AOS interview: No decision after 10 months

[strangefella 1]

I had filed for AOS (from F1) based on marriage to my US citizen wife. We had our interview in January. The officer was very nice, and he said he could not approve it on the spot as I was (still am) working in a different state and we did not have any joint account. The officer said that he would send us an RFE within 120 days or so and if we send the evidence he would approve it. The RFE never arrived, and I did not push it further until now, as I wanted to ride it out until our 2nd marriage anniversary to avoid the conditional GC. 

 

We just had out 2nd anniversary, so now I want to give USCIS as nudge. My guess is that out case got buried by other cases and the officer just forgot about it. So I want to send a reminder to take another look at our case. I believe InfoPass is no longer available for such enquiries. What can I do to enquire about the status of my case? Thanks in advance!

 

 

[Nouchigang 200]

Hello,

 

Sorry for the long wait, there is not much you can do except trying to contact the local Senator and Congressman and also Ombudsman and hope for the best. I was in a similar situation until 1 day, 1 year after our interview   most likely because we moved and filed AR-11, that they looked at our file again and approved it

 

 

Good luck

[ZeeZeeZee 11]

It's probably worth phoning up USCIS and asking them directly; 10 months has got to be well outside normal processing times for this, so the call centre person will either submit a case status inquiry for you or transfer you to a Tier 2 person who can actually answer your questions. If they submit an inquiry, make sure you ask what date you can expect an answer by, because once you have an overdue pending inquiry on your case they get a lot better about letting you speak to the Tier 2 officers.

 

Before you phone, it's worth googling to look up the current route through their automated answering system, because it's suuuuper difficult to find the "talk to actual person" option otherwise. They also have a limit on how many people they can transfer to Tier 2 per day, so it helps to call early (~8-11 Eastern).

 

You can also get your Senator/Congresscritter involved, but if you're not in an immediate hurry then that might not be worth the effort just yet. If you can get a solid answer from USCIS first about what's causing the delay, that'll make it easier to figure out your next move. Or if USCIS keep brushing you off, that's useful info to take to your representative's office as well!

 

(I haven't been in this exact situation, but USCIS sat on my EAD application for 8 months so I have some recent experience with nagging them about delays. They eventually approved my EAD application and scheduled my GC interview within minutes of each other, less than two weeks after a Tier 2 officer submitted an inquiry on my behalf, so... who knows if that helped. Having a clear "you can expect an answer by this date; if not then call back" made the delays easier to cope with, at least.)

 

[strangefella 1]

20 hours ago, Nouchigang said:

Hello,

 

Sorry for the long wait, there is not much you can do except trying to contact the local Senator and Congressman and also Ombudsman and hope for the best. I was in a similar situation until 1 day, 1 year after our interview   most likely because we moved and filed AR-11, that they looked at our file again and approved it

 

 

Good luck

I am going to give USCIS a call next week and see what they have to say. If I can't get them to get the file moving then I will call the Congressman's office. They were extremely helpful with expediting my EAD. 

 

18 hours ago, ZeeZeeZee said:

It's probably worth phoning up USCIS and asking them directly; 10 months has got to be well outside normal processing times for this, so the call centre person will either submit a case status inquiry for you or transfer you to a Tier 2 person who can actually answer your questions. If they submit an inquiry, make sure you ask what date you can expect an answer by, because once you have an overdue pending inquiry on your case they get a lot better about letting you speak to the Tier 2 officers.

 

Before you phone, it's worth googling to look up the current route through their automated answering system, because it's suuuuper difficult to find the "talk to actual person" option otherwise. They also have a limit on how many people they can transfer to Tier 2 per day, so it helps to call early (~8-11 Eastern).

 

You can also get your Senator/Congresscritter involved, but if you're not in an immediate hurry then that might not be worth the effort just yet. If you can get a solid answer from USCIS first about what's causing the delay, that'll make it easier to figure out your next move. Or if USCIS keep brushing you off, that's useful info to take to your representative's office as well!

