MARCH 2019 - AOS Filers

[SusannZ 111]

15 hours ago, JoelThai said:

*RANT ON*

Yes, it is a mess....    My thinking is that it is unfortunate that USCIS is not able to prioritize issuance of EAD/AP for those of us who are assigned to local offices with long processing waits, such as San Francisco (projected waits of 17.5 - 24 months for family based adjustment).   To see members receiving both EAD/AP and Greencard nearly simultaneously (no fault of the applicant) illustrates the misallocation and waste of USCIS resources.   My question is how difficult is it to recognize which offices are running short greencard processing times and do not need EAD/AP and prioritize the processing of EAD/AP for those with longer waits.

 

I am happy for my lucky fellow March AOS VJ members who already have Greencards in hand.   But why can't USCIS reallocate resources between the local offices to bring Greencard processing times in balance?   And, if it really needs to be this way, why can't USCIS prioritizes EAD/AP processing for those with the long local waits.  

 

And when filing an enquiry regarding a case outside of normal processing, why not flag the case and give it priority over issuing a useless EAD/AP cards to those who already have interviews scheduled for a greencard, instead of just ignoring the filing?

*RANT OFF*

 

Thank you for listening.   But my wife is still waiting after 6 months for an EAD/AP card and expects to wait at least another 12 to 18 months for a greencard.   I hope you understand my position.  I feel a little bit better after getting that off my chest. 🙂

 

 

Couldn't agree more! Our Hartford CT office also has almost 24 months wait for green card. The system could be so much better handled. Maybe we should all go into politics after we become Americans and overhaul the system! 😂

[confusedshoes 193]

@JoelThai seem's like we are also in the same boat. Our dates are very similar and we were stuck in the Finger Print received stage for a long time. I feel like waiting for this is worse than the original petition, at least those timelines were accurate. 

[Sylvia123 7]

Hey guys, I think this has probably been brought up already but how would you suggest to prepare for the interview? Could you suggest links I could “study” from to make sure we are prepared? Our couple is very non conventional, we don’t have rings and didn’t really do a big wedding celebration, we are artists and travel a lot and have moved 2 times already. Thank you in advance for your help!

[Shiran 1,134]

28 minutes ago, Sylvia123 said:

we don’t have rings and didn’t really do a big wedding celebration,

We didn't have engagement rings either. Weddings rings were never brought up. We were not separated, nor questioned separately. Note, that our experience, at our office, can vary pretty drastically from yours. For example, we were handed a piece of paper right away at the end of 30 min or so long interview telling us we were approved, but in many cases I hear people get a different notice that case neither approved nor denied, and has to under go additional processing. We were not asked any intimate or uncomfortable questions, I guess the closest one could be "You got married 13 days after meeting in US, don't you feel it is too fast?" 

To answer your questions, my suggestion is make sure you know details of your own story, and your answers are consistent with each other. Do not interrupt each other. They want physical pieces of evidence which they will keep, so make sure what you hand to them is easy to file (Letter sized pieces of paper, not single pictures) We arranged pictures in collages on letter sized paper, 3 pages, with 20 or so pictures total, they kept all of those. Scans of medical, electrical bills etc. In your case it might be rental agreements. Joint bank account showing both names. Not much overall. 

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,092]

On 9/13/2019 at 6:03 PM, Shiran said:

Well, you can kinda see how system Originally meant to work which made sense:

K-1 enters US, K-1 authorized for work for 90 days, they get EAD stamp in passport at PoE, good for 90 days.

Couple gets married, files AoS/EAD/AP. 

EAD/AP gets approved a month down the road, good for a year.

I-94 expires as well as EAD passport stamp from PoE, but that is fine as EAD/AP card is still good

At some point later AOS interview happens and GC is issued, EAD/AP is collected and destroyed.

Yup. That was pretty workable. Heck, any setup where you could reasonably expect to have a 1-year EAD/AP or GC within 3 months of filing for AOS (assuming no RFEs) would be fine.

 

On 9/13/2019 at 6:03 PM, Shiran said:

 

Clearly that is how the system was first conceived to work. But with delays, and eliminations of EAD stamps in the passport, it becomes unglued, confusing mess that doesn't make sense. Filing for EAD/AP is still good, because well.. it is free, relatively easy evidence that you will have regardless, no interview, and it is good to hedge your bet in case GC takes much longer than 6 months. It just weird how in our case we got both at almost exactly same time. 

It seems like EAD approvals less than a month before GC interviews are fairly common here. Heck, for us Anastasia's combo card will show up tomorrow... nine days before the AOS interview.

 

40 minutes ago, Shiran said:

We were not asked any intimate or uncomfortable questions, I guess the closest one could be "You got married 13 days after meeting in US, don't you feel it is too fast?"

Hmm... wonder what they'll say about us doing it in three days ?

[tsonggo 58]

2 hours ago, Sylvia123 said:

Hey guys, I think this has probably been brought up already but how would you suggest to prepare for the interview? Could you suggest links I could “study” from to make sure we are prepared? Our couple is very non conventional, we don’t have rings and didn’t really do a big wedding celebration, we are artists and travel a lot and have moved 2 times already. Thank you in advance for your help!

