August 2017 AOS Filers

[PR&PR 325]

2 hours ago, husbandwife said:

Hi everyone! 

 

A HUGE congrats to everyone that has been receiving their EAD or combo cards or interview dates these last few days and weeks. So happy for you guys! I'm hoping my husband will see some status change in the next 2 weeks here either for his EAD or for scheduling the interview. 

 

I was wondering something (especially for those that have already had their interview): 

My husband's family is in India so obviously I've not met them yet. His parents, his brother, and his sister all just communicate with us via facetime and whatsapp messages/calls. We send each other pictures and videos and the chats are all saved so that (if allowed), I can show those chats as proof that we have a good relationship and communication with them even if they are in India. My parents on the other hand (though they are citizens of US) have been going back and forth between US and India (personal/health reasons) this past year and they've also not had an opportunity to meet him in person. They are from the older generation and don't know how to use video calls or photo sharing since they have simple phones so there's no facetime or messaging records we can show that my husband has also communicated with them. He's only talked to them on (my) phone a few times. 

 

And since my husband's parents are in India and wouldn't be able to come here, we didn't have a traditional Indian wedding/ceremony here because we are waiting for his greencard to come through so we can both go to India and do it in front of both sides of the family + friends. So we simply had a court ceremony by a judge at the time of marriage in chicago & there were 3 witnesses we brought who took pictures of us on our/their phones. All the pictures are just on our phones so it's not professional photography because frankly we don't have the funds for all of that since we are saving for a big Indian wedding IN INDIA. I have nearly a thousand pictures of my husband and I on my phone from our relationship over the last 16 months to show.

 

So I guess my questions are:

I was planning on getting some of the "good" pictures printed out and put into an album but there are no professional photographs of us except for 1 from our court ceremony. Will this be any issue? Moreover, will that suffice if I just get like 50-70 good ones printed and a nice album made for them? We were in different states until we got married in March so there's lots of silly-faced screenshots of snapchat pictures we exchanged and I don't think it's probably necessary to show all of that in such detail, is it? 

Also, anybody think there will be any issue as to why we don't have pictures with each others families? it's kinda hard given our situation and not having everyone in 1 country so it should be understandable, I hope?

 

thank you in advance for those who suffer through reading my above essay and providing feedback. APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU SO MUCH! 

I don't think you need to get some nice printed photos or an album, just photos of the wedding to show it happened (and I am sure you are not the first nor only one in this situation who had a courthouse wedding). The whole process takes a lot of money to go through, so it is normal that that money doesn't go into a huge wedding. Same for meeting the parents and stuff. Bring what you can and make sure your story makes sense and you don't contradict yourself. Definitely I would print those conversation with the family and FaceTime/phone record showing you talk to them. What they want to know is that the relationship is bonafide and to make sure of it they ask questions that they dont even know the answer, it's all about how you answer them. 

 

Were you here on a k1 visa?  If so they already established your relationship is bonafide, now they want to make sure the wedding is too, that you live together and you intend to basically. Just be honest. I'm confident everything will go well.

Edited November 6, 2017 by PR&PR

[husbandwife 33]

2 minutes ago, PR&PR said:

I don't think you need to get some nice printed photos or an album, just photos of the wedding to show it happened (and I am sure you are not the first nor only one in this situation who had a courthouse wedding). The whole process takes a lot of money to go through, so it is normal that that money doesn't go into a huge wedding. Same for meeting the parents and stuff. Bring what you can and make sure your story makes sense and you don,T contradict yourself. What they want to know is that the relationship is bonafide and to make sure of it they ask questions that they dont even know the answer, it's all about how you answer them. 

 

Were you here on a k1 visa?  If so they already established your relationship is bonafide, now they want to make sure the wedding is too, that you live together and you intend to basically. Just be honest. I'm confident everything will go well.

I've read that they don't allow you to take your phone inside or have it on or something like that during interview. so that's why I was hesitant on keeping everything on our phones. 

 

And no, I'm practically born & raised here so I'm the USC. My husband is the one who's adjusting status so this is all for him. 

[Eruthos 39]

I just got my EAD+AP notice letters in the mail, so it has definitely been approved. Now the wait to the actual GC..!!

