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Hello everyone,
In our journey of obtaining a marriage based green card this website has been super helpful. This has been a constant location for any questions we might have had and also to be able to read all the experiences which people have shared on here that we gained strength from. We thought it's only fit that we share our experience on here so that anyone in a similar situation could get tips on their process or if nothing else maybe just a good read while they are waiting in whichever stage they are in during their own application.
The background of us is as follows: We are a same sex couple and we have a a larger age difference between us. We have been in a relationship for a number of years (7 years) but just recently decided to get married so as to establish myself and to be able to start a family out here in the USA. Like any relationships we have had our up's and down's, but for the most part our was an established relationship and we had worked our issues out before we decided to get married. I underwent various visa statuses during this time, F-1, EAd, H1B's, PERM. All were done in a timely manner without any issues. My stay here was largely uneventful and smooth sailing.
We got married first quarter of 2016. In hindsight i should have started the GC process immediately, however we debated if we were gonna get a lawyer and we werent aware that it was gonna take so much time. However finally when we started the process and being a same sex couple we thought it would be prudent to get a lawyer. With the help of our lawyer we got the application filed in July of 2016.
So following is the series of events as they happened
July 2016: filed application for GC , work, travel.
August 2016: Biometrics
September 2016: RFE for missing document - obtained and sent the document in within the week.
November 2016: Request to get medical from appointed person , make an appointment with the suggested federal doctor, get the checkups done, everything is normal and the office says they will send me a sealed copy and an open copy for me to keep for my records.
December 2016: get approval notices for work permit and travel which is good through the next year.
January 2017, Feb 2017: nothing happens.
March 2017: get a notice for the interview which is ins the same month!!.
We use march to consult attorney, prepare files and put documents together. Take all possible proof/photos/ affidavits/ sealed medical doc's and practice for the kind of questions which might be thrown at us. This process taught us an important lesson, 2 people who are in a relationship assume that the true intentions of being in a relationship are transparent to the world outside of them, its when we realized that it takes an effort to prove the same to someone who has no inkling about who you are. The interview in itself was nothing to boast of. My husband was a lot calmer and answered with accuracy than me. I was just a bundle of nerves. I was so nervous that i told that my year of birth was 1925!! The interviewer was very nice to us and tried to make me feel at ease multiple times. She really was amazing and during the interview asked us very generic questions like where we met, and who all knew about us, how our wedding was. We had a photo album of us spanning the last 7 years and she literally went through each page. She asked would ask us random questions of where the picture was taken and what we did there. she also asked if which family member was in the picture. Once she was done looking at the pictures she smiled at us and asked for a few documents. I gave her all the originals and she made copies of the same. After which she informed us we were done and she handed the original documents back. I noticed that she took my I-94 out of my passport and she kept it. I was already nervous and that made me even more nervous. I had always been told never to let go of the I-94 and when she took it i asked her politely if needed to have it back. She was like no and that she wanted to keep it. to which i got more nervous and i was like can i give you a copy of the same and she return the original to me. At this point i was distraught cos i was genuinely confused, scared and nervous. She then laughed and informed firmly that she could keep the original I94 if she wanted to. I didn't want to piss her off so i apologized and admitted that i didn't know better and we said our good-by's and left the building. At this point in time i knew i had majorly messed things up, i immediately started to google if the interviewers kept the I-94's and this site helped me get an answer. I was relieved to know that it wasn't a big deal for them to keep the I94 but i was kicking myself for "arguing" with her on the same. Thank god she was super nice about it though. In hindsight , it was just my nerves and stress on the matter which made it tough, the interviewer herself was super nice and a genuinely nice towards us.
I also started to check for status changes on the uscis website, which did not change, i would check multiple times each day and nothing.
April 2017: no updates, only thing that's constant is stress and an uncertain future. Husband was great at keeping things together and keep things grounded.
May 2017: same as above, stress and hopelessness settled in. Read up on similar stories on here and some say that it took them years after the interview, some talked about denials and that doesn't help all we could do was sympathize with them and know we are probably gonna be looking at it being a while before we get an update.
June 2017 3rd week: Lawyer send us an email stating that our I485 has been approved, we check USCIS and we see a status that says a new card is being produced. the next day this chnages to a status that says that the I485 has been approved. we notice that the I130 status has not yet changed and it still shows that USCIS is still working on it.
We dont know what to make of this but our lawyer lets us know that I485 was what needed to be approved to get my greencard and that a congratulations and celebration was in order. Which we didnt delay on
So after a night of enjoyment we talked about putting our experience on here and hope it helps anyone who has any questions. In hindsight the process in itself was not bad. but while we were going through it it seemed like it would never end. The stress is what gets to you!!. A solid relationship helps one get through anything and i am thankful for ours.
We finally commence to starting our life together and live the american dream!
To any one reading this we can only say that hang in there. There will be times when you want things to move fast but itll seem like its taking forever. Stay informed and stay alert. Stay up to date and dont hesitate to call uscis or schedule appointments if you need answers. The uscis people are very helpful and kind and in our case it seemed like they went out of their way to make things less stressful.
