Minneapolis-St. Paul MN Office AOS Filers

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

1 hour ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

Hi everyone.  Thought I would join this conversation after reading through it.  My husband immigrated from Canada in May of 2017 and we applied for AOS in June.  We got his EAD/AP combo card at the beginning of November.  Looking at the Minneapolis processing times, we are buckling in for a long wait for the green card.  :/

 

Do any of you have international travel plans?  I was awarded a grant to study in Europe for a month this summer and I would like my husband to come with me for half that time (so he would be out of the United States for 2 1/2 weeks).  We hadn't planned on doing any international travel until he received his green card, but my grant has to be used this summer, and we find it highly unlikely that my husband will have his green card by then.  I could go by myself, but we don't want to spend a month apart.  Thoughts/advice?

 

Hi there,

 

I think you might be on a different timeline here. Your husband came here on a k-1 visa and historically, the majority of the interviews for k-1 visa AOS cases are waived. From what I understand such cases are transferred to service centers and then adjudicated. If chosen for interview, then of course, the case gets transferred to the field office. 

It also makes sense that it would be this way. If you think about it, you two already had an interview at the embassy. Your burden of proof was to demonstrate you had physically met within the last 2 years and that you intend on getting married and building a life together. Thus, upon his arrival in the US, the last thing to prove was to get married within 90 days. You did that. Not doing that is one sure way to get called for an interview. Not submitting enough evidence is another way. But most people report getting the interview waived. Here's a link to another thread that discusses that. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/630878-k1-visa-holders-who-skipped-aos-interview/

 

You can also look at people's timeline. You will see "green card received in the mail". A friend of mine in Delaware got it in less than 90 days. Others here have reported 6 months or longer at times. 

Have you checked status of the I-485 online lately? I am not promising he'll get it before the trip but who knows? You might just be surprised. Should the green card not arrive before then, he can use his combo card to travel. He should have no issues with it. Upon entering the US, he will just line up in a different queue which he would do regardless, even with the green card. 

 

Hope that helps. All the best!

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

3 hours ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

Hi everyone.  Thought I would join this conversation after reading through it.  My husband immigrated from Canada in May of 2017 and we applied for AOS in June.  We got his EAD/AP combo card at the beginning of November.  Looking at the Minneapolis processing times, we are buckling in for a long wait for the green card.  :/

 

Do any of you have international travel plans?  I was awarded a grant to study in Europe for a month this summer and I would like my husband to come with me for half that time (so he would be out of the United States for 2 1/2 weeks).  We hadn't planned on doing any international travel until he received his green card, but my grant has to be used this summer, and we find it highly unlikely that my husband will have his green card by then.  I could go by myself, but we don't want to spend a month apart.  Thoughts/advice?

One more thing, on another site, someone pointed out there is another way to set up an account with USCIS. Apparently, that account is more reliable with updates. Here's the link.  https://myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov/ and select "Add a paper-filed case" after setting up your account.

 

All the best.

[illan 0]

Hi, guys

 

There's an explanation for how to read the "estimated time range" on the website - it's not quite as depressing as it looks. The low number is not the minimum time it can take but the time it takes for 50% of cases to get processed i.e. what you should expect without progressively increasing processing times we are experiencing.

 

https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/more-info

 

Something I am wondering about is that when you select your field office it says " This time range is how long it is taking your office to process your case from the date we received it. "

 

https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/#mainContent

 

Is the new "priority date" the receipt of I485 (e.g. November) or the transfer to field office date (e.g. March)?

 

Also, are people receiving their EAD's? We filed the i485 + i765 five months ago - no word on the EAD. It recently updated to "EAD application was received" on the tracker. If this thing is going to take many more years... we could really use the EADs for some job flexibility.

[itsdonealready 13]

23 minutes ago, illan said:

Hi, guys

 

There's an explanation for how to read the "estimated time range" on the website - it's not quite as depressing as it looks. The low number is not the minimum time it can take but the time it takes for 50% of cases to get processed i.e. what you should expect without progressively increasing processing times we are experiencing.

 

https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/more-info

 

Something I am wondering about is that when you select your field office it says " This time range is how long it is taking your office to process your case from the date we received it. "

 

https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/#mainContent

 

Is the new "priority date" the receipt of I485 (e.g. November) or the transfer to field office date (e.g. March)?

 

Also, are people receiving their EAD's? We filed the i485 + i765 five months ago - no word on the EAD. It recently updated to "EAD application was received" on the tracker. If this thing is going to take many more years... we could really use the EADs for some job flexibility.

