October 2011 AOS Filers!

[EV11 18]

Congratulations Jingo - that is fantastic news! I really hope things work out for you

I have a quick question and I'm hoping someone can help me with it. The current processing times for CSC is 4 months, is it 4 months from filing or is it from when the case is transferred?

[Ellie09 1]

And in other news, FINALLY got my EAD approval email last night. I was not expecting it on a friday night at all, especially before a long weekend. Anyway here's hoping I can finally be a real person soon and everything will start to mend itself!

Congratulations!!!

[MochiKamo 93]

A bit about our Advance Parole experience. First of all, it's not going to compare to some of the experiences shared above (yikes!).

I think the main issue for me was that my wife had to deal with the secondary intergoation by herself. After a 10 hour flight we were exhausted and I really wished she didn't have to go through that. Not to mention, they criticized her English pronunciation, which is a somewhat touchy subject subject for us.

It all started in Tokyo (Narita Airport). When we tried to check in, the airline staff had never heard of Advance Parole. I knew this was a common occurrence in some cases, but I had hoped that since this was a major airport (the main airport of Japan for frackin sake) and the fact that the combo card has been around since early 2011, someone would know about it.

Apparently not. All the airline workers were stumped. They called a supervisor who came along and she was stumped too. Then she ended up calling "immigration" and finally we got the green light. This call was apparently to LAX.

Once we were ready to actually board the plane, we got questioned again. We showed the combo card. The guy had no clue what it was. He asked someone else, who starred at the card and eventually made the slightest affirmative head motion. Finally we were on the plane.

Fast forward around 10 hours and we were waiting in the immigration line. I noticed an elderly couple in front of us who were told by the immigration officer to "wait here for a moment." So we finally reached the IO. I showed him our passports and then the EAD/AP. "What's this????" He asked. My heart sank. I knew it was going to be a long day at that point. I told him about the K-1 visa and he asked if we had married during the allotted time frame. I said yes and showed him our original marriage certificate.

This card has been around what, almost a year? Maybe not that long, but at least 6 months. You'd think that even if it was a couple months old, there'd be some memos passed around to employees telling them about the existence of such a card.

Then he compared me with my passport photo and commented about how I've gained lots of weight. "The married life eh?" he said. I joke with him a bit hoping that somehow we could just skip the secondary. No such luck. Some guy came around and collected passports, from us, the elderly couple and a some others. Then the guy carrying our passports led us like cattle to another guy. They started doing some high five thing and the other guy took all the passports.

I figured I could go to secondary with my wife. But they give me my passport and tell me to wait outside. I tried to take a look inside a few times but they tell me to scram. I waited about 30 minutes but nothing. I couldn't see inside so I had no idea what was going on.

So I went to pick up our 4 checked in luggages. It took me a long time to get them all, since they were using two luggage carousals for our flight. Eventually I came back and waited some more. It was over an hour already, but finally she came out. Apparently they had replicated the K-1 interview (asked how me met, when we met), asked when we married, where we were living, who she was traveling with. They also asked about the call from Narita to immigration in LAX. We finally got the parole stamped I-94 and got out of the airport as soon as we could.

The whole time I was waiting there I was thinking how difficult it must be for those form high fraud countries who do everything correctly and still end up in interrogation.

Anyhow, I know many others have experienced much worse with CBP, but for someone who'se experience pretty much consisted of hearing "welcome back home" this whole ordeal was a bit much.

I don't know how useful all this was, but hey, there's the wall of text.

EAD/AP memo Posted: 02-11-2011:

http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/Outreach/Interim%20Guidance%20for%20Comment/Adv-parole-ead-12-21-10.pdf

[GnBnL 50]

wow....I cannot believe how much trouble that was!! I mean, here, passport, AP card, thank you, have a nice day! that should be it!!! #######!!! This makes me angry. I'm sorry they gave you such a hassle the whole time. I am wondering if I'll need to bring my marriage cert, and NOA2 for AP? or CSC transfer notice?? geez...what a pain. Like, do they think its easy to get all these docs so they have to check if they're fake? how much damn screening are the going to do??? how irritating. I'm sorry they gave you and your wife a hard time. they sound less than courteous. I can't believe they made fun of her accent, and mentioned you'd gained weight? how rude to say the least.

Thank for you posting this experience. Sounds awful and they should be embarrassed for treating good people this way.

[Max1gk 68]

Wow..thanks for sharing! You clearly ran into a group of bored moronic thugs. I heard from than one person that LAX CBP officers are a pain in the #### for International Visitors..and technically your wife wasn't a visitor at all. Congrats again for the AOS btw!

Edited January 17, 2012 by Max1gk

[iammrslab 0]

hi guys! I need advice. I am scheduled for an interview tomorrow in seattle. the thing is its been snowing so hard since the weekend. i dnt know if I still has to go there? or just call them if its ok to reschedule the interview?

i just gave birth recently and i have a 11weeks baby.

[jingo 38]

hi guys! I need advice. I am scheduled for an interview tomorrow in seattle. the thing is its been snowing so hard since the weekend. i dnt know if I still has to go there? or just call them if its ok to reschedule the interview?

i just gave birth recently and i have a 11weeks baby.

I doubt that snow and a baby are reasons to skip your AOS interview.. especially if rescheduling means waiting a long time for another open window.

