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Update: The green card arrived in the mail yesterday - 2/25/25. So, 40 days after we got the approval notice.

Generally medical insurance does not cover immigration physicals - we had to pay for my husband's last year, even though he was fully insured at the time. In the rare instances where people anecdotally get it covered, it is because the physician involved is coding the procedure as an "annual check up" type thing and not an immigration physical, and so the insurance company doesn't know the difference. This is not common, and is entirely up to the doctor you choose - in reality, he is going to get paid a lot less by the insurance company than he would get paid in cash by you. Not very enticing to him to do it this way. Immigration physicals, like nose jobs or any other medical service that is not medically necessary, is an elective thing. Elective things are typically never covered by health insurance since they are not necessary to keeping you alive and healthy. Vaccines, on the other hand, are generally covered completely without copayment and so that could maybe help you reduce your bill, as others have suggested. Insurance companies would rather pay a little to the pharmacy for your shots than have to pay more later if you fall ill with a preventable, immunization-available disease and need more extensive care. It's all about the money, and unfortunately you should expect to hand over actual cash to a civil surgeon to get your immigration physical.

Thank you! Hope you guys have good luck with yours as well!

We were overseas visiting husband's brother in Asia when we got the email notice that his green card has been approved as of Jan 16! Hooray! We filed on 3/29/24 Interviewed on 8/8/24 (that was a dud interview, we were told in December that the interviewer failed to do the separation kind like she was supposed to, so they rescheduled us for another interview) Re-interviewed 12/6/24 RFE issued at interview because we had given copies of stuff to the previous interviewer that mysteriously was missing from the file, so they wanted new copies and I hadn't taken any old stuff with me that day Turned that stuff in via fedex on 12/16/24 Notice of approval in email on 1/16/25. Green card will be conditional, as we've only been married 10 months as of yesterday, but that's fine. As a side note, his work authorization and advance parole card was issued in July, about 3 1/2 months after filing. Our adventure has ended, just 293 days from filing to approval. I know that we are lucky to have such a quick result. Now he's haunting the mailbox waiting for the card to arrive - which is going to take a couple of weeks at least, I'm sure.

You guys are married and have an active application already filed. There really isn't much that could force her to leave, as you are following all of the rules that have already been in place with regard to getting her residency processed. If it was me, I would not fear anything and would not spend the money on classes just for the sake of trying to stick around on a visa that is expired, or will expire soon. She already completed the academic work she was admitted in order to do, so unless she really wants a higher degree then there is no point in going back to school. This is my opinion, anyway. My husband came over here to get his fifth college degree, and did so over a year ago, so he had an EAD that allowed him to work in his new field (paramedic) while still under the old visa. His employer was working on an employment visa for him when we met, but for reasons beyond his control they dropped it and so he was facing the end of his visa and the need to leave when we decided to get married so he could stay here with me. Everything is working out as expected, we are enjoying life as man and wife while the USCIS works on finishing their kafkaesque bureaucratic process and paperwork. He got his new EAD and AP, and went back to work after being unemployed for 7 months. We haven't had any issues, and when the interviewer asked him about the visa, which he told her he knew was expired, she just smiled and said, it's ok, you are fine. She asked if he's been working in the US since then, and he told her the truth and showed her his EAD card (which of course she already knew he had anyway). As long as you follow the rules and do what you're supposed to do, there's nothing to worry too much about. The majority of the new initiatives that Trump has brought up seem mostly to do with immigrants who are not here legally - your wife is. They're gearing up to add funding to ICE (who deports illegal immigrants found living here) and to remove birthright citizenship (which would eliminate the "safety net" of so-called "anchor babies"). All of this is stuff that an illegal immigrant would have to worry about - again, your wife is not an illegal immigrant. She entered on a visa and then got married to you, who lives here with full permission. The new things are not a threat to her.

We filed my husband's all three together at the end of March 2024. Receipt date from USCIS was 03/29/2024. He got his biometrics letter almost immediately, and an RFE asking for his medical - which he did and sent in in May of 2024. His EAD and Advance Parole were approved at the beginning of July and the card arrived in the mail on July 11. From what I understand, that is pretty quick (3.5 months) and some people have had to wait quite a bit longer. In our case, he had already graduated in May 2023 and had already been working on an EAD prior to the expiration of his visa, which was in mid-May 2024. He's still here, and we're about to finish the whole thing... we did our interview on December 6 (a second one, as the first one was not properly done by a trainee officer, according to the new officer who did the more recent one). She approved my I-130 on the spot, but they want a couple of documents in certified form to approve his I-485 which we did not have at the interview with us, and for which they have issued an RFE specifically for those this past Monday. We will get those and send them in as soon as we can, the deadline we were given is in March 2025. Overstaying on an expired visa after you are married and the applications are filed is overlooked/forgiven. Your wife cannot work until she gets her permit, and cannot leave the country until she gets her advance parole, but she can stay here until your case ends without any worries.

