March 2018 filers: let's share our experience!!

[b3b3g1]

You just have to be paitent I am afraid. The length of time you are stuck on this stage is pretty hit or miss and depends a lot on the cases infront of you. I know some people moved onto the next stage within a day or so, whereas others have been stuck for a prolonged period of time. I was stuck on this stage for abour 34 days.

Hey, I really wish I could help, but trust me I have been seeing cases so weird, it all depends on the person reviewing your case, sometimes there is no update till you directly see an rfe or "interview was scheduled" directly. So when you think too much on the issue you feel like they must be something wrong in your profile, a very small thing looks like a big mistake on your profile, but that's rarely the case. I am sure it is just a matter of time till you see a change in the status.

Thank you so much. Hopefully the update will be soon.

[dlee1243]

Field office?

Field office is Houston, but I thought the national visa center takes care of the paperwork stage? Just worried something weird is going on...

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

Field office is Houston, but I thought the national visa center takes care of the paperwork stage? Just worried something weird is going on...

The National Benefits Center does take care of preparing AOS petitions for adjudication by the Field Office. That is correct. However, I can't help but wonder if they don't see the point in prioritizing a case under jurisdiction of the Houston, TX Field Office. Since your office has one of the biggest backlogs, and it's slow, it may not make sense for adjudicators at the NBC to prioritize Houston, TX. cases because they're going to sit there for longer than a year anyhow.
Your case remains at the NBC at the "Case is ready to be scheduled for an interview" until your field office gives the green light to schedule your interview. Once your status changes to "Interview scheduled", your physical paper file is sent to the Houston, TX field office.
Move if you can. It's going to take a monumental change in workflow and hiring manpower to process the backlog. There are people waiting from 10/2016. Just do a search on the forum. There are 2 or 3 threads of Houston filers.

I-485 pending - is not "soon to be permanent resident" or any status. It's not worth it. Too many things could go wrong. Do not wait for the system to be fixed. It won't. They just increased the number of H1 work visas AGAIN. So they'll add those interviews in front of the family based interviews. Remember, Trump has zero interest in what he calls "chain migration".

That's my 2 cents.

[cali2018]

Field office is Houston, but I thought the national visa center takes care of the paperwork stage? Just worried something weird is going on...

Is your EAD through Texas? they are fastest EAD office at least.

[gaps0214]

AOS c(9) Filer Seattle, WA
PD: March 19, 2018
RD: March 22, 2018
Notice Date: April 6, 2018
Biometrics: April 27, 2018
June 11, 2018 online status for I-485 changed to request for initial evidence mailed
As of June 15, 2018 no mail has been delivered
Online service requests return with a "within processing period" response

I really need an EAD/AP issued because I want to work and contribute to my household. Anyone have ideas how to get things moving? I've read people contacting congress reps and does that really work? Will appreciate some help.

[MzJ]

Help!

My interview is coming up in a week and here is my table of contents for my documents. Please any feed back is welcome.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Original i797c notice of interview

Exhibit 1 ? Copy of sponsor birth certificate,
Copy of sponsors drivers license
Copy of beneficiary birth certificate
Copy of beneficiary i94
Copy of beneficiary passport and visa

Exhibit 2 ? All original of exhibit 1

Exhibit 3 ? Copy of 2015,2016,2016 tax transcript
Copy of 2 months Pay Stubs
Copy of Employment Letter of 2 employers

Exhibit 4 ? All original of exhibit 3

Exhibit 5 ? Copy of Lease with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of Electric bill with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of 6 months Credit Card Statement
Copy of 6 months checking account statement
Copy Of flight tickets with trips taken for thanksgiving
Copy of my Wedding planning file with receipts.
Copy sponsor 401k and life insurance with beneficiary as the beneficiary.
Copy of wedding ring receipts.

Exhibit 6 - Original of exhibit 5

Exhibit 7- Gift cards and well wishes from our wedding.
Photographs for our 1 year and 7 months relationship
Wedding Magazine with some of our wedding pictures
Exhibit 8 ? Copy of divorce decree for sponsor
Copy of certified copy marriage certificate

Exhibit 9 ? Original of Exhibit 8

Exhibit 10 - Backup i864 Co- sponsor signed
2 months payslip, job letter and copy of citizenship

Exhibit 12 ? Court dismissal notice of offense for sponsor from 2004

[kd2008]

My interview is coming up in a week and here is my table of contents for my documents. Please any feed back is welcome.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Original i797c notice of interview

Exhibit 1 ? Copy of sponsor birth certificate,
Copy of sponsors drivers license
Copy of beneficiary birth certificate
Copy of beneficiary i94
Copy of beneficiary passport and visa

Exhibit 2 ? All original of exhibit 1

Exhibit 3 ? Copy of 2015,2016,2016 tax transcript
Copy of 2 months Pay Stubs
Copy of Employment Letter of 2 employers

Exhibit 4 ? All original of exhibit 3

Exhibit 5 ? Copy of Lease with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of Electric bill with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of 6 months Credit Card Statement
Copy of 6 months checking account statement
Copy Of flight tickets with trips taken for thanksgiving
Copy of my Wedding planning file with receipts.
Copy sponsor 401k and life insurance with beneficiary as the beneficiary.
Copy of wedding ring receipts.

