I-751 October 2015 Filers

[dannyphan91 30]

Hello All,

As informed earlier, I had gotten a status update that my new card production was ordered. Today I got an official letter in the mail saying that my i751 was approved, the letter is dated 9/12/2016 and says now I'm categorized as IR1.

My heart goes out for all those who got RFE after such a long wait and especially who submitted detailed documentation.

Good Luck to all who're awaiting approvals, especially the Vermont ones.

My N400 filing date window opens in 4 days, so i'm trying to wrap up documentation early. Will have to wait for the new card to come in so that I can attach a copy. Off to Citizenship thread now.

Cheers,

A_Singh

Congratulations!! What's your NoA date? And where did you filed?

[anglesa 0]

Hi everyone! I got my approval letter today! It says date of decision 9-12-2016. I had received my NOA Oct 26 2015 I believe. I have some questions im hoping you can help me, my ss still says only for employment, do I have to go change this? How long does the gc normally take to arrive? And if I do apply for citizenship in October, would I be able to leave the country to spend christmas back home or I cant until that is done?

[Jamaican_Gooner 36]

Hi everyone! I got my approval letter today! It says date of decision 9-12-2016. I had received my NOA Oct 26 2015 I believe. I have some questions im hoping you can help me, my ss still says only for employment, do I have to go change this? How long does the gc normally take to arrive? And if I do apply for citizenship in October, would I be able to leave the country to spend christmas back home or I cant until that is done?

Congrats on your approval, I would advise looking at the September filers forum to see how long it took them to get their GC. it shouldn't be long though. I can't help regarding your SS question, sorry. See this thread on your last question: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/269661-travel-during-n-400-application/

[jjbrien 1]

So I called USCIS yesterday and spoke with at tier 2 rep. He said he was supprised my case hasnt even moved yet, so he escalated it. How long does it usually take once Tier 2 escalates a case? Also I asked him about filing my N400 he said I cant until the I751 is done. Im a little confused I thought it made them look at my case?

[jerni 24]

Well I still don't have my GreenCard thanks to USPS. The approval letter was forwarded to my new address by USPS, it was sent August 30th and I only got it yesterday. My card was delivered to my old address, my neighbor picked it up and took it to the post office, it was sent out and after a week ended up back at my old local post office in New York. So it was forwarded again on Monday (thank goodness I called and the lady got her hands on it before it was delivered again). This time the tracking shows a forward, so hopefully it will arrive here in Texas shortly.

My approval notice was signed by the Buffalo office and it is on official USCIS paper (like the NOA), not on a simple white sheet of paper.

Edited September 21, 2016 by jerni

[Alphaland 0]

Angelsa:

I saw your list of evidence. Now worries. You have included a golden pass in your evidence submission: birth certificate of your child. Assuming the child was born during your marraige and the birth certificate lists the spouses as father and mother of the child, generally that would be considered a "clear and convincing" evidence that the marriage is a bina fide one.

Combined that with your joint tax returns (strong if filed jointly , otherwise it's weak) , joint medical insurance (strong) and joint bank account you have nothing to worry about. Anything that shows strong joint assets and joint liabilities are good.

The rest are just secondary "fluff" evidence, uscis case officers don't give that much weight to these: driver licenses, credit card statements, affidavits, photos, etc. These are typically included when an applicant/petitioner doesn't have enough strong primary supporting evidence.

[Alphaland 0]

Lol, nevermind Angelsa. Just saw your other posts stating your application has been approved.

WRT updating social security card, visit the social security administration gov website, print out a new form and complete it. Take it to your local social security administration office (bring your permanent resident card) and they will update (remove the verbage about "valid with empliyment authorization") it for you. It will take a few weeks to receive your new ss card in the mail, your ss number will remain the same.

[Alphaland 0]

Jjbren:

Tier 2 officers have direct access to the actual case officers handling the i-751 cases, so if tier 2 has escalated the matter for you, rest assured that whichever case officer has got your case sitting on their desk will look at your case shortly . That said, it doesn't mean no one has looked at your case already (generally there're multiple layers of review in the entire process). If you don't hear back after 15 days, contact them again to get more information. You could also ask tier 2 the next time you call them whether your case is stuck in a "security or name check". If the answer is no, then you'll know Vermont has full authority to process your case and the delay isn't based on something outside of the case officer's control.