[ceeq 53]

2 minutes ago, Eruthos said:

I just got my EAD+AP notice letters in the mail, so it has definitely been approved. Now the wait to the actual GC..!!

Same. I thought it was the combo card but it was just the letters.

[PR&PR 325]

2 hours ago, husbandwife said:

I've read that they don't allow you to take your phone inside or have it on or something like that during interview. so that's why I was hesitant on keeping everything on our phones. 

 

And no, I'm practically born & raised here so I'm the USC. My husband is the one who's adjusting status so this is all for him. 

Exactly they don't let you bring your phone in, so take screen shot and print those so you can show them as proofs.

 

So your husband is adjusting from K1? 

[husbandwife 33]

8 minutes ago, PR&PR said:

Exactly they don't let you bring your phone in, so take screen shot and print those so you can show them as proofs.

 

So your husband is adjusting from K1? 

No, he was here on B1/B2 Visa when we met. 

 

So we will be printing lots of screenshots of communication and pictures and such if phones won’t be allowed or looked at  that’s a pain. It’s so much easier and shows in much more detail when viewing it on a device rather than one standstill shot.

[PR&PR 325]

Just now, husbandwife said:

No, he was here on B1/B2 Visa when we met. 

 

So we will be printing lots of screenshots of communication and pictures and such if phones won’t be allowed or looked at  that’s a pain. It’s so much easier and shows in much more detail when viewing it on a device rather than one standstill shot.

Yes it is! For the K1 I took screen shot of emails and texts and printed them as photos, multiple on pages and wrote the dates because it won't always tell you. I was really stressed about the interview, and finally it was really easy! They only asked how we met, when, how he proposed, it was over in 5 minutes. From reading from a lot of other k1 for our interview, they don't really try to trick you, they just want to make sure  you are really together and not just to stay in the US, so they look at how you answer. They understand it is normal to be nervous or not to remember something, saying I don't remember or I don'T know is always better than trying to put up a lie. They don't really care what the answer is, and for some questions they ask, they obviously have no clues of the answer! 

 

I understand how stressful it is if you guys have no ideas with previous visa, I am so chill about this second interview, because first they already established our relationship was bonafide, hence granted the K1 visa and second our marriage is real, we live together and it's all we ever wanted. If your relationship and wedding is real, you really don't have much to worry about, and if you already are "ready to be scheduled for interview", they kind of already determined that you are real, they just want to confirm face to face as it is harder to lie to someone when you see them than on paper.

[husbandwife 33]

2 minutes ago, PR&PR said:

Yes it is! For the K1 I took screen shot of emails and texts and printed them as photos, multiple on pages and wrote the dates because it won't always tell you. I was really stressed about the interview, and finally it was really easy! They only asked how we met, when, how he proposed, it was over in 5 minutes. From reading from a lot of other k1 for our interview, they don't really try to trick you, they just want to make sure  you are really together and not just to stay in the US, so they look at how you answer. They understand it is normal to be nervous or not to remember something, saying I don't remember or I don'T know is always better than trying to put up a lie. They don't really care what the answer is, and for some questions they ask, they obviously have no clues of the answer! 

 

I understand how stressful it is if you guys have no ideas with previous visa, I am so chill about this second interview, because first they already established our relationship was bonafide, hence granted the K1 visa and second our marriage is real, we live together and it's all we ever wanted. If your relationship and wedding is real, you really don't have much to worry about, and if you already are "ready to be scheduled for interview", they kind of already determined that you are real, they just want to confirm face to face as it is harder to lie to someone when you see them than on paper.

Omg yes exactly! So nervous because we never been through this like K1 people so it makes me very stressed about what we have to show and if it’s enough. Our wedding and love is real, we just unfortunately have to work little bit in reverse and didn’t have the chance to have a full actual wedding since our families couldn’t be united in 1 place and without both sides, we can’t do that. So it’s kind of dependent on greencard at this point to have that part but I worry that they want that part in order to give the green card and it’s just a weird little bubble we are stuck in lol.

 

but thank you so much for sharing your experience! Makes me feel a bit better and I should start doing that prep already cuz god knows my husband won’t do it lol. Boys will be boys. 

