A Polite Parrot

Dream What do you want to do in 5 years? What about 10? Set that goal and map a path to it. And don't be surprised if you change it in a year -- welcome to the US! 😆 With that identified, or at least ruminating, I would strongly suggest continuing in something akin to, if not the same industry that your experience has. It's helpful to keep moving while you have fresh experience! As you continue your career, you will find you can use "transferrable skills" to help you maneuver from one job type to another, or even different industries. Your people skills from your IT Sales may work wonders in the services industry. It can also be a great skill for frontline IT Support, or a team manager, which can lead to a director, etc. Don't be afraid to apply for those related jobs just make sure you tweak your resume to fit those changes when you shift! Research the industry Meet people in the industry ASAP, ask them out for a cup of coffee and ask them about what skills they use how they got there...learn from their experience. This is what the career advising industry calls an "Informational Interview." It's literally just meeting someone and getting them to talk about themselves so you can learn more about the industry. If they're not too full of themselves, they may also ask about you and help guide you a bit! Maybe you learn that the industry expects credentials you may not have, so you will need to complete a course, a certificate program, or a degree, etc. Or it may be you need to get your foot in the door before getting back to your previous position because the industry expects a different skill set than the one you practiced. All this you will learn Create application materials If you make any good connections in the industry, ask them (whom you trust their judgement) to review your resume. Take their suggestions and see what keywords to update or sections to add, remove etc. save a new copy of that resume. Keep tweaking it as you apply to jobs or get more experience. Apply Go to LinkedIn or other job boards and apply. Avoid job scams soliciting you: things that are too good to be true usually are. Continue to tweak your resume and cover letter for those bigger jobs applications. You should be replicating the language in the job posting. Use their keywords in your resume and cover letter. Continue to meet with people and grow your network, maybe study something that will help you in the job now so you can learn more keywords. Resources Consider the following free resources, many thanks to the US gov. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook General guidance on how to find a job. O*Net Explore occupations, their typical requirements, statistics, keywords, etc. There are great tools on there. My Next Move Based on career advising theories and psychology, this tool helps you explore what occupations you may enjoy doing. Make friends with your local librarians. They can connect you to a ton of resources. Don't get overwhelmed and ask if they can connect you with any free resume or job search workshops. Some libraries host these themselves! This is my long-winded way of saying there's no easy and quick way that I know of to find a good job -- it's takes work to find work. However, you must do it. Best of luck!

The passport requirement is an excellent point, especially for those who travel frequently. Regarding urgent US Passport appointments, how reliable are the two options offered? Applying for a US Passport in advance, then calling within 14 days of the travel departure to request the urgent appointment? Waiting until the 14 day from travel to schedule an urgent appointment?

T Hanks. Not sure if I should divide each of your date ranges or flip a coin. 😅 Every part of these processes feel like a rollercoaster creeping to the top. The ride to the top is too slow but the drop is too fast!

I just saw an update to both the lifting of conditions and naturalization applications but these weeks we are traveling around a bit. How quickly are interviews for the I-751 and N-400 scheduled to the date of the interview notice letter? The original Greencard interview was scheduled within a week and a few days of the letter's date!

"My left or your left? ...And why are you watching us?"

Has anyone been preparing for an early filing of the N-400? For those that are spouses to a US Citizen: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-g-chapter-3

At very busy airports where mobile passport and GE share the same officers, they will have the GE folks go through first. My spouse waited in a Mobile passport line at one like this for over 10 mins! Is the paper filing still a thing? I don't think my spouse has anything to fill when he goes.

An update about applying for Global Entry while on a Green Card with the extension: I tried the GE interview upon arrival again (the app still was active since my last try). I had a different officer, and they didn't make as much fuss about the GC and paper extension. I was granted approval and got to use the TSA precheck without issue since then. I'll play with the advice for returning to the US with Global Entry in the future. The approval appears to really be about how much you push the officer and some luck with how much they know that it's OK for them to approve you. Also, when I applied for GE, entering the GC extension expiry date didn't cause any issue, as far as I could tell. In fact, the application won't allow an expired GC so it's either the new expiry date or don't bother applying.

With how many burgers a non-American could be tempted to eat since then, I'd say a size change would be expected if not required.

