AOS accomplished, sans lawyer- notes for interested

[perunyc 0]

Hello everyone. my husband and i just had our interview last week and all went well. i was directed to this site by a friend and over the last few weeks i found it very useful. since we benefited from it, i thought it only fair to share our experiences. they seem pretty standard and nothing too horrible but we did tourist visa -> AOS (no K1). since our situation was a little different, i thought maybe this will help others like us.

i met my now-husband 4years ago while studying in peru. he was lucky to get a tourist visa and we were able to travel back and forth to see each other. we got engaged in 2006 but were hesistant to change his visa to a K1 at that time since he had planned to travel to visit me again within the next few months.

in december he traveled here (still tourist visa) to work on his english and prepare for medical residency exams (we're both docs). we decided a a couple months into his allotted 3mos that we were sick of spending all our time apart and we really wanted to start our lives together. so feb 23 we got married in a judge's chambers. we spent february preparing all our paperwork so that we could send it off immediately because he did not want to have any problems with immigration saying he overstayed his time (passport stamp said 2/28).

i will say- i did talk to an immigration lawyer friend who assured us that while it is good to get the paperwork in ASAP, once you are married, the foreigner does have the right to stay EVEN if paperwork has yet to be processed.

snags we hit along the way:

1) RFE for his spanish birth certificate. i scrambled to find a translator (didn't think i should be translating since i'm the one petitioning for the AOS). ended up using an online bid site i found via google search and was amazed with the results. anywhere from $5 to $80 offered. i chose a woman who did it for $10 and she was excellent: alicia martinez davidson, email tomalidav@sbcglobal.net. i highly recommend her. the kicker is- we learned at our immigration interview that spanish documents are the ONLY foreign language that do NOT need to be officially translated. oh well.

2) finding an affordable civil surgeon. it seems most docs become civil surgeons to supplement their income. NYC prices were regularly over $250. we found a guy for $168: dr. jean simon 718.786.0134 and 212.319.7974 (he has two offices, E70 and E63). we had to pay for the mandatory blood tests: syphilis and HIV.

3) medical process held up a little bit because my husband had and was treated for tuberculosis in the past. so no PPD (TB skin test) for him, just chest xray. which can be expensive for someone without insurance. the benefit of being in NYC is the Chelsea Health Center that offers free health care (or if not free, very affordable). since his chest xray returned as having signs of previous TB (not surprising), the doctor there recommended doing sputum samples for stain/culture. she said she was used to dealing with the department of health/government and thought it was really the best/easiest thing for my husband. the kicker, of course, is that his sputum was always negative- even when he had TB. regardless- he did the sputums (you have to go three times total, you can't do that three specimens in one day) and was cleared by the DOH on march 1st.

we had our interview last week. the main thing we lacked was legal proof of our cohabitation, etc (bank accounts, lease, insurance, etc) which are all very hard to establish when one lacks a social security number. i was a little worried about this (and i later learned, justifiably so). to counter this, in addition to copies of ALL paperwork we ever filed/received from USCIS, we brought:

-my journals from my travels to peru

-two photo albums filled with photos from various trips to us/peru

-4 notarized letters from friends and my brother who stated how they knew me/my husband, how they met me/my husband, how they learned of our marriage, that we are a bonafide in-love couple, and that we are living together. two of these people were at our civil ceremony. it seemed the one from my brother was the most important.

-wedding cards and (luckily!) some of the envelopes which were later placed into our file because it had both of our names on it and our current address (only thing we had with that)

the interview was relaxed though i did get nervous when the nice officer told me that we needed something, ANYTHING with our names on it for our file and that did NOT include USCIS paperwork. for anyone else in a similar situation, i would subscribe to a magazine or two in the non-US citizen's name because it seemed that that would have helped us.

she focused mostly on me- how did i meet him. did i meet his parents- when and where. have i met his family. she asked my husband what his plans were for furthering his career here in the US.

she looked at our photo albums for about 5minutes. asked me who so-and-so was a couple times, where this photo was taken. we then had to select a photo to be included in our file. she asked me where/when that was taken.

and then she told us that we were approved, albeit perhaps with the least amount of paperwork she's ever used. the benefit of the interview is that she was able to see how we interact together and that clearly we are together.

to clarify- it is only a conditional residency. we were warned that we will likely have to interview again in 2yrs given the paucity of proof we are together at this point.

the only thing we are still waiting on is the darned SSN. my husband got his EAD and went to the SSN office the next day. that was over 6wks ago. he has a job lined up but they want his SSN to put him on payroll. we've called the office a couple times, included from immigrations office after he was approved. we now have an appointment for friday morning. they assure me this timeline is perfectly fine but it seems a bit prolonged from what i've been researching.

so that's our story. i hope it helps some people! i was happy to have friends and this site to use and save me the lawyers' fees. i know we are lucky in that aspect. i think if you are well-organized and use this site/friends/family you can do it.

[MsAM 2]

congrats and thanks for sharing ... very useful since i am in a quiet similar situation!

[tellemfred 0]

Thank you so much for sharing and congrats! I hope my process gives the same results!

