February 2019 - AOS Filers!!!

[iwir 337]

just got back from visiting my home country using EAD/AP. No problem at all at SFO. They put me in secondary so that they can give me on parole stamp. It took less than 10 minutes for them to review my card. Good to hear them saying, "Welcome back to America!"

Edited July 3, 2019 by iwir

[mdma11 121]

9 hours ago, Mike&Anna said:

That's good to know, thank you for sharing your experience. I was confused too by her statement, and I keep hearing of people who didn't get denied because of the "expired" medical. I don't really know what to do haha. 

How long did it take between the Interview Was Scheduled notice and the actual interview?

About a month, give or take a few days. Then another week for the card to be delivered. 

[mesega 7]

Hey guys,

 

We had our interview on June 24th and approved on the spot. It was very relaxed and fun. Just went thru all the form together and was asked how we met. We showed our photo album and talked about couple of the photos. It was easy. I received my card a week later after interview.

 

But now I checked my status online and after 'Card was delivered' it is now 'Case is Ready to Be Scheduled for An Interview'. Do you have any idea what that means?

Edited July 8, 2019 by fthelvs

[ediali09 69]

On 7/3/2019 at 12:20 PM, Mike&Anna said:

I just spoke to a uscis representative about my case. 

I asked if my medical exam done prior my K1 would still be valid to be approved for a GC. She said it had to be sent within my AOS packet max 60 days after my doctor had signed it, which I didn’t. I sent it after 3 months of taking that exam.

she said I need to get a new medical exam done and I was wondering if any of you people have had experiences with that?

I'm unfamiliar with what the uscis rep said about the medical exam, given that I called uscis less than 2 months ago and the tier-2 essentially said that if my medical exam was done less than 1 year ago, I don't have to, but there may be a chance that the officer at the field office would want me to redo it. I had my GC interview in Boston, MA in June and heard the officer mumble to himself while evaluating at the end, "oh, your medical exam was sent when you came [to America], so no need for that...". 

Edited July 8, 2019 by toocold
clarity

[Dawn&Igor 2]

On 7/2/2019 at 3:12 PM, Dawn&Igor said:

Hey, 

 

another February filer here. Last Thursday I got a notification that my interview was scheduled. Waiting for the mail.

 

Date Filed :	2019-02-14
NOA Date :	2019-02-21
Bio. Appt. :	2019-03-13

 

Fun fact: I applied for an expedite in May and contacted my congressman. They told me the person from USCIS promised my case "is on the table and will be processed soon". It's been 2 weeks.

Reading other people's posts here it seems like the GC will be processed earlier than EAD.

 

 

 

It's been 10 days since online update and I still didn't get anything in mail. What's the standard wait time in between online notice and physical mail with interview date for you folks?

[Bluewaters 288]

15 minutes ago, Dawn&Igor said:

 

It's been 10 days since online update and I still didn't get anything in mail. What's the standard wait time in between online notice and physical mail with interview date for you folks?

I think there is some kind of delay in delivering of mail from USCIS but surely you will get your notice mail. Because many of the ead that were approved between June 26 to  July 3 have not received their card. Whereas most people receive their cards within 7 days. 

Just relax because at long last your interview has been scheduled. Congrats. 

[Dawn&Igor 2]

On 7/8/2019 at 1:17 PM, Bluewaters said:

I think there is some kind of delay in delivering of mail from USCIS but surely you will get your notice mail. Because many of the ead that were approved between June 26 to  July 3 have not received their card. Whereas most people receive their cards within 7 days. 

Just relax because at long last your interview has been scheduled. Congrats. 

Interview scheduled for August 5th! Wohoo

 

Little fail happened, USCIS ignored my address change (confirmed by them) and sent the invitation to my old address and scheduled interview on the other coast. Detailed post about it here 

 

[Croatiausa 17]

Hi, I am hoping someone can answer my question. We expedited the EAD ON 7/12 based on a job offer, uscis  asked for additional information to be faxed yesterday. We responded yesterday. Today, I got a notification that our interview (Chicago office) was scheduled. Is this a coincidence or do they do the interview before issuing the card.? Thought the EAD would come first. Thank you!

