alliejourney

Finally received the approval notice on MyUSCIS as of yesterday, June 25! 🎉 Now the waiting game for the green card.

I had the exact same situation. Interview on May 5, the interviewer told us he was physically clicking the "approve" button right in front of us. He even told us we could technically travel internationally as of that date, which we thankfully did not want to play with until we had green card in hand. He specifically told us we'd get an approval notice in the mail within a week and a green card within a month. We just got our approval notice on MyUSCIS yesterday, June 25. While I am very relieved, I do wish interviewing officers wouldn't make these kinds of promises, because it causes a lot of false hope and anxiety. I'm sorry that you're in the same situation. I hope these types of threads can give others peace of mind in similar situations!

I'm with you. Feeling super frustrated because husband had his interview May 5 and we've had no updates, meanwhile seeing a lot of people whose approval notices are posted online the next day and green cards already being produced. It's complicated to feel happy for these people while we're still stuck in limbo, with anxiety that something has gone wrong, etc. But it's all a normal part of the process and things will happen in the time it's meant to happen. 💗

SSN may not be technically needed for marriage depending on where you live, but it is generally recommended to do it before marriage and ASAP. Sometimes local SSA offices consider a marriage to be a voiding of a K1 visa and therefore will not process an SSN after the marriage. If that happens, she will not be eligible to get an SSN again until she has her green card. Not having an SSN can complicate things such as opening a bank account or getting a driver's license. All of this is highly dependent on how things work out and where you live, but imo it's better to get the SSN first and not chance it. Our timeline after husband's arrival was: Arrive late at night, around 11pm, on June 16 June 17 - Checked online if the I-94 was updated with his K1 entry. It was, so we immediately went to the SSA office and applied for an SSN. After 2 weeks, the card had not arrived, so we called and requested a new one to be sent. 2 weeks after that the card arrived and we had the number. Mid July - The day the card arrived, we went to the courthouse and applied for a marriage license. Then at the courthouse scheduled a date with a judge to be married, which was a couple weeks out. Used those couple of weeks to do the AOS paperwork and assemble packets. August 1 - Got married. August 2 - Added the marriage certificate to the packets and sent it out. As you can see, even waiting for the SSN still had us very safely within our 90 days, especially since we leveraged our downtime to complete as much of the AOS paperwork as we could. I'm a big advocate for getting that number first because it will give your partner lots of doors for independence, which is really crucial - it is very tough moving to a new country and having to rely on someone else for EVERYTHING from transportation to finances, so the smaller that window can be, the better! In my state, we still had to wait for the EAD to be able to open bank accounts and get a driver's license, but we had the EAD by October, which was a much smaller window than waiting for the green card, which we still do not have.

Interestingly, in the age of everyone getting interviewed, I feel like RFE's for small things aren't getting sent. For example, in our application, I had marked the public charge question 'no' mistakenly, and was sure I'd get an RFE for that. Instead, it was just corrected by the officer at the interview. Maybe it depends what the error is.

You're right, it's hard to say for certain. I'm operating under the assumption that field offices that are slower in general (i.e., publish longer processing times overall) probably take longer in between interviews and approvals/green card productions. But anything could happen, I'm sure some people get lucky and get stuck on the top of the pile in even slow field offices and some don't.

Same here, interview May 5 and have heard nothing. I suspect it has a lot to do with the individual field offices.

Congratulations!!! I'd love to hear when your interview was, as well! My husband's was on May 5 and we're still waiting for even a digital approval notice.

Just an update because I'm going lightly insane and need to get it off my chest, lol. At the time of the interview, the agent told us he was approving us on the spot. He told us we'd likely receive an approval notice in the mail within a week, and the physical green card within 4 weeks. Two weeks later and my USCIS account still shows the last update being Interview Scheduled back in March. (Although the MyProgress tab has progressed past interview and is now on case decision.) I did get a "we took action on your case" e-mail on the morning of the interview, but I'm assuming it's just because it was touched. I know the officer likely just overpromised on the timeline and this is all normal. But I can't help but stress that something has gone wrong! I'd be a little more relaxed but we were hoping to buy a house and move sometime in the summer or fall, which we can't do without his green card, so the more time ticks the more anxious I get.

Yep, definitely felt that way! Hoping things go speedily for you! For us I think it was about 8 months from filing to interview notice, and the interview was a little over a month away from the time of getting the notice. I think Cleveland tends to be on the average-to-slow side as well.

Of course! It really seemed like the officer had already made up his mind that we were approved before we came in, I'm assuming because of the evidence we'd already provided. The thing that I thought I'd get an RFE for (marking no to the question about being a public charge under INA when it should have been yes) was corrected in the interview, and then he just explained the next steps of ROC, and let us know everything was approved. I'm sure it'll be similar for you with how on top of things you are!

I did not do monthly! I just uploaded things as I gathered them. January was when I decided to start uploading evidence, so at that time I did one document with a series of pictures from the time he immigrated in June up until January; proof of shared auto insurance and the joint car loan from his car; proof of shared health coverage once I got that tax document; the transcript from us filing taxes MFJ as soon as I had that available; and my retirement account showing him as the beneficiary. Then in late April I also uploaded the statements from our joint checking that we pay bills out of from February, March, and April (we only opened the account in February after he got a job), and pictures from a vacation we took together in April. I think if you've been doing all of that monthly and showing it's all ongoing, you'll be good to go!

Just left the interview. I was allowed to go in with my husband. The only question we were asked was how we met - otherwise, he went through the series of yes/no questions from the I-485 and let us know he’d be approving our case today! Didn’t ask for any of the evidence we had brought or anything. (Granted, I have been uploading evidence of our marriage and comingled finances gradually, so they already had everything I brought.) All in all, very easy and pleasant experience. The guy was super helpful and nice. Now just to wait for the card in the mail!

@Pase2323 I'd also love to hear this, and also how long it took you to get your green card after your interview? Did they tell you you were approved on the spot, similar to the K1 interview?

My husband's interview is next week and we keep telling each other this! Nothing to fear when there's nothing to hide!