dmitrych

Hi everyone, for those who have an option of Adjustment of Status after receiving DS-5535, I'm happy to report that my experiment is over: I applied for AOS on February 26, and it got approved today. My original interview at the consulate was on September 18, 2023 (details are in the spreadsheet), which means by now I would've probably been approved at the consulate as well. So it appears AOS didn't save time in my case, but it did save money on airplane tickets, and it was a safer option for me. I could find only one other report in the whole internet of what happens with AOS after DS-5535, so I hope my report will be helpful. Feel free to ask me privately to keep this thread on topic.

I received an interesting response from the consulate today that might be relevant for people in DS-5535 who are considering AOS. For context, I've been in DS-5535 processing since September, recently I applied for AOS from within the US (based on my L1 status) and sent a message to the consulate to withdraw the case from the consulate so that it can continue to be processed as AOS instead. After almost a month, this was their response: "Thank you for contacting us regarding this matter. As soon as your I-485 petition is approved by DHS, please send us a copy of your approval notice so we can return your case to USCIS to be processed there. Regards, OP03" I'm not sure if they actually meant I-485 *receipt* notice... Since I-485 approval happens after all the processing is done, so what they said doesn't seem to make sense. I guess I'll send them the receipt notice just in case. Just sharing my experience.

I started the process of sponsoring my wife for a Canadian permanent residency in 2019, she received it in less than a year, and now she already got her Canadian citizenship at the beginning of 2024. I prepared all her Canadian and my US immigration forms by myself, and I think the Canadian process is simpler, faster and has much more predictable timing. In the US, no matter whether you apply for green card through consular processing or AOS, you have no clue how much you'll have to wait. (While it's useful for the participants of this thread to know of alternatives, feel free to ask any remaining questions in a DM to me, so that we don't derail the thread).

Ah, so that's probably why. I never heard of border officers issuing DS-5535. I myself got an L1 status similarly as a Canadian at the border. And then in a few months I got DS-5535 at the consulate for the IR1 visa, so I suspect I would've also gotten DS-5535 if I chose to go to a consulate for my L1 visa. Their processes are a big mess that doesn't make sense - the consulate issues DS-5535 while the border officers don't.

Wait, so you already have H1B visa in your passport, and it didn't end up with DS5535? If so, that's interesting, because the opinions I heard before is that if someone ended up with DS5535 for one visa, they will get it for any other consulate-issued visa too. Edit: ah wait, you were never technically asked the DS-5535 form, right? You mentioned before that you sent it on your own, so it's not clear whether they actually needed it in the first place?

I'm not sure why you state it with such certainty (there's a mess with all the DS-5535 form variations, so maybe there's a variation that does ask for MTL consulate case number), but both the PDF DS-5535 and the forms.office.com link that Montreal consulate sent me do ask for the DS-260 barcode number. The MTL case number is not what they call the "barcode number".

I find the wording really weird, "you have not established that you are eligible for a visa" - as if it's our fault they haven't finished their security checks. They're really bending the meaning here, abusing the wording that was originally meant only for exceptional cases, and making a mess by claiming that 221(g) AP is the "final denial" of a visa. All of that only so that they can avoid the responsibility when sued and ignore the 221(g) AP cases when publicly praising their efforts in reducing the processing times..

Was there any other recent activity on your case? Any notifications from the consulate? Or did you notice it's reopened only because you logged into your account? As Leo The Great said, when the consulate is ready to finish the processing, they ask to update the DS-260 if it's older than a year (for which your DS-260 has to be reopened). I don't recall anyone in this topic mentioning DS-260 being reopened without any other activity though.