Exhibit 6 - Original of exhibit 5

Exhibit 7- Gift cards and well wishes from our wedding.
Photographs for our 1 year and 7 months relationship
Wedding Magazine with some of our wedding pictures
Exhibit 8 ? Copy of divorce decree for sponsor
Copy of certified copy marriage certificate

Exhibit 9 ? Original of Exhibit 8

Exhibit 10 - Backup i864 Co- sponsor signed
2 months payslip, job letter and copy of citizenship

Exhibit 12 ? Court dismissal notice of offense for sponsor from 2004

You have a ok list. 2017 taxes are needed or proof of filing an extension.

Organize it well. It is cluttered and does not put your best foot forward. An example of better organizing is below.

Exhibit A: Keep these originals top of the heap: interview notice, passport and Birth certificate, marriage license, drivers license, original divorce decree for sponsor
certified copy marriage certificate, I-94 print out - proof of legal entry to the US, EAD card, if received, handy.

Rest of the originals won't be needed in first brush of questioning. So they can go to bottom of the pile.

Exhibit B: Commingling of finances: in this order:
Copy of 6 months checking account statement (Do have savings account? If so, print out those too)
Copy of 6 months Credit Card Statement
Copy of Lease with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of Electric bill with both sponsor and beneficiary

Exhibit C: Account beneficiaries
Copy sponsor 401k and life insurance with beneficiary as the beneficiary.
Do you have any other insurance like health, dental, auto, umbrella, condo, renters, home etc that has both the names on it?

Exhibit D: Photos
Multiple occasions with families friends showing history of relationship including wedding. print two photos on one side of paper. My officer loved it as it was super easy to file them. Select 20 or 30 so chosen photos. Don't take 200.

Exhibit E: taxes
Copy of 2015,2016,2016 tax transcript
Copy of 2 months Pay Stubs
Copy of Employment Letter of 2 employers

You will need 2017 taxes or that you have filed an extension for 2017. This is a major deficiency I see.

Also carry a copy of all the forms you filed when you sent the application.

Rest of your items most officers won't care or spend time on it.

Hope this helps.

[MzJ]

You have a ok list. 2017 taxes are needed or proof of filing an extension.

Organize it well. It is cluttered and does not put your best foot forward. An example of better organizing is below.

Exhibit A: Keep these originals top of the heap: interview notice, passport and Birth certificate, marriage license, drivers license, original divorce decree for sponsor
certified copy marriage certificate, I-94 print out - proof of legal entry to the US, EAD card, if received, handy.

Rest of the originals won't be needed in first brush of questioning. So they can go to bottom of the pile.

Exhibit B: Commingling of finances: in this order:
Copy of 6 months checking account statement (Do have savings account? If so, print out those too)
Copy of 6 months Credit Card Statement
Copy of Lease with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of Electric bill with both sponsor and beneficiary

Exhibit C: Account beneficiaries
Copy sponsor 401k and life insurance with beneficiary as the beneficiary.
Do you have any other insurance like health, dental, auto, umbrella, condo, renters, home etc that has both the names on it?

Exhibit D: Photos
Multiple occasions with families friends showing history of relationship including wedding. print two photos on one side of paper. My officer loved it as it was super easy to file them. Select 20 or 30 so chosen photos. Don't take 200.

Exhibit E: taxes
Copy of 2015,2016,2016 tax transcript
Copy of 2 months Pay Stubs
Copy of Employment Letter of 2 employers

You will need 2017 taxes or that you have filed an extension for 2017. This is a major deficiency I see.

Also carry a copy of all the forms you filed when you sent the application.

Rest of your items most officers won't care or spend time on it.

Hope this helps.

I do have 2017 tax transcript. That was a typo.
Thanks for the advice, all I noted.