All the best!!
In our journey of obtaining a marriage based green card this website has been super helpful. This has been a constant location for any questions we might have had and also to be able to read all the experiences which people have shared on here that we gained strength from. We thought it's only fit that we share our experience on here so that anyone in a similar situation could get tips on their process or if nothing else maybe just a good read while they are waiting in whichever stage they are in during their own application.
The background of us is as follows: We are a same sex couple and we have a a larger age difference between us. We have been in a relationship for a number of years (7 years) but just recently decided to get married so as to establish myself and to be able to start a family out here in the USA. Like any relationships we have had our up's and down's, but for the most part our was an established relationship and we had worked our issues out before we decided to get married. I underwent various visa statuses during this time, F-1, EAd, H1B's, PERM. All were done in a timely manner without any issues. My stay here was largely uneventful and smooth sailing.
We got married first quarter of 2016. In hindsight i should have started the GC process immediately, however we debated if we were gonna get a lawyer and we werent aware that it was gonna take so much time. However finally when we started the process and being a same sex couple we thought it would be prudent to get a lawyer. With the help of our lawyer we got the application filed in July of 2016.
So following is the series of events as they happened
July 2016: filed application for GC , work, travel.
August 2016: Biometrics
September 2016: RFE for missing document - obtained and sent the document in within the week.
November 2016: Request to get medical from appointed person , make an appointment with the suggested federal doctor, get the checkups done, everything is normal and the office says they will send me a sealed copy and an open copy for me to keep for my records.
December 2016: get approval notices for work permit and travel which is good through the next year.
January 2017, Feb 2017: nothing happens.
March 2017: get a notice for the interview which is ins the same month!!.
We use march to consult attorney, prepare files and put documents together. Take all possible proof/photos/ affidavits/ sealed medical doc's and practice for the kind of questions which might be thrown at us. This process taught us an important lesson, 2 people who are in a relationship assume that the true intentions of being in a relationship are transparent to the world outside of them, its when we realized that it takes an effort to prove the same to someone who has no inkling about who you are. The interview in itself was nothing to boast of. My husband was a lot calmer and answered with accuracy than me. I was just a bundle of nerves. I was so nervous that i told that my year of birth was 1925!! The interviewer was very nice to us and tried to make me feel at ease multiple times. She really was amazing and during the interview asked us very generic questions like where we met, and who all knew about us, how our wedding was. We had a photo album of us spanning the last 7 years and she literally went through each page. She asked would ask us random questions of where the picture was taken and what we did there. she also asked if which family member was in the picture. Once she was done looking at the pictures she smiled at us and asked for a few documents. I gave her all the originals and she made copies of the same. After which she informed us we were done and she handed the original documents back. I noticed that she took my I-94 out of my passport and she kept it. I was already nervous and that made me even more nervous. I had always been told never to let go of the I-94 and when she took it i asked her politely if needed to have it back. She was like no and that she wanted to keep it. to which i got more nervous and i was like can i give you a copy of the same and she return the original to me. At this point i was distraught cos i was genuinely confused, scared and nervous. She then laughed and informed firmly that she could keep the original I94 if she wanted to. I didn't want to piss her off so i apologized and admitted that i didn't know better and we said our good-by's and left the building. At this point in time i knew i had majorly messed things up, i immediately started to google if the interviewers kept the I-94's and this site helped me get an answer. I was relieved to know that it wasn't a big deal for them to keep the I94 but i was kicking myself for "arguing" with her on the same. Thank god she was super nice about it though. In hindsight , it was just my nerves and stress on the matter which made it tough, the interviewer herself was super nice and a genuinely nice towards us.
I also started to check for status changes on the uscis website, which did not change, i would check multiple times each day and nothing.
April 2017: no updates, only thing that's constant is stress and an uncertain future. Husband was great at keeping things together and keep things grounded.
May 2017: same as above, stress and hopelessness settled in. Read up on similar stories on here and some say that it took them years after the interview, some talked about denials and that doesn't help all we could do was sympathize with them and know we are probably gonna be looking at it being a while before we get an update.
June 2017 3rd week: Lawyer send us an email stating that our I485 has been approved, we check USCIS and we see a status that says a new card is being produced. the next day this chnages to a status that says that the I485 has been approved. we notice that the I130 status has not yet changed and it still shows that USCIS is still working on it.
We dont know what to make of this but our lawyer lets us know that I485 was what needed to be approved to get my greencard and that a congratulations and celebration was in order. Which we didnt delay on
So after a night of enjoyment we talked about putting our experience on here and hope it helps anyone who has any questions. In hindsight the process in itself was not bad. but while we were going through it it seemed like it would never end. The stress is what gets to you!!. A solid relationship helps one get through anything and i am thankful for ours.
We finally commence to starting our life together and live the american dream!
To any one reading this we can only say that hang in there. There will be times when you want things to move fast but itll seem like its taking forever. Stay informed and stay alert. Stay up to date and dont hesitate to call uscis or schedule appointments if you need answers. The uscis people are very helpful and kind and in our case it seemed like they went out of their way to make things less stressful.
All the best!!
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