WRT filing n-400 while your i-751 is pending, while it is within your right to proceed with n-400, please note that your n-400 case would be processed by your local uscis office, which has no jurisdication over the Vermont service center. Local office has no power to approve your n-400 case unless your i-751 has already been approved. The suggestions floating around on the internet about "filing n-400 forces Vermont to adjudicate i-751" is not entirely true. No one can "force" Vermont if the i-751 is not approvable at the moment (eg secuirty checks pending). Now, that being said, if Vermont was planning to send your case to the local office for an interview anyways, then in that case your i-751 and n-400 would both end up at the same local office and they may be able to streamline it for you (no guarantees). Bottom line is, unless you know for a fact that Vermont is just sitting on your case (and not because they are waiting for some other process to be completed), you may want to consider holding off on the n-400 until i-751 is approved.

[Alphaland 0]

To meowmie,

Sorry that you got an RFE. The best advice I can give you now is set aside any negative emotions and don't panic. These things happen from time to time, even cases with strong evidence will sometime get randomly selected to provide more evidence. That's because it's been almost a year since the initial applicant was sent in, things could have changed (eg marriage fell apart, no longer living together, marriage dissolution or separation has occured, etc). It could be that your case was randomly selected to provide more recent (and strong) evidence, that' all.

The best course of action is to start gathering new evidence. Do not resend anything that you have already sent, but you are welcome to write a separate cover letter listing all the evidence that were sent previously and include a paragraph like: "adding to the evidence previously submitted, we are including the following evidence that cover the period from the time the initial application was sent up to now"

Now, pay attention, this part is important and could help you (and will do no harm to your case). When you compile your evidence (paperwork), place the stronger evidence before the weaker ones. Anything that shows joint financial assets and debts are good primary evidence (joint lease, joint loans, joint bank account with activities, jointly filed tax returns (add in the w-2s from both spouses or get the official irs tax transcripts)). Since your initial application, you should have a 2015 joint tax return ready for submission, so include it. Note that if any of your recent tax returns since your marriage was not filed in the category of "married filed jointly" then it is not considered strong primary evidence and you should write out a statement explaining why your taxes werent filed jointly. Don't forget to Include joint health insurance (get a letter from the insurer to "validate" that the joint health insurance is still active as of today, or, even better see if the insurer can add in the date the insurance policy became active with both of you being covered under the same policy); unlike homeowner or auto insurance polies which generally list out the time periods such policies are valid, health insurance often do not include this information on the insurance cards themselves, so get a letter from the insurer if you can.

Weak (secondary) evidence should be placed toward the back of your paperwork. That would be your photos, affidavits, utility bills, vacation trip itineraries, christmas cards/correspondence, etc. if you are planning to include more of them.

Note: for all evidence with joint names, take a yellow highlighter and highlight both names (spouses) on those paperwork. Do that for every piece of paperwork that include both names. This helps the case officers when reviewing your documents ; in effect it draws their eyes/attention to those strong documents with both spouses name on them.

Also, find or buy some file tab stickers or post it note pad. For each type of evidence, place a tab sticker on the right side of the 1st page of eqch evidence type, hand write the name/title of that evidence type. Keep going down yoir evidence packet until you have covered all evidence types you are submitting. Besure to layer the stickers so they are easily for the case officer to access (like a filing tab system). This makes it easier for the officers to thumb through your evidence (and not inadvertently miss an important piece of strong evidence espeicallt if it was a single-page evidence)

Please do not print anything double-sided. Uscis case officers (regardless of which office location) hate double-side printed evidence. Print everything single -sided (one printed side per page). Also, do not hole-punch (top or side) your evidence paperwork. Use a simple file clip to bind all the paperwork together, and do not use prong-hole style paper fastener....another thing they hate (cut accidents happen quite often)

Submit your response to RFE as quickly as possible, do not delay it if all you are waiting for are weak evidence (like your utility bills that are just now being added -- kind of pointless at this point unless you have no other stronger primary evidence to include). Once Vermont service center receives your response, they have up to 60 days to adjudicate your case. If they pass the 60-day mark, your case would be considered "outside of processing time" and you could then follow up and request it to be escalated.