That first trip with a new technicality keeps feeling weird. You're wondering if the officer will understand the technicality. Having to go to check-in desks are a pain since sometimes they don't understand the letter. For online check-in do you try bumping up the GC expirary date to the extension date? Thankfully traveling with the letter has been fine with CBP. The last time I passed through CBP the officer was mostly unphased but did remak how he is seeing these more and more often. With a temporary extension from one year, to two, now four years it's sadly no surprise for us applicants!

From what I read, you should be able to make updates when receiving the 10yr card (online or in person, I am not sure -- I am still stuck with the GE conditional approval). In your experience, that's not the case? Regardless, I don't understand what the trouble is with letting I-751's be part of the process. It's a stop-gap measure that has become permanent due to the bottleneck of GC filing over a decade. The paper states it acts as the new expiration. If agents are told to refuse approval only because the issue is the technical limitations of the kiosks, then what's the problem with a human reading a paper and scanning your documents like they do with GE holders anyway? When my partner uses Mobile Entry and there's only one agent for both Mobile and GE, they tell me they have to wait for all the GE holders to pass in front to see the agent.🤦‍♀️

The pain is real, especially when you see cases near yours approved. What magic sauce do they have that we don't? I tried easing the pain with an application for Global Entry, but from my reading and latest experience, those with the extension letter seem to have little luck with the interviewer wanting to approve us.🙄

Not I. I'm currently on an expired GC but with a valid 48 mo extension NOA. Took an upon arrival interview for the GE and the officer insisted that since the GC was expired they couldn't approve GE, they also said the lack of a valid GC would mean the kiosks wouldn't be usable. Note: my GE application is still conditionally approved, so it looks like I could retry another time or wait for the 10yr GC. I, too, would like to know if there's a workaround the interviewer can do to approve the app while on the NOA extension.

I only sent one. One of my references was this post that has a poll.

Check. I didn't want to risk the credit card being declined. Maybe that's what happened to your application? Check the forums for what language others received and complete the Fee Calculator.

My case page is the same and I did recive the biometrics waiver. So far sounds like this is normal.

Some anecdotal feedback but sadly a lack of an electronic notification is not a confirmation of non-receipt. We included the e form but never received any electionic notification. We did, however, receive the NOA letters and saw the financial transaction on our bank account.

You will need to wait because you were not married more than 2 years prior to your AOS approval date. See this page for details. Use this calculator to find the earliest day you can file. I'd suggest using the visa Journey forum to get more responses to any future questions.

My understanding is that car titles with two names will also require both parties to take action on the car which can be more trouble than it's worth should one party be unavailable, intentional or not. Throw in the fact that the spouse doesn't have a license or knows how to drive... Keep it manageable and share what you already have interwoven.

Since this is new to you I would suggest using an actual CPA or tax preparer. Use them to learn how to do it right while following along with an online guide. Consider these resources. Without knowing all your information it's hard to give a thorough response. That why a CPA or tax prep software would help you at this stage. Later on you can do it on your own if you're comfortable. For instance here's a TurboTax thread that discusses your questions and follow-up questions. Such as, are you both considered Tax residents in the US? You but not the spouse? Vice versa? None at all? How to fill out the form without an ITIN, Etc. Depending on your income you may be able toused a software guide to file your Federal taxes for free using IRS Free File.

Unfortunately this is in the instructions for the form so we followed it except for the most ridiculous places like address and name.

For many card statements only the primary cardholder appeared so I only submitted copies of the cards themselves where the name and numbers matched. How would the statements confirm we shared the account if no authorized user appears? I agree that full monthly statements (bank,credit card, utilities,etc) are a real waste of energy and also time for all parties involved. I included multiple accounts which lead to hundreds of pages. Our whole package was eighty-something dollars to print and more than half were "statements." I was tempted to write a sticky note saying "I'm sorry to put us through this but the instructions don't say when is enough!" And don't get me started on the write "N/A" or "none" on fields that are not applicable... what Kafkaesque instructions are these? If I write NA on my middle name or address line how will someone know the difference? 🤨 Good luck everyone!

Thanks for sharing that and the suggestion to use the chat. I submitted an address change a while back and I believe I received an email confirmation, but still received the reminder letter to our old address. I wonder how the I751 will do with our current address!