Senators might help (I-485 process)

[Charles C 0]

OK, now that we have received official notice and written confirmation (797) that my wife and step-daughters green cards are approved, I will share something I did that I believe helped our case.

If you look at our timeline on VJ, you will see we married in 2012 then filed for AOS in Feb, 2013. At the same time we applied for EAD and AP - but there is ambiguity around the viability of AP. (see other threads about this) But - here we are in June 2013, approved with green cards on the way in the mail - and no interview occurred. I think this is "record time" for the I-485 process and I know many people are waiting who filed earlier.

The only thing I think we did differently was engage our two US Senators and our US Congressman. On a Sunday in early May, I wrote the same form letter to each of them and submitted it through their office web sites. To my surprise, one Senator's office (Portman, R-OH) called me Monday morning before I even got around to calling them! The other Senator (Brown, D-OH) office followed up in email, as did the Congressman's office.

All three of them made inquiries to USCIS about our case. Portman's staffer made several calls and provided me with excellent customer service and care. I was pleased with each of the officials - but none of them indicated they were making a "big deal" about our case. I only pressed that we had nothing to obstruct approval, the delay in permitting my wife to travel to her family was a hardship, and I hoped they might be able to help. None of my communications were hysterical, accusatory, or insistent. They made inquiries, gave me feedback, and I thanked them for their help. Honestly, the feedback they gave me was pretty generic ("Your case is being reviewed", etc)

I am not "politically connected" and I did not call in any favors. I just made a normal inquiry. But magically, our application flipped to "approved" early this month, about 3 weeks after my inquiries through the official offices. My guess is that USCIS received three official inquiries in the span of about a week and someone decided to just "get it done" and get it off their desk. Honestly I have no idea if my inquiries helped, but I am grateful if they did.

So here is my suggestion - notify your senators and congressman that you have an application in process. Ask (politely) if they will make an inquiry on your behalf (they will). Make sure ALL THREE hit USCIS within a week or two... maybe this will work for you too. Heck, I was only out three postage stamps for the process!

Best of luck to all...

Charles & Mariana

[keyser 3]

CONGRATS!!!!!! a lot of K-1 visa dont get A.O.S interview, from the stories told on this site

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

AOS from a K1 is usually fast especially if you have a under used office. We had an interview and it was 2 months from filing to green card in hand .

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

I have noticed other people who filed near you getting approved, so I think USCIS just starting approving people who filed your month. Sometimes they skip ahead to make their numbers look better (which I disagree with strongly). Your case doesn't appear to be an anomaly.