[knowledge 0]

Hello everyone. my husband and i just had our interview last week and all went well. i was directed to this site by a friend and over the last few weeks i found it very useful. since we benefited from it, i thought it only fair to share our experiences. they seem pretty standard and nothing too horrible but we did tourist visa -> AOS (no K1). since our situation was a little different, i thought maybe this will help others like us.

i met my now-husband 4years ago while studying in peru. he was lucky to get a tourist visa and we were able to travel back and forth to see each other. we got engaged in 2006 but were hesistant to change his visa to a K1 at that time since he had planned to travel to visit me again within the next few months.

in december he traveled here (still tourist visa) to work on his english and prepare for medical residency exams (we're both docs). we decided a a couple months into his allotted 3mos that we were sick of spending all our time apart and we really wanted to start our lives together. so feb 23 we got married in a judge's chambers. we spent february preparing all our paperwork so that we could send it off immediately because he did not want to have any problems with immigration saying he overstayed his time (passport stamp said 2/28).

i will say- i did talk to an immigration lawyer friend who assured us that while it is good to get the paperwork in ASAP, once you are married, the foreigner does have the right to stay EVEN if paperwork has yet to be processed.

snags we hit along the way:

1) RFE for his spanish birth certificate. i scrambled to find a translator (didn't think i should be translating since i'm the one petitioning for the AOS). ended up using an online bid site i found via google search and was amazed with the results. anywhere from $5 to $80 offered. i chose a woman who did it for $10 and she was excellent: alicia martinez davidson, email tomalidav@sbcglobal.net. i highly recommend her. the kicker is- we learned at our immigration interview that spanish documents are the ONLY foreign language that do NOT need to be officially translated. oh well.

2) finding an affordable civil surgeon. it seems most docs become civil surgeons to supplement their income. NYC prices were regularly over $250. we found a guy for $168: dr. jean simon 718.786.0134 and 212.319.7974 (he has two offices, E70 and E63). we had to pay for the mandatory blood tests: syphilis and HIV.

3) medical process held up a little bit because my husband had and was treated for tuberculosis in the past. so no PPD (TB skin test) for him, just chest xray. which can be expensive for someone without insurance. the benefit of being in NYC is the Chelsea Health Center that offers free health care (or if not free, very affordable). since his chest xray returned as having signs of previous TB (not surprising), the doctor there recommended doing sputum samples for stain/culture. she said she was used to dealing with the department of health/government and thought it was really the best/easiest thing for my husband. the kicker, of course, is that his sputum was always negative- even when he had TB. regardless- he did the sputums (you have to go three times total, you can't do that three specimens in one day) and was cleared by the DOH on march 1st.

we had our interview last week. the main thing we lacked was legal proof of our cohabitation, etc (bank accounts, lease, insurance, etc) which are all very hard to establish when one lacks a social security number. i was a little worried about this (and i later learned, justifiably so). to counter this, in addition to copies of ALL paperwork we ever filed/received from USCIS, we brought:

-my journals from my travels to peru

-two photo albums filled with photos from various trips to us/peru

-4 notarized letters from friends and my brother who stated how they knew me/my husband, how they met me/my husband, how they learned of our marriage, that we are a bonafide in-love couple, and that we are living together. two of these people were at our civil ceremony. it seemed the one from my brother was the most important.

-wedding cards and (luckily!) some of the envelopes which were later placed into our file because it had both of our names on it and our current address (only thing we had with that)

the interview was relaxed though i did get nervous when the nice officer told me that we needed something, ANYTHING with our names on it for our file and that did NOT include USCIS paperwork. for anyone else in a similar situation, i would subscribe to a magazine or two in the non-US citizen's name because it seemed that that would have helped us.

she focused mostly on me- how did i meet him. did i meet his parents- when and where. have i met his family. she asked my husband what his plans were for furthering his career here in the US.

she looked at our photo albums for about 5minutes. asked me who so-and-so was a couple times, where this photo was taken. we then had to select a photo to be included in our file. she asked me where/when that was taken.

and then she told us that we were approved, albeit perhaps with the least amount of paperwork she's ever used. the benefit of the interview is that she was able to see how we interact together and that clearly we are together.

to clarify- it is only a conditional residency. we were warned that we will likely have to interview again in 2yrs given the paucity of proof we are together at this point.

the only thing we are still waiting on is the darned SSN. my husband got his EAD and went to the SSN office the next day. that was over 6wks ago. he has a job lined up but they want his SSN to put him on payroll. we've called the office a couple times, included from immigrations office after he was approved. we now have an appointment for friday morning. they assure me this timeline is perfectly fine but it seems a bit prolonged from what i've been researching.

so that's our story. i hope it helps some people! i was happy to have friends and this site to use and save me the lawyers' fees. i know we are lucky in that aspect. i think if you are well-organized and use this site/friends/family you can do it.

Congratulations for your interview, ops, his lol...and that all is over now!!! the details are much appreciated, especially that you give unique info that i was searching about the medical.for quite some time) i'm about to send my ds-230 and next step will be that one...and don't know much about what to do)...for which i have some questions if possible:

Bassically, i have to do the same tb tests as your hubby, so how long does it take to do the sputom test? Do you think it's possible to do the tests before receiving the Consulate's checklist of what to do's...i wish to save some time...what other requests they have for this past issue...i had it many years ago as a teen and nothing since but it seems of course the trace will be on the x-ray...The hospital told me they don't keep the records after a certain time...so i suppose i have to do fresh tests..and want to be ready with all the papers...

Second, the translation...i'm a dual and made my BC translation (they ask now the translation to be notarized)...i have the original from birth and the translation was made by the consulate of my native country, not in the exact form they need but with the exact infos...Consualtes are accredited to do natarized duties...so i was happy for that..but still wondering...do you think it will be ok?

Thanks a millions!!!

[silviake 0]

Congrats !!! glad everything went well for you 2 !

I am in kinda the same thing only I came in under the visa waiver program so this is very much appreciated !

Silvia :

[CB82 0]

Congratulations