HopefulForGC

An update: Reply to followup from congressional office came back a week ago with "The case has been upgraded to Immediate Relative and case was transferred back to field office from NBC and assigned to an officer". Today, status changed to "Interview was scheduled". I found an interview notice in documents tab and the interview is 1 month out. I am very happy to see progress, but I am nervous and surprised that the interview was not waived. We had submitted all the documents for an RFE for a bonafide marriage (tons of proof) and updated medicals in April last year before the case was put on hold because the priority date for F2A wasn't current. Hopefully it's a smooth interview. Would appreciate some advice and tips for the I485 interview.

Already submitted to Ombudsman 1 month ago. 🙊 Will wait a week or so before I go expedite route.

Keeping the hopes up. Still stuck in "Case closed". Hope its not some crazy glitch that will put my case in limbo. Noticed a couple others on reddit/lawfully reporting the same thing. The wait continues!

The congressional office sent a reply on Jan 27th saying And today on myUSCIS account, I see that the I-485 says "case closed" but the application status still says "Actively being reviewed". When I inquired to Emma, they said no updates yet and to keep waiting and ended the chat. There are no new documents in the Document Tab, no new updates in Case History tab, and nothing in my USCIS inbox. I just happened to notice that when I checked my account today, and didn't receive any emails either. Some examples of this same situation on google/reddit showed that the I-485 is usually followed up with a denial. Now I am worried ...

Thank you. Just sent a response to congressional office asking for them to follow-up citing non-responsive reply from USCIS. I reiterated that I should not be subject to preference category visa limits and attached the complete package to upgrade the application. Keeping high hopes.

I finally got an email from Texas Senator office for congressional inquiries (inquiry submitted on Nov 26th, 2024) stating that they received a response from USCIS: This is disheartening to see that they completely ignored the request to upgrade the application to Immediate Relative since my spouse became a US Citizen. We sent the request to upgrade the application to the field office on November 5th, so they should have updated that in their system. It has been 2.5 months since my attorney sent the request to upgrade. Part of the cover letter attorney sent: After all this, they should't even be looking at the F2A final action dates anymore, which has only moved up 2 weeks in the last 6 months Not sure how to proceed from here. I can try contacting the senator office again asking them to inquire with USCIS why they have not processed the request to upgrade to IR category.

UPDATE: Not sure if it was the complaint I submitted to Texas DPS office of Inspector General two weeks back, but received a call today from the local DPS office in Denton confirming they were able to verify my documents through SAFE and will issue me a drivers license renewal for 12 months. I also have a voicemail from the office of the inspector general acknowledging my complaint (I wasn't able to pick up the call due to being in an out of coverage area). Will call them tomorrow to followup on the complaint and ask if they had a hand in helping with the verification. Been a stressful 3 months, but happy to receive the renewal.

I will wait for the next SAVE verification and look at my options. The commission website is here but I wouldn't even know how to begin bringing this up to them.

This is a helpful resource, thanks. This is exactly it. I wonder what the latest SAFE verification check will return, there is no way to check the response CODE returned by SAFE, is there?

Ah, thanks for that clarification. That is odd. Before I moved to Texas, I was in Virginia. When I got my Virginia DL, it was done using the I-797. At that point, I did not even have an EAD, only a pending I-765 and I-485 application. They gave me a license for 12 months. A SAVE check was done back in Virginia also, and at that point SAVE gave a date 12 months out based on the I-797. I thought for a pending I-797, it should default to 12 months out from the date you apply. The fact that they won't give me a DL until I renew my EAD or until GC is approved seems absurd and contradicts their own policy. Ahhh. As far as category change, we have sent the letter, but I have no way of checking in the online profile if it has changed from F2A to CR1. How do I check that?

Spouse already naturalized on Oct 25, 2024. We sent a letter with the certificate of naturalization attached to the Dallas field office which was delivered via Fedex mail on Nov 7th 2024. I also uploaded the same package to my USCIS account under the I-485 supporting documents tab.

