february 2009 aos filers

[k84 11]

i'm in ms and the people here are really nice which is great. sometimes i get the odd weird question like "have you met the queen?" which mostly makes me laugh.

I am often amused when people here think I'm from the UK (purely based on my accent) People from Australia and the UK sound a lot different, but the Americans don't seem to know the difference it seems.

I think the people here are great, even with the odd questions we foreigners sometimes get asked. It makes for some good amusement anyway

[jok235 0]

Hello everyone!

We are also February 2009 filers and just found this thread.

I may just be being impatient, but thought I'd ask anyway.

We sent the application on Feb 20th and so far we haven't been transferred, received an interview date or received EAD or AP yet. Basically nothing since the biometrics on March 25. The AOS and EAD are showing up on case status online but haven't been touched since the biometrics and the AP still isn't showing up online at all.

Is this normal? Anyone else in a similar situation?

Thanks for the advice, and good luck to everyone!

[Cino 5]

Welcome on board, you have been updated on the spreadsheet. You look at the other people's timeline

& you decide your situation is normal or not.

FEBRUARY 2009 AOS / VJ FILERS PROGRESSIVE REPORT

If you ask me your situation is very normal, still very early to worry about it !....

Edited April 23, 2009 by Cino

[rocks 494]

i'm in ms and the people here are really nice which is great. sometimes i get the odd weird question like "have you met the queen?" which mostly makes me laugh.

I am often amused when people here think I'm from the UK (purely based on my accent) People from Australia and the UK sound a lot different, but the Americans don't seem to know the difference it seems.

I think the people here are great, even with the odd questions we foreigners sometimes get asked. It makes for some good amusement anyway

i hope you don't get too insulted by that? at least we both know what marmite and meat pies are. i find it funny when people try and do a british accent... why does it always turn into a ####### van ####### in mary poppins impression?

[Kim & Chris 0]

i'm exactly like you about the paperwork, i worked hard on collating it and making it easy to find the docs in the file. it seems it didn't help them though.

when i called to ask about it they couldn't have been any less helpful, i was told that a w-2 was sufficient and that if i really wanted to know what they wanted i'd have to make an infopass appointment and travel all the way back to new orleans to find out... i feel so unwelcome here, it sucks!

OMG are you serious!!........ Honestly, with the amount of illegals they keep complaining about, you'd think they'd be only too glad we're making the effort

I have to say that the people here have been really nice and friendly though, one was so proud of himself because he knew NZ was somewhere up by Ireland and Scotland, I didn't have the heart to burst his bubble

How long is your drive to the New Orleans office.....is it worse than my 2.5hr drive to Memphis......lol

lol@ nz being near ireland and scotland! was it hard to keep a straight face? i'm in ms and the people here are really nice which is great. sometimes i get the odd weird question like "have you met the queen?" which mostly makes me laugh. a girl at my husbands work asked if we had nail polish in the uk and did we celebrate easter...

luckily for us new orleans is only about 1.5 hours drive from here, 2.5 hours sucks! we returned from dropping my mom off there so she could fly home only to find the rfe in our mailbox, so there was no chance of us being able to go back there for an infopass appointment. i just hope they get a move on, i'm desperate to be able to go out and work and meet people. how are you settling in to life up there?

The different foods here that we don't have back home were interesting, and the same foods we have but being called something else here took a bit of getting used to. My fave things from home that can't be found here was a bit disheartening, but I've managed to source alot of stuff online, and there's an Aussie shop down in Little Rock which isn't too far away where I was able to find mint sauce and golden syrup, I brought the marmite & vegemite and a few other things out with me I was just telling the SO this morning that I had a dream about a bakery.....there's none here in Searcy and for some reason the thought of it popped into my head before bed last night

The climate in summer in Arkansas is alot hotter than home and even muggier than Auckland so I know I'll be gasping soon, but thank god for air con....lol

Being housebound alot of the time in the beginning was a bit hard, but then I started running my SO to work every now and then and driving myself to the shops, but it's still not an ideal way to meet people like working is. Getting used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road took a while too.....lol. Have you tried driving here yet??

I keep being asked if I'm English as well, the SO says the accent sounds very English to people here. Not an insult to me though as the grandparents mostly came out from there, and the SO was actually born in England to US parents, (father there in USAF), so we both want to travel there.....