 

AOS filed: 2/27  

Edited July 18, 2019 by Croatiausa

[Dawn&Igor 2]

2 hours ago, Croatiausa said:

Hi, I am hoping someone can answer my question. We expedited the EAD ON 7/12 based on a job offer, uscis  asked for additional information to be faxed yesterday. We responded yesterday. Today, I got a notification that our interview (Chicago office) was scheduled. Is this a coincidence or do they do the interview before issuing the card.? Thought the EAD would come first. Thank you!

 

AOS filed: 2/27  

I'd say it's pretty much coincidence. There's no way they would process it that fast + they are different forms for EAD / AOS. There were some news lately that USCIS started processing AOS faster / using non-local offices + they want to take off weight from EAD process, since a lot of EADs now are from AOS process. EAD processing times went from 3 months to 6+ sometimes even longer than AOS, so I guess this is a move to consolidate it.

[Bunnypio 34]

25 minutes ago, Dawn&Igor said:

I'd say it's pretty much coincidence. There's no way they would process it that fast + they are different forms for EAD / AOS. There were some news lately that USCIS started processing AOS faster / using non-local offices + they want to take off weight from EAD process, since a lot of EADs now are from AOS process. EAD processing times went from 3 months to 6+ sometimes even longer than AOS, so I guess this is a move to consolidate it.

I agree with this.  Since AOS processing times have sky rocketed, EAD request and Expedition Requests are through the roof.  The best way from them to reduce this flow would be to process the AOS faster which will automatically cancel any pending EAD/AP applications.  Unfortunately we are stuck in the middle.  Please let us know the results of your expedition request and good luck.  

 

 

[AlicerCooper 32]

On 7/3/2019 at 3:52 PM, Bunnypio said:

Hello Alice,

 

Welcome to the waiting room.  To answer your question directly, no your EAD/AP applications are and will be in process until they are approved or you are APPROVED for GC.  In the latter case the pending EAD/AP applications are closed because your new GC will serve as the EAD and AP all in one card.  As you have learned it can take months or years to get your interview scheduled and this is actually the exact reason why you applied for EAD/AP separately, so that you can get permission to work and travel BEFORE your GC application is processed.  Historically it has always been that EAD and AP's were approved much much faster relative to the GC but these days we are seeing huge delays in the normal processing times.  So now everyone is in position of not knowing what to expect first, the EAD or the GC.  It is unprecedented.  At this point i think many of us would be grateful for any one of the three.  my thoughts to you is just keep waiting patiently and see what gets approved first.  You can also try to file an expedite as some of the other users here have found success with that.  Hope this helps.

 

Thank you for this detailed response!!

 

I phoned USCIS last week and spoke to a lady who was nice but basically robot voiced answers to me that were already on the website. Couldn't tell me anything about an interview date or expected EAD/AP date still.

 

She did say the EAD/AP wait is now 8 months instead of the 4-6 months when I first applied in Feb. I didn't ask why but looking back I probably should've asked why the waits so long. Does it just depend on your local USCIS office? Because obviously there are people who already have their EAD/AP well before the 8 months.... Hm. Anyway not much to do but wait still...

[Slowshow 0]

15 minutes ago, AlicerCooper said:

 

Thank you for this detailed response!!

 

I phoned USCIS last week and spoke to a lady who was nice but basically robot voiced answers to me that were already on the website. Couldn't tell me anything about an interview date or expected EAD/AP date still.

  

She did say the EAD/AP wait is now 8 months instead of the 4-6 months when I first applied in Feb. I didn't ask why but looking back I probably should've asked why the waits so long. Does it just depend on your local USCIS office? Because obviously there are people who already have their EAD/AP well before the 8 months.... Hm. Anyway not much to do but wait still...

I talked to a tier 2 officer and she said that my case isn't even assigned to an officer yet. My PD is February 1. I'm guessing it's because I'm in NYC and it takes longer time. I know people say it's processed at NBC but people who applied after February got it. 

