence. We also filled out all the forms very accurately and attached all possible supporting documents. I also remember that when I was waiting for my fiancee visa, it surprised me that some people with previous marriages, not big income or even criminal records were able to get approved by USCIS much faster than us, even though we seemed to have much better background: no marriages, no criminal records, etc. I guess the same is with this AOS process - to some extent it's the matter of luck and what immigration officer gets your case (human factor). Sometimes you can just be unlucky and your case might be burried in the pile of other cases on somebody's desk... And another big thing is what state and local office you belong to. Most often the states that have bigger number of immigrants are busier than the others, and of course have longer waiting time for the interview. I don't know what state you are from but it looks like you were both lucky and your local office has shorter processing time. Anyway, whatever reason it is, congratulation once again and good luck at the interview!

Thanks Juli and Dave, I just provided all that info in hopes of guiding new filers, as well as providing our background for reference. May be it will help others with a smooth journey.

I live in NYC, so may be there goes the idea of not being in an area with a busy local office? However, my case is in MSC. <shrugs> I don't know, but I'm not complaining. And I wish everyone a speedy process. Talk soon.

[hilkka28586 0]

I have a question for the people who did their biometrics appointment. When I was done with a picture and fingerprints, the woman didn't say anything to me, so I figured that everything is done and instead of going to the direction with the sign "exit", I went to the direction where my husband was sitting and waiting for me... So now I am curious if I completed everything correctly... and If I missed something afterwards.....I have my biometrics appointment letter with a stamp. Did I miss something? Thanks for the answer!

Nope that is all I had to do, the stamp on the letter is proof of completion of your appointment

[happy_girl 0]

Thank you for your responses!

P.S. My case status online is not showing yet. I guess I will just relax and wait.

[LeaAndBen 0]

what documents/papers do you bring to the biometrics appt? what's that letter you talked about? is it the letter I received in the mail with the appt date?

[happy_girl 0]

LeaAndBen, yes, I was talking about the letter wich I received in a mail. The biometrics appointment letter.

I brought my passport and marriage certificate (showing my new last name).