February 2019 - AOS Filers!!!

[Newuser4453454 79]

Huzzah!
Just submitted my expedite requests.

[Bronforth 13]

On 7/30/2019 at 5:30 PM, coltr said:

Wow nice find. Well they're saying date for a case enquiry is March 2nd, and I filed February 22nd, so I submitted a service request. Just spoke to my friend who works in an immigration attorney's office who said the dates are genuine, and they're seeing a flood of approvals this week. Let's see what happens!

My date is Feb 28th so filed an inquiry for my EAD/AP. I also contacted my congresswoman's office who in June told me they couldn't do anything until it was out of normal processing time. Their response today left something to be desired: 

 

The National Benefits Center where your case is currently processing is working on I-765’s filed on or before March 05, 2019. Since your case was received by USCIS on February 28, 2019, we can estimate that your case was assigned to an adjudicator for processing about 5 days ago. 

 

We generally allow USCIS anywhere from 45-60 days to process these applications.

 

This doesn't really make sense to me and I suspect that the person who answered my email doesn't fully understand this process. My understanding is that 5 months is now the max length of time people should be waiting according to USCIS. Why tell me they can't do anything until I've waited 7 months? Just wondering if anybody has had a different/more productive interaction with a congressperson's office on this matter?

 

Best of luck to everyone waiting!

[coltr 92]

7 minutes ago, Bronforth said:

My date is Feb 28th so filed an inquiry for my EAD/AP. I also contacted my congresswoman's office who in June told me they couldn't do anything until it was out of normal processing time. Their response today left something to be desired: 

Thanks for the additional information. It sounds like you really have been down the rabbit-hole with your EAD/AP! I think there's still a significant backlog, and the change to require preliminary adjudication of the I-485 by the Local Field Office prior to adjudicating EAD/AP just made the whole situation so much worse and resulted in these kinds of waiting times becoming the norm. I suspect the order applications are processed might have something to do with the order in which the LFO sends a signal to NBC that the I-485 has been checked for completeness and eligibility, and that any RFIEs are overcome. However, it could just be completely random... who knows. Apparently not even Congress.

 

The 5 months could be the max processing time you would expect to see if you filed now that they have separated EAD based on I-485 from other EAD filers. However, since we were in process before this change, it's likely going to take them a month or two to catch up.

 

It looks like January filers are starting to see quite a bit of progress over the past week, so hopefully August will be our month!

Edited August 2, 2019 by coltr

[Dylansv 6]

Yea it seems like everything just keeps getting pushed back. My receipt date is Feb 6 and I asked my lawyer and she told me the NBC times are up to 7-8 months for EAD/AP. Im at 181 days since they updated my cases now. 

 

Cross my fingers for August.

[AlicerCooper 32]

18 hours ago, Dylansv said:

Yea it seems like everything just keeps getting pushed back. My receipt date is Feb 6 and I asked my lawyer and she told me the NBC times are up to 7-8 months for EAD/AP. Im at 181 days since they updated my cases now. 

 

Cross my fingers for August.

 

On 8/2/2019 at 2:04 PM, Bronforth said:

This doesn't really make sense to me and I suspect that the person who answered my email doesn't fully understand this process. My understanding is that 5 months is now the max length of time people should be waiting according to USCIS. Why tell me they can't do anything until I've waited 7 months? Just wondering if anybody has had a different/more productive interaction with a congressperson's office on this matter?

 

Guys i'm wondering the same thing now that its August. USCIS still gives an expected processing time of 2.5 - 5 months for EAD/AP on their website. I'm currently on 7 months too, yet when I spoke to USCIS they lady said the wait is now 8 months. So why haven't they updated the website to reflect that? AND we know other people are definitely getting their EAD/AP in 2.5 months - 5 months so why is our wait SO much longer with no info provided to us? Even if we use the 4-6 months wait time as VJ made me expect... we've gone a month over! I've had no RFEs with the K1 or the AOS so not sure why it's taking so long at all. No police convictions, prior marriages, children etc to make it complicated...😐

 

I'm thankful that I have saved enough money before moving here and that my husband can still provide for both of us but surely they should update their website so people can make a better decision if they wanna wait 7+ months for a work/travel permit! 

 

And yes, we ARE outside normal processing times but they won't acknowledge it. So odd. Lets hope August is good to us...

