Interview likely to be scheduled during holidays. What to do?

[jvl 3]

I just joined this forum, but I've long been reading people's timelines and experiences. I have a question that USCIS seemed unable to answer, so I was hoping I could get some advice from here.

My field office is the one in Baltimore, MD. I was an F-1 student until last May. Before graduation, I got married to a USC, and we filed my AOS one month later (within my grace period). I already have my EAD/AP combo card. My case has been on "ready to be scheduled for an interview" since September 15, and our case was received on June 30th. You can see my timeline in my profile.

So, based on people's recent timelines for Baltimore, MD, and the processing times online, it seems that we can expect the interview to occur in late December (6 months after filing), and that we would be getting an interview notice one month before, in late November. The problem is that both my wife and I would like to visit our respective families for the holidays. We are concerned about booking travel arrangements and then having the interview scheduled during our trips. We also do not want to reschedule the interview should that happen, because I have been unemployed since graduation; although I have my EAD already, a lot of the engineering jobs in the area require at least permanent residence, because of their government contracts. As far as I understand, rescheduling the interview would make us go back to the beginning of the line, adding 2-3 months of unemployment for me. So, the problem is that we need to attend the interview whenever it is scheduled, and that it is likely to conflict with our travel arrangements.

Now, we are both willing to sacrifice time with our families for the interview (we don't really seem to have a choice), even though my wife has fixed vacations. Our main concern is what travel dates to book for. I called USCIS to see when the Baltimore, MD office would be closed at for the holidays, but all they were able to tell me was that it was closed on December 25th. If I knew that, say, they don't schedule interviews during the last 2 weeks of December, that could help us make some decisions. We plan to book Southwest, since apparently they don't charge to change flights, but even then if we chose our travel dates poorly, rescheduling at the last minute would cause us to pay for more expensive flight tickets.

So, does anyone know if there are weeks during which no AOS interviews happen? Also, does anyone have any other specific advice for our situation?

[TBoneTX 45,297]

Welcome to the forum!

No one can answer for certain; however, consider that USCIS offices will almost certainly be short-staffed during the holiday period because employees will be taking time off themselves. Perhaps this will help in your decision-making,

[john_and_marlene 162]

Sometimes you just have to set priorities and act accordingly. If I can assume that the AOS is your current top priority as it should be, then make choices that ensure it is not jeopardized. Stay home and visit your families another time -- after the interview you won't have the same risk. It would be nice if life allowed us to do everything we wanted without jeopardizing our future, but that's not reality.