Will changing I-485 interview city send us to the back of the line?

[jxn 86]

My wife was incorrectly scheduled for our green card interview in the state we put down for our mailing address. We put our actual address in the section asking for our permanent address / residence, so I'm disappointed.

Washington, DC, where we live, is about a month and a half ahead of Hartford, CT. On top of that, we would have to drive up and get the extra time off in order to make that interview whenever it is scheduled.

I am tempted by the idea of contacting our local field office and asking them to transfer our Connecticut case to Washington, DC, but I'm worried that would send us to the back of the line, as if they has just received our application today as opposed to in early January when USCIS received our documents.

Does anyone have any insight into this? Thanks!

[funkymunky 11]

It may or may not delay it, it really depends how busy they are and when the first available interview date is. When we moved ASC Boise to Chula Vista we didn't get a date till 2 months later. It's a risk lol so the question is - how long are you willing to wait for an interview at the closer ASC?

[Hypnos 6,576]

You are usually not put at the front of the queue when changing local offices.

Each local office only has jurisdiction over a certain area though, so when they ask "do you still live at X" and find out you live somewhere else, if they do not have jurisdiction over that address, you won't be approved. They will themselves send your case to the new office, which will eventually schedule a new interview. It's best you do this yourself, if you're looking to save time.

You must interview at the office with jurisdiction over your place of permanent residence. It sounds like that is the Washington, DC office.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Hypnos

[jxn 86]

Correct, we live in Washington, DC.

Can we do with the ASC interview what we did with the biometrics appointmentshow up as our local DC office at the day and time of

Our scheduled Connecticut appointment?

[Hypnos 6,576]

No, that won't work. You will need to submit a formal change of address request (you can do this online here: https://egov.uscis.gov/coa/addressChange.do) and give them your Washington, DC address. Make sure you select "Yes" when it asks is this for an application in process, and enter your I-485 receipt number.

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

Just to clear up the mention of ASC: Sometimes you go to a separate location, other than your local USCIS office for your biometrics. An ASC is an Application Support Center. They do fingerprinting. Sometimes the field office and ASC are in the same building location. https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices

I really doubt they would allow you to do a walk-in interview at all, much less at a different office location. They would need to have you scheduled for that day. You need to reschedule. Once you put in a change of address, make an Infopass appointment to let them know about the mix-up and that you live in DC and your appointment for interview was scheduled at the office in CT. They may be able to help you out there. Be sure to get confirmation of rescheduling in writing.

[jxn 86]

Hi all. We'll be updating our address on file but our lawyer said he wants to first call the National Benefits Center and the Washington, DC Field Office to see first if our case has gone from the NBC to a local field office and if so, see if the DC office could "take" it from the Connecticut office.

He said the simplest situation would be to call the Connecticut office and see if, in light of the error by USCIS (since we indicated Connecticut as a mailing address but DC as our permanent address) that they would be willing to approve us interviewing there and then shifting our case to DC after the interview. Although one poster said a field office out of one's jurisdiction cannot give an interview, my lawyer said that it was up to the field offices themselves and that they could make rare exceptions.

[Hypnos 6,576]

Oh they may well give you an interview, but once they find out you're not living in their jurisdiction they are not permitted by USCIS' own internal policies to render a decision. There might be rare exceptions in extreme exigent situations, but I don't think you would qualify for that.

[jxn 86]

Oh they may well give you an interview, but once they find out you're not living in their jurisdiction they are not permitted by USCIS' own internal policies to render a decision. There might be rare exceptions in extreme exigent situations, but I don't think you would qualify for that.

I'm sure you're right. At the very least, the fact that my lawyer will call the NBC and the Connecticut and Washington, DC field offices makes me think whatever route we go will be one that all offices have signed off on.

My lawyer said getting approved to interview in Connecticut (despite the fact we don't live there, as our lawyer will convey to them next week) would have the "fewest moving parts" but wasn't sure about the likelihood of that.

He also said if the Washington, DC field office is able to take the case from Connecticut, then he expects that we would maintain our January priority date (according to my calculations the DC field office recently started February 2014 priority dates) and we would immediately enter the DC scheduling queue with no additional waiting. I had feared that if we switched to DC we would go to the end of the line.

[Hypnos 6,576]

It sounds as if your lawyer is pretty on the ball, which is good.

Please post back with whatever happens so other people in similar situations can benefit from your experience.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Hypnos

[mik2012 17]

We changed our address at the interview. My stepdaughter had her interview on July 15th and when we were asked if our address was current we stated that we had moved. The agent handling our case updated the the file and computer right there and then. My wife and Stepdaughter just got the green card approved and it is being mailed out. We moved out of state and drove back for her interview.

Edited July 28, 2014 by mik2012

[jxn 86]

We changed our address at the interview. My stepdaughter had her interview on July 15th and when we were asked if our address was current we stated that we had moved. The agent handling our case updated the the file and computer right there and then. My wife and Stepdaughter just got the green card approved and it is being mailed out. We moved out of state and drove back for her interview.

Out of curiosity, did you move from one address to another within the same Field Office's jurisdiction?

[mik2012 17]

Our original field office was in New Hampshire and the new field office would have been boston. Since we lived only 25 minutes from either one we decided to wait to do the change of address at the original field office. We moved in June.

The agent asked if we still lived at the old address because they tried to call us to cancel our interview but since we were there in person she told me what I needed and changed my address right there and then on the computer.

The agent printed out an address change comfirmation form, she also printed out the RFE and asked me to return the 4 documents requested the next day which I did.

July 25th they were both approved for the GC and today she got here welcome letter.