I've planted a vege garden here too so that's helped to while away some of the waiting time

There's also alot of plusses as well as the few minuses, but it's all part of the experience so it's all good.

What things have you been doing to make the waiting less painful?

[BermyCat 1]

i'm in ms and the people here are really nice which is great. sometimes i get the odd weird question like "have you met the queen?" which mostly makes me laugh.

I am often amused when people here think I'm from the UK (purely based on my accent) People from Australia and the UK sound a lot different, but the Americans don't seem to know the difference it seems.

I think the people here are great, even with the odd questions we foreigners sometimes get asked. It makes for some good amusement anyway

i hope you don't get too insulted by that? at least we both know what marmite and meat pies are. i find it funny when people try and do a british accent... why does it always turn into a ####### van ####### in mary poppins impression?

I usually get asked what state Bermuda is in. When I tell them it's an island country in the Atlantic, I oftern hear "But your English is so good." Bermuda is a British colony.

I would kill for a meat pie.

Anyone have a clue how long it takes to get the actual green card after you get your welcome letter? Is it really three weeks?

~ Catherine

[Kim & Chris 0]

i'm in ms and the people here are really nice which is great. sometimes i get the odd weird question like "have you met the queen?" which mostly makes me laugh.

I am often amused when people here think I'm from the UK (purely based on my accent) People from Australia and the UK sound a lot different, but the Americans don't seem to know the difference it seems.

I think the people here are great, even with the odd questions we foreigners sometimes get asked. It makes for some good amusement anyway

i hope you don't get too insulted by that? at least we both know what marmite and meat pies are. i find it funny when people try and do a british accent... why does it always turn into a ####### van ####### in mary poppins impression?

I usually get asked what state Bermuda is in. When I tell them it's an island country in the Atlantic, I oftern hear "But your English is so good." Bermuda is a British colony.

I would kill for a meat pie.

Anyone have a clue how long it takes to get the actual green card after you get your welcome letter? Is it really three weeks?

~ Catherine

Sorry, don't know a bout the green card, as I'm still waiting.........but, when I was in the Aussie shop in North Little Rock, the guy told me that they could get meat pies and sausage rolls if i wanted them. They'd found a source that did them just like we have back home and I'm sure he said the place was in Atlanta. Here's the link if you want to ask them.

http://www.everythingaustralian.com/index.html

Hope it helps

Cheers

Kim

Edited April 23, 2009 by Kim & Chris

[Nina~ 431]

Hello everyone!

We are also February 2009 filers and just found this thread.

I may just be being impatient, but thought I'd ask anyway.

We sent the application on Feb 20th and so far we haven't been transferred, received an interview date or received EAD or AP yet. Basically nothing since the biometrics on March 25. The AOS and EAD are showing up on case status online but haven't been touched since the biometrics and the AP still isn't showing up online at all.

Is this normal? Anyone else in a similar situation?

Thanks for the advice, and good luck to everyone!

Welcome to the board.. I am in a similar situation but I can totally empathize with you. I didnt get my Biometrics appointment because my case lay forgotten on some incompetent clerk's desk. I made an infopass appointment on 3/30 to ask them what happened to my biometrics appointment, and I was told by the USCIS officer quite rudely to ".... wait your turn... these things take time and no where does it say that we have to process your paperwork within a certain time frame...". Three days later I got my biometrics appointment for 4/28 (Notice dated 3/30... coincidence, no?). So I am still waiting for my biometrics appointment and the wait is getting extremely frustrating. oh, and my case still does not show up online...

[buttahgurl 0]

Welcome to the board.. I am in a similar situation but I can totally empathize with you. I didnt get my Biometrics appointment because my case lay forgotten on some incompetent clerk's desk. I made an infopass appointment on 3/30 to ask them what happened to my biometrics appointment, and I was told by the USCIS officer quite rudely to ".... wait your turn... these things take time and no where does it say that we have to process your paperwork within a certain time frame...". Three days later I got my biometrics appointment for 4/28 (Notice dated 3/30... coincidence, no?). So I am still waiting for my biometrics appointment and the wait is getting extremely frustrating. oh, and my case still does not show up online...

I have read on other posts about people that went in early for their biometrics. You should probably give it a try since you got a little set back.