The result of your response to the RFE is either going to be a straight approval or it's going to be an interview at the local office. You have nothing to fear as long as you have a bona fide marriage. It will not be a straight denial, so dont worry (honestly though, with your evidence this is unlikely to happen to you), no one case officer can straight out deny your case -- it takes 2. Before a case can be denied, the case officer making such a decision would need his/her supervisor to review and agree with that decision and come to the same conclusion that there is something very fishy about the case even after RFE and interview. Again, I doubt that will be your case so this really is just for informational purpose.

Relax. Gather your evidence, stack them in the order of strongest primary evidence on top and weak ones at the bottom, highlight the pertinent portions (joint names), create a file-tab system for easy review, type up and sign a cover letter listing all the name/title of the evidence you are submitting (and the period they cover) as well as the ones previously submitted (and the periods they covered). Don't worry about missing the secondary "fluff" evidence unless you feel your primary evidence are lacking and the "fluff" actually make your case stronger when combined with primary evidence. All "fluff" evidence should be place at bottom of your evidence stack.

Make a complete copy of the entire package before you send it to the service center. This may come in handy in the event that you are selected for an interview; it's easier when you have a complete copy of the evidence the interviewer is looking at when they open up your case file during the interview, and also as a reference point of what evidence have been submitted up to this point.

[Alphaland 0]

One major typo in my post: Didn't mean to type "now worries". I meant "No worries". I was typing on a small mobile device touch screen, so apologies for all the typos.

I couldn't edit the original post because it'd been longer than 5 minutes since the original post was up.

Angelsa:

I saw your list of evidence. Now worries. You have included a golden pass in your evidence submission: birth certificate of your child. Assuming the child was born during your marraige and the birth certificate lists the spouses as father and mother of the child, generally that would be considered a "clear and convincing" evidence that the marriage is a bina fide one.

Combined that with your joint tax returns (strong if filed jointly , otherwise it's weak) , joint medical insurance (strong) and joint bank account you have nothing to worry about. Anything that shows strong joint assets and joint liabilities are good.

The rest are just secondary "fluff" evidence, uscis case officers don't give that much weight to these: driver licenses, credit card statements, affidavits, photos, etc. These are typically included when an applicant/petitioner doesn't have enough strong primary supporting evidence.

[Alphaland 0]

I am a CSC filer and still hasn't heard anything Hang in there people!

Yndy:

Your address change resulted in a change of service center in the middle of your application process. If you have officially received a notice or otherwise got confirmation from uscis that your case has been transferred to Vermont, then technically you are a "Vermont filer" as Vermont now has jurisdiction over your case.

This is not meant to alarm you (just information) , sometimes when an applicant's home address change resulted in a change of service center jurisdication while their application is pending, an RFE may be issued. One of the rationales behind this is to counter those who "service center shop" , hopping from the original service center to another because they hear one service center now has a lower RFE rate than the other or something to that affect. I don't have any up to date statistics but a couple years ago uscis concluded the rate of marriage fraud applications they receive were around 32-35% of the totally applications, so naturally uscis are more cautious. That is not you I am sure, so please don't panic, if you do get an RFE just respond right away.

If you haven't already done so, call the 1800 customer service line and explain why you need to be transferred to a tier 2 officer. Tier 1 will not refuse you (though they may not be thrilled), so don't worry. Tier 2 are busy , any calls not filtered out by tier 1 lands in tier 2's laps. You will likely be asked to enter/confirm a call back number and be given an estimated call back time. Needless to say, you want to call first thing in the morning as soon as they open so you don't end up in the back of a long queue.

When you have Tier 2 on the line, they may give you general response like "your case is still pending and you just have to wait"... Do not simply hang up and accept this answer. Press the tier 2 officer to tell you more -- at the very least they have in front of their computer monitor, information about when your case file was last "touched" by the case officer. Ask tier 2 whether an RFE has been sent (because RFE generally don't show up on online case status system, and since you have moved it might be the case an RFE or some other corresponse was sent to your old address that you weren't aware of) tell them you just wanted to make sure you didn't miss anything by accident and that Vermont isn't waiting on you to provide some documents that you didn't know about. Also, ask the tier 2 officer to confirm the address they have on their screen is actually your new address (sometimes that information you have sent in previously is not updated in or didn't get forwarded to their system)

Your timeline shows your application filing date was 10/29/2015. You are close. Vermont is currently processing October cases.

