AOS, EAD & AP from K1 - the Aussie way (doc list included)

[Ravi_Beth 0]

Sorry for your bad experience Astrid....

@ Vanessa - My center is in Fort Worth, TX....let me know if you can find something out...i will try and see if i have any detective skills...

Question - My I-797C says this bio-metrics is for AOS and EAD, does not mention anything about my Advance Parole.....will i get my AP card after i get my EAD ???

[alex and astrid 38]

Sorry for your bad experience Astrid....

@ Vanessa - My center is in Fort Worth, TX....let me know if you can find something out...i will try and see if i have any detective skills...

Question - My I-797C says this bio-metrics is for AOS and EAD, does not mention anything about my Advance Parole.....will i get my AP card after i get my EAD ???

Advanced parole does not need biometrics because it's just a travel document, not an ID card like EAD and the Green Card is. Ap is usually processed faster than EAD, but it's not a hard and fast rule.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

!!BIOMETRICS WALK-IN SUCCESSFUL!!

I am very happy to report that my attempt at a walk-in biometrics appointment was successful SO here's my review!

My ASC Centre was here:

USCIS Application Support Center

210 Walnut Street

Room 949

Des Moines, IA 50309-2110.

First, I was VERY nervous at doing a walk-in as mine was a 3 hour drive from where I was (am) living. Prior to doing the walk in I called the office (don't ask my how I got the number, part detective skills, part luck) and confirmed that while they didn't LIKE it, it was possible.

So getting there was very easy. I google mapped the location first, made sure I knew what the building looked like (it was in the Neil Smith Federal Building), and looked for parking in the area just in case we had trouble finding somewhere. Remember to bring money for parking!! We forgot to bring quarters and most of the parks had meters and we had NO coins... so we had to find an ATM ($3 non-bank atm charge :S) then find somewhere to GET change. Luckily we found a parking structure while looking for a place to get quarters directly behind the building we needed to go to and the cost wasn't too bad either ($1.50 for the first hour and $0.50 per hour thereafter).

We walked around to the front entrance and entered finding a security point to allow you into the building. They asked for my purpose being there (there were lots of offices in the building, not just the ASC) and I handed him my letter. He didn't care about that and just said "fingerprinting.. ok" and I put my handbag on the belt. Tony put his hands in his pockets and found out he still had his pocket knife on him!! He tried anyway by putting it in the little tray and the guard just picked up the container for him to pick back up the knife and said "you'll need to remove that" so he had to walk back to the car (lol. Extremely funny because we should have known better...).

I walked through security to wait on the other side. My shoes set it off though and I had to stand arms spread while he ran the wand over me. No biggie.

So when Tony got back we hopped in the elevator and I pressed 9 because 949, level 9 right? Well while waiting to go up Tony saw a posted on the wall listing "popular levels" and USCIS was level 3... huh? Weird. Okay so we pressed 3 but we were already passed three and had to go up to 9 and then back down again... the elevator was stopped a couple of times on the way up and down for other people to get on. We went to the USCIS room and just outside the door was a poster that said words to the effect of "finger printing on level 9".. dammit! I knew being on 3 made no sense!! So we went BACK to the elevator and up to level 9.

We went in the room and there was a man in a security uniform sitting at the reception desk. He said "are you her for fingerprinting?" I said yes and he started to grab a folder as I pulled out the biometrics interview letter and passport. He grabbed my letter and started to clip it to the board and looked at the date (May 21 was my scheduled date) and he looked up and said "umm, your appointment isn't until 21st May". I said "I know, I am here to do a walk-in". He asked how far we'd come and I said "3 hours". He said "I will have to speak to a supervisor as this is so early" and off he walked with my letter. As he was walking back towards the reception desk he said "Did you call earlier this week?" I said "yes" and he said "no problem. Just fill in this form and bring it to me when you're done". ("Oh thank christ" I was thinking!!)

The form asks for:

- Surname, Middle name (if any), first name

- Aliases (if any).. I put my maiden name here

- Date of birth, Country of Birth

- Country of Citizenship

- Case number(s) that you're there for (these are on your biometrics interview letter)

- Height (in feet), weight (in pounds), eye colour & hair colour (there are boxes to circle)

There may have been a few others but that's all I can remember. They didn't check the info I wrote down (like my weight.. and my height too... hehehe. I should have said i was 5'10" or something instead of my measly 5'7").

So after I handed it over to the guard at the counter he gave me my interview letter back (put a big red stamp on it first), the form I'd filled in and my passport. The lady was waiting for me (no-one else was there waiting) and she took me to her little computer/fingerprinting terminal thingy. She scanned my barcodes and asked me to double-check the info on the screen (such as name, address, date of birth etc). She then entered my bio info (hair colour, eyes, weight, height) and opened up the finger printing screen.