[Dawn&Igor 2]

Update to my case: Went for the interview yesterday (August 5th), came an hour earlier, was let in 30mins earlier. The officer was super nice and on top of our case - read through all the affidavits, knew the pictures we submitted etc. We just went through the form questions so he could confirm what's there and updated some of the stuff like address we moved to, etc. Then he asked if there are any proofs we'd like to submit. I bombarded him with pictures, updated affidavits, apartment lease, utility bills in my wife's name (I don't even have SSN), some amazon orders with my name and new address, flights and hotel bookings together. He said that it's a lot and was extremely understanding about no documents with both our names - he said it's impossible to do anything without SSN. Told us we're really approvable, explained next steps (removing conditions and naturalization)  and left space for our questions. Shook our hands, congratulated us and told us to expect the card in less than 30 days. All in all under 30 mins, no marriage certificate needed (sent with AOS package), no copies of NOAs, I94, birth certificates or employer letters / paystubs (wife changed jobs).

 

 

1 hour ago, AlicerCooper said:

 

Guys i'm wondering the same thing now that its August. USCIS still gives an expected processing time of 2.5 - 5 months for EAD/AP on their website. I'm currently on 7 months too, yet when I spoke to USCIS they lady said the wait is now 8 months. So why haven't they updated the website to reflect that? AND we know other people are definitely getting their EAD/AP in 2.5 months - 5 months so why is our wait SO much longer with no info provided to us? Even if we use the 4-6 months wait time as VJ made me expect... we've gone a month over! I've had no RFEs with the K1 or the AOS so not sure why it's taking so long at all. No police convictions, prior marriages, children etc to make it complicated...😐

 

I'm thankful that I have saved enough money before moving here and that my husband can still provide for both of us but surely they should update their website so people can make a better decision if they wanna wait 7+ months for a work/travel permit! 

 

And yes, we ARE outside normal processing times but they won't acknowledge it. So odd. Lets hope August is good to us...

I asked the officer at the interview specifically about the processing times. We sent AOS in Feb, tried to expedite EAD in early May and contacted congressman. The officer at the interview said there's such a huge influx of EADs and Expedites that they can't really prioritize who really needs it and who doesn't and basically just gave up in some cases. Plus they started processing GCs a lot faster so in the most cases EAD/AP requests from AOS people will just get ignored and later declined after approving the AOS. YMMV.

 

[Bronforth 13]

2 hours ago, AlicerCooper said:

 

 

Guys i'm wondering the same thing now that its August. USCIS still gives an expected processing time of 2.5 - 5 months for EAD/AP on their website. I'm currently on 7 months too, yet when I spoke to USCIS they lady said the wait is now 8 months. So why haven't they updated the website to reflect that? AND we know other people are definitely getting their EAD/AP in 2.5 months - 5 months so why is our wait SO much longer with no info provided to us? Even if we use the 4-6 months wait time as VJ made me expect... we've gone a month over! I've had no RFEs with the K1 or the AOS so not sure why it's taking so long at all. No police convictions, prior marriages, children etc to make it complicated...😐

 

I'm thankful that I have saved enough money before moving here and that my husband can still provide for both of us but surely they should update their website so people can make a better decision if they wanna wait 7+ months for a work/travel permit! 

 

And yes, we ARE outside normal processing times but they won't acknowledge it. So odd. Lets hope August is good to us...

I couldn't agree with you more! 

[AlicerCooper 32]

3 hours ago, Dawn&Igor said:

I asked the officer at the interview specifically about the processing times. We sent AOS in Feb, tried to expedite EAD in early May and contacted congressman. The officer at the interview said there's such a huge influx of EADs and Expedites that they can't really prioritize who really needs it and who doesn't and basically just gave up in some cases. Plus they started processing GCs a lot faster so in the most cases EAD/AP requests from AOS people will just get ignored and later declined after approving the AOS. YMMV.

 

Congrats!! I bet you feel very relaxed now after that, I don't have my SSN either so good to know theyre understanding   And thank you for asking about the wait time for the rest of us. Cmon August!!!

 

 

 

 

[coltr 92]

I just called USCIS and spoke to Tier 1. He told me that my case is outside of normal processing times by 15 days and would file a service request. At that point he could see the case enquiry that I had already filed online, and just confirmed the details back to me. Other than that, he said he updated my case notes. Not really any news, but nice to hear someone acknowledge that our cases are now outside of their stated processing time. I've also heard of cases (co-incidences perhaps?) of people seeing movement in their case shortly after calling, so thought it was worth a shot.

[Newuser4453454 79]

Thanks, I haven't heard anything since filing my case claims so I think I will call tomorrow. How long were you on hold for (So I know if its a 'call over lunch' thing or 'call after work' thing)?

