How bad is ROC?

[emekus94 1,125]

Honestly, everyone has hit the point - It's a mere hassle that currently costs $595
But if I were you, with the way pandemic is going and the fact that everyone expects a second wave come this winter, I'll move now
We don't know how the world will look in a few months- we might get another shut down where travelled is banned yet again and your visa will for sure expire then. Good luck!

[HRQX 4,145]

10 hours ago, H & T said:

Any experiences/insight/advice?

Where would you live in the US? Some Field Offices have way longer wait than others.

[wagner17 24]

6 hours ago, H & T said:

We're planning on traveling so thank you for sharing your experience regarding that. I'm a bit worried about explaining ROC. Did it take long to explain or were they familiar with it?

 

Sometimes it can be bad.  We got pulled from the airplane boarding line, the airline let the entire plan board, then we had to wait for them to figure out the ROC extension letter, then I had to go and explain it to them.  It can be a little stressful and doubt starts creeping in.

 

Other annoyances for me about the ROC process:

1. Getting your driver's license renewed with an extension letter but only for 1 year (or until the end of the extension letter)
2. Having to get an I-551 stamp after your extension letter expires
3. Having to get license renewed again with an I-551 stamp for less than 1 year (until the end of your I-551 stamp)
4. Getting told your ROC is pending security checks
5. The interview or worse getting a Stokes interview
6. The horror and stress when you realize that you made mistakes during the interview
7. Not getting one those easy, short ROC interviews that you read about on Visajourney where people are told "I'm going to recommend you for approval" at the end
8. Morose contemplation of what country you will live if you get denied despite the fact that your spouse explained that only an immigration judge can kick us out and it would take years before our case would be heard.

[Pats5415 97]

10 minutes ago, wagner17 said:

 

Sometimes it can be bad.  We got pulled from the airplane boarding line, the airline let the entire plan board, then we had to wait for them to figure out the ROC extension letter, then I had to go and explain it to them.  It can be a little stressful and doubt starts creeping in.

 

Other annoyances for me about the ROC process:

1. Getting your driver's license renewed with an extension letter but only for 1 year (or until the end of the extension letter)
2. Having to get an I-551 stamp after your extension letter expires
3. Having to get license renewed again with an I-551 stamp for less than 1 year (until the end of your I-551 stamp)
4. Getting told your ROC is pending security checks
5. The interview or worse getting a Stokes interview
6. The horror and stress when you realize that you made mistakes during the interview
7. Not getting one those easy, short ROC interviews that you read about on Visajourney where people are told "I'm going to recommend you for approval" at the end
8. Morose contemplation of what country you will live if you get denied despite the fact that your spouse explained that only an immigration judge can kick us out and it would take years before our case would be heard.

These are all true possibilities and I've thought of all of these when I went through the process. Immigration in any way shape or form is probably one of most stressful, expensive, confusing, tiring experience a person can go through. I have had my fair share of sleepless nights of all the "what ifs" scenarios and it mentally destroyed me. With all the adversities an immigrant has to go through to get to where they need all I can say is if you know everything is legit and you have all proper paperwork... ROC process or any other will go fine. Waiting and the unknown definitely is hard and sometimes impossible....but that's part of what we sign up for when we do this stuff unfortunately.

[H & T 7]

5 hours ago, HRQX said:

Where would you live in the US? Some Field Offices have way longer wait than others.

We would be living in Utah. Are you familiar with the wait times filing from there?

 

9 hours ago, Mollie09 said:

 

Nobody was familiar with it. There was a lot of phone calls and googling going on, and I felt like I was trying to talk my way into something or ask for a favor to skirt the rules every single time. Airline check in, entering/exiting other countries, hell, even entering the US! The worst was probably during exit controls in Iceland where I had three people in this booth looking at my passport, expired card, and extension letter for about 20-25 minutes shaking their heads and speaking to each other in exasperated Icelandic. It really felt like they thought I made the whole thing up. I legitimately worked through it in my head what it would look like if I couldn't make it home on that flight. There was also the US immigration guy who didn't believe my ROC was still pending because "these things get processed in three months or less, unless there something really wrong with your application" paired with a suspicious sideways look. Or when I lost the letter and had to go beg (it's what it felt like) USCIS for a stamp, and they only gave me six months because "you shouldn't need more than that".

