March 2019 AOS Filers -- Part 2

[Lj32 41]

I came back home to the USA yesterday from the U.K. using my AP. Process was delightfully smooth at Orlando Airport. I was through secondary inspection and collecting my luggage before most of the Brits with ESTAs had even made it to the border people - lots of European flights landed all at the same time so that queue was HUGE. Very pleased it worked so smoothly as lawyers have always advised against using AP, but my grandmother was 90 years old this week and all she asked for was her family to be together so I couldn’t let her down when I had AP in hand. 

[Vega007 62]

Gonna post an update too. Got my interview dates (Oct 22nd). Was surprised that we got our EAD and interview relatively quick for a field office with processing times between 11.5 to 23 months. Now gotta stress myself with interview preparation. 

[SusannZ 111]

So my visa journey i-130 estimated approval jumped from October 2019 to April 2020. If I have to apply to renew my ead, is the fee still waived?? I assume our interview will take at least until the beginning of next year. 

[HRQX 4,145]

21 minutes ago, SusannZ said:

If I have to apply to renew my ead, is the fee still waived??

Yes, renewals are also free. https://www.uscis.gov/system/files_force/files/form/i-485instr.pdf Page 16: "If you properly file Form I-485 and pay the required fees, you may file Form I-765 and Form I-131 without paying additional fees. You may file these forms together, or if you choose to file Form I-765 or Form I-131 separately, you must also submit a copy of your I-797C, Notice of Action, receipt as evidence that you filed and paid for Form I-485." My recent renewal was free.

Edited September 30, 2019 by HRQX

[iwir 337]

I'm ready to renew my EAD/AP next January myself if I haven't heard from USCIS. To be honest, I don't really mind of waiting til our 2nd anniversary cause then I don't have to deal with ROC and get 10 year GC instead. I have moved on with my life and settled in with EAD/AP just fine here

[SusannZ 111]

23 minutes ago, iwir said:

I'm ready to renew my EAD/AP next January myself if I haven't heard from USCIS. To be honest, I don't really mind of waiting til our 2nd anniversary cause then I don't have to deal with ROC and get 10 year GC instead. I have moved on with my life and settled in with EAD/AP just fine here

We're about to pass our 2nd anniversary in 2 weeks 🎉 lol. I just think I'll probably have to renew my ead but other than that I'm not so stressed anymore!

36 minutes ago, HRQX said:

Yes, renewals are also free. https://www.uscis.gov/system/files_force/files/form/i-485instr.pdf Page 16: "If you properly file Form I-485 and pay the required fees, you may file Form I-765 and Form I-131 without paying additional fees. You may file these forms together, or if you choose to file Form I-765 or Form I-131 separately, you must also submit a copy of your I-797C, Notice of Action, receipt as evidence that you filed and paid for Form I-485." My recent renewal was free.

Thank you! I was too lazy to look it up myself😂

[SusannZ 111]

On 9/29/2019 at 4:58 AM, Lj32 said:

I came back home to the USA yesterday from the U.K. using my AP. Process was delightfully smooth at Orlando Airport. I was through secondary inspection and collecting my luggage before most of the Brits with ESTAs had even made it to the border people - lots of European flights landed all at the same time so that queue was HUGE. Very pleased it worked so smoothly as lawyers have always advised against using AP, but my grandmother was 90 years old this week and all she asked for was her family to be together so I couldn’t let her down when I had AP in hand. 

I'm about to travel for Christmas. Do they take you in for questioning when you travel on AP? And what documents did you bring with you? Are the i797 notices enough? 

[iwir 337]

2 minutes ago, SusannZ said:

We're about to pass our 2nd anniversary in 2 weeks 🎉 lol. I just think I'll probably have to renew my ead but other than that I'm not so stressed anymore!

You can renew it within 180 days til it expires. Based on your timeline, you still enough time to do it around june 2020. And yes, you'll likely get 10 years GC since you've been married since 2016. I'm curious, what took you so long to file AOS?

