EB-2 Advanced Skills Green Card Visa - My Story

[Spaniard88]

I know we all say this after the fact, but I can't stress enough how useful is this forum is. However, my two cents on how to use it during your green card adventure would be, "take it easy", don't go psycho on this.
I'm writing about my entire journey because during my process I couldn't really find many stories about employment based green cards, and there are always questions that people may have as they enter through this path. Without further ado, here's my story.

Background:
I've been in the Green Card journey for the past 2 years, 1 for the whole DOL + I-140 approval and another year for the Adjustment of Status (AOS). My Field Office is Newark, NJ and my country of origin is Spain. My company sponsored my wife and I in the whole process which was tremendously useful.

For prospective Employment Based applicants. My note of caution:
Before AOS I was H1-B visa and I felt very lucky my country of origin is among those that are normally current for EB-2 EB-3 visas. I couldn't imagine how hard the green card journey would be, and it took me 5 years since I got to the US. I can't even imagine what it is to wait 10 years like my Indian friends to obtain a GC. For those that ask me if is worth the wait, I would say yes if you are really really willing to wait a very long time and willing to risk your efforts in vane. USA is a great country, but I think no country in this world is worth investing 6+ years with only uncertainty ahead of you and your family. My recommendation, do you research, seek alternatives and if after all you still think is worth the wait for the Green Card, then go ahead, it's all tough but possible.
For me it was critical to get the Green Card asap because as H-4, my wife was not allowed to work. And I can promise you, H-4 is the worst visa someone can get. It's truly a punishment because it hampers the careers of these people tremendously. She did an incredible job at keeping herself busy, studying, doing community service, etc. I think this is key to maintain good mental health while you are waiting for a green card. Keep yourself busy. And if you are the H1-B, be the most supportive person for your spouse. Be there always, come up with solutions (not problems), have the infinite patience even during the hardest times. It will soon be over but you need a plan to make it through together.

Prior to Adjustment of Status:
For EB-2 you first have to first do an application with the department of labor (DOL). Because the job was the same that I was currently doing for my employer DOL will not accept as experience my years in the role, only past years of experience. This weakened my application because my relevant in the field experience would then be almost the minimum required, 5 years. Instead, the lawyers recommended to use my Master's degree and 3+ years of experience in the field to apply for EB-2 in the category e26 Advanced Degree or Exceptional ability.
For the job posting phase, it's really all on your employer's hand. Your boss will have to write your job description (including your salary) and let applicants (internal or external) as long as they are from the US to compete with you for the position. The job posting takes 2 months , and then your employer will have to interview (and document) the candidates that applied for your job. Also your salary (wages) for the job needs to be above a certain amount (varies by job category, see prevailing wages SOC). After we filed this which is called PERM, with the DOL took 4 months to provide a response . Sometimes your case could be randomly selected for an Audit and then the time could take a year or even more (https://icert.doleta.gov/index.cfm?e...rocessingTimes). Luckily my process went smoothly here.
Once that was approved I filed my I-140 with USCIS, which my company paid for premium processing. Although if you are doing AOS at the same time as I-140 premium processing may not be necessary, I strongly recommend it because you feel you are moving forward! Then your I-140 case can be approved in 2 weeks after application. I recommend you review this very carefully. All dates should line up with your AOS and your PERM. So make sure all your forms are doubled and triple checked.
My application included:
- Form I-140
- Form G28 (laywer representation)
- Filing fee for form I-140
- Form I-907, premium processing
- Filing fee for form I-907
- Original Certified Application for Labor Certification
- Ability to Pay Documentation
- Beneficiary Qualification Documentation

Filing AOS:
When our date finally became current to Adjust Status (for this you check the Visa Bulletin https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...-bulletin.html) we filed the mother of all forms, AOS. I strongly recommend a lawyer here, because even if you don't fill up the most up to date form or if you fill up stuff incorrectly, this might result in a rejection of your application.
Our application (for my wife and I)
Principal Applicant + Dependent Spouse
- Form I-485, with 2 photographs attached + Same for Spouse
- Filing fee form I-485 + Same for Spouse
- Form G-28 (lawyer representation) + Same for Spouse
- Form I-485 Supplement J
- Copy of I-140 receipt or approval notice + Same for Spouse
- Copy of I-94 + Same for Spouse
- Maintenance of Status Documents + Same for Spouse
- Copy of Birth Certificate/Family Register with English Translations + Same for Spouse
- Copy of Passport (Current and all past passports as well) + Same for Spouse
Dependent Only -> Marriage Certificate ( We didn't have to provide additional documents because we were married for more than 2 years)

