August 2017 AOS Filers

[mustang85635 182]

19 minutes ago, Ashley Scott said:

Thank you!

If its an emergency and you have for example a death certificate or doctors / hospital note to proof it you can try an emergency walk in infopass. Go as early as you can be the first person for the best result and tell the security you would appreciate if you could try to speak to an officer because of death in the family. They can grant an emergency AP on the spot at the field office

[mushroomspore 3,044]

9 hours ago, Hamilton said:

I feel exactly the same way! It's so unfair that people who filed after us are racing through the system -- it should be first come, first serve. How can background checks take months and months for some of us and be super fast for others? This is such a broken system.

 

I did notice in the recent venting, that it seems like some of us who are stuck waiting on EAD/APs have PDs of Aug 07 thru 10. Maybe it means something, but most likely, it's just me trying to find SOME kind of logic in a system that has absolutely none.

I agree; I heard that EAD/AP's and I-130/I-485's are adjudicated by different sets of officers and that they don't really have much to do with each other (as in EAD/AP's don't need to wait for background checks from the I-485). There has been the small percentage of beneficiaries who have EAD/AP approved but then revoked when their I-485 background check came back with criminal history or past deportation orders.

[Texasfiler 385]

5 minutes ago, mushroomspore said:

I agree; I heard that EAD/AP's and I-130/I-485's are adjudicated by different sets of officers and that they don't really have much to do with each other (as in EAD/AP's don't need to wait for background checks from the I-485). There has been the small percentage of beneficiaries who have EAD/AP approved but then revoked when their I-485 background check came back with criminal history or past deportation orders.

@mushroomspores this is my understanding also I agree with you, read it somewhere here on the internet.  Ahahaha I am not even going to feed into this negative energy anymore - gonna just go back to waiting patiently, put on my headphone and kill that treadmill/cross trainer.

[listeague 35]

11 hours ago, PR&PR said:

What October filers, really?

 

I definitely can relate to you guys. My K1 process was so long and people way after me got approved and I was still stuck at every steps and they all took as long as they could  .

 

Hang in there guys, soon enough it will be behind and enjoy your significant other. I am dying to work, but at least in the meanwhile I cook, clean and more and volunteer so I don't have to stay at home all the time.

I thought about volunteering but where I live I'm far from everything there's no public transportation and my husband works most days so I gotta stay home, what type of volunteer work you do.

[JeffJZuk 64]

6 minutes ago, listeague said:

I thought about volunteering but where I live I'm far from everything there's no public transportation and my husband works most days so I gotta stay home, what type of volunteer work you do.

Be careful with volunteer work while you are waiting for approval, most volunteer positions will require a police background check and this would be unable to complete without some form of US identification. (i.e. SSN, EAD) . I don't know the exact limitations also but I'm pretty sure that on top of receiving funds from an employer I believe that even if you were to volunteer that might come into legal question as you are taking away developmental experience from an American when you are not legal yet in this country. Double check before you do anything. Always want to make sure you arent messing up the process. 

[listeague 35]

6 minutes ago, JeffJZuk said:

Be careful with volunteer work while you are waiting for approval, most volunteer positions will require a police background check and this would be unable to complete without some form of US identification. (i.e. SSN, EAD) . I don't know the exact limitations also but I'm pretty sure that on top of receiving funds from an employer I believe that even if you were to volunteer that might come into legal question as you are taking away developmental experience from an American when you are not legal yet in this country. Double check before you do anything. Always want to make sure you arent messing up the process. 

I do recall reading that somewhere, thanks for reminding me I'll just wait until I have everything sorted

[garebear397 69]

Hey all -- just wanted to share my Infopass experience recently. I don't post much on this thread but I am an August AOS filer and enjoy reading all of your all's updates. 

 

So my wife is the one that is adjusting status right now. We have our GC interview scheduled for December 8th at the Cincinnati office. We scheduled an infopass appointment (it was yesterday, 11/27) because we haven't received her EAD/AP card -- which we wouldn't normally worry about since we are very close to our interview -- but we are planning a larger wedding ceremony in her home country for January 21st (and my wife wants to go down several weeks early to finish planning it). So we went to the appointment, the lady we talked to was very helpful and totally understood our concern but basically said she couldn't do anything to speed up the AP. 

 

She said we may just never get the AP since our interview is very close. Essentially if your green card interview is scheduled close to three months after filing, they just process the GC. She did mention that if we are approved at our interview they can give us a temporary green card stamp (i-551 stamp I believe) right away, that way my wife can travel sooner than waiting for the physical card to arrive. So that is good news. She was also being super nice and said that since we didn't get an RFE we are sitting good, just bring everything to the interview, and explain after the interview of our needs for my wife to travel shortly and if we are approved we should be good to go. 

 

We were hoping to get the AP expedited from the appointment, just so we could be 100% that my wife could travel by the wedding, but it was nice interacting with the USCIS staff in a very helpful and friendly manner (I know she wasn't an IO, but still) -- and it seemed like she wanted to do anything she could to help us out. Also the info that we can get the I-551 stamp at the interview if we are approved is good news. 

 

Just wanted to share if anyone else is in similar type positions!

[mushroomspore 3,044]

42 minutes ago, garebear397 said:

Hey all -- just wanted to share my Infopass experience recently. I don't post much on this thread but I am an August AOS filer and enjoy reading all of your all's updates. 

 

So my wife is the one that is adjusting status right now. We have our GC interview scheduled for December 8th at the Cincinnati office. We scheduled an infopass appointment (it was yesterday, 11/27) because we haven't received her EAD/AP card -- which we wouldn't normally worry about since we are very close to our interview -- but we are planning a larger wedding ceremony in her home country for January 21st (and my wife wants to go down several weeks early to finish planning it). So we went to the appointment, the lady we talked to was very helpful and totally understood our concern but basically said she couldn't do anything to speed up the AP. 

