Not sure when to file i-765 + other stuff

[hellohello 0]

Hello All,

My wife and I are thoroughly confused of how to proceed with our current situation. I am a US citizen and she entered the US on an F-1 visa. I filed an I-130 after we got married in February. However, I misread the instructions to file the I-485/I-765/I-131 at the same time because I thought I could simply enclose a copy of the I-I30 at a later time when we filled those forms out. I also thought I could file those forms in person at the local uscis office here in philly. So I made an infopass appointment and after meeting the most unhelpful person ever, walked away with the impression that I screwed up and my only course of action was to wait for my I-130 to be approved before I could proceed to file my other forms. I was confused why I simply couldn't enclose a copy of my I-130 receipt with the forms, so I called the Vermont office and although the woman I spoke to was much nicer, basically agreed with the philly person and said I had to wait for approval.

This occured in April. Since then, my wife has graduated and is now crawling up the walls wanting to work. We've made several inquires with local attorneys and she has made several calls to the Vermont office. We've had varying answers from the between numerous attorneys and the uscis personnel in Vermont. Although the specific course of actions differs, the underlying trend is that we did not have to wait for my i-130 to be approved before sending in am i-765. Can anybody verify this?

I still don't understand why I simply couldn't have sent in the subsequent forms to the Vermont center to be "matched" up with my pending I-130, but the current priority is to allow my wife to begin looking for a job w/o the hindrance of not having a working permit in hand.

Her latest phone call to Vermont resulted in a gentleman advising her to send the forms in the Vermont office with a copy of my I-130 receipt. This confuses me as well, because I was under the impression after reading through these boards that all I-765/I-485/I-131 forms needed to be sent to the Chicago lockbox first.

Our chosen attorney has decided to take a two week vacation which hasn't my wife's temperament and I'd love to go forward with the "facts" as we try to find a new one if need be.

Thank you for your time.

HelloHello

[calOC 0]

hellohello

I-485 can be filed while I-130 is pending. Do a search with these key words - USCIS on Matching I-130s and I-485s - and you will find the memo USCIS issued in this regard in Apr 04. I hope it helps.

Good luck.