We also applied for Employment Authorization we included:
- Form G-28 (lawyer representation) + Same for Spouse
- Form I-765 with 2 photographs attached + Same for Spouse
- Copy of applicants passport biographic page + Same for Spouse
- Copy of I-140 receipt of approval notice + Same for Spouse
- Dependent Only -> Copy of Marriage Certificate + Same for Spouse

Finally also applied for Advance Parole and included:
- Form G-28 + Same for Spouse
- Form I-131 with 2 photographs attached + Same for Spouse
- Copy of applicants passport biographic page + Same for Spouse
- Copy of I-140 receipt of approval notice + Same for Spouse
- Dependent Only -> Copy of Marriage Certificate + Same for Spouse

Application was sent via Fedex on October 16th. We had a tracking number and it got to the NBC on October 19th (Priority Date)

The Wait:
I started being paranoid about whether they received the application or not. According to the Fedex tracking number it was delivered, but no news from USCIS in like a month. I even called USCIS to ask if they had something, but I didn't even have like a receipt number. The person on the phone told me it's normal sometimes to wait a month before showing up in the system and getting notified that your case has been received. Sometimes it may take even more. Shortly after the receipt notice we also received the appointment for the Biometrics. I've seen people that do early walk in. I honestly to date have no idea how is done or if this really helps in your process tbh. A couple weeks after it was done case status was "fingerprints completed" (it only showed this for main applicant and not for my wife which freaked me out, but this is normal) And after we wait... and wait... and wait... and absolutely nothing happens for a long time.

You then start coming to immihelp and see how people who applied after you get more progress than you do with your case. Oh! this person received the I-693 about the medicals but I didn't. And this person has the status "Case is ready to be scheduled for Interview", and yours hasn't moved in forever. All of a sudden your daily routine involves reading 200 posts here, getting frustrated, hating life, and silently becoming an expert in US immigration. I found myself even reading INA about the USCIS, or the last time it was audited. And when your case is about to fall out of the normal processing time and you are more than ready to send a complaint, the combo card normal processing time gets extended even further. Then is when you start to lose it.

Keeping your Job and Joint-Venture Process:
I was at a situation that was pretty delicate. A couple of months after my application, my company announced a restructuring which entailed firing people in my department. In GC through employment there's something called portability you can do after your application has been waiting for more than 180 days and assuming you have an approved I-140 (another reason I loved that I had premium processing on this). This means that if I got fired after the 180 days, I could at least try to find a similar job somewhere else, and my Priority date and previous I-140 and PERM would still hold. But I was only 2 months in the process. If you find yourself in this situation, try to find a way that your employer will keep your job until that 180 day line. It's crucial you make it past that date. Although make sure you give yourself some margin because when I called USCIS a week after the 180 day mark in April, they still told me I wasn't passed the 180 period because of holidays. Go figure if that's true or not... Anyway, I actually did not get impacted by the restructuring which was a relief. I truly thought I was going to make it. But then, just a week after, my company announced that we were going to be part of a Joint Venture with company B, and this company was going to own the majority of the JV. I went crazy trying to search online what does this mean and how could this impact my case. The short answer is that is not a big problem after the 180 day mark. If your position at the new company doesn't change at all it's as simple as a portability, which basically is a new I-485 J supplement, you can even just bring this to the interview and they will process it there. Now if is before that, I'm not sure I know the answer. I'm guessing that if your day 1 is before the 180 mark (day 1 means your paystub comes from company B) it could be a problem, but I recommend to ask a lawyer. My lawyers didn't even give me info on this, because... you know... lawyers. So try to survive the 180 day period.

The Wait part II:
So because I was feeling that my head was becoming more and more not productive always researching and thinking about the same stuff. I found that the best thing you can do is: block access to these sites! I know is radical, but you need to forget about it. The more you let your brain go in circles about it the more it affects your life. It will eventually come... I don't personally think it will come because of God (not a very religious person), but because there's a process and it eventually be your turn. I speculated so much about why my case was taking so long compared to my October'18 peers. You can go there and see my cries and complains.
And finally on May the combo card came. And I think seeing that my wife was allowed to work changed my life. All of a sudden I was relieved... also the 180 days passed... time was in my favor. Sorta...

Combo card (contains Advance Parole and Employment Auth) and traveling outside of the country:
We decided that this past summer we deserved vacation visiting our families in Spain. When you come back into the US with the combo card your process should be fine, but it will take longer than usual with the Advance parole. At the airport they took us to a different room and they processed our entry in a different area (Newark Airport). Afterward we checked and your online I-94 will show DL as your visa. We also did a road trip to Toronto, Canada. And on the way back going through customs they will ask you to park your car and do your interview with an officer. My recommendation here is to check carefully that your I-94 is updated correctly. My wife's I-94 was wrong and the lawyers had to ask the port of entry (called the Canada-US border) to fix the I-94. All these details are very important. By the way if you are H1-B, you can leave the country during the AOS (it won't affect I-485) but if you also applied for Advance Parole it would be denied. I guess this will also affect your I-765 which will be denied as well.

