I-485 Processing times and communication.....absolute Joke

[Sonata0506]

I am from Ireland and was living here in the US on an L1 Visa and had to go home for personal reasons. My job assured me my visa would be valid when I wanted to return and when that time came they told me my visa was no longer valid. And so the comedy of errors begins. I was engaged to my husband at the time, we decided to go ahead with the K1 visa, which took a whole 9 months. I came back to the US last June and we got married at the end of July. Paper work was submitted in September, which, I would like to add, was a joke. We submitted everything with the K1 application and then had to redo it all over again for the I-485 application. (But that's beside the point) Finally got our acceptance date of October 5th.
I was scheduled for my fingerprints, and that went AOK. And absolutely NOTHING SINCE. I checked the date my local office is working every week, which is updated at an absolutely laughable timeframe. Then at the start of this month, April, it said that my local office, as of FEBRUARY 28 was working on acceptance date October 7th.
As you can imagine, my heart fell to my feet.
I called the 800 number and they were as useful as breasts on a Bull. They sent a file to my local office and said it may take up to 2 weeks for me to get a reply. I happened to get a response that evening saying, we are still processing your case and are unable to give you a time frame.
We are now nearly 7 months into this process, and silly me decided not to apply for my work permit at the time as even more stupid me, trusted the time frame put forward by immigration, and my position is waiting for me at the company I worked for before I had to go home.
I am so frustrated not only with how slow this process is, how expensive it is, but with the dismal communication.
Now I know everyone should be treated the same, but mine is such a clear cut case, it should not be taking this long, we have been together for over 7 years, have owned a home together for nearly 5 years and my husband has been to Ireland nearly every year since we met.
I apologize this post is so long, but my frustration knows no end at this stage
Anyone else in this boat rowing in circles?????

[nicoeppersma]

I am from Ireland and was living here in the US on an L1 Visa and had to go home for personal reasons. My job assured me my visa would be valid when I wanted to return and when that time came they told me my visa was no longer valid. And so the comedy of errors begins. I was engaged to my husband at the time, we decided to go ahead with the K1 visa, which took a whole 9 months. I came back to the US last June and we got married at the end of July. Paper work was submitted in September, which, I would like to add, was a joke. We submitted everything with the K1 application and then had to redo it all over again for the I-485 application. (But that's beside the point) Finally got our acceptance date of October 5th.
I was scheduled for my fingerprints, and that went AOK. And absolutely NOTHING SINCE. I checked the date my local office is working every week, which is updated at an absolutely laughable timeframe. Then at the start of this month, April, it said that my local office, as of FEBRUARY 28 was working on acceptance date October 7th.
As you can imagine, my heart fell to my feet.
I called the 800 number and they were as useful as breasts on a Bull. They sent a file to my local office and said it may take up to 2 weeks for me to get a reply. I happened to get a response that evening saying, we are still processing your case and are unable to give you a time frame.
We are now nearly 7 months into this process, and silly me decided not to apply for my work permit at the time as even more stupid me, trusted the time frame put forward by immigration, and my position is waiting for me at the company I worked for before I had to go home.
I am so frustrated not only with how slow this process is, how expensive it is, but with the dismal communication.
Now I know everyone should be treated the same, but mine is such a clear cut case, it should not be taking this long, we have been together for over 7 years, have owned a home together for nearly 5 years and my husband has been to Ireland nearly every year since we met.
I apologize this post is so long, but my frustration knows no end at this stage
Anyone else in this boat rowing in circles?????

Hi Sonata, your story sounds really painful. I hope everything will be processed very quickly.

One thing you could try is to have your current company re-apply for the L-1, since (if I calculate correctly) you have been 9+7 months working outside of the U.S. for your employer. This would make you eligible for a new L-1 petition. And since the L-1 is a dual intent visa, you can immediately file for AOS inside the U.S., based on your approved I-130. If your employer files with premium processing, you could be back in the U.S. in less than two months.