Make sure you have a copy of the I-485 and go through it to re familiarize yourselves  with the timeline for both the fiancees work history and previous home addresses .  Also the family members for both of you.

[JoelThai 313]

13 hours ago, confusedshoes said:

Our dates are very similar and we were stuck in the Finger Print received stage for a long time.

 

It looks like your I-485 is processing through San Francisco as well.   I think I see a possible pattern emerging for EAD/AP approval.   

For applicants assigned to local offices with with long I-485 processing times, it seems that their EAD/AP processing is excessive as well.

 

The pattern I am seeing for San Francisco is that EAD/AP approval often takes 180 - 210 days (or more).   

 

QUESTION:  If your I-485 is being processed in the SAN FRANCISO local office, and you have filed for EAD/AP between JAN 1, 2019 and April 1, 2019, how many days of processing (or waiting) has your EAD/AP APPROVAL taken?

 

*Rant on*

With the current administration worried about Public Charge and the expectation that immigrants should have their own personal resources available to provide for them, it is hypocritical to deny or delay permission of those immigrants some basic American human rights, such as the ability to work to pay for our living expenses, and ability to travel abroad to fulfill job requirements and family needs.    

*Rant off*

 

And a word of advice, for new members considering the choice between a K1 Visa and a CR1 Visa, is look carefully at your local office I-485 processing times and consider the impacts of K1 Adjustment of Status on your personal needs and expectations.   If the processing times are greater than 6 months, strongly consider the CR1 route!

Edited September 15, 2019 by JoelThai

[ds2 101]

13 minutes ago, JoelThai said:

 

It looks like your I-485 is processing through San Francisco as well.   I think I see a possible pattern emerging for EAD/AP approval.   

For applicants assigned to local offices with with long I-485 processing times, it seems that their EAD/AP processing is excessive as well.

 

The pattern I am seeing for San Francisco is that EAD/AP approval often takes 180 - 210 days (or more).   

 

QUESTION:  If your I-485 is being processed in the SAN FRANCISO local office, and you have filed for EAD/AP between JAN 1, 2019 and April 1, 2019, how many days of processing (or waiting) has your EAD/AP APPROVAL taken?

 

*Rant on*

With the current administration worried about Public Charge and the expectation that immigrants should have their own personal resources available to provide for them, it is hypocritical to deny or delay permission of those immigrants some basic American human rights, such as the ability to work to pay for our living expenses, and ability to travel abroad to fulfill job requirements and family needs.    

*Rant off*

 

And a word of advice, for new members considering the choice between a K1 Visa and a CR1 Visa, is look carefully at your local office I-485 processing times and consider the impacts of K1 Adjustment of Status on your personal needs and expectations.   If the processing times are greater than 6 months, strongly consider the CR1 route!

I'm so frustrated at USCIS, shouldn't it be the other way around? The local field offices which are taking long time like San Fransisco and NYC Manhattan and others, their EAD should be processed faster than anyone else, but instead their mismanagement has such a big impact on people's lives which they don't realise or don't care about.

 

And I totally agree with your advice regarding K1 Visa and CR1 visa, in-fact, if I knew earlier I would have lived in NYC Queens for the first year (since they get their GCs within 6 months) and then move to Manhattan. Oh well! 

[JoelThai 313]

7 minutes ago, ds2 said:

And I totally agree with your advice regarding K1 Visa and CR1 visa, in-fact, if I knew earlier I would have lived in NYC Queens for the first year (since they get their GCs within 6 months) and then move to Manhattan. Oh well! 

 

One idea I have that could help balance local processing times is to allow the applicant to choose which office performs the I-485 interview.  I bet many of us would not mind a day trip to an office with short processing times, and this would likely reduce the loads on the offices with excessive back logs.    Come on USCIS, think outside the box!  

 

I did see a recent USCIS directive that would allow cases to be reassigned to nearby field offices,  but that seems to have not produced any noticeable benefit to the San Francisco office as of yet...   For example the next closest office to San Franciso is San Jose, with an I-485 10 month wait on the low end vs a 17.5 month wait on the low end for San Francisco.   Living within 30 minutes of both offices, I would certainly welcome a transfer to the San Jose office!

https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-aims-decrease-processing-times-n-400-and-i-485

[Shiran 1,134]

1 hour ago, JoelThai said:

The pattern I am seeing for San Francisco is that EAD/AP approval often takes 180 - 210 days (or more).   

 

The current inquiry date for EAD is April 4th, so you are officially outside of normal processing. Have you put in request? I am guessing the delays have something to do when they separated your cases. You said you didn't show "Ready to schedule" until some time in August? 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Shiran

[ds2 101]

1 hour ago, JoelThai said:

 

One idea I have that could help balance local processing times is to allow the applicant to choose which office performs the I-485 interview.  I bet many of us would not mind a day trip to an office with short processing times, and this would likely reduce the loads on the offices with excessive back logs.    Come on USCIS, think outside the box!  

