December AOS 2017

[cherryblossoms916 216]

9 hours ago, TexasHeartsIndia said:

I don't know what the exact range is for "normal processing times" but ours has been over 100 days now. 

What did they say? 

[Marzena & Stephen 544]

On 3/15/2018 at 10:56 AM, AOS JOURNEY said:

Today makes it 90 days since i submitted my EAD and i485 forms and still nothing from USCIS. No work permit, no RFE, I did biometrics 2 months ago and never heard anything from them since then. Probably i'll place in a service request on the 100th day. Anyone in the same position as i am?? Any December filer without any form of RFE heard from USCIS yet??

Me too and I live in Chicago. I have a feeling it's going to be a while... 

[AOS JOURNEY 24]

On 3/19/2018 at 10:42 PM, Marzena & Stephen said:

Me too and I live in Chicago. I have a feeling it's going to be a while... 

I'm about to contact my Congressman today for help. I heard after 90 days, you can seek the help of Congress man or ombudsman in expediting your case. Anyone tried this before??

[Marzena & Stephen 544]

1 minute ago, AOS JOURNEY said:

I'm about to contact my Congressman today for help. I heard after 90 days, you can seek the help of Congress man or ombudsman in expediting your case. Anyone tried this before??

I have not. I just put in an inquiry request. I bet the new timeline for was is anywhere between 4 to 5 months from the sounds of it.  The inquiry will take 15 days so I sit and wait. 

[Shygirl09 3]

@logisticamente hi, how was your interview? Hope you can share your experience with us. Thanks in advance 🙂

[Camboturk 8]

On 3/16/2018 at 11:55 AM, skaratso said:

I just posted a review of our experience on our timeline, but I will include it here as well.

 

We had our Green Card interview on 3/15/18. We arrived at the federal building (Our field office is the Cleveland, Ohio one) about 45 minutes early and parked at one of the numerous parking garages in the vicinity (The one we used was for the Galleria at Erieview, which is almost right across the street). The interview notice said to bring any original documents that we submitted copies of with the application and also any evidence of a bona fide marriage. So we brought some documentation of joint bank accounts, statements that my wife is on my health insurance and named as beneficiary of my retirement accounts, some pictures of the two of us together since we were married, and some mail we've received showing we live at the same address.

There was an airport-style security line we needed to pass through (have your ID ready to show the guards), and then we headed up to the 5th floor USCIS office. There were three cubicles, two of which were occupied with people checking in, and one which was unoccupied but with a tray on the desk. We were instructed to put the Interview Notice in the tray on that unoccupied desk and wait to be called on. There were several rows of chairs in front of a door and there were probably 20 or so people there when we arrived.

After about an hour we were called to one of the occupied cubicles and my wife was photographed and fingerprinted to confirm her identity, then we were directed to go back and sit in the waiting area. About 30 minutes later a women opened the door and invited us both back into her office.

She introduced herself and there was another officer present in the room who we were told would be observing us (presumably being trained). We were informed the interview was being recorded and then we were sworn in. The officer first asked to see my wife's passport and my driver's license. Then she went over my wife's AOS application, section by section, verifying all the information, including her name, date of birth, and our address. She asked if my wife knew my date of birth and my full name. When my wife just gave my first and last name, the officer asked, "And does he have a middle name?" which prompted my wife to give my middle name. She went through about 20 of the questions ("do you intend to engage in illegal activities, are you a terrorist, etc). She asked if my wife was working and she was told no. "Didn't you file for EAD?" Yes, but we haven't gotten the card yet. 

After going through the application she looked at my wife's original birth certificate and gave it back. She did not ask for mine (though I brought it like the notice said to). She asked us to tell her how we met and wanted to know the name of the website we met on. She wanted to know when we first met in person and wanted to know why there was such a long gap between when we met online and when we met in person. She asked who travelled where first when we first met. We told her that we have met in person several times prior to filing the K1 and had taken trips together). She asked when I went to meet her in person, what day we started dating and when I proposed to my wife. She was surprised my wife knew the exact dates of all of those.

She asked if my wife was on my insurance and where I worked. She asked if we were intermingling our finances. We told her we are in the process of buying a house together. She did not ask to see any of the evidence we brought.

She looked though her computer for some items ("They didn't send the originals of your medical exam here. I see you passed it but my supervisor might want to see the originals. If that's the case it will take us an additional 2 weeks to get it here.") She told my wife she was "recommending the application be approved" and told us that when her supervisor signed off on it we'd get the Green Card in about a month. Then she congratulated us and led us back to the waiting area and we left the building.

Today (the day after the interview) our case status online changed to "Your card is being produced and will be mailed to you" so obviously her supervisor approved it without needing to see the original medical exam.
 