[PR&PR 325]

2 minutes ago, husbandwife said:

Omg yes exactly! So nervous because we never been through this like K1 people so it makes me very stressed about what we have to show and if it’s enough. Our wedding and love is real, we just unfortunately have to work little bit in reverse and didn’t have the chance to have a full actual wedding since our families couldn’t be united in 1 place and without both sides, we can’t do that. So it’s kind of dependent on greencard at this point to have that part but I worry that they want that part in order to give the green card and it’s just a weird little bubble we are stuck in lol.

 

but thank you so much for sharing your experience! Makes me feel a bit better and I should start doing that prep already cuz god knows my husband won’t do it lol. Boys will be boys. 

And that's it, it makes sense and it is real and if you show everything else is right, there is nothing wrong with a small wedding and having one doesn't mean you are less in love!

Glad I could help you a little bit! Good luck. 

Edited November 7, 2017 by PR&PR

[Rose_3001 23]

8 hours ago, izavox said:

I raised a SR on the phone and so far I havent received any news (granted, I did one last week and one today hahaha) but on the second time (today) I felt that the agent was way more helpful. She said she's gonna send that to be looked into as soon as possible whereas the first guy I got just told me to wait up to 15 to 30 days for a response. So i guess you can tell from the agent which one can be more helpful or not to your case. In terms of what to recommend, I dont have much experience in that but from what I see here writing to congressman really helps =)

Thanks izavox! I've heard that if you call them you mostly just get people reading off the screen of your USCIS page and not telling you anything new, so I'm glad you got someone helpful the second time around. Best of luck!

[Mr Geminian 691]

3 hours ago, T_P said:

@Aviinashh Good luck on your job interview. 

Thanks

1 hour ago, Eruthos said:

I just got my EAD+AP notice letters in the mail, so it has definitely been approved. Now the wait to the actual GC..!!

Congrats

[Hamilton 511]

4 hours ago, Aviinashh said:

Yes I raised a SR today. "Status says referral number assigned is currently not assigned for processing". I called USCIS and the rep said it will take 15 days for them to assign someone to work on it and another 15 days to get a reply from them.

To be honest am not really satisfied with all that. According to her December 5th will be 30th day to receive a reply for SR and that will be 120th day for me from the date USCIS receives my I-765. I personally don't think it will go until 120 days. Anyways I got a job interview tomorrow and if I crack the interview am gonna call USCIS again and tell them I can fax the offer letter. Will see what happens next

 

What about you? Any update ?

Did you call the National Customer Service Center, phone number on this page? https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/contact-us/national-customer-service-center

 

I've read on VJ that your experience really depends on which officer you get on the phone, but that apparently you can request a "level 2" officer to check your case? That could be an option, or just calling back.... right now, do you see a service request has been raised when you look at your case status online?

[Hamilton 511]

Here's what I mean:

 

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume1-PartA-Chapter3.html

•Tier 1 Contact Center Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) offer the first level of live assistance. CSRs may be contract employees. CSRs provide basic case-specific and general non-case-specific information to customers. Information provided by Tier 1 will be limited in verbiage and format by informational response scripts that are created and provided by USCIS.

 

•When unable to completely resolve an inquiry, the Tier 1 CSR may transfer the call to the Tier 2 live assistance level to be answered by a USCIS officer.

 

•Customers may, at any time, request to have a call directed to a supervisor.

[Rose_3001 23]

16 hours ago, Aviinashh said:

Anyways I got a job interview tomorrow and if I crack the interview am gonna call USCIS again and tell them I can fax the offer letter. Will see what happens next

 

Hi Aviinashh,

 

Do you know if having a job offer speeds up the process if you can't claim 'financial hardship' as the reason for needing an expedited EAD? 

 

Thanks!

[Mr Geminian 691]

11 hours ago, Hamilton said:

Did you call the National Customer Service Center, phone number on this page? https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/contact-us/national-customer-service-center

 

I've read on VJ that your experience really depends on which officer you get on the phone, but that apparently you can request a "level 2" officer to check your case? That could be an option, or just calling back.... right now, do you see a service request has been raised when you look at your case status online?

Yes I called the 1 (800) 375-5283. I can see the service ticket raised on the I-765 status page at the right bottom of the page. but it says not yet assigned.