Verbal Approval at AOS Interview but No Updates Since (Checklist included)

[smilingsoul 3]

I recently did my AOS interview (F-1 married with USC, no illegal entry, no overstay, no criminal history) on 10/23. It seemed to be good but I received no updates after the interview. I would like to share my experience and ask for comments or suggestions from you guys.

 

The officer interviewed my husband and I together, asked only basic questions about our personal info (name, DOB, parents' names), and my history in the US. Then he asked:

* if we have kids (no, we think it's too early),

* how old are us (26 and 27),

* how did my husband immigrated to the US and got his citizenship (his grandma petitioned for his mom & dad & him and they moved to US when he was 16),

* do we rent or own (rent, I provided the lease),

* when & where did we get married

* what are we doing now (I'm working, I provided employment verification & 4-month paystubs; my husband's back to school after ~2 years working, officer asked for school name, department, major, and location)

 

Then he asked if we had brought any additional supporting docs that we would want him to see. I provided him the following docs with the detailed checklist:

 

Financial:
* Joint checking account -- 12-month average balance statement, checks, 2017 tax refund deposit transaction record in account statement
* Joint credit card -- photocopy of front and back of both credit cards
* Joint tax return 2017 -- 1040 + both W2
* My husband paid for our expenses and my parents' expenses when they were visiting -- hotel/flight reservations with highlighted transactions in credit card statement
* I paid for our living expenses -- rent payment records and electricity payment records with highlighted transactions in credit card statement 

Residency:
* Shared living address -- email between me & leasing manager confirming lease signing, electricity bills, rental lease with both our names
* Shared mailing address -- both drivers licence showing same address, 2 bank accounts from each of us showing same address (I explained we use my husband's parents' home as mailing address as we are currently renting our apartment)

Photos:
~50 photos since our first trip (2014) to October 2018, all glued to A4 paper with printed explanation of when & where & with whom & for what event this photo was taken

Letters:
* Letter from my husband's parents
* Letter from my 10-year friend
* Letter from my husband's childhood friend

 

Interactions:
* Chat history from the first day we friended each other on that app until the month we moved together -- 1 screenshot per month with timestamp shown in the app
* Gift receipts & gift message cards between us
* Flight reservations that my husband visited me when we were long-distance -- paired with all boarding passes we could find
* Flight/hotel reservations of the trips that we took together -- each referred to a photo in the photo collection

 

 

The officer took away all files in the first 4 categories, and left out the last one, as he said we were at similar age and he didn't need that many docs. He did not look into any of the docs at the interview, though, even if I mentioned to him that we can introduce our story and show him the marriage ceremony photo or family photo of us with our parents together. He simply said "It's fine. I'll take a look later".

 

Then came the yes-no questions. The officer confirmed twice on the question "have you ever talked to an immigration court and got deported" and "were you ever related to the communist party" (I answered no to both, because the truth was no), but other than that the questions all went well (All my answers were no). At end of the interview, the officer suddenly asked us about the other's birthday, which we answered with no problem. He looked satisfied.

 

Then he asked what was my address, I gave our current living address as I thought he was asking where we were living. Then he said it was different from the address on my I-485 form, and I explained to him that we use my husband's parents' home as mailing address. The officer smiled saying "Are you sure this is not some address he hide another girlfriend?", and we embarrassedly said no and he laughed and said it was only a joke. Then he asked if I wanted my card to be mailed to the mailing address I listed on my I-485, I said yes.

 

Then the officer said that was all he needed to know. I asked him if we were approved, he said "I'm going to give you green card, congratulations". I asked the officer how long it would take to get my green card and he said 2-4 weeks. Then he looked at our date of marriage and said he would only give us a conditional GC and he asked further about whether I knew what did the "conditional GC" mean. I answered that it meant I needed to submit a I-751 application to remove conditions in about 2 years. He smiled and said something like "Good, you know your things.", and gave me a printed notice of "Your case is being held. No further info is required" saying that this would be the proof that I showed up at the interview.

 

Then he asked about our plans of visiting my home country. I said probably early next year and he said "Ah it won't take that long. You'll get the card much earlier than that." When he walked us out of the office he said "Congratulations" again, so I suppose our interview was a good one.

 

However, I haven't received any updates on any of my online status ("egov case status", app tracker which gets data from the "egov", and "myaccount" which is said to be more informative) up til end of Friday (10/26, 3 days after interview). Another couple who interviewed on the same day at the same location (but with a different officer) got status change to “card is being produced” the very next day (10/24).

