My I-130/I-485 Experience

[Carach 2]

I debated posting my experience in filing an I-130/I-485 packet for my wife since things went unusually fast, but thought it might be beneficial.

 

First, some background. My wife and I met online in the spring of 2009 and then met in person in Aruba in August of 2012. Since then, my wife came to the United States from Venezuela for a month or so for her vacation and I visited Venezuela twice. In August 2012 we decided to get married in a small ceremony here. When she came here for her vacation in August 2016 we watched the situation in Venezuela, already pretty bad, take more rapid turns for the worse and decided to file an I-130/I-485 packet while she stayed here in the United States.

 

It took us until April 2017 before we had all the documents and extra funds needed to file everything. We sent our packet in on April 5, 2017 and I received an email confirming that USCIS had accepted the packets on April 10th. Shortly after that I received an RFE asking that I complete an I-130a form so that they could process the I-485. I was a little surprised at this request as the information the form asked for is essentially the same as what is on the I-130 that we had already filed. (I don't have the papers in front of me so I am not sure the exact date that this notice was sent to us and it may have been after this next part.)

 

We sent this form in and received a notification of our appointment for biometrics to done on May 12th. We arrived about 30 minutes prior to our appointment time and they actually saw us about 15 minutes before our appointment time and we were done and out of the office by our appointment time. Gave me a little faith in government.

 

About June 10th we received our notice that our interview "to complete the I-485 process" was scheduled for July 12th. After a month of worrying about being "interrogated" but USCIS, we again arrived 30 minutes prior to our scheduled time. Once again, they were able to see us before our scheduled time. After less than 10 minutes of questions much different than what we had been preparing for the gentleman told us we were all set. He stamped my wifes Venezuelan passport with a temporary green card, good for six months, and told us her 10 year card should arrive in a couple of weeks.

 

When I mentioned to the gentleman after our interview how fast everything was completed for us, he said two things. (A mentioned it a couple times.):

• He had read on our cover letter about the troubles in Venezuela and my worries if my wife went back to file through the embassy there. (Especially given that the State Department ordered several years ago that all embassy personnel should use armored vehicle to go the 30 miles to the airport.
• He commented that we had all the supporting information needed in our filing so there was very little they had to follow up on, which apparently is not always the case.

 

So my take aways from our experience:

• Always include a cover letter with your packet and include any special circumstances that might be relevant. In our case, the political and economic woes of Venezuela were, and are, a legitimate cause for concern.
• Be sure to include all the information requested for your packet. If you are following the checklist from here on VisaJourney, you likely have this one covered already. I was actually a little surprised when the gentleman told me that they often get submissions without all the requested information.
• One last item, which I cannot say actually had any impact but is something we did and something I haven't seen mentioned here on the site - reach out to your Senator or Congressman to let them know you have sent or are sending an immigration packet in. Most of them have a community outreach person whose, as they told me, job it is to help constituents with things like this. The person I spoke with told me explicitly that they couldn't bump us to the front of the line, and I wouldn't want them to, nor could they give me advice on filing. (i.e. I couldn't say, but so-and-so told me that I could do that.) We did have to fill out a form that gave them permission to access our file. Again, I don't know that doing this helped us materially, but given how everything turned out, it certainly didn't hurt us any.

[R&OC 371]

Thank you for sharing. I am surprised about petitions not having all the requested documents included. But from personally talking to a couple who just filed as well but with a lawyer - I was surprised how little they knew or were told.

[Crazy Cat 42,032]

SMH........most of us have to wait for more than a year.....

[Carach 2]

2 minutes ago, missileman said:

SMH........most of us have to wait for more than a year.....

Greetings,

 

That is the reason I really had to debate posting anything.

 

I fully expected it to take 9 months or more, given that when I sent in my packet I was told they were still processing August 2016 applications.

 

I finally decided that if something we did could help other folks, it was worth posting.

 

Good luck.

[Crazy Cat 42,032]

Just now, Carach said:

Greetings,

 

That is the reason I really had to debate posting anything.

 

I fully expected it to take 9 months or more, given that when I sent in my packet I was told they were still processing August 2016 applications.

 

I finally decided that if something we did could help other folks, it was worth posting.

 

Good luck.

Thanks for sharing.  

[Ryan H 3,819]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Progress Reports to Adjustment of Status from Work, Student, & Tourist Visas Progress Reports.