Hi,

 

What is your priority date ? Even for now 150 days is a tad bit long for EAD approval.

You might consider raising a service request.

They will have to give you a response, although the response might be 'we are still reviewing your case', at least you know they haven't forget about you.

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

@illan

 

if you have a job offer, you should be able to request for the EAD to be expedited. I believe you would do that via an Infopass appointment (?). 

From what I see on other forums, people are reaching out to their Congressperson if it goes for too long. Some reach out too early, though. In all cases, however, the congressperson does respond, addresses the concern, and has the USCIS congress liaison look into. I'd say go for it. 

150 days is a long time for an EAD. I am actually considering relocating just so my spouse can get all of this done faster. We just filed two weeks ago. 

 

 

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

I am going to speculate and guess that processing times are being updated as right now. I tried checking and it won't let you select field office or service center. That drop down box is greyed out. We shall see how much progress they've made. 

 

[itsdonealready 13]

Good morning, wanna check in and see if everybody in the MN area is doing okay after the blizzard.

My case has been pending for 200 days now, which is only half-way through for the MN office. Cheers for another 200 days of wait, and hope you guys stay warm.

Now the USCIS processing time is updated daily (the dates of allowed inquiry move forward day by day) but that does not really give any useful information. So we would have to stay patience. Happy plowing!

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

Interesting. I hadn't noticed that the Case Inquiry date is updated daily. I keep waiting for the processing times to be updated but it hasn't happened. It's supposed to every 2 weeks. 

As you all probably know by now, USCIS requires in-person interviews for all employment-based adjustment of status petitions. Just recently, on another site, several people, who filed for marriage based AOS, got notifications for interview rather early. Oddly enough, the notification referred to the interview as an employment-based AOS interview. Upon contacting USCIS, Level 2 officers confirmed they were in fact scheduled for interviews and reassured the callers, they were classified as marriage based AOS. They called it a "glitch". This so called "glitch" shortened the expected processing time from 15 months to 5 months.

In New Jersey, someone else reported getting their interview scheduled for a Saturday. Upon calling USCIS, the applicant found out this field office is doing that in order to keep up with the interviews for both family & employment based AOS petitions. I wonder if this is something the Minneapolis office would even think of doing. 

[Vik77 3]

I filed AOS in May 2017 and applied for a renewal to my EAD last month. 

 

The new case processing times just seems like a newer format but there is still a huge backlog it seems for applications to get processed. 

[itsdonealready 13]

3 hours ago, Vik77 said:

I filed AOS in May 2017 and applied for a renewal to my EAD last month. 

 

The new case processing times just seems like a newer format but there is still a huge backlog it seems for applications to get processed. 

 You are right, but I believe you are very close to an interview notice! Most of MN filers get interviews at around 12 - 14 months.

[Vik77 3]

43 minutes ago, itsdonealready said:

 You are right, but I believe you are very close to an interview notice! Most of MN filers get interviews at around 12 - 14 months.

Here is hoping! 

 

Do you know the timeline of once you receive the notice do the interview date is it usually 2-3 weeks ahead? 

 

Also how soon after the interview do you receive the 2 year green card? 

[itsdonealready 13]

16 hours ago, Vik77 said:

Here is hoping! 

 

Do you know the timeline of once you receive the notice do the interview date is it usually 2-3 weeks ahead? 

 

Also how soon after the interview do you receive the 2 year green card? 

Usually if you see online status changed to 'interview is scheduled' you will receive a paper notice in 1-2 weeks.

After the interview, many people receive green card within 2 weeks.

However, I have seen someone waiting for 1-2 years after interview (sometimes they were scheduled a second interview) before they actually got a green card.

I guess the only plus side on this is once they got the card it will be permanent and they won't have to go through the 'remove condition' process...

[natsusnowy1204 24]

Whats the price for renewed combo card 

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

8 minutes ago, natsusnowy1204 said:

Whats the price for renewed combo card 

It's free. 

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

On 4/23/2018 at 7:57 AM, itsdonealready said:

Usually if you see online status changed to 'interview is scheduled' you will receive a paper notice in 1-2 weeks.

After the interview, many people receive green card within 2 weeks.

However, I have seen someone waiting for 1-2 years after interview (sometimes they were scheduled a second interview) before they actually got a green card.

I guess the only plus side on this is once they got the card it will be permanent and they won't have to go through the 'remove condition' process...

 

I heard "backlog" (?) Oh that's right, here it is...