 

I know that a lot of people got online status changed 0-2 days after the interview no matter whether the officer gave verbal approval, but is it normal to have no changes after a few days after the officer explicitly said "congratulations"? I read some posts about some "got verbal approval but was delayed for 1-2 years and eventually denied" stories. Do I need to do something? (I'm planning to make an infopass appointment if I don't hear about anything by end of next week)

Edited October 27, 2018 by smilingsoul

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

I think Congratulations are in order.  It sounds, imo, like everything went perfectly!!!   Thanks for sharing your experience.......and, again, Congratulations!!!!

[smilingsoul 3]

7 days after the interview and still no updates online or in mail.

 

Called customer service today and talked to Tier 2 officer. The Tier 2 officer said he didn't see any updates in my file on the local office interview approval. So I guess that for some reason my interview IO hasn't submitted his approval into the system yet. 

 

I didn't submit many supporting docs when I filed the forms as my lawyer did not let me. My lawyer only submitted a balance statement from me & my husband's joint account, copy of checks of this joint account, and copy of drivers license showing we have the same address when filing the forms, and told me to bring all other docs to the interview. The IO might want to spend time on the new docs I submitted at the interview and this caused the delay. [ Lesson learned: Make sure to put in sufficient supporting documents when filing the application. It may help the IO to gather information faster, and thus speed up the whole approval process. ]

 

Or it might just because some IO just don't want to hurry and simply let the cases sit in the corner of his office for a while before he finally approve it. I found a post in which the OP experienced a few months' silence after his (or her?) AOS interview and only to find during the infopass that his IO was just taking time on all the cases on his hand and was not in a hurry to approve his application.

 

Anyway I'll schedule an infopass to see if my local office can get more information from my interview IO. Will update here if I get anything. (Praying...)

[smilingsoul 3]

Update:

 

Went to Infopass on Nov 14 and the lady officer didn't want to help at the beginning. After I explained that my combo card expires in Feb 2019 and I might need to travel to my home country with my husband at that time, she said she could pass a note to my interview officer so that he would know this situation. I gave her the Infopass questionnaire I got from the check-in desk with detailed explanation of why we hoped to be able to travel at that time.

 

Nov 16, Mailed out the renewal package for combo card vis USPS. Delivered on Nov 19.

 

Nov 20, Received email notification from DHS website saying "An action has been taken on your case". I checked the DHS website and found my I-485 changed to "card is being produced" and I-130 to "interview was completed and case must be reviewed". No updates on Egov website or app tracker.

 

Nov 21, another email notification arrived and both statuses changed to "Case was approved".

 

Nov 25, Approval notice letter arrived at my home.

 

Now I just need to wait for the green card to arrive! 

[aznhouston 130]

Congrats.

What was the office you interviewed at?

[smilingsoul 3]

8 minutes ago, hoangthaihuy said:

Congrats.

What was the office you interviewed at?

I was in Long Island Holtsville Office, NY.

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

On 10/30/2018 at 2:31 PM, smilingsoul said:

7 days after the interview and still no updates online or in mail.

 

Called customer service today and talked to Tier 2 officer. The Tier 2 officer said he didn't see any updates in my file on the local office interview approval. So I guess that for some reason my interview IO hasn't submitted his approval into the system yet. 

 

I didn't submit many supporting docs when I filed the forms as my lawyer did not let me. My lawyer only submitted a balance statement from me & my husband's joint account, copy of checks of this joint account, and copy of drivers license showing we have the same address when filing the forms, and told me to bring all other docs to the interview. The IO might want to spend time on the new docs I submitted at the interview and this caused the delay. [ Lesson learned: Make sure to put in sufficient supporting documents when filing the application. It may help the IO to gather information faster, and thus speed up the whole approval process. ]

 

Or it might just because some IO just don't want to hurry and simply let the cases sit in the corner of his office for a while before he finally approve it. I found a post in which the OP experienced a few months' silence after his (or her?) AOS interview and only to find during the infopass that his IO was just taking time on all the cases on his hand and was not in a hurry to approve his application.

 

Anyway I'll schedule an infopass to see if my local office can get more information from my interview IO. Will update here if I get anything. (Praying...)

It baffles me why lawyers do that. ALL evidence is required at the time of filing, per I-130 instructions page 3/12. It's best to front-load your application. What's done is done. Since you didn't submit much with your AOS petition, the officer now has to go through everything you submitted. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

Be patient. You will be approved soon enough.