(Part II in the next post)

Spaniard88

[Spaniard88]

Continuing from part I above

Preparation for Interview:
And finally we received our interview notification. This just happened a month after my transition into the JV. So I notified my lawyers (which were my old company lawyers). They told me that after the JV there will be no problem representing me until I was done. I thought that made sense because my old company paid them already for the services. How was my surprise, when after emailing them with my happiness of the interview, they replied back Cc'ing someone in Human Resources saying that they can't no longer represent me because I'm now with a different company. I begged to please make an exception, that my interview was in less than 4 weeks and I needed documentation (the portability I-485J supplement). The answer from HR was this. Trust me I'm very sorry to do this, but there's nothing I can do. Good luck in your interview. And just like that I was a the brink of a heart attack. My problem was that I couldn't share this with my wife because she was interviewing (finally) for a job position in the US. She was freaking out because her career was put on pause for 5 years until this very moment. I couldn't tell her!!!
I'm the kind of person that is relatively calm in all situations so I kept my composure until one night I had a panic attack. I had to wake up my wife but I couldn't tell her what it was. I guess in my subconscious I thought that after all I went through I was going to screw everything up in the last minute. I didn't know many of the people in the new organization and I had to find somebody to help me.

Thankfully I eventually worked out a connection that triggered some senior manager to get company B lawyers to contact me. I must say these new lawyers were soooo efficient, I'm actually thankful it was them and not the other ones in charge of my last step of the process (by the way I'm not afraid to say the lawyers are Klasko Law, they were great with my case). For the portability they prepared:
- G-28 with the new representation for me and my wife
- I-485J supplement with my portability to Company B
- Letter from Company B stating that I was full time and they want to keep me in the company and my roles and responsabilities
- Copy of my approved I-140 and my applications (to take with me to the interview)
Additionally we brought 3 binders
For the applicant with (below when I say +C means Original+copy)
- US Driver's License, Passport, I94, Interview Notice appointment, Combo Card+C, SSN orig+C
- Medicals (envelope sealed and with the names)
- Original Birth Certificate+C (Very Important)
- All Past Visa approvals notices (H1-B, J1, etc)+C
- Old passports Originals
- Educational Transcripts+C
- All Notices of Action we had laying around
- IRS Tax Transcripts (you can order them here https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-tra/no...fIwFxBqPNc2.fb ) I got the ones by mail but the online ones should be ok
- My W-2 + C (this is the money I made each of the past fiscal years from my job)

My wife prepared the same but additionally brought
- Marriage certificate +C
- Lease in common
- Bank account in common
- Utility bills in common
- Beneficiary, Car Insurance card copy
- Pictures (We didn't need a full album like some people recommend, just 6-7 pictures from traveling and stuff...)

The lawyers also coached me prior to the interview and told me it was going to be pretty straightforward. Do not give info you are not asked for. Be absolutely honest, and direct in the answers you are giving. Dress code, business casual.
My wife and I prepared our binders a week in advance and very veeery carefully.



Interview Day:
Our interview was very early in the morning 7:15 AM. We got there by 6:45 AM and there was already a line of people waiting outside of the building. First you go through security (metal detector) We felt a little worried about not checking in by 7:15 but you realize is nonsense to worry about this. Follow the instruction on your interview notice, don't just follow the mass of people, we got in the elevator and a bunch of people went to floor 15th, we were in floor 14th. Afterward a bunch of people were coming back from floor 15th.
We went to the window assigned and checked-in: "Hi we are here for the interview" , gave the lady the interview notice and after typing something on the computer told us to sit down.
We waited there for like 2 hours and at 10 they called my name to one of the front teller windows. There still in the waiting room asked us for a bunch of documents: Driver's license, Passport, EAD, I-94, Medicals, Birth Certificate, IRS Transcripts, W-2, Marriage Cert, and the portability stuff (I-485J, Letter, Copy of I-140). Then told us to sit down.
One hour later we were called again this time by the officer. Very nice guy, treated us nicely but at the same time following everything by the book. (I'm greatly surprised with the professionalism displayed). First thing he told us after the Oath (raise hand and say yes after the officer statement): "Sit down, let me tell you this first, we have all your information but there are 2 outstanding items: 1 - The form your doctor used for your medicals expired last week, you really need that for us to get this done, and 2 - after that is done we will recede the past I-485J and process your new I-485J supplement" then gave us us sign a document that basically said that our case is being held for review. CRAP! THE ONLY THING WE DON'T HAVE CONTROL OVER IS THE ONE THE DOCTOR SCREW'S UP. Alright, back to the interview. Extremely easy interview, the officer went through the questions on the I-485 form. Started with my wife. - "What's your name", "What's your date of birth", "Are your parents YYYY and YYY" , "Do they live in Spain?", "What is the name of your husband?", "Where was he born?","Where do you married him?", "Date of Marriage?", and that was basically it. Same exact questions for me. And then went through the Yes/No questions to which you should answer the same you answered in your form (unless something has changed since then of course). Then Officer told us that he is not going to make changes to our application. He tried asking the supervisor if I could continue my application with the one week expired form. To which apparently the supervisor gave a big NO. I asked the officer if I could bring the medicals that same morning if that would help. He told me please do!