[dlee1243]

The National Benefits Center does take care of preparing AOS petitions for adjudication by the Field Office. That is correct. However, I can't help but wonder if they don't see the point in prioritizing a case under jurisdiction of the Houston, TX Field Office. Since your office has one of the biggest backlogs, and it's slow, it may not make sense for adjudicators at the NBC to prioritize Houston, TX. cases because they're going to sit there for longer than a year anyhow.
Your case remains at the NBC at the "Case is ready to be scheduled for an interview" until your field office gives the green light to schedule your interview. Once your status changes to "Interview scheduled", your physical paper file is sent to the Houston, TX field office.
Move if you can. It's going to take a monumental change in workflow and hiring manpower to process the backlog. There are people waiting from 10/2016. Just do a search on the forum. There are 2 or 3 threads of Houston filers.

I-485 pending - is not "soon to be permanent resident" or any status. It's not worth it. Too many things could go wrong. Do not wait for the system to be fixed. It won't. They just increased the number of H1 work visas AGAIN. So they'll add those interviews in front of the family based interviews. Remember, Trump has zero interest in what he calls "chain migration".

That's my 2 cents.

What's the process for changing the field office? Could I do it now before the process gets too far? Thanks!

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

My interview is coming up in a week and here is my table of contents for my documents. Please any feed back is welcome.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Original i797c notice of interview

Exhibit 1 ? Copy of sponsor birth certificate,
Copy of sponsors drivers license
Copy of beneficiary birth certificate
Copy of beneficiary i94
Copy of beneficiary passport and visa

Exhibit 2 ? All original of exhibit 1

Exhibit 3 ? Copy of 2015,2016,2016 tax transcript
Copy of 2 months Pay Stubs
Copy of Employment Letter of 2 employers

Exhibit 4 ? All original of exhibit 3

Exhibit 5 ? Copy of Lease with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of Electric bill with both sponsor and beneficiary
Copy of 6 months Credit Card Statement
Copy of 6 months checking account statement
Copy Of flight tickets with trips taken for thanksgiving
Copy of my Wedding planning file with receipts.
Copy sponsor 401k and life insurance with beneficiary as the beneficiary.
Copy of wedding ring receipts.

Exhibit 6 - Original of exhibit 5

Exhibit 7- Gift cards and well wishes from our wedding.
Photographs for our 1 year and 7 months relationship
Wedding Magazine with some of our wedding pictures
Exhibit 8 ? Copy of divorce decree for sponsor
Copy of certified copy marriage certificate

Exhibit 9 ? Original of Exhibit 8

Exhibit 10 - Backup i864 Co- sponsor signed
2 months payslip, job letter and copy of citizenship

Exhibit 12 ? Court dismissal notice of offense for sponsor from 2004

I agree with KD2008. It needs to be reorganized. My observations/suggestions:

1. Organize original civil documents in a folder/binder and the evidence of bona fide marriage in another folder.
2. This looks more like a list than a table of contents with brief explanations of what the evidence is proof of. Yes, it seems redundant. But you've seen how people have fared when they end up having to turn in their evidence at the interview without a clear explanation of what it is. Without explanations, you're just throwing papers at the ISO, and expecting him/her to connect the dots. Your removal of conditions will have to be that detailed to be approved. So you might as well start now and get some practice crafting a Table of Contents that would hold up in court, in case things go South.


"Evidence of cohabitation
- Copy of lease agreement listing Joe Smoke (Petitioner) & Jane Doe-Smoke as joint tenant at 9999 Minnesota Ave S #1 Brainerd, MN 55111, since January 8th, 2018 (4 pages)

* if one of you moved into your spouse's place, there might be a gap in living arrangements. You should explain it on the table of contents. Jane Doe-Smoke was added to the lease agreement on MM/DD/YY.

I am going to stop here, because it does not have structure.I think you need to review the Table of contents I submitted with my AOS package, and the one from v1sa j0urney.

My table of contents here:

https://www.immihelp.com/forum/showthread.php/239496-What-documents-to-bring-to-a-marriage-based-green-card-interview

Happychic's table of contents here:

https://www.immihelp.com/forum/showthread.php/239692-Interview-documents/page4

Use those two tables as a guide to structure yours. Yes, it's tedious to write full sentences, but if you end up not being present when your case is adjudicated, that uber detailed Table of contents speaks for you.

You should also state if you have any concerns. Short engagement? Got married and filed right away? Visa overstay? Did you front-load your evidence?
Each one of those situations calls for evidence that you can emphasize to dissipate any suspicions of fraud that the ISO may have before even meeting you?

[MzJ]

Another go at this content!

I came here on a b1-b2 visa, and I did overstay.
My husband propose to me December 2016 and that is 2 months after we met. We were engaged for 1 year and 1 month before we got married on February 24, 2018.
We lived together for exactly 1year and 7months. I do not have a ssn so I'm very limited to what i can documented I can be on.
Here is an update of my contents.