I have anxiety so that was probably worse for me than most people, but I wouldn't want to go through that again.

Ugh that sounds horrible. The thing is, I'm a certified overthinker and I have anxiety too so I'm relating to your experience.

 

3 hours ago, wagner17 said:

 

Sometimes it can be bad.  We got pulled from the airplane boarding line, the airline let the entire plan board, then we had to wait for them to figure out the ROC extension letter, then I had to go and explain it to them.  It can be a little stressful and doubt starts creeping in.

 

Other annoyances for me about the ROC process:

1. Getting your driver's license renewed with an extension letter but only for 1 year (or until the end of the extension letter)
2. Having to get an I-551 stamp after your extension letter expires
3. Having to get license renewed again with an I-551 stamp for less than 1 year (until the end of your I-551 stamp)
4. Getting told your ROC is pending security checks
5. The interview or worse getting a Stokes interview
6. The horror and stress when you realize that you made mistakes during the interview
7. Not getting one those easy, short ROC interviews that you read about on Visajourney where people are told "I'm going to recommend you for approval" at the end
8. Morose contemplation of what country you will live if you get denied despite the fact that your spouse explained that only an immigration judge can kick us out and it would take years before our case would be heard.

Wow, damn! I feel like I'd be gaslighting myself, wondering if I really do have legal status lol I didn't realize that there are added complications to renewing the DL too. What a pain. And items 5-8 really get to me. While I'm completely fluent in English and don't have much of an accent, I get so flustered during any sort of interview, even job interviews despite having a decent resume and work experience. I made a couple of mistakes during my CR1 interview though I sounded confident enough that it wasn't questioned, but I was just so nervous. Even after I was told that my visa was recommended for approval, I didn't want to celebrate until I had my visa in hand. My husband will definitely be able to relate to point 8 for sure lol my logic takes a vacation when my anxiety comes out to play.

 

3 hours ago, Pats5415 said:

These are all true possibilities and I've thought of all of these when I went through the process. Immigration in any way shape or form is probably one of most stressful, expensive, confusing, tiring experience a person can go through. I have had my fair share of sleepless nights of all the "what ifs" scenarios and it mentally destroyed me. With all the adversities an immigrant has to go through to get to where they need all I can say is if you know everything is legit and you have all proper paperwork... ROC process or any other will go fine. Waiting and the unknown definitely is hard and sometimes impossible....but that's part of what we sign up for when we do this stuff unfortunately.

Yeah, I definitely understand it's part of the process so we can be with our loved ones and while it's all worth it in the end, it's a mentally taxing process indeed.

[Fr8dog 312]

It's about as much fun as a root canal. Not really painful but not pleasant either.

Why would you ever volunteer for ROC if you have the option to avoid it?

Some of the drawbacks of ROC (vs straight to the 10 year card)
- Costs more money. Fees, sending the petition, printing and copying, extra appointment at the field office (time lost and travel costs)
- Takes a long time. You would not be the first one that is still waiting on ROC while the N400 window opens up.
- more changes of your file going missing or pieces getting lost.
- running into people/offices that view the 2 year card as a temporary card and therefor not seeing you as a LPR and denying you things (it's not correct but it happens).

The advantages of going the ROC route
- ............Yep, got nothing here for you!

[Ryan H 3,821]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to Removing Conditions on Residency Discussion.

[Orangesapples 1,954]

3 hours ago, H & T said:

We would be living in Utah. Are you familiar with the wait times filing from there?

 

 

Find your local office by zip code on here:

https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-a-uscis-office/field-offices

 

Then I'd search timelines of people on visa journey and see how long ROC takes for them from your local office. Also search for naturalization timelines. 