 

She said we may just never get the AP since our interview is very close. Essentially if your green card interview is scheduled close to three months after filing, they just process the GC. She did mention that if we are approved at our interview they can give us a temporary green card stamp (i-551 stamp I believe) right away, that way my wife can travel sooner than waiting for the physical card to arrive. So that is good news. She was also being super nice and said that since we didn't get an RFE we are sitting good, just bring everything to the interview, and explain after the interview of our needs for my wife to travel shortly and if we are approved we should be good to go. 

 

We were hoping to get the AP expedited from the appointment, just so we could be 100% that my wife could travel by the wedding, but it was nice interacting with the USCIS staff in a very helpful and friendly manner (I know she wasn't an IO, but still) -- and it seemed like she wanted to do anything she could to help us out. Also the info that we can get the I-551 stamp at the interview if we are approved is good news. 

 

Just wanted to share if anyone else is in similar type positions!

Yeah, the 551 stamp acts as a GC in case you don't receive the GC in a timely manner. I've been saying that if they take so long to process EAD/AP, they might as well schedule interviews more quickly. There's no point in having an EAD for only one or two months.

 

Speaking of EAD/AP, I just got off the phone with a tier 2 rep on the customer service line. He put in a different kind of SR for me; he called it an expedite but said it's not the usual kind of expedite. I guess it's something only they can do if they see an EAD application has been sitting around for a while (it's almost 110 days for me). Anyway he said to expect a reply within 3-10 days so we shall see. I also asked what the delay is from and he said it's massive backlog.

Edited November 28, 2017 by mushroomspore

[PR&PR 325]

2 hours ago, JeffJZuk said:

Be careful with volunteer work while you are waiting for approval, most volunteer positions will require a police background check and this would be unable to complete without some form of US identification. (i.e. SSN, EAD) . I don't know the exact limitations also but I'm pretty sure that on top of receiving funds from an employer I believe that even if you were to volunteer that might come into legal question as you are taking away developmental experience from an American when you are not legal yet in this country. Double check before you do anything. Always want to make sure you arent messing up the process. 

As far as not being allowed I have my doubts on it. First we are legal here, at least I am, I came on a K1 fiancée visa and I respected the condition of the 90 days. 

 

I started volunteering here even before starting this process as I would come to visit mu now husband for 5--6 months (gotta love school that allow you to do everything online). Once I got stopped by a cop for speeding and after he checked everything and knew I wasn't allowed to work, he saw the tags, asked if he could see them I said of course and prayed volunteer was written on it. It was he wished me a good night (after writing me up of course). So it doesn't look like I was doing anything illegal. 

 

Before I started volunteering I looked with them if they would require a police background check and the answer was no, so I didn't have to worry about that, back then I didn't have a SSN. I have heard you guys talk about having one to do a lot of things, we can get our SSN, it will just not be valid for work authorization and whenever you get EAD/GC, you just go in and request a modification.

2 hours ago, listeague said:

I thought about volunteering but where I live I'm far from everything there's no public transportation and my husband works most days so I gotta stay home, what type of volunteer work you do.

I volunteer at the animal foundation in Las Vegas. Big town so lots of opportunities. Public transportations is not very good neither, but my Canadian license is valid here so I'm lucky about that.

[Phoenix Filer 24]

Those who received their EADs, did you receive your social security card without restrictions, i.e. without the caption that says "valid only with DHS authorization"?

I got mine with restrictions as a student last year so I am wondering if I need to replace it

[Hamilton 511]

5 hours ago, mushroomspore said:

Yeah, the 551 stamp acts as a GC in case you don't receive the GC in a timely manner. I've been saying that if they take so long to process EAD/AP, they might as well schedule interviews more quickly. There's no point in having an EAD for only one or two months.

 

Speaking of EAD/AP, I just got off the phone with a tier 2 rep on the customer service line. He put in a different kind of SR for me; he called it an expedite but said it's not the usual kind of expedite. I guess it's something only they can do if they see an EAD application has been sitting around for a while (it's almost 110 days for me). Anyway he said to expect a reply within 3-10 days so we shall see. I also asked what the delay is from and he said it's massive backlog.

I might call again too and see if they can "expedite". Around 110 days for me too. 

[GoodVibesOnly 206]

15 minutes ago, Hamilton said:

I might call again too and see if they can "expedite". Around 110 days for me too. 

I might call tomorrow too, hopefully I can talk to a tier 2 officer. 116 days for me

[Stephanie B 124]

3 hours ago, Phoenix Filer said:

Those who received their EADs, did you receive your social security card without restrictions, i.e. without the caption that says "valid only with DHS authorization"?

I got mine with restrictions as a student last year so I am wondering if I need to replace it

My husband got his two years ago when his company had him working stateside and his SSN says the same thing  and he didn’t need to get a new one after his EAD was issued.  I think that’s the number you keep until you get your GC and only then will you be allowed to have it issued without the DHS authorization on it.

[Phoenix Filer 24]

14 minutes ago, Stephanie B said:

My husband got his two years ago when his company had him working stateside and his SSN says the same thing  and he didn’t need to get a new one after his EAD was issued.  I think that’s the number you keep until you get your GC and only then will you be allowed to have it issued without the DHS authorization on it.

Okay, I am glad I don't have to reapply for one yet. Thank you for your response.

[T_P 872]

Hello everyone....what’s new? Hey @Aviinashh news from your EAD expedite?