[iwir 337]

2 minutes ago, SusannZ said:

I'm about to travel for Christmas. Do they take you in for questioning when you travel on AP? And what documents did you bring with you? Are the i797 notices enough? 

They put me on secondary interview on my way back to the US at SFO. The CBP officer was friendly. They said they need to verify my card and see  if I had overstayed before. It took me less than 15 mins to wait for them to verify. 

[HRQX 4,145]

1 hour ago, SusannZ said:

We're about to pass our 2nd anniversary in 2 weeks 🎉 lol. I just think I'll probably have to renew my ead but other than that I'm not so stressed anymore!

Thank you! I was too lazy to look it up myself😂

A thread about EAD/AP renewal:

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by HRQX

[SusannZ 111]

9 hours ago, iwir said:

You can renew it within 180 days til it expires. Based on your timeline, you still enough time to do it around june 2020. And yes, you'll likely get 10 years GC since you've been married since 2016. I'm curious, what took you so long to file AOS?

We got married pretty quickly but wasn't in a rush to file right away since I was here legally (f1 visa) Thought about maybe moving to Sweden for a while and didn't want to spend all the money on a green card if we weren't gonna live here. 

 

 

[Lj32 41]

14 hours ago, SusannZ said:

I'm about to travel for Christmas. Do they take you in for questioning when you travel on AP? And what documents did you bring with you? Are the i797 notices enough? 

 

I was sent down the US Citizen queue with my husband, the border man then said he would have to send me to secondary inspection, he called someone to escort us and chatted politely and processed my USC husband whilst we waited. Another man then came and escorted us to secondary inspection took my passport and EAD/AP card and asked us to both take a seat, he passed my things to another fellow behind a desk, 5 minutes later the man stamped my passport called me over, handed me my things and told me I was good to go. I had all my notices, marriage certificate, copies of I94 and everything with me but they only wanted my EAD/AP card and Passport. Even though the names don’t match. Had more issues trying to get out of the U.K. as the check in desk lady hadn’t seen an EAD/AP before and they were confused by the different names - they wanted to see all of my bits of paper. 

[iwir 337]

4 hours ago, SusannZ said:

We got married pretty quickly but wasn't in a rush to file right away since I was here legally (f1 visa) Thought about maybe moving to Sweden for a while and didn't want to spend all the money on a green card if we weren't gonna live here. 

 

 

Since you said your 2nd anniversary is coming soon and you wouldn't get your interview til next year, I'm pretty sure you'll get your 10 years GC without having to remove your condition!

[JamieAndEli 11]

Hey, I submitted a service request for my EAD almost 2 weeks ago, just a few days before the date was pushed back (again!!!). 

I was trying to check the status of my service request but can't seem to find any record of it on MyUSCIS, I presume as I'm back into regular processing times does that mean the service request has been cancelled and I have to make yet another in a week when I'm outside of normal times again? 

 

Also big congrats to everybody else that've received approvals already! Hoping the rest of us have some good luck soon, lord knows it's about time. 8 months of not being able to travel or work is really starting to take it's toll on me... 😕

[dr01d3k4 21]

34 minutes ago, JamieAndEli said:

Hey, I submitted a service request for my EAD almost 2 weeks ago, just a few days before the date was pushed back (again!!!). 

I was trying to check the status of my service request but can't seem to find any record of it on MyUSCIS, I presume as I'm back into regular processing times does that mean the service request has been cancelled and I have to make yet another in a week when I'm outside of normal times again? 

 

Also big congrats to everybody else that've received approvals already! Hoping the rest of us have some good luck soon, lord knows it's about time. 8 months of not being able to travel or work is really starting to take it's toll on me... 😕

Sometimes the tracking just never updates. On https://my.uscis.gov/account/applicant my EAD is still sitting at "case was received" despite sending 3 service requests, and getting approved last week.