December 2019 - AOS Filers

[jd. 10]

29 minutes ago, BellaUnion said:

Thanks for sharing your experience. We have our interview coming up, so reading this is reassuring. Congratulations!

Thank you! and you're very welcome! Best of luck at your interview 😄🙌

[Juls801 70]

11 hours ago, BellaUnion said:

That's bad luck. Did the IO give you an RFE on the spot or tell you that you would likely get one?

He didn't say either. He actually said "had the medical been in his file I would've approved you today" and he even said "this is not your fault and there's nothing you could've done". He did say to wait for the letter he will send requesting the medical be redone so when we send them in it wouldn't get lost. So, I'm assuming it'll technically be a RFE of some sort. Our status hasn't changed yet from interview scheduled though and I really wish he'd just send it so we can schedule the medical! It's very frustrating. He was super nice though. 

[Letspaintcookies 2,310]

13 hours ago, Juls801 said:

He didn't say either. He actually said "had the medical been in his file I would've approved you today" and he even said "this is not your fault and there's nothing you could've done". He did say to wait for the letter he will send requesting the medical be redone so when we send them in it wouldn't get lost. So, I'm assuming it'll technically be a RFE of some sort. Our status hasn't changed yet from interview scheduled though and I really wish he'd just send it so we can schedule the medical! It's very frustrating. He was super nice though. 

That sucks. But you can already get the medical done. That way you can respond immediately when you get the REF. Who knows how long you have to wait for an appointment.

[Sweetdreaming 397]

On 1/7/2021 at 11:47 AM, fdot123 said:

Hello!  I filed for AOS from L1 (so not a K1 visa) in NYC in December 2019 and had my interview today (scheduled on Nov 30th) and wanted to share as it was a little strange and hadn't seen similar cases when frantically reading through forums over the past few weeks....

 

Arrived at 7:45am for an 8am appointment, got called in at around 9:30am.  Officer was basically completely silent and just clicking through things on his computer.  He did not ask us to do oath...He asked us for passports, marriage certificate, and birth certificate but basically did not look at them at all.  Then asked for photo albums - we had brought three, along with a printed out "timeline" with photos from over the course of our ~6 year relationship with explanations of dates, people included, etc.  He looked through the albums in depth, asked us a question about where one photo was taken, and just quickly flipped through timeline.  He then asked us each in turn where we work and what we do, asked me (petitioner) my address, when I had last entered the country (had left and come back again since I filed, so showed him my new I94), and for our latest tax docs.  He then asked me a couple of yes/no questions (if I had been in military, if I had criminal conviction) and asked me to sign what I think was the I-485.  Then we we were good to go - no questions about our relationship, did not keep any of the documents except our 2019 tax return, and said we would hear back in the mail.  VERY silent and VERY short - not quite what I was expecting based on what I had read / a conversation with a lawyer.  Hoping to hear back about decision soon as I know I will be sleeping poorly until then - but happy to get this out of the way and feeling very lucky my wait for interview was quite reasonable....!

very silent and very short is a good sign, if they had suspicions or concerns they would be addressing them in that interview - thats what its for, if they had issues with you they wouldnt just ask 1 or 2 questions and move on, you would get grilled, also most people dont get approved at interview - it all depends on what status the interviewer has if they are able to approve cases by themselves, others require a supervisor to sign off.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Sweetdreaming

[Sweetdreaming 397]

18 hours ago, Juls801 said:

He didn't say either. He actually said "had the medical been in his file I would've approved you today" and he even said "this is not your fault and there's nothing you could've done". He did say to wait for the letter he will send requesting the medical be redone so when we send them in it wouldn't get lost. So, I'm assuming it'll technically be a RFE of some sort. Our status hasn't changed yet from interview scheduled though and I really wish he'd just send it so we can schedule the medical! It's very frustrating. He was super nice though. 

I cant think of a reason why you should wait to have your medical done now, you might as well get it done asap so when you get the RFE you can send it straight away.

[William&Emily 36]

We had our interview yesterday! 

It was super good and way better than the stern serious one I had for the K1. 

We were called into the officers office, we sat on the other side of the room from him, took the oath and began. 

He asked a few casual questions about us and our life. Luckily we play a lot of video games and so did the interviewer.

 

After that he went through our form with us, asking all the yes/no questions about trafficking, terrorism etc. 

Then we gave our joint sponsor paperwork and after a brief look through he thanked us for being so organised and said he would be approving us. 

The appointment was maybe 30/40 minutes and we definitely got lucky with the interviewer. 

He only asked for our IDs, my work auth, passport and then any evidence of our relationship. 

Good luck everyone! 

[Rawan1991 0]

Hello,

My interview was scheduled on the 26th and I just received the notice. However, I am currently traveling and the notice mentioned to reschedule in case of travels in the past 2 weeks.