[coltr 92]

7 hours ago, NearEthereal said:

Thanks, I haven't heard anything since filing my case claims so I think I will call tomorrow. How long were you on hold for (So I know if its a 'call over lunch' thing or 'call after work' thing)?

25 minutes on hold. A bit of a maze to get through the menu system initially. The route I eventually took was to say that I wanted to check my case status (option 1), key in my case number (key the MSC part as letters on the numeric keypad, so 672), listen to the automated update, then press the option to say I wanted a case expedite. At that point it transferred me to an agent. To be fair to USCIS, the guy was very polite and attentive, and took the time to listen to what I was asking him. I didn’t push for a Tier 2 since I really didn’t think it would make any kind of difference. The main objective was to confirm that they had received my service request and for them to acknowledge that my case was outside of their standard processing times.

 

Wishing you the best of luck! I think we can draw assurance from the fact that we are all in a similar boat and have standard cases that are simply awaiting processing given the case volume. Clearly I-485s are taking priority at this point, so the expectation in USCIS may be that field offices will adjudicate our AOS before our EAD/AP.

[AhmadAR10 0]

7 hours ago, coltr said:

25 minutes on hold. A bit of a maze to get through the menu system initially. The route I eventually took was to say that I wanted to check my case status (option 1), key in my case number (key the MSC part as letters on the numeric keypad, so 672), listen to the automated update, then press the option to say I wanted a case expedite. At that point it transferred me to an agent. To be fair to USCIS, the guy was very polite and attentive, and took the time to listen to what I was asking him. I didn’t push for a Tier 2 since I really didn’t think it would make any kind of difference. The main objective was to confirm that they had received my service request and for them to acknowledge that my case was outside of their standard processing times.

 

Wishing you the best of luck! I think we can draw assurance from the fact that we are all in a similar boat and have standard cases that are simply awaiting processing given the case volume. Clearly I-485s are taking priority at this point, so the expectation in USCIS may be that field offices will adjudicate our AOS before our EAD/AP.

I heard the quickest way to get hold of a real person is to: Press 1 for English, then 1 for Check Status, followed by 2 for "I don't know what is a receipt number.." then again 2 for "I can't find receipt number or lost receipt number" - you will then be asked to enter receipt number - I did that today and waited for like 30 minutes.

 

The guy was also really nice; he answered all my questions (related to the AP/EAD and AOS) and confirmed they received a status inquiry. He acknowledged that my case is outside of the expected processing time. I'll call again and ask for tier 2 level support if I don't hear back by August 15.

 

PS: My Priority date is: January 31.

 

Hope that helps,

[Slowshow 0]

On 8/6/2019 at 11:16 AM, AlicerCooper said:

 

 

Guys i'm wondering the same thing now that its August. USCIS still gives an expected processing time of 2.5 - 5 months for EAD/AP on their website. I'm currently on 7 months too, yet when I spoke to USCIS they lady said the wait is now 8 months. So why haven't they updated the website to reflect that? AND we know other people are definitely getting their EAD/AP in 2.5 months - 5 months so why is our wait SO much longer with no info provided to us? Even if we use the 4-6 months wait time as VJ made me expect... we've gone a month over! I've had no RFEs with the K1 or the AOS so not sure why it's taking so long at all. No police convictions, prior marriages, children etc to make it complicated...😐

 

I'm thankful that I have saved enough money before moving here and that my husband can still provide for both of us but surely they should update their website so people can make a better decision if they wanna wait 7+ months for a work/travel permit! 

 

And yes, we ARE outside normal processing times but they won't acknowledge it. So odd. Lets hope August is good to us...

So wait. The 2.5-5 months processing time is only for new cases? How is this fair. Did you speak to a Tier 2 officer? 

[AlicerCooper 32]

5 minutes ago, Slowshow said:

So wait. The 2.5-5 months processing time is only for new cases? How is this fair. Did you speak to a Tier 2 officer? 

Nope, not for new cases.  When I applied in Feb 2019 the processing time for EAD/AP was 2.5 - 5 months wait too.  They don't seem to update it! 

 

 

[Slowshow 0]

23 minutes ago, AlicerCooper said:

Nope, not for new cases.  When I applied in Feb 2019 the processing time for EAD/AP was 2.5 - 5 months wait too.  They don't seem to update it! 

 

 

I know. I applied in February too. I just don't get why the post new processing times when they haven't started working on all the February filers yet.