Green Card was approved in 3 months, my AOS story

[Cystash 15]

On 9/28/2020 at 1:40 PM, itscarly said:

Hi! I used a lot of vj information to filed for aos and I wanted to share with you my experience and my aos package.

 

I'm from Argentina and I came to America in November with a J1 visa (summer work travel program), after dating my husband for a year, we got married on May 7th. According to my visa, I had to go back home before June 30th and even though I married a US citizen and I knew if I overstayed it was going to be waived, I was still so worried that I filed for AoS asap (June 19th).

A few things I'm going to say before I talk about my application is that I think 50% was pure luck, it was filing at the right time and date. The other 50% making sure nothing in my application could make the officer doubt and ask for more information or evidence. I made sure everything was disclosed and explained, it must have been either a pain in the ### or a blessing for whoever that took my case cause it was 400 pages long lol. Also the fact that my office was Reno helped a lot, I went twice for biometrics and interview and there was no one, the parking lot was empty, so they're pretty low on cases there. I didn't get help from a lawyer 'cause I considered my case was simple, it wasn't worth the money, we were on lockdown so I didn't have much else to do but getting obsessed with sending the perfect application, visiting hundreds of VJs topics and watching youtube videos. 

 

Another thing, specifically for I130 is that I was scared because my husband and I are in our early 20s, we got married a year after meeting each other, 7 months out of those 12 we were in a long distance relationship, he still lived with his parents, we both had part time jobs, we don't own anything, so we had to prove our love by telling them our story. How meant to be we are, how we clicked instantly, how we talked 3 hours a day every day, how I told him he could come to visit me and the next day he went to get his passport and bought flight tickets to see me, how we can't imagine being away from each other, that we did it for 7 months and we don't want to do it ever again, how we have plans for the future, etc. Our bonafide evidence was full of stories and we attached them with tickets, passes, reservations, photos, invitations. By the time of the interview we did gather a lot of primary evidence and the officer that interviewed us was more than pleased.

 

 

 

This was my package main cover letter

 

 

I had to explain a few things when I filed:

1. During a road trip all my forms of identification were stolen, so I lost my passport with my visa stamp and my country ids. Thankfully, I was able to get an emergency passport and sent that in the package with an explanation of what happened and secondary proof that I was here legally such as letters from my sponsors, employers, job reviews and flight tickets.

 

2. I was given an extension of my visa because of the pandemic, so I sent a letter from my sponsor that explains the extension and extra information on why I was given this extension (the borders of my country were closed and all my flights were canceled)

 

3. My husband was a dependent of him mom for 2017 tax returns so we wrote a letter that his mom signed.

 

4. I944 was intense haha, we couldn't get IRS transcripts before sending the application because at that time IRS offices were closed, so we sent the biggest WE TRIED letter, where we stated that we received no answer from IRS so we were going to send 1040s and W2s.

 

5. We didn't have a credit score or report because none of us has credit cars, loans, car, leases, anything. We're still pretty young and we haven't thought all that out yet (we should soon). So we explained that, we sent transunion letter saying we didn't have any of that, screenshots of the experian website saying they couldn't find me and I tried to get a credit card online and I didn't qualified.

 

6. For Education, I did an evaluation of my college transcripts with a NACES authorized agency (IEE), also I graduated from college but I came to America before i could sign my diploma so I don't have my diploma with me and that's the way I can prove I graduated, what I sent to prove I graduated was a certified letter by my college that stated that I did in fact finish college. The evaluation agency wrote that my degree was incomplete because they didn't accept the certified letter but I sent everything in my I944, cause why not.

 

7.I didn't send proof I know how to speak Spanish because that's my native language and in my transcripts from school we don't call Spanish classes that, we call them Language classes. I wrote a letter swearing I know Spanish and that's it.

 

When I filed I was afraid that my husband's tax return were going to look bad, because in 2019 he made a little over the percentage he had to make to sponsor me, in 2018 he made half of that percentage and in 2017 he was a minor and was a dependent of his mom. Still I sent all that information because if I disclosed it first it means I'm ahead of any questions they can ask us. That's just my mindset, I know a lot of people believe it's better to just put the last tax return information and that's fine. Also when we filed, my husband was unemployed and so was I (pandemic related), so we sent his last pay stubs and that's all. (He did have a part time job but that didn't make enough to support me at that time and he didn't file for unemployment)

 

Another thing is that (PLEASE DONT DO IT) I worked in the past unauthorized, this was way before I met my husband and I didn't think of the consequences, I had no idea at some point it could come back to bite me. So, I disclosed it, I said from what date to what date and in I485 I said yes to working unauthorized and violating the terms of conditions of my nonimmigrant status.

 

 

So this was my timeline

 

 

and here's what I sent the June 2020 filers group and hour after the interview:

 

 

 

And that's it. Right now, I have a job offer and I'm waiting for my green card to arrive. I'm excited about the winter, being with my husband without having to think of visas, uscis, forms, is great. I did get only the conditional green card, so in 2 years I'll have to do this again hahah.