Exhibit A
Original Documents and Copies

Interview Notice
New Passport
B1-B2 Visa
Old Passport
Birth Certificate (both sponsor and beneficiary)
Certified Marriage License
Drivers License (Sponsor)
Divorce Decree for sponsor
I-94 ( Proof of legal entry)


Exhibit B
Updated 1864 Documents

a) 2015, 2016, 2017 tax transcript
b) copy of last 2months paystubs ( original and copies)
c) Employment Letter of 2 employers
d) Additional sponsor i864 and required documents

Exhibit C
Evidence of Cohabitation

e) Proof of joint lease information for current address
f) UPS joint membership information
g) Proof of joint accounts Costco membership
h) Proof of mail delivered to both of us at the same address
i) Proof of mails for old address where we lived together for a year

Exhibit D
Evidence of commingling of financial resources

j) Proof of being beneficiary on sponsors life insurance.
k) Proof of being beneficiary for sponsors 401k.
l) Proof of money paid for joint expenses like rent, utilities, etc from January to May.
m) Joint checking accounts. ( 6 months statement detailed)
n) Proof of joint savings account. ( 2 months statement) only get these every 3 months
o) Proof of sponsor being the added user on beneficiary credit card. ( 6 months statement detailed with each individual spending)
p) Copy of Electric bill with both sponsor and beneficiary

Exhibit E
Evidence of relationship

q) Sworn affidavits from family as proof of bona fide marriage
r) Flight tickets with trip taken together for Thanksgiving and pictures to match
s) Copy of wedding pictures with friends and family (15 pages)
t) Receipts with sponsor and beneficiary name for furniture for our home. ( original and copy)

[kd2008]

I came here on a b1-b2 visa, and I did overstay.
My husband propose to me December 2016 and that is 2 months after we met. We were engaged for 1 year and 1 month before we got married on February 24, 2018.
We lived together for exactly 1year and 7months. I do not have a ssn so I'm very limited to what i can documented I can be on.
Here is an update of my contents.

Exhibit A
Original Documents and Copies

Interview Notice
New Passport
B1-B2 Visa
Old Passport
Birth Certificate (both sponsor and beneficiary)
Certified Marriage License
Drivers License (Sponsor)
Divorce Decree for sponsor
I-94 ( Proof of legal entry)


Exhibit B
Updated 1864 Documents

a) 2015, 2016, 2017 tax transcript
b) copy of last 2months paystubs ( original and copies)
c) Employment Letter of 2 employers
d) Additional sponsor i864 and required documents

Exhibit C
Evidence of Cohabitation

e) Proof of joint lease information for current address
f) UPS joint membership information
g) Proof of joint accounts Costco membership
h) Proof of mail delivered to both of us at the same address
i) Proof of mails for old address where we lived together for a year

Exhibit D
Evidence of commingling of financial resources

j) Proof of being beneficiary on sponsors life insurance.
k) Proof of being beneficiary for sponsors 401k.
l) Proof of money paid for joint expenses like rent, utilities, etc from January to May.
m) Joint checking accounts. ( 6 months statement detailed)
n) Proof of joint savings account. ( 2 months statement) only get these every 3 months
o) Proof of sponsor being the added user on beneficiary credit card. ( 6 months statement detailed with each individual spending)
p) Copy of Electric bill with both sponsor and beneficiary

Exhibit E
Evidence of relationship

q) Sworn affidavits from family as proof of bona fide marriage
r) Flight tickets with trip taken together for Thanksgiving and pictures to match
s) Copy of wedding pictures with friends and family (15 pages)
t) Receipts with sponsor and beneficiary name for furniture for our home. ( original and copy)

Looks much more polished and thoughtfully put together. Addresses all the main things USCIS looks for. I would make Joint checking and savings the first two items in Exhibit D.

[MzJ]

Looks much more polished and thoughtfully put together. Addresses all the main things USCIS looks for. I would make Joint checking and savings the first two items in Exhibit D.

Thank you and noted.
I will make changes.

[brighteyes12]

Looks much more polished and thoughtfully put together. Addresses all the main things USCIS looks for. I would make Joint checking and savings the first two items in Exhibit D.

Hi kd2008,

Can you share your expedition story with me if you don?t mind? I?m on the day 60 and I really need to work, got an interview today and there is a possible job offer out of it. How can I use it and what else would I need to expedite my ead

Thank you

[sinoptola]

on spot interview approval

Hi All,

Just wanna share a happy news to March filer that we got our interview done last friday and our application is approved on the spot.
See this thread for my experience.

https://www.immihelp.com/forum/showthread.php/241045-happy-to-share-my-on-spot-interview-approval