She put one some gloves (ooOOOoo)and asked for my hand. She put my left fingers (excluding my thumb) on the fingerprinting screen. Then she printed each finger and thumb by rolling from left side to right side (same as when I had my fingerprints taken for the police check in Australia). Then she had me take a seat so she could take my photo (as predicted, it was worse than the pic I sent in ). Then that was it.

I asked her which finger they use for the print on the card and she said index finger (but I can't remember left or right). She told me that I should receive my EAD soon but she couldn't say when and handed me a "review" form to review her as well as my biometrics letter with the red stamp parts filled in.

We then left and started the 3 hour drive home. All-in-all I am VERY happy to have the biometrics out of the way. Parking cost us $1.50 because we were there less than an hour (more like 40 mins from parking to walking back to car).

[alex and astrid 38]

My green card came in the post today

Turns out that I was actually approved on April 22, I saw the touch that day but the system did not switch to approved. The same thing happened with the K1, lol. So, no more USCIS paperwork til January 2012, yay!!

So....thankyou thankyou THANKYOU for all of your advice, support, kind words, the much needed laughs and permission to b!tch and moan when I needed What a lovely group of aussies you all are I don't think my journey would have been as smooth without you all - especially Vanessa. You little beauty. If I could give a prize for awesome, you'd get it!

I'll still be sticking around here to keep tabs on how you all are going and to keep in touch....but I wish you all the best of luck and smooth sailing with everything

Oxoxo

Edited May 1, 2010 by alex and astrid

[zaskar 0]

I've had touches all week (but not yet today) and I'm still waiting to get my biometrics letter. They amended the incorrect A number on my NOA as well. I'm hanging out for the mail man to get here....I hope he has my biometrics letter today.

Silly me but I forget how do I tell if I have had "touches" as I am eagerly waiting for my bio appointment letter

[alex and astrid 38]

Silly me but I forget how do I tell if I have had "touches" as I am eagerly waiting for my bio appointment letter

When you log into the case status page on uscis.gov, you can see if you have had a touch if the date on the case has changed.

[Ravi_Beth 0]

Congrats AStrid....all the best for your future....,.........i hope i get my AP....is it true i would not need a AP if i have my green card...i am desperately waiting for either one of them document to go back home to visit my old folks...

@ Vanessa, congrats on your walk-in............i am like 20 mins away from my ASC, do you think the security guard will turn me back for not travelling 3 hours like you did ??? Can you help me with the number....apparently i do not have any detective skills whatsoever...

[zaskar 0]

OK this sucks as I have had no touches, only the one from when they received my application . I can only hope it is like my K1 where it did not show anything but just happened.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

@ Vanessa, congrats on your walk-in............i am like 20 mins away from my ASC, do you think the security guard will turn me back for not travelling 3 hours like you did ??? Can you help me with the number....apparently i do not have any detective skills whatsoever...

Well honestly if it's only 20 minutes away I would give it a try because it certainly can't hurt. I was 3 hours away and didn't want to risk driving ALL that way just to be turned back.

I know where they are, I know the phone number of the property management company, but they won't give me that "tenants" contact number because unfortunately she knows she's not supposed to (like mine wasn't but didn't know she wasn't ) SO I would just go there with your passport and appointment letter and see what happens .Worst case they turn you away. Best case they let you do the walk-in. It doesn't hurt to try. They don't keep your appointment letter, they would just ask you to come back on the appointment date/time.

Good luck!! Let us know how you go!

[Giggles 1]

Biometrics is done! We went this morning to the ASC in Alexandria, VA. USCIS website says military don't need an appointment so I took my husband in his uniform as a back up in case they didn't allow walk-ins. It took a little longer than it should have because when they brought up my file on the computer it still had the wrong A number. We then had to go to the supervisors office so he could investigate. Anyway, he told me it had been corrected and the lady doing my biometrics could just overwrite the wrong A number. Yay....I'm glad that's done now

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Biometrics is done! We went this morning to the ASC in Alexandria, VA. USCIS website says military don't need an appointment so I took my husband in his uniform as a back up in case they didn't allow walk-ins. It took a little longer than it should have because when they brought up my file on the computer it still had the wrong A number. We then had to go to the supervisors office so he could investigate. Anyway, he told me it had been corrected and the lady doing my biometrics could just overwrite the wrong A number. Yay....I'm glad that's done now

Grats! moving along nicely! And good on you for remembering to check the A number on the screen!

[Giggles 1]

Actually the lady asked if all my details on the computer screen were correct.

Oh and I also forgot to mention (for anyone who has a peircing on their face), I was asked to remove the tiny stud I have in my nose for the photo.

[Warren and Cindy 6]

grats on the progress everyone!!

still no pouches on mine since the address change ><

[Warren and Cindy 6]

grats on the progress everyone!!

still no pouches on mine since the address change ><

"touches"

I hate this can't edit own post stuff!!!

[Ravi_Beth 0]

Just curious, does it cost anything....????