Inquiry about AOS processing expedited advanced parole

[EllinDiasporas 1]

Dear VJ members,

I am writing you for some advice on a couple of matters. My wife is from Greece and arrived in the US in late September. We got married on Oct. 15th.

She has received her SS card. On Nov. 4th, we submitted our AOS paperwork (I-485) along with the I-765 temporary work authorization form and the I-131 request

for advanced parole. All 3 NOA1's arrived in the mail earlier this week. The numbers for each case are of the MSC## type and it is indicated that our I-485

is being processed at our local National Benefits Center.

My questions:

1) How does one find his/her local NBC ? I'm in New York State and I'm guessing it would be the one in New York City ? My understanding was that the case

is typically processed at the nearest service center, in our case Buffalo. So why is the NBC in the picture ?

2) If I understand correctly one first waits to receive a biometric appointment notice. Looking at the history of other folks that have gone through Buffalo,

their appointment seems to be about a month after they receive notice of paperwork reception. I'm assuming this notice comes in the mail ? How many days/weeks

before the actual appointment does the notice arrive ? As I also ask above, is it correct to say that the same service center that processes our I-485/I-765/I-131

is the one that performs the biometrics tests ?

3) The most important one: We would both like to travel during the holidays to visit family. Note, although a US citizen and born in the US, I was raised in Greece

by an American mother and Greek father. I eventually moved back to the US and have been living here for 17 years now. I met my wife 3 years ago during a visit to Greece.

I understand that Advanced Parole approval may take up to 90 days. It seems that most folks that go through Buffalo get this in 60-65 days. The thing here is that my mother

has ben battling a very serious form of cancer for the past year or so. Needless to say, I would like to spend the holidays with her. Moreover, she and my wife are very close

and we would like to offer her all the support we can. My parents are in the process of obtaining a letter in English from my mother's oncologist. Would this qualify as a reason to request expedited AP for my wife ? It would also be a difficult dilemma to head home myself and leave my wife here alone for her first Xmas holidays in the US.

I understand that you can request expedited advanced parole through an INFOPASS appointment. How far ahead does one have to request the appointment ?

After reading some posts here, it seems to be possible to request this as a walk-in appointment which I thought is what we might do if we have a biometrics appointment

in early December. Some folks also seem to have been able to do get AP over the phone. What are your recommendations ?

My one final concern is that, assuming we get expedited AP, we'd go to Greece for 3 weeks for the holidays. If this 60-70 day window between paperwork submission

and interview for pick-up of EAD does hold for Buffalo, I'm worried we might be asked to come out there in early January when we haven't returned from our visit to

Greece. How flexible is USCIS in terms of setting this final interview date ?

I hope I haven't tired you and would appreciate any insights you might have.

Many thanks in advance !

[ama537621 3]

#1 the NBC National Benefits Center, is in NEB if I am still current. The local office will most likely handle nothing of your paperwork unless things have changed a lot in the last year. I did hear that they were sending paperwork to local offices if the NBC was overloaded with applications. But I have no first hand knowledge of this. Almost all AOS from K1 require no interview for processing the GC.

#2 About 2 weeks from appointment letter until the Biometric appointment for Buffalo. There is no interview for pickup of EAD and AP it is mailed to your house.

#3 You should have no problem getting an infopass appointment for the next day in Buffalo. I had to make 3 last year and the calender was very open every time we had to make an appointment. As soon as you get you biometrics letter make an infopass appointment for the next day. You should be able to do an early biometrics if they are not to busy at the office. once you enter take an immediate right turn past security to the bio cubicles. Ask if you can do an early biometrics and tell them the reason. they might whine and complain but should do it if they are not busy.

After the biometrics go see the infopass dudes, 2 young guy's at least last year they were. If biometrics will not do the early just go see the infopass guy's anyway. tell them the situation and they will help you. They were able to expedite my wife's AOS due to my overseas work contract, cut the processing time by more than half actually. Remember to be nice, those 2 guy's get a lot of angry and confused people coming to them each day. Once I explained the situation they did everything they could to make the process go faster.

[Darnell 8,479]

biometrics city is for the ASC closest to you - you can find the locations on the USCIS website.

[EllinDiasporas 1]

This is beyond illuminating, a very big thank you to both you, especially to you ama537621 !

A quick question in this regard: So you recommend I set up an INFOPASS appointment as soon as I receive the biometrics appointment letter.

Do you mean I should set up an appointment the next day after reception of the letter (and then request an early biometrics test) or the next day after my actual appointment ?

Again, I sincerely appreciate your time and feedback. This is not an easy situation for me, and my wife. I hope to have all the medical documents here in about 10 days.

[EllinDiasporas 1]

PS: I just realized, after looking up the USCIS website, that Syracuse is our ASC. So I'll wait and see for what the appointment letter says. A close friend of mine here went through Buffalo, which seems to have a better reputation. Thank you again !

[jerni 24]

Hi! Our local office is Buffalo We did an early walk-in biometrics appointment, the person did grumble a little but still did them as the office was very quiet.

Edited November 15, 2013 by jerni

[ama537621 3]

I would make the Infopass appointment as soon as you get the letter, and do the expedite request and the biometrics on the same day.

[ama537621 3]

I forgot to mention that I think you can have the biometrics done in Buffalo if you do the infopass appointment. Even if your appointment says a different location.

[EllinDiasporas 1]

Hello !

I'm sorry not responding to any of you very kind folks. I got really swamped with work and had forgotten to put the "follow" tag on this post.

Many thanks to both of you for the most recent reply. AMA537621, I really appreciate the details. The biometrics letter actually arrived yesterday.
We're scheduled to be in Syracuse on the afternoon of Dec. 3rd.

Following your advice, I went ahead to schedule an INFOPASS appointment. Unfortunately, I'm traveling for work starting tomorrow until the 27th and Syracuse only offers Nov. 26th and 27th. So I went

ahead and set up an appointment for Nov. 29th in Buffalo, the earliest date that could work for us. I've set it up at 2 p.m. so we can get there a little earlier and request the biometrics done as well.

In the worst case, we can always drive up to Syracuse on 12/3 if they refuse to do the biometrics test.

Note that for INFOPASS, I picked the option linked to "Case currently processed" (or something along that line) and gave my wife's name and the case # on her I-485 application. I hope this doesn't confuse anybody.

I'm crossing my fingers, though I'm hopeful this should work out. I'll keep you folks posted as to how this goes. Again, I seriously appreciate all the perspectives. It makes me/us much calmer.

My mother is starting heavy-duty chemo tomorrow and we both want to be in Greece for the holidays.

All the best to you !