[rocks 494]

The different foods here that we don't have back home were interesting, and the same foods we have but being called something else here took a bit of getting used to. My fave things from home that can't be found here was a bit disheartening, but I've managed to source alot of stuff online, and there's an Aussie shop down in Little Rock which isn't too far away where I was able to find mint sauce and golden syrup, I brought the marmite & vegemite and a few other things out with me I was just telling the SO this morning that I had a dream about a bakery.....there's none here in Searcy and for some reason the thought of it popped into my head before bed last night

The climate in summer in Arkansas is alot hotter than home and even muggier than Auckland so I know I'll be gasping soon, but thank god for air con....lol

Being housebound alot of the time in the beginning was a bit hard, but then I started running my SO to work every now and then and driving myself to the shops, but it's still not an ideal way to meet people like working is. Getting used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road took a while too.....lol. Have you tried driving here yet??

I keep being asked if I'm English as well, the SO says the accent sounds very English to people here. Not an insult to me though as the grandparents mostly came out from there, and the SO was actually born in England to US parents, (father there in USAF), so we both want to travel there.....

I've planted a vege garden here too so that's helped to while away some of the waiting time

There's also alot of plusses as well as the few minuses, but it's all part of the experience so it's all good.

What things have you been doing to make the waiting less painful?

you like marmite? i thought vegemite was the choice for kiwis/aussies?

i managed to find marmite in a few stores here, it's really expensive but totally worth it of course. i really want some golden syrup so i can make some flapjacks, i've looked around for it but i think i'm gonna have to order that online. i don't know if you're familiar with branston pickle but i really would love to find that too although i'm not too hopeful about that one. i'm not too bothered about the change in food apart from bread and lack of healthy food in general. the bread here is mushy and squidgy and the bakery here only sells fresh white bread, i'm fiending for some fresh wholemeal!

it's been pretty hot down here too, very humid and sticky, does i get like that there too?

i can't drive, i learned but never took my test, so i haven't really attempted driving here. we did do a few spins around a parking lot to get used to being on the wrong side of the road but that is all. driving an automatic definitely helped with getting used to being on the wrong side, do you have one? i long for the day that i can go and get groceries on my own! there's pretty much no bus here so i'm at home all day, i at least have a cat and dog to keep me company. i've been doing some gardening, i had some tomatoes growing but the dog knocked over the planter of seedlings so they died, i'm going to try again though. i tried growing them in england but the heat was never really enough to get them right, i'm hoping it will be a different story here. what did you plant in your vege garden?

if you go to england, be sure to go in the summer time hehe.

I usually get asked what state Bermuda is in. When I tell them it's an island country in the Atlantic, I oftern hear "But your English is so good." Bermuda is a British colony.

that's hilarious and doesn't surprise me at all.

[PrayTilSomnHapns 0]

Got EAD in the mail today!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!! No I'm just waiting on my interview on the 14th of May..... I'm so happy!!!!

[Cino 5]

CONGRATULATIONS !.....

Your case is updated also on our Spreadsheet.

Please follow the link to see it :

FEBRUARY 2009 AOS / VJ FILERS PROGRESSIVE REPORT

[k84 11]

i hope you don't get too insulted by that?

No, I usually just laugh and correct them. Sometimes if I think the person has a good sense of humour I'll ask them if they're Canadian

at least we both know what marmite and meat pies are.

True... I would kill for a meat pie (and a sausage roll) at the moment. That sounds so nice

As for Marmite...

you like marmite? i thought vegemite was the choice for kiwis/aussies?

I am definitely a Vegemite man I know I can get it from the Australian stores here but I haven't bothered to order any yet. Sure it's expensive here, but it is definitely worth it

I know my wife won't like it, so I'm looking forward to getting her to try it when I do end up ordering some... the look on her face will be priceless It's an acquired taste

[believer 0]

Got EAD in the mail today!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!! No I'm just waiting on my interview on the 14th of May..... I'm so happy!!!!

Got my EAD in the mail today too!!! And yes, there's an interview coming up on May 11th, so the fun continues!!! No change in my update status online still. I guess USCIS never really bother updating the database.

[Cino 5]

CONGRATULATIONS !.......

Your Case is updated on our spreadsheet.

Please follow the link below :

FEBRUARY 2009 AOS / VJ FILERS PROGRESSIVE REPORT