Thanks for sharing your experience! My wife and I have our interview soon and were wondering if you could answer some questions:

• It sounds like you and your wife were together the entire time, so they didn't interview you separately? Did they direct most of the questions towards the sponsor or the applicant?
• Were there any personal questions about each other you didn't know the answer to? If so, how did you handle them?
• How was the demeanor of the interviewer? Did it feel like you were being grilled or was it more like a casual conversation?

Thanks again!

[logisticamente 152]

7 hours ago, Shygirl09 said:

@logisticamente hi, how was your interview? Hope you can share your experience with us. Thanks in advance 🙂

Hi!

Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts.. Since I missed most of Monday for the interview, I've been crazy busy at work. but well.. this is what happened:

AOS interview was at 9:45. We arrived at 9:25, passed through security (guy was kind of bored) and went to the check in window where I got finger printed and photo taken. At around 10:35 I got called in. We both swore to say the truth. The officer asked what evidence did we bring to the interview, so I told him what we brought and gave him the papers (we brought photos, joint bank statements, joint cellphone bill, receipt from ski trip, and health insurance bills) He went through all the photos and papers (he asked about our honeymoon) and then said ok, now we are going to go through your application. I interrupted him to tell him we were moving in a couple of days and asked him what should we do about that, he took the post in with my new address and updated it in the system. Then he literally asked me every single item in form I-485  I screwed up in one of my previous addresses dates, so I had to explain to him that part. For some reason he didn't have any of the paperwork I sent regarding my J1 so I gave him my copies of my waiver approval and J1 visa when he got to that part of form I-485. And that was it. He said he was going to recommend me for approval, that I will get GC in 2 weeks and that he recommends that every month we save some kind of proof to make it easier on us for whenever we do ROC in 2 years and he commented that we currently have a good proof. He wasn't rude, but did not laugh at any of the jokes me or my husband made about our honeymoon or how we are working at the same office. I asked if I had to do anything else regarding my new address.. he said no.. He did not ask for any originals of birth or marriage certificate or anything else but what I already said.. Interview took about ten minutes..   Today I got an email from my.uscis (not the case tracker) telling me a change was made and I logged in and it says my card is in production . I feel like this incredible burden was taken from me.. so at peace!! I'm a little worried about this new address thing but not even. The card will arrive when it arrives (if it does hehe)..   I hope this helps someone relax a bit about their interview.. cuz I was freaking out!

[logisticamente 152]

7 hours ago, Camboturk said:

Thanks for sharing your experience! My wife and I have our interview soon and were wondering if you could answer some questions:

• It sounds like you and your wife were together the entire time, so they didn't interview you separately? Did they direct most of the questions towards the sponsor or the applicant?
• Were there any personal questions about each other you didn't know the answer to? If so, how did you handle them?
• How was the demeanor of the interviewer? Did it feel like you were being grilled or was it more like a casual conversation?

Thanks again!

I know you didn't ask me this.. but I just had my interview yesterday so I thought I could help.

• My husband and I were together the entire time. There was only one couple that got interviewed separately and long while we were waiting (about an hour), we saw at least 5 other couples go in and come out (I didn't really count)
• They didn't ask any personal questions, just where in my country we went for our honeymoon. after that my husband was pretty much ignored the whole time and it was all about me and the I-485 form.
• It was neither.. in my case it felt like he was just doing it because "he had to check that box".. which I guess is good? but like I said in my previous post, he wasn't mean or disrespectful, he just seemed like he didn't wanna have a conversation but just get over the mandatory questions.

Hope this helps!

[Camboturk 8]

2 minutes ago, logisticamente said:

I know you didn't ask me this.. but I just had my interview yesterday so I thought I could help.

• My husband and I were together the entire time. There was only one couple that got interviewed separately and long while we were waiting (about an hour), we saw at least 5 other couples go in and come out (I didn't really count)
• They didn't ask any personal questions, just where in my country we went for our honeymoon. after that my husband was pretty much ignored the whole time and it was all about me and the I-485 form.
• It was neither.. in my case it felt like he was just doing it because "he had to check that box".. which I guess is good? but like I said in my previous post, he wasn't mean or disrespectful, he just seemed like he didn't wanna have a conversation but just get over the mandatory questions.

Hope this helps!

Awesome, thank you for the answers! And congratulations!

Edited March 27, 2018 by Camboturk

[Shygirl09 3]

1 hour ago, logisticamente said:

Hi!

Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts.. Since I missed most of Monday for the interview, I've been crazy busy at work. but well.. this is what happened:

AOS interview was at 9:45. We arrived at 9:25, passed through security (guy was kind of bored) and went to the check in window where I got finger printed and photo taken. At around 10:35 I got called in. We both swore to say the truth. The officer asked what evidence did we bring to the interview, so I told him what we brought and gave him the papers (we brought photos, joint bank statements, joint cellphone bill, receipt from ski trip, and health insurance bills) He went through all the photos and papers (he asked about our honeymoon) and then said ok, now we are going to go through your application. I interrupted him to tell him we were moving in a couple of days and asked him what should we do about that, he took the post in with my new address and updated it in the system. Then he literally asked me every single item in form I-485  I screwed up in one of my previous addresses dates, so I had to explain to him that part. For some reason he didn't have any of the paperwork I sent regarding my J1 so I gave him my copies of my waiver approval and J1 visa when he got to that part of form I-485. And that was it. He said he was going to recommend me for approval, that I will get GC in 2 weeks and that he recommends that every month we save some kind of proof to make it easier on us for whenever we do ROC in 2 years and he commented that we currently have a good proof. He wasn't rude, but did not laugh at any of the jokes me or my husband made about our honeymoon or how we are working at the same office. I asked if I had to do anything else regarding my new address.. he said no.. He did not ask for any originals of birth or marriage certificate or anything else but what I already said.. Interview took about ten minutes..   Today I got an email from my.uscis (not the case tracker) telling me a change was made and I logged in and it says my card is in production . I feel like this incredible burden was taken from me.. so at peace!! I'm a little worried about this new address thing but not even. The card will arrive when it arrives (if it does hehe)..   I hope this helps someone relax a bit about their interview.. cuz I was freaking out!

 Thanks for sharing , congrats.. you and I have a lot in common , I also just moved and I changed my address online but I got an email today saying it wasn’t processed, I guess I will wait until my interview day and there was a mistake on my previous address date also. Keeping my fingers crossed until next week.

[skaratso 84]

On 3/27/2018 at 11:44 AM, Camboturk said:

Thanks for sharing your experience! My wife and I have our interview soon and were wondering if you could answer some questions:

• It sounds like you and your wife were together the entire time, so they didn't interview you separately? Did they direct most of the questions towards the sponsor or the applicant?
• Were there any personal questions about each other you didn't know the answer to? If so, how did you handle them?
• How was the demeanor of the interviewer? Did it feel like you were being grilled or was it more like a casual conversation?

Thanks again!

Yes, we were invited back together. We were not interviewed separately. Most of the questions were directed towards the applicant (my wife). There were no personal questions that neither of us knew the answer to. I was barely asked any questions at all. As I said before, when my wife omitted my middle name, the officer prompted her by asking if I had a middle name.

 

The demeanor was not a casual conversation, but it wasn't a grilling either. She was friendly and polite, but also very direct. She had the paper file containing everything we sent them so far, including the K1 visa applications and the Green Card application (which echoed what I saw when I acted as interpreter for my father's N-400 application in 2013... they had his paper case file going back to 1972, when he arrived in the US). I made a comment to my wife during the interview that they saved the envelopes I used to mail my K1 application and that we used to mail her AOS application, and the officer smiled at me and said, "yeah, we keep those too."

 

But, it is clear that processes are slowly changing there as well. It is clear that they are computerizing things, but slowly. For instance, my wife's medical examination results were available to the officer on the computer, but the physical file had not been sent to the field office. At the end of the interview, when she handed us the paper stating she was recommending my wife's case be approved she was a little apologetic when she said, "I don't know if my supervisor is going to want to see the physical copy of the medical results or not. If they do, then it will take two weeks for them to be sent to us." The fact that the case status online changed to "Case has been approved" the very next day after the interview, and the fact that the actual Green Card arrived in the mail on 3/22/18, just a week later, mean that her supervisor did not request the paper copy.

 

I hope this helps.

[tidjanitij 2]

Hello guys hope everyone is well, any updates about EAD ? The wait is getting longer and longer. Good luck

[ppnw 7]

17 hours ago, tidjanitij said:

Hello guys hope everyone is well, any updates about EAD ? The wait is getting longer and longer. Good luck

None for me. Case received by USCIS Dec 13th. Biometrics early Jan. I haven't heard anything regarding the EAD and getting frustrated.

[tidjanitij 2]

8 hours ago, ppnw said:

None for me. Case received by USCIS Dec 13th. Biometrics early Jan. I haven't heard anything regarding the EAD and getting frustrated.

this is crazy, i am at 114 days. did a service request online 24 days ago and still not assigned to an officer, i am thinking about reaching out to my congressman maybe it will help 

[S.Alshareef 0]

when I called to follow up on our case I was told that the new time frame for ead was 2.5 to 5 months now. our priority date is Dec 8. Last i checked they were working on nov 6 2017 so im hopeful that to hear something by the end of this month inshAllah