Any advise?? can I still attend the interview if I quarantined for 7 days and did the PCR (State requirements)?

And if I rescheduled, how long will it take to have another appointment.

It is frustrating that I received the appointment notice only 10 days before the interview date! 

Thank you

[Juls801 70]

On 1/15/2021 at 3:40 PM, Letspaintcookies said:

That sucks. But you can already get the medical done. That way you can respond immediately when you get the REF. Who knows how long you have to wait for an appointment.

Good to know! The way the officer explained it, he made it sound like we needed the letter before we can schedule or do the medical. I already called a couple places to get an idea of timeline and it's only a week out. 

[Juls801 70]

10 hours ago, Rawan1991 said:

Hello,

My interview was scheduled on the 26th and I just received the notice. However, I am currently traveling and the notice mentioned to reschedule in case of travels in the past 2 weeks.

Any advise?? can I still attend the interview if I quarantined for 7 days and did the PCR (State requirements)?

And if I rescheduled, how long will it take to have another appointment.

It is frustrating that I received the appointment notice only 10 days before the interview date! 

Thank you

I would still go if you can meet the state guidelines of quarantine before your appointment. I'd assume the letter is a form letter for all states and some have longer quarantine times. I'd probably do a rapid test to be sure as soon as you're home.  

There's no way to know how long a rescheduled appointment would take. It's different at each local office. 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Juls801
Typo

[toosweetaggie 31]

Two things:

 

1) Any Houston filers still waiting to hear back? My husband’s status is still “Case Status Updated to Show Fingerprints” as of January 31, 2020. It worries me that is doesn’t even say “Ready for Interview to be Scheduled”. He did submit one of those case inquiries a few weeks ago, but he has heard nothing back.

 

2) His work permit and travel document expires in June. I remember reading at one point through this December group that you would need to file for a renewal. They also recommended filing 6 months in advance. Well I looked up the fee and it is like $500! Is that waived if you are having to do it because you are still in process or they really expect people to pay that?

 

Thanks in advance for your help. 😊

[Ayrton 965]

2 hours ago, toosweetaggie said:

Two things:

 

1) Any Houston filers still waiting to hear back? My husband’s status is still “Case Status Updated to Show Fingerprints” as of January 31, 2020. It worries me that is doesn’t even say “Ready for Interview to be Scheduled”. He did submit one of those case inquiries a few weeks ago, but he has heard nothing back.

 

2) His work permit and travel document expires in June. I remember reading at one point through this December group that you would need to file for a renewal. They also recommended filing 6 months in advance. Well I looked up the fee and it is like $500! Is that waived if you are having to do it because you are still in process or they really expect people to pay that?

 

Thanks in advance for your help. 😊

No fee for renewal. You can file 180 days before it expires.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Ayrton

[toosweetaggie 31]

2 hours ago, Ayrton said:

No fee for renewal. You can file 180 days before it expires.

O perfect! Do you fill out the same form? 

[Ammer 2]

1 hour ago, toosweetaggie said:

O perfect! Do you fill out the same form? 

Yes you fill out to the same form(s). For example if your card is a combo card you fill out both the i-765 for the Employment Authorization and the i-131 for the Advanced Parole and you submit it. We included the NOAs from the previous approval as well. But the most important part is to include the notice that came with the old card. The notice has a tear off portion that states something along the lines of "use this tear-off portion to speed your application for an extension or replacement card". It'll have the card number and receipt number and it was the paper that your old card was glued to when you got it. I included a copy of that with each form.

[toosweetaggie 31]

6 minutes ago, Ammer said:

Yes you fill out to the same form(s). For example if your card is a combo card you fill out both the i-765 for the Employment Authorization and the i-131 for the Advanced Parole and you submit it. We included the NOAs from the previous approval as well. But the most important part is to include the notice that came with the old card. The notice has a tear off portion that states something along the lines of "use this tear-off portion to speed your application for an extension or replacement card". It'll have the card number and receipt number and it was the paper that your old card was glued to when you got it. I included a copy of that with each form.

Lovely! Thanks so much. I hope we didn’t throw it away. I don’t think we did, but we will definitely have to look for it. Glad to know we don’t have to pay that fee though. 👍🏾

[Letspaintcookies 2,310]

9 hours ago, Juls801 said:

I would still go if you can meet the state guidelines of quarantine before your appointment. I'd assume the letter is a form letter for all states and some have longer quarantine times. I'd probably do a rapid test to be sure as soon as you're home.  

There's no way to know how long a rescheduled appointment would take. It's different at each local office. 

I don't think that they differ between states. USCIS decided for themselves to not see anybody unless they haven't traveled in the last two weeks.