Edited September 22, 2016 by Alphaland

[Alphaland 0]

Well I still don't have my GreenCard thanks to USPS. The approval letter was forwarded to my new address by USPS, it was sent August 30th and I only got it yesterday. My card was delivered to my old address, my neighbor picked it up and took it to the post office, it was sent out and after a week ended up back at my old local post office in New York. So it was forwarded again on Monday (thank goodness I called and the lady got her hands on it before it was delivered again). This time the tracking shows a forward, so hopefully it will arrive here in Texas shortly.

My approval notice was signed by the Buffalo office and it is on official USCIS paper (like the NOA), not on a simple white sheet of paper.

Wow, you would think usps could make it simper to forward mails. Just as a side note, a few years back USCIS used to print "do not forward , return to sender if undeliverable" on all outgoing envelops containing permanet resident cards. I don't know if that is still the case, but if it is then that would explain why USPS didn't forward the envelope containing your new card the 1st time around. In the event this upcoming 2nd forward is still unsuccessful or gets returned to the old address again, you could ask your old neighbor to put it in a new envelope with your new address (the postage and tracking fee can be pre-paid by you online). Good luck, and hopefully that 2nd forward worked.

[anglesa 0]

Lol, nevermind Angelsa. Just saw your other posts stating your application has been approved.

WRT updating social security card, visit the social security administration gov website, print out a new form and complete it. Take it to your local social security administration office (bring your permanent resident card) and they will update (remove the verbage about "valid with empliyment authorization") it for you. It will take a few weeks to receive your new ss card in the mail, your ss number will remain the same.

Lol! Yeap thank god I was getting worried, they haven't even updated it on the page yet lol but I got my letter so that is some relieve. I will do that as soon as I receive the card. Thank you!

[Alphaland 0]

Yes, I've heard too that Vermont for some reason is skipping the "I-751 approved" online case status update, but they will issue updates online when cases enter the "new card in production" and "new card has been mailed to you" stages. Congrats!! :-)

[Alphaland 0]

And to all October 2015 filers who are still waiting for their case result, do not worry too much, delays on I-751 (longer processing times than CSC) are normal. It doesn't necessarily mean you have an RFE or interview coming your way or that your case is being suspected of fraud. As hard as it is to be right now, try to be patient. Keep following the October 2015 thread and compare your filing date to those filed around the same time as you (at Vermont) so you can gage whether your case "should" now be in the final stage of processing and contact the customer service center when your case has gone pending beyond the "in-order of filing" timeline.

Traditionally I-751 case type has always been considered "bottom of the barrel" in terms of urgency. Hence the slower service. This is because compare to all other uscis case types, i-751 applicants are at no time in danger of losing their employment authorization or ability to travel internationally while the applicant awaits for final decision. That is: your valid immigration status will never expire while your i-751 is pending at USCIS. Even if your case does go beyond the initial 12 months (anything within 12 months is considered on-time) USCIS has already thought of that problem and created a solution: you can (at anytime you wish) make an infopass appt and ask your local uscis office to update your passport to extend work authorization/travel endorsement --and they will happily do so for you, no questions asked , as long as your i-751 is still pending. And you can do this as many times as it is needed (although it's incredibly rare that anyone should need to do this more than once, though there are rare cases where security checks take years to clear). While some cases do exceed the 1 year processing time, by and large the majority of cases are adjudicated within 1 year.

If your case is a waiver case (not joined by US citizen spouse), or you do not live with your spouse, or yoir case has been transferred to another service center as a direct result of home address change, be extra patient, as your case may take longer than usual -- though you should still follow up with uscis periodically, if for no other reason other than to make sure they are still working on your case and they don't require additional information from you at this time.

Those who are randomly selected for interviews have nothing to be afraid of when their marriage is a bona fide one. Do your part to prepare for interview but don't stress too much. It's typical and standard procedure for uscis to randomly draw and conduct interviews (because they don't have unlimited resources to interview every I-751 case, so random will have to do.) It's a very small percentage. And even in the worst case scenario, USCIS suspects you of fraud at the time of your interview, they will tell you (they are honest people and most of them are fairly nice) and may ask to see you again at a later date. if and when that happens and you know your marriage is not a fraud , then it would be a good idea to hire legal counsel to represent your case if you don't have one already. If you find yourself in that situation but cannot afford one, search online to find your local state bar association or local immigration help center or organizations and reach out to them as they may have attorneys willing to take on your case pro bono.

Best of luck to you all.

Edited September 22, 2016 by Alphaland