 

I hope this long post helps you, please let me know if you have any questions, this was my experience, probably had a few mistakes, it's not perfect, I was just very lucky this process went as smoothly as it did. Thank you thank you thank you VJ members for answering all my questions and giving me so much information!

 

 

 

 

Woow congrats. Did they asknfor form i-693. The exam media form? 

[itscarly 114]

7 minutes ago, Cystash said:

Woow congrats. Did they asknfor form i-693. The exam media form? 

Thank you! I sent the medical examination with the AoS package 

[Bigtuna 34]

Wow congrats. Seeing this Im now considering moving to Reno for a few months 😂😂

[panamania79 2]

Congratulations on the speedy approval,I'm truly impressed!

[pablo2752 106]

Do you remember what kind of questions they asked regarding I-944? 

You are the first person I saw that filed AOS after the public charge rule has gone into effect and got approved. 

[IJJ 18]

Double congratulations! So glad this went so smooth for you!! 

[itscarly 114]

42 minutes ago, pablo2752 said:

Do you remember what kind of questions they asked regarding I-944? 

You are the first person I saw that filed AOS after the public charge rule has gone into effect and got approved. 

He went through the pages, read them and then made me sign at the end of the form that we didn’t make any changes during the interview, he didn’t ask anything from it. 

[Baba+7917 0]

Thank you so much for sharing! This post has given me so much hope haha!

 

You mentioned that your husband was unemployed at the time you filed and his 2019 tax return had enough to support you. May I ask you how you filled out the I-864 with your situation? Did you provide any assets or a co-sponsor? Did they ask you about you guys' income or your husband's unemployment at the interview?

 

 

The reason I am asking is that my husband(USC) and I(immigrant) are in a similar situation. He is currently unemployed but his 2019 tax return had enough for i864. We don't have any asset (we are quite young as well). Can't find co-sponsors either. I am currently making enough so we plan to use my income for i864. I am very worried that that this will cause an issue. 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Baba+7917

[itscarly 114]

31 minutes ago, Baba+7917 said:

Thank you so much for sharing! This post has given me so much hope haha!

 

You mentioned that your husband was unemployed at the time you filed and his 2019 tax return had enough to support you. May I ask you how you filled out the I-864 with your situation? Did you provide any assets or a co-sponsor? Did they ask you about you guys' income or your husband's unemployment at the interview?

 

 

The reason I am asking is that my husband(USC) and I(immigrant) are in a similar situation. He is currently unemployed but his 2019 tax return had enough for i864. We don't have any asset (we are quite young as well). Can't find co-sponsors either. I am currently making enough so we plan to use my income for i864. I am very worried that that this will cause an issue. 

We didn’t have any assets or co sponsor, we just sent what we had: his tax return and his recent pay stubs. He lost his job in March and got it back mid June (Pandemic related). So we sent December, January, February and March pay stubs with the original application.

For our interview we had new pay stubs from July, August and September, and a letter of employment but the officer didn’t ask for them. He did ask my husband what his current job was but that’s it. 

[Baba+7917 0]

10 minutes ago, itscarly said:

We didn’t have any assets or co sponsor, we just sent what we had: his tax return and his recent pay stubs. He lost his job in March and got it back mid June (Pandemic related). So we sent December, January, February and March pay stubs with the original application.

For our interview we had new pay stubs from July, August and September, and a letter of employment but the officer didn’t ask for them. He did ask my husband what his current job was but that’s it. 

Oh gotcha. So it seems that you guys sent it out when your husband got employeed again? 

[Patrick Lee 8]

Waooo...waoooo....waoooo, as fast as a jet liner. Lucky u. With a basket of all those documents u tendered, which officer will not be scared to the marrows reading them. You were quite prepared. I have been waiting for my 10 years green card since I filed for the change of conditional residence from two year GC, for 4 years now. Quite a long delay, my Attorney advised me to go ahead and file for my citizenship. Just put all my docs ready this week and filing this Oct, 2020. Some are lucky on this journey while some aren't.

 

Once again lucky woman, kudos and welcome to the US and do enjoy your man!

[Ansbekk 46]

Congratulations!

I happen to be in a similar situation except I only knew my spouse for 3 months to be exact and took 2 month for the approval.

I was on OPT at time after graduation.

I met her in  April and we got married in July and filled in November of 2017.

My AOS was approved 2/2 the following year exactly 2 months!

 

[PhoenixNiro 83]

CONGRATS!!!! It's nice to hear we aren't the only ones in our early 20s (and that certainly brings its own issues with credit history, work history, etc.). Your story is inspiring....thanks for sharing!

[itscarly 114]

10 hours ago, Baba+7917 said:

Oh gotcha. So it seems that you guys sent it out when your husband got employeed again? 

Yes, our worry was that he was unemployed literally a week before, we couldn’t send pay stubs from June and before that he was working 3 part time jobs, it was so inconsistent. And I see on vj a lot of: what matters is your current income and having a stable job. But I guess not for my case

[Beyance 0]

Do you know if it’s mandatory to take a medical exams before filing?