I was in a similar situation with ours - only I am the USC and I didn't get my official certified copy back from the county here before we wanted to file. So we filed without mine, and I sent it in when I got it. We didn't get an RFE. We did take a copy with us to the first interview, but the officer there wasn't really interested in it, just glanced at it and handed it back to me. Granted, I was not the beneficiary and we did have my husband's birth certificate when we filed, so your results may vary, but there wasn't any problem that I can tell created by my sending in my own birth certificate after the fact.

Ok, interview completed today. It was an error, but turns out it was the officer at the first interview that messed up. According to today's officer, the original interview was supposed to be done separately but wasn't. Today's was... she took me in first, asked me questions we had answered last time, scolded me a little for ovesharing (she had to type in my answers and I guess they have limited space or something)... then went and brought my husband in, asked him the same questions, took down his answers and then printed both sets out and had us read them and sign them. She went through his application questions... have you ever plead guilty to a crime? Do you plan to practice polygamy? Etc... and she took copies of documents just like the previous one had done. At the end, she approved my I-130 and gave us a notice letter saying that his AOS is under active review and a decision is imminent. Since he was recently (last year) wrongfully accused of something he did not do (he has already been exonerated and the record has been expunged)... it all has to be reviewed carefully and I suppose she couldn't just approve it immediately. She did tell us that she'll do the review today before she leaves for the day, and we'll get the end result notice soon. All in all, it seemed to go really well and we are hopeful that it is going our way soon. A wonderful way to make progress on my husband's birthday 🎂

Here's hoping. Thanks.

Well, we finally got the letter - and it just adds question marks. It is an exact copy of our earlier interview appointment letter - both even say "First Interview" - just with a different date on it. December 6. Same instructions, same note that "if your application is marriage based, your spouse must attend," same word for word except the dates. Well, okay... guess we'll see what happens on Friday.

Thanks everyone for your insight. I am now mentally prepared for a Stokes interview, we'll pass - we really do live together as husband and wife, there isn't much they could ask that we couldn't answer properly. He has addressed the wrong address on his driver's license already, it got changed a few months ago. The house in De Witt County where he used to live has been vacant for a while now, he was slowly moving his stuff out of it and back to our shared home and he made the last trip a few weeks ago. It's a >3-hour drive from our house, so he does it on days off in between his shifts at work. He has been working with the lady that owns the huge ranch that his property was cut out of, trying to get it rented. There just isn't a lot of demand in that area, so it's a slow thing. He hasn't lived there since the end of January of last year, though he paid the taxes on it last month. We spent weekends there together in the past, not recently though since it has been basically stripped out of all of his belongings and furniture and stuff. I know we got married really quick, and we've been slowly adapting our financial lives to include each other - I was 48 and he was 52 on our wedding day, we already had everything set up so now we've been making changes here and there to add each other into stuff. I haven't refinanced my house and really don't want to just to add him to the deed, it's not a sound financial move at this point when (1) no way on earth I'd get the same sort of interest rate (I originally bought during COVID, my rate is 2.875%), and (2) while he has good credit and our combined income and DTI would allow us to pass underwriting with no issues, I dread doing that whole process again. I would, if I thought we were on the brink of disaster with immigration - but even if we started tomorrow, it might not be complete in time for a second interview anyway. I've put him on the tax account with the county, so it will show he has interest in the property (this is a community property state, and adding him to the tax account on my house means he has to sign off on his interest if I ever sell it or we divorce). He is putting together $20,000 to put on the mortgage as a lump sump principal payment at the end of December, he put the funds in a short-term CD back in September which matures in December. He's already on all of the utilities, and I'm on his cell phone plan. Most of the household bills are being paid out of my checking account, they're all set on autopay, but his paychecks aren't deposited there just mine. We do have one checking account which is joint, where we put savings funds for household repairs, car repairs, etc. It isn't highly active, mostly deposits, but it has both of our names on it. We also share a credit card account that we use to buy gas, groceries, prescriptions, etc. and pay off each month. We mostly use cash on a day to day basis, I have a ton of old debt I'm paying off and I dislike incurring new debt - I'm paying off my 2019 car, he owns his outright (bought it with cash). Bills are for utilities, Netflix, internet. We handle our own car insurance and the homeowner's policy is in escrow with the mortgage company. I'm having mutual wills done by my boss (an attorney) but they haven't been finished/signed yet. I'm not sure what else there is to do now... just prepare for the interview, I suppose. We're due to be in Singapore at his brother's from December 28-January 19, so I hope they don't schedule it right in the middle of that.