 

I did see a recent USCIS directive that would allow cases to be reassigned to nearby field offices,  but that seems to have not produced any noticeable benefit to the San Francisco office as of yet...   For example the next closest office to San Franciso is San Jose, with an I-485 10 month wait on the low end vs a 17.5 month wait on the low end for San Francisco.   Living within 30 minutes of both offices, I would certainly welcome a transfer to the San Jose office!

https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-aims-decrease-processing-times-n-400-and-i-485

I totally agree with you, I wouldn't mind travelling from East Coast to West Coast if it means shorter waiting period, it would also be a nice vacation.

 

One idea that I have is that, they should allow premium processing like they do for some other visas, I think they also do it for I-129F now right? They can charge the people extra money, I'm sure people wouldn't mind paying since they can make the money back by getting a job earlier, and they can use that extra money to hire more people or develop a better process.

 

Right now it feels like they just don't care and they want you to feel like you have to earn it. 

[SusannZ 111]

7 hours ago, Sylvia123 said:

Hey guys, I think this has probably been brought up already but how would you suggest to prepare for the interview? Could you suggest links I could “study” from to make sure we are prepared? Our couple is very non conventional, we don’t have rings and didn’t really do a big wedding celebration, we are artists and travel a lot and have moved 2 times already. Thank you in advance for your help!

We're not conventional either. Altho my husband wears his band, I rarely put mine on (work with babies and also don't care for jewelry). We got married in a gazebo with 6 of our friends and none of our families and had a pizza party after. No plans on doing a big wedding in future either. We have a roommate who is my best friend who also have a 5 year old. That's for financial reasons bc we live in a very expensive state but we all see each other as family and not roommates. I think you'll be fine, as long as you're honest. These officers are trained to pick up on stuff that doesn't add up and if you have nothing to hide, you will be fine! Just bring a lot of proof of bona-fide marriage. 

[JoelThai 313]

4 hours ago, Shiran said:

The current inquiry date for EAD is April 4th, so you are officially outside of normal processing. Have you put in request? I am guessing the delays have something to do when they separated your cases. You said you didn't show "Ready to schedule" until some time in August? 

I did submit a request via the web form last week.  You are correct, "Ready to Schedule" appeared for my I-485 in early August.   The only other thing I am not sure about is that the USCIS states that if your case had a status update within the last 60 days, the the case is considered to be within normal processing.  I wonder since the I-765 and I-131 underlies the I-485, and the I-485 was updated about 40 days ago, would USCIS claim that my I-131 and I-765 are within normal processing.   But this still points back to why the I-485 status update was slow, and if the local office is a factor in this.

 

With enough data, sometimes interesting things can be discovered, so I am looking carefully at the experience of others processing through San Francisco as an explanation of why EAD/AP approval is so slow.   I think I see evidence of a pattern, but now I am looking for evidence to  prove me wrong, suggesting that being assigned to San Francisco does not necessary mean that the EAD/AP will be late.   I wish I had direct query access to the VJ database!  It would be so much easier!

 

For example, last year I noticed a pattern of the NVC batch mailing of I-129F paperwork to the various embassies occurring once every two weeks.  So, it became predictable, after USCIS issued you a NOA2 I-129f and the NVC received the papers as to when the NVC would forward the papers to the appropriate embassy.   I am not sure if they are still doing it that way (some embassies were transitioning to electronic transmission at the time), but there were many people who found that information pretty useful. 

 

Today I found something that I find interesting and revealing, and have not noticed discussed previously....   Regarding processing times, USCIS states the following:

 

"We are testing a new method to calculate processing times for Forms I-90, I-485, I-751, and N-400. With this method, we can post processing times that are more accurate, timely, and easier to understand.

 

What do the processing times mean?

We now show case processing times as a range. The first number is the time it takes to complete 50% of cases (the median). The second number is the time it takes to complete 93% of cases. 

 

For non-pilot forms, we will continue to use our old method to calculate processing times, but will add an upper limit that is generally 130% of the processing time.

 

We calculate processing times by using historical data of completed cases. We cannot project how long it will take to complete a case filed today."

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

https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-updates-webpage-share-more-accurate-processing-times

 

So, with respect to the I-485 at least, they are admitting that their posted processing times do not apply to 8% of the case load.  😧   And I am not sure where they define what the "old method to calculate processing times" is, but it seems they pad that number by 130% to determine the upper bounds.  But 130% of what?

 

[SusannZ 111]

So I'm trying to change our address online. Is it enough to put one case in? If I put my i485 in, I can't add my husband's i130. Do I need make multiple changes? 

[WeNandC 78]

Hi everyone, I’m June file and I’m wondering if has any Atlanta filers here.. my status just changed to ready to schedule an interview and I want to know how long it toke to actually change to interview schedule.. I’ve been tracking at the website and it can take 8 to 20.5 months 😱 however I saw a few luck ppl who had schedule in 2 months