I have been going to the DPS office in Denton, TX (4020 E McKinney St, Denton, TX 76208)

I concurrently applied for I-130, I-131, I-765 and I-485 in March 2022 under F2A category. My spouse and petitioner at the time was LPR. I-131 and I-176 were approved in 2023 and have since expired already. I did not renew EAD or advanced parole document. The I-130 was approved in April 2024. I-485 is still pending. Hubby just naturalized in Oct 2024 and we already notified the field office to upgrade the petition to IR from F2A by sending a letter. I-765 was a class C09 approval. I opted not to renew because it can take months for a renewal and am hoping my I-485 will be approved very soon, especially with spouse naturalizing.

I am having trouble renewing my DL license which expired recently. I am lawfully present in the USA with a pending I-485 application. I previously had a valid EAD that expired on Dec 18th, 2024 that I have not renewed. I have been visiting the DPS office in Denton County. I initially got my TX DL in July 2023 and at the time I used my EAD as supporting documentation. Since my EAD expired on Dev 18th, 2024, the DL also had an expiry date of Dec 18th, 2024. Fast forward to a few months ago. I have been trying to renew since September 2024 and after 6 visits and 4 verification checks, Here is my experience so far: Sep-24- Initial visit to DPS office, where they conducted the first SAFE verification using my pending I797-C Notice of Action form for my pending I-485 applciation to adjust status. The first stage of the SAFE verification came back with the same date (12/18/2024). I was told I need a secondary verifiaciton, and to come back later when that goes through. Oct-24 - I went back to DPS after results for first verification came back. I was told that the SAFE system returned the same date (Dec 18, 2024) and that a license couldn't be issued at this time. I was told to come closer to the expiration date. At this point, they submitted another SAFE verification. Oct-24 - The SAFE verification result came back so I visited the DPS again later in October 2024. The 2nd SAFE verification also returned 12-18-2024 as the date. By mistake, the agent issued a new drivers license with the same expiry date. Spoke to supervisor at this time and was told to come back even closer to expiry date to do another SAFE check. They told me next time I don't have to pay for anotehr DL because this one was issued in error. Appointment was booked for 11/26/2024. Nov-24 - Visited again. They kicked off the 3rd SAFE verification and told me to come back. Dec-24 - This time SAFE returned a date of January 4th, 2025. I am guessing this is because now it was past the EAD expiry date (12-18-2024), and my last issued I-94 expires on January 4th, 2024 (according to the last time I was lawfully paroled into the USA). I was issued yet another DL with this new expiry date of Jan 4th 2025. I was told to come back on Jan 3rd, 2025 to speak to the supervisor and was assure that this time I will get the correct date. Jan-03-2025- After waiting 2 hours to speak to the supervisor, they basically told me that the I-797 Notice of Action for a pending I-485 is not a valid document. This is false information. I tried my best to explain this to them that I am lawfully present and that the I797C for a pending I-485 is valid documentation according to the DPS website (clearly stated here ). They refused to listen to me and now were telling me that my I797 is not a valid document for extension. I respectfully disagreed. The staff was ill-informed, unwilling to help, and basically told me they will issue a final 30 day extension to my DL and can not help me further. I respectfully said that issuing a state DL is their responsibility for a lawful resident of Texas. They told me to contact USCIS instead. At this point, I am not sure what to do. My DL expired on January 4th, 2025. I have a hand-written extension for another 30 days. I am not sure how to bring it up to SAFE/USCIS about this issue. I have heard that SAFE system is notoriously bad for I-485 verifications according to other nightmare experiences on forums/reddit. I have filed a complaint with the Inspector General of DPS office as of yesterday but I do not expect that to go anywhere.

Submitted a service request on Nov 11th for "Case Outside Normal Processing" times, as that was the first day I was eligible to. Since then, no update on the case, no acknowledgement of the upgrade to IR. I am considering reaching out to Ombudsman office