[AlicerCooper 32]

1 minute ago, Slowshow said:

I talked to a tier 2 officer and she said that my case isn't even assigned to an officer yet. My PD is February 1. I'm guessing it's because I'm in NYC and it takes longer time. I know people say it's processed at NBC but people who applied after February got it. 

Yeah NYC will be busy. I filed in NY, but Buffalo which apparently doesn't have that many cases so not sure why it's taking so long. But it's not like they'll tell us anyway lol 

 

And yep, I know plenty of Feb/March filers who already have their EAD/AP so ...  hm

[Bunnypio 34]

10 minutes ago, AlicerCooper said:

 

Thank you for this detailed response!!

 

I phoned USCIS last week and spoke to a lady who was nice but basically robot voiced answers to me that were already on the website. Couldn't tell me anything about an interview date or expected EAD/AP date still.

 

She did say the EAD/AP wait is now 8 months instead of the 4-6 months when I first applied in Feb. I didn't ask why but looking back I probably should've asked why the waits so long. Does it just depend on your local USCIS office? Because obviously there are people who already have their EAD/AP well before the 8 months.... Hm. Anyway not much to do but wait still...

Your welcome and thank you for sharing the info you got from USCIS office.  The EAD/AP will be processed through the National Benefits center and will need very little input from the local office.  So this is pretty much a National delay.  Right now it is estimated that California office alone is receiving 4,500 K1/K2 applications a week right now.  That number is mirrored in Texas and other Offices.  That does not include refugee, asylum, work visa, student visa etc.  Just imagine that for one second.  ...........................  You can also estimate that atleast 80% of these people will be/ are applying for EAD's.  So we are talking about no less then 15,000 EAD apps per week in my opinion.  😵   I have worked for the government several times over the years, mostly in intelligence and logistics.  We used to do constant in depth background checks.  I can tell you that there is no way to adequately process that many background checks and have multi agency coordination (DHS, SS, FBI, DOD) in a reasonable amount of time.  The biggest delay will be when there are multiple results under your name.  For example, if your name is John Smith or Jose Reyes.  Your background checks will take longer because the results will have to be manually filtered and most case workers will skip these files because they will require more time to process.  Case workers are contracted through the government and are under a lot of pressure to process a certain number of cases per day and If they spend too long on a case they will fall behind in their quota.   

 

Trust me i wish i didnt have to stand here and defend the Governments delays but in a way i also completely understand why.  They cannot just hire anyone to process these cases.  The incoming cases are incalculable and growing in number everyday.  The offices are understaffed and not to the fault to the government.  They can not train enough people fast enough and just in June alone we had 160,000 people come here and claim asylum from Mexico.  That number is crazy and is on top of all the people who have done it legally which is probably at least equal to that.  Basically we have 1% of the population waiting on 3 or 4 offices to process their case.  

 

Just to leave this on a positive note.  Atleast we are all well on our way to getting what we want.  We have passed the K1, the interview at the Embassy, the medical, the travelling and we are here in the US waiting to complete the adjustment.  It could be worse or imagine if you were just starting your K1 application at this point and looking at a 1 year wait minimum.  We are all Feb Filers and that means our time is very soon.  We are near to the front of the line and we are going to get in.  

[Bunnypio 34]

24 minutes ago, Slowshow said:

I talked to a tier 2 officer and she said that my case isn't even assigned to an officer yet. My PD is February 1. I'm guessing it's because I'm in NYC and it takes longer time. I know people say it's processed at NBC but people who applied after February got it. 

I question the validity of this as cases are not assigned to an officer.  They are picked off stacks and are completely random unless there are flags on your file that need special analysis.  Your file can be sitting on an officers desk at the bottom of stack somewhere and they wouldn't know until it was logged in (touched) by the officer.  You will not reach your PD for your EAD, PD right now for EAD is probably somewhere in Early November and do not move consistently as the days go by.  Meaning the official PD for USCIS can be the same date for weeks before it is updated.  You will have an answer before then.  As for NYC, Yes its busy but it is also faster then most other offices.  I just had a friend who processed the EAD in 2 months there.  Granted his case was not an adjustment but this was not the first case i have heard of that was processed very fast in NYC.  I wish you luck and a speedy resolve.  Trust me we are all waiting anxiously.