 

[Orangesapples 1,954]

You can check the processing of times for naturalization here:

 

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

 

You can estimate how fast or slow your local office will be. And of could, timelines on visa journey 

[Mill&bill 131]

I would suggest to wait till mid january and book a flight very next day from your two year wedding anniversery. I was in same situation and entered USA one month before my wedding anniversery and it costs me more than just money. I applied for ROC and did not get my extension letter due to pandemic situation that waa nerve racking. During this period my father died overseas and I waa not able to attend his funeral because my green card was expired and extension letter was delayed. when I got my visa i thought its just fine to spend extra $680 but its not just $680 its more than money. its pain to collect evidences, its hard to move out and think what if uscis send something to my older address etc. so wait till january. 

[jakelake 222]

If you can wait to enter after 2 years of marriage, I think that is best. Entering with a 10-year GC is the last hurdle. Naturalization is optional and is a much easier process.

[Thegirl 225]

23 hours ago, Fr8dog said:

It's about as much fun as a root canal. Not really painful but not pleasant either.

Why would you ever volunteer for ROC if you have the option to avoid it?

Some of the drawbacks of ROC (vs straight to the 10 year card)
- Costs more money. Fees, sending the petition, printing and copying, extra appointment at the field office (time lost and travel costs)
- Takes a long time. You would not be the first one that is still waiting on ROC while the N400 window opens up.
- more changes of your file going missing or pieces getting lost.
- running into people/offices that view the 2 year card as a temporary card and therefor not seeing you as a LPR and denying you things (it's not correct but it happens).

The advantages of going the ROC route
- ............Yep, got nothing here for you!
 

Ha! Root canal was very painful way way more than ROC

[Thegirl 225]

ROC itself is simple but currently, processing times are crazy in many cities and no way to know what it will be like in 2 years. There's the issue of having to prove permanent residence status once the 2 year card expires and the 18 month extension expires after that while you wait for adjudication. Also the extension letter used to be for 12 months then processing times increased and now it's for 18 months. 

But of course you need to consider the State of traveling and that immigration policies are very unstable currently with many bans and changes happening...and no way to know what's going to happen in a few months. Consider all and make the best decision for you. 

[elmers 293]

On 10/2/2020 at 4:54 PM, wagner17 said:

Getting your driver's license renewed with an extension letter but only for 1 year (or until the end of the extension letter)

I went into my DMV few months ago with conditional GC, expecting them to issue me a new license (old had expired) that would expire with the GC. The extremely nice lady at the counter said 'if you have a GC, you have a GC. We don't care when it expires, we give 5-year licenses for GC holders'. 😊

 

Had I known this beforehand, I would have applied for a Real ID but oh well, at least I might not have to renew it during ROC assuming it takes normal time to complete.

[mindthegap 2,599]

Five and a half years since first filing the first joint I-751 here...and still not approved.

 

Having to visit secondary every single time I re-enter the country.

Having to occasionally explain to check in staff that the stamp is an I-551, and where it will appear in their systems as valid for boarding to the US

Having an extra line on my license with the expiry date of my current stamp - meaning quizzical looks from cops who see the (now long expired) date and aren’t sure if my license is valid or not. Some states only issue a license valid for driving in year increments while going through ROC.

Regular visits to the DMV to renew the above license where they can’t verify your status as the system is down, so you have to come back another day. 

Having to provide current and future stamp to employers.

Having to provide current and prior stamps to unemployment (because pandemic) causing a four and a half month delay before receiving a single dollar. 
Difficulty or refusal obtaining mortgages/loans/finance as they cant comprehend what the stamp is for when I am a ‘permanent resident’.

Wasting half of a passport over the past four years with eight stamps that take up a whole page each...and a few cancelled ones and error ones.  
Having to visit USCIS offices to get new stamps or infopasses, where they generally treat you like scum, that’s after jumping through the hoops for an appointment in the first place.

USCIS generally, and the total lack of consistency, timescales, and accountability.

If something does go wrong - like my crazy ex and a false allegation leading to my denial -  buckle up, because it gets messy, stressful and expensive. 

 

There are plenty of other reasons, but these few and the ones listed by others should be enough for you to give some consideration to delaying until the day after your 2yr anniversary.

If you have that option available to you I would strongly suggest you take advantage of it.

 

 

Edited October 4, 2020 by mindthegap