International Student apply for AOS

[miro8766]

Hi Everyone , I have a question and I appreciate if anyone can help me

I came to the U.S. with the F1 visa in 2012 and I graduated in 2014. My original visa expired in 2014 and I worked one year with my OPT. in 2015 I came back to school for my Ph.D. which my I-20 is valid until 2020. I have never left the U.S. and never get out of status. My mother had filled the petition I-130 for me in June 2011 and when I talked with the immigration officer he told me that the petition was approved on may 2014. I never received the approval letter and I only have the receipt letter. and the cutoff date based on the current visa bulletin (Sep 2011) shows that I am eligible for applying for the Adjustment of status (I-485). I spoke with the National Visa Center and they told me that they already sent my forms and documents to me. so it looks like that my case in approved and ready for interview. However, since I am in the U.S I prefer to apply for the AOS.
I want to know 1-how can I be sure that I am eligible for filing AOS (Since I am an international student and the fees are expensive). 2- if for any reason my application for AOS get denied, is it going to affect my current F1 status? 3-also, I learned about the fee waiver application the other day and I am wondering if people in my case ( an international student who already paid for SEVIS, EAD, i-130) can be eligible for a fee waiver or not.

Thanks

[newacct]

You might be looking at the Date for Filing chart, one of the two charts that the Department of State puts out. However, those are not the charts that matter for AOS. AOS is handled by USCIS and the chart that determines whether AOS can be filed is here. Every month, USCIS chooses one of the two Department of State charts, and publishes the one chart that it chooses at the link above. For the current month, F1 and F2A are both in 2010, and thus a priority date in 2011 would not be eligible to file AOS now. Note that this month USCIS is using the Final Action Date chart. Usually for the first few months of the fiscal year (fiscal years start in October), USCIS will use the Date for Filing chart for AOS, and for the last few months of the fiscal year, USCIS will use the Final Action Date chart. In this fiscal year, from October to March, USCIS used the Date for Filing chart for family-based categories, and since April, has been using the Final Action Date chart. They will probably continue to use the Final Action Date chart until September, and switch back to Date for Filing in October when the new fiscal year starts.