So I flied back to the clinic where we got the tests, told them that I was just at my interview and the form THEY provided was expired. The admin got very scared and talked to the doctor promptly. They told me they would fix it but we have to redo our part in the forms. We signed and wrote our name in every page (again) and the Doc got it all done in less than 1 hour. (no charge). We then drove back to the building with the notice of the interview results that the officer gave us before. Spoke to the front teller lady again, asking her to see the officer. She told us to wait a minute. Came back and told us the officer is interviewing someone at this time. She asked us to give her the medicals, to which I was very skeptical (as you could understand). I said that we could wait until he was done. She said, no, asked me to give her the docs and said that she was going to go see the supervisor. Super came back and told us we were good and that we could go, we will receive a notification in the mail with the results.

I must admit I was upset. I wanted it to be over already. Now I was facing between 1 and 120 day wait. Not again...
Anyway, everybody tried to cheer me up but I was a little upset, so I went for drinks the next day after the interview. Waiting for my friends to come, I checked the case tracker app, all of a sudden I read: "Card in production". Can't believe it... and I must admit... I cried! I was very happy while at the same time skeptical, because I feared something else strike back. Exactly 6 days after that, I received the cards in the mail. Names seem correct and all and I can't believe that is over. Finally

Conclusion:
Piece of cake right? Can't wait for the citizenship process. Well, if you read this long cumbersome text you should be given the green card already. Just sayin'.
This is it. My advise, work hard, good luck and let whatever is best for your life come to you. At this point that's all I was asking for.

Spaniard88

[fdb2171]

Congratulations. I want to feel that moment when I have my card in my hands. Is tax transcript different than tax return? If they ask for tax transcript, can I give them tax returns? Thanks

[Spaniard88]

Congratulations. I want to feel that moment when I have my card in my hands. Is tax transcript different than tax return? If they ask for tax transcript, can I give them tax returns? Thanks

We had both just in case. Interestingly the officer only wanted IRS transcripts (not the tax return). I think the difference is Tax Return is the document you fill up (that form 1040 or whatever) and the transcript is a summary of your tax return provided by the IRS. I guess both are fine, but transcripts are more neatly summarized. They only take a page or two.

[EngineerMan]

Congratulations!

I can literally feel the relief and happiness when I imagine the case status changing to "approved".

Another EB filer awaiting with many anxious moments on my I-485 journey.

Hope you had a few well deserved drinks that day.

[yko]

Thanks for a detailed post. One thing I'd like to add is that not all lawyers are created equal. I was confident that I could get all our paperwork for my husband and I together, so didn't want to use a lawyer for the AOS stage. The lawyer that has been filing my husband's PERM etc. was actually not very professional and was misinforming us. So, my advice is to always double check and also do your own research.

[Enub4]

Congrats. Do you think we need to bring photos after a 20+ year marriage?

[Spaniard88]

Congratulations!

I can literally feel the relief and happiness when I imagine the case status changing to "approved".

Another EB filer awaiting with many anxious moments on my I-485 journey.

Hope you had a few well deserved drinks that day.

Thank you and good luck! How far down the process are you?

[Spaniard88]

Congrats. Do you think we need to bring photos after a 20+ year marriage?

Lol! you can probably draw it for the officer. How's your process going Enub4 ? Any updates?

[Spaniard88]

Thanks for a detailed post. One thing I'd like to add is that not all lawyers are created equal. I was confident that I could get all our paperwork for my husband and I together, so didn't want to use a lawyer for the AOS stage. The lawyer that has been filing my husband's PERM etc. was actually not very professional and was misinforming us. So, my advice is to always double check and also do your own research.

This is so true! I remember that I corrected so many problems on the I-485. It made me nervous that there was more problems in the other forms.

[Enub4]

Lol! you can probably draw it for the officer. How's your process going Enub4 ? Any updates?

Retrogression, I hope some time in 2020.

[Spaniard88]

Crap!! Well at least you have the EAD. But I'm sure you want this to be over already... Best of luck

[EngineerMan]

Thank you and good luck! How far down the process are you?

I am in the NBC, waiting for the next steps to come through.

It has been a painful and tiring journey.