Yagisama - what a brutal experience! You can never tell when they will be nice and when they will be idiots. At least she got through eventually. Its clear the whole immigration process is far from organized. At my POE the officer didn't even recognize the K1 envelope. Its bad when YOU - the applicant - know more information than the people who work there! Probably best not to travel until a GC is in hand.

[Carlos EA 0]

hi guys! I need advice. I am scheduled for an interview tomorrow in seattle. the thing is its been snowing so hard since the weekend. i dnt know if I still has to go there? or just call them if its ok to reschedule the interview?

i just gave birth recently and i have a 11weeks baby.

I have my interview at the Seattle office today. The weather reports say the snow will pick up tomorrow evening so you might be able to make a morning appointment without any problems. I do know that today the immigration officers were were allowed to arrive two hours late, FYI. I'll post some more information once I get out of my interview in about two hours. Wish me luck!

Edited January 17, 2012 by Carlos EA

[iammrslab 0]

I have my interview at the Seattle office today. The weather reports say the snow will pick up tomorrow evening so you might be able to make a morning appointment without any problems. I do know that today the immigration officers were were allowed to arrive two hours late, FYI. I'll post some more information once I get out of my interview in about two hours. Wish me luck!

i will be coming from mt vernon, that would be an hour drive. I need to bring baby with me so that's what im worrying about. he might get sick

anyway. i am excited to hear your experience.

[TheFantastics09 19]

hi guys! I need advice. I am scheduled for an interview tomorrow in seattle. the thing is its been snowing so hard since the weekend. i dnt know if I still has to go there? or just call them if its ok to reschedule the interview?

i just gave birth recently and i have a 11weeks baby.

Congrats on the little one! Best Wishes to you on your interview!!

[iammrslab 0]

Congrats on the little one! Best Wishes to you on your interview!!

thank you!

[Carlos EA 0]

So we just got back from our AOS interview in Seattle (btw there is a big snow storm coming into seattle tomorrow and IOs are being told that they can arrive 2 hours late if needed).

We arrived at 11:00am for our 11:15am interview. They were still interviewing people from the 10:30-11:15 slots - likely a result of IOs arriving late due to snow. At around 11:35 they called my name (beneficiary). Our IO was a very pleasant woman. She brought us (my wife, our lawyers and me) back to her office and proceeded to swear us in. She asked the basic information like my DOB and full name, where I lived and who lived with me - including how many rooms our apt has - and then asked how we met. We had with us a photo album of our court wedding and reception, which she went to grab and asked if we had brought that for her to see. She asked us who different people were in the photos and how many people we had at the reception.

After going through the Y/N questions from 1485, she asked if we had anything else for her - so I pulled out the passport, I94 and EAD. She asked me when I first entered the US and took my I94 and stapled it to the file she had with my information.

She then said that she would review our information once more before approving the application. If she needed more information, she said she would notify us through out lawyer - otherwise that we should receive the GC in the mail within one month.

I think everything went well and I hope that she just does this for everyone and I hope we get approved!! Just to note, she did not take our EAD nor did she stamp anything on any document of ours.

I'll keep you all posted as soon as I hear more form USCIS! :dance: Hopefully we will get my GC and welcome letter within the next two weeks!

[jingo 38]

I got an email for an interview scheduled for February 16th. Kind of nervous, actually.

[GnBnL 50]

I got an email for an interview scheduled for February 16th. Kind of nervous, actually.

no transfer? bummer! I still have no damn card. was 'made' Dec 28th and approval notice was mailed Jan 4th. This is really starting to piss me off.

[iammrslab 0]

So we just got back from our AOS interview in Seattle (btw there is a big snow storm coming into seattle tomorrow and IOs are being told that they can arrive 2 hours late if needed).

We arrived at 11:00am for our 11:15am interview. They were still interviewing people from the 10:30-11:15 slots - likely a result of IOs arriving late due to snow. At around 11:35 they called my name (beneficiary). Our IO was a very pleasant woman. She brought us (my wife, our lawyers and me) back to her office and proceeded to swear us in. She asked the basic information like my DOB and full name, where I lived and who lived with me - including how many rooms our apt has - and then asked how we met. We had with us a photo album of our court wedding and reception, which she went to grab and asked if we had brought that for her to see. She asked us who different people were in the photos and how many people we had at the reception.

After going through the Y/N questions from 1485, she asked if we had anything else for her - so I pulled out the passport, I94 and EAD. She asked me when I first entered the US and took my I94 and stapled it to the file she had with my information.

She then said that she would review our information once more before approving the application. If she needed more information, she said she would notify us through out lawyer - otherwise that we should receive the GC in the mail within one month.

I think everything went well and I hope that she just does this for everyone and I hope we get approved!! Just to note, she did not take our EAD nor did she stamp anything on any document of ours.

I'll keep you all posted as soon as I hear more form USCIS! :dance: Hopefully we will get my GC and welcome letter within the next two weeks!

congratulations! I am pretty sure it will arrive in no time. I received a call earlier from USCIS regarding my interview tomorrow. I was asleep so they left message in the voicemail. They told me to just check on the website if they are open tomorrow before I go. I was just wondering on what part in the website should I check if their office in Seattle is open or not?

it will be an hour drive so I need to know ahead of time. I am not feeling so well about this. The weather is not cooperating.