 

(I haven't been in this exact situation, but USCIS sat on my EAD application for 8 months so I have some recent experience with nagging them about delays. They eventually approved my EAD application and scheduled my GC interview within minutes of each other, less than two weeks after a Tier 2 officer submitted an inquiry on my behalf, so... who knows if that helped. Having a clear "you can expect an answer by this date; if not then call back" made the delays easier to cope with, at least.)

 

Thank you. This is very helpful. I remember a post on ***removed*** where someone had mentioned how to get to an actual person. If I recall correctly it was to select the option for change of address and then go from there. Do you know how long they generally take to respond to a case inquiry? I am thinking of trying to get through to a level 2 officer when I call and ask him/her about it. 

 

I am not in an immediate hurry as I have my EAD/AP card and it won't expire until September. But hey, the sooner I can get the 10 year GC the better it is. I am sick and tired of running to the DMV to renew driving license every year.

 

 

[ZeeZeeZee 11]

 

5 hours ago, strangefella said:

Thank you. This is very helpful. I remember a post on ***removed*** where someone had mentioned how to get to an actual person. If I recall correctly it was to select the option for change of address and then go from there. Do you know how long they generally take to respond to a case inquiry? I am thinking of trying to get through to a level 2 officer when I call and ask him/her about it. 

 

Both of my inquiries are actually still unanswered, even though they finally issued the EAD last month. So in terms of responding, they're not great! But in terms of the timelines they gave: the first one (via the USCIS website) was a month, and the second (submitted by the Tier 2 person) was 2 weeks. I'd say it's definitely worth asking to be transferred to the Tier 2 officer first, but if not then you can at least start the clock ticking on an inquiry deadline. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, strangefella said:

I am not in an immediate hurry as I have my EAD/AP card and it won't expire until September. But hey, the sooner I can get the 10 year GC the better it is. I am sick and tired of running to the DMV to renew driving license every year.

Haha right?! I swear I've spent more time in the DMV in 3 years than most native Californians have in their lifetimes.

[strangefella 1]

On 11/13/2019 at 6:57 PM, Nouchigang said:

Hello,

 

Sorry for the long wait, there is not much you can do except trying to contact the local Senator and Congressman and also Ombudsman and hope for the best. I was in a similar situation until 1 day, 1 year after our interview   most likely because we moved and filed AR-11, that they looked at our file again and approved it

 

 

Good luck

 

On 11/14/2019 at 8:49 PM, ZeeZeeZee said:

 

 

Both of my inquiries are actually still unanswered, even though they finally issued the EAD last month. So in terms of responding, they're not great! But in terms of the timelines they gave: the first one (via the USCIS website) was a month, and the second (submitted by the Tier 2 person) was 2 weeks. I'd say it's definitely worth asking to be transferred to the Tier 2 officer first, but if not then you can at least start the clock ticking on an inquiry deadline. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

Haha right?! I swear I've spent more time in the DMV in 3 years than most native Californians have in their lifetimes.

Here is an update. On Nov 30th I was pleasantly surprised to find the 10 year Green Card in my mailbox. I was discussing with my wife about filing a status inquiry after collecting the mail. As I was going through the pile of mail and dumping out the trash (newsletters, coupons etc) I was surprised to see an of envelope from USCIS. I was expecting it to be the RFE. Opened the envelope, and it contained a letter saying my GC was approved. And then I saw another envelope, opened it and there was the GC.

[Nouchigang 200]

On 1/26/2020 at 7:23 PM, strangefella said:

 

Here is an update. On Nov 30th I was pleasantly surprised to find the 10 year Green Card in my mailbox. I was discussing with my wife about filing a status inquiry after collecting the mail. As I was going through the pile of mail and dumping out the trash (newsletters, coupons etc) I was surprised to see an of envelope from USCIS. I was expecting it to be the RFE. Opened the envelope, and it contained a letter saying my GC was approved. And then I saw another envelope, opened it and there was the GC.

Congratulations! Your patience paid off