He was on a student visa, which expired in April... so yes, an overstay. That's what I assumed, just not sure what else we can show or tell at this point... I mean, if they showed up here at the house and he wasn't on shift he be here, all of his stuff is here. He still owns the house he had been living in when we met, trying to rent it rather than selling it. So he's a property owner in a different county in the same state, but he doesn't live there anymore. They were obsessed with his drivers license at the last interview because he hadn't gotten the address changed on it yet, but that is done now. He did an address change with the post office too, gets his own junk mail here now.... those guys really keep up to date lol

My husband and I (I'm the USC) had an interview on August 8, 2024. It was kind of a blah experience, the lady interviewing us seemed to be a trainee (there was a second, older lady in the room the whole time sitting off to the side with a little notebook, she didn't say much just kind of watched what was going on). After handing over various documents and photos, etc, she gave us a letter that said "decision is pending" and told us it would be up to 120 days before we'd get our response. Since my husband got his work permit and his advance parole in July already anyway, we didn't think too much about it - we're married for love, living together except when he's on shift and staying at the firehouse, he hasn't been added to my mortgage because frankly I don't want to refinance to add him and give up my 2.875% interest rate, but he's the beneficiary to my 401K, I was briefly on his health insurance until he changed jobs and now works at a company that doesn't provide insurance less expensive than the insurance at my company, I'm on his credit card account with Wells Fargo, he's on my checking account at Capital One and we share a Sam's account and our cell phone account. I did add him to utility bills at the house, etc, and he has been spending money doing fixer-upper stuff around my older house. He has met all of my family, and we are booked to fly to Singapore at the end of December to spend 3 weeks over there with his brother. His parents are deceased. We are bona fide. We took the letter home from the interview and have been watching the case progress online do not much for a couple of months now... a few minor changes on the "progress" tab showing shorter and shorter decision times, and a while back they "cancelled" the interview we had already had - they cancelled our August 8 interview in September. Weird. Fast forward to today, and we both get alerts of "action taken" on our cases, and upon logging in it says "interview has been scheduled... letter will arrive in the mail." It looks like they're putting us into a second interview? Is this normal?

It looks like his visa had already expired when he applied for the I-485? He was out of status before he applied? In that case, he had no current status to adjust - he was already out of status. You can only adjust if you had lawful, current status when you applied. If your original entry visa then expires and you do not leave, you are overstaying which is generally forgiven if they approve your adjustment and issue the green card. But if you are already overstaying when you apply for adjustment, then there is literally nothing to adjust and you will get a letter like this one. That's what I'm seeing in this letter, anyway.

We had our interview August 8. Prior to that, the only stuff we had submitted were copies of birth certificates, my tax records from the IRS (I'm the USC, husband is the green card hopeful), scan of the marriage license signed by the judge, and copy of his passport. Well, and the passport photos and such, but no other evidence. Once we were married, he began updating his accounts to show our shared address, but since he still owns the property where he used to live (in another town, in another county about 200 miles from my place in Houston) he did not update his driver's license or his county tax records. At interview, we took a bunch of more recent stuff with us - as my spouse, he is now the beneficiary of my 401K, I am on his pension and his life insurance through his employer, I am on his health insurance (because, frankly, the plan he gets through being a government employee is much better and much cheaper than the one my company offers), I am on one of his credit card accounts, he is on one of my checking accounts - and I printed off about 40 photos of us, from the wedding at the courthouse (my family attended that) to just random shots of us around our house. The interviewer flipped through them, and kept them, but we did not submit them online. She was much more interested in why he hadn't updated the address on his driver's license, and in the validity of his prior divorce from 12 years ago. Side note - we've only been together since January, and got married in March. He was already here (we're working on adjustment of status, not a visa) but is now overstaying since his entry visa expired at the end of April. I know this is a little different than your situation, but it's still an I-130 process... Hopefully you can get some peace of mind and not overthink every step - if it's critical stuff, send it in. If it isn't, hold onto it for the interview. And since you're really married for a real, normal reason, your marriage is valid. Having the communication history and travel history to back up your connection to your husband is enough. They don't care who you travelled overseas with, if the intent was to spend time with your husband then that is enough.