Guest

Hi there,

While surfing the web I came across this great forum. Before I start,
let me take a moment to thank the host, webmaster and the users of
this forum.

I am an alien in US, married to a USC. I applied for AOS and EAD along
with my spouse's I-130 petition at our Local INS Office in Charlotte,
NC. Following is our timeline so far:

XX Jan. 2003 : Mailed I-130, I-485, I-765, I-864 and I- 693 by
Priority Mail.

XX Feb. 2003 : INS withdraws the applications' money from our bank. We
sent the fee amount using checks, so that we could track transactions.
It took 26 days including weekends. We requested our bank to send us the
transaction record, which showed us that the checks were cashed by INS
Williston, VT ...for credit to the U.S. Treasury.

XX Feb. 2003 : We were worried because we still hadn't heard anything
from INS. However we are releived that our applications has been
accepted by INS, since they withdrew the money.

We called INS at 1800# and we were advised that, "we MAY NOT receive any
notice or receipt etc. until INS has a decision on my EAD application.
The first thing we'd hear PROBABLY would be the fingerprinting notice."

Upon asking, "How much time it will take, before we hear anything from
Charlotte office?" We were answered that. " Generally it 90 days but for
SOME REASON at INS Charlotte it might take up to 4 months "

Our next question was about the interim Work Permit and response to
which was that we should wait upto 4 months before we should request INS
Charlotte for an interim EAD.

My question is,

#1. Isn't it true that if INS doen't decide on an EAD application with
# in 90 days, one may go to District Office in person to get an
# interim EAD?

#2. Is it correct that the Distrtict office for NC residents is in
# Atlanta or can one get interim EAD at Charlotte office?

Finally here we are after more than 7 weeks of applying AOS/EAD still
waiting to hear from them. I hope that this wait will end soon.

In the mean while we sent them a letter asking about our case status,
answer to which we don't expect. We sent them the enquiry by
certified mail.

Any ideas what to do next? Has somebody applied at INS Charlotte around
same time period. It'll be great if you could share your experience
dealing with INS Charlotte.

I have seen on many unofficial websites which publish INS Processing
Times? Our case has already taken longer than time displayed on those
websites. Most of those websites state the processing times of INS
Charlotte as 30 days for Advance Parole; 30- 50 days for EAD; 243
days for I-485

Is there anything we should worry about? Do we receive fingerprinting
notice before EAD. I read on a post on another website, in that case
alien spouse got the fingerprinting notice 3 weeks after receiving EAD.
Do we need to pay any other fee to INS upon attending fingerprinting
appointment (we sent $50 for fingerprinting with Form I-485). I heard
they take pictures for EAD, do they charge any fee? Any advice will be
appriciated. Please mail me your

I shall update this post if there is any development in our case.
Afterall most of us on this website are in the same boat, aren't we?

Thank you for reading my post.

Regards, AS



--
guest

Posted via http://www.immigrationX.com

David Brown

My best advice is:

Bad boys from the Middle East have turned this immigration thing into a big
hassle.
If you are 50% overdue for anything, it's probably not you.
File your paperwork when you are required, on time, and keep good records.
(you are)

Anything you read about immigration timelines that was written more than two
months ago doesn't apply.

Homeland Security is now a reality.

Everyone is in the same position.

Reassurance from the group doesn't help but it helps... :-)

Bluejjjj31241267

Hello AS,
I also live in Charlotte NC . We married at Christmas and filed for AOS and EAD
at the beginning of February to the Charlotte district INS office. Our package
when received was signed for , but we also have not heard anything or had a
receipt as yet.
When I called the Charlotte district office phoneline , an automated service
said that EAD processing takes around 30 days and the AOS itself was taking 90
days to process.
So I wouldn't worry too much. Give them a little while longer .
Regards,
Jacqueline

Dawn

guest wrote:
    > Hi there,
    >
    > While surfing the web I came across this great forum. Before I start,
    > let me take a moment to thank the host, webmaster and the users of
    > this forum.
    >
    > I am an alien in US, married to a USC. I applied for AOS and EAD along
    > with my spouse's I-130 petition at our Local INS Office in Charlotte,
    > NC. Following is our timeline so far:
    >
    > XX Jan. 2003 : Mailed I-130, I-485, I-765, I-864 and I- 693 by
    > Priority Mail.
    >
    > XX Feb. 2003 : INS withdraws the applications' money from our bank. We
    > sent the fee amount using checks, so that we could track transactions.
    > It took 26 days including weekends. We requested our bank to send us the
    > transaction record, which showed us that the checks were cashed by INS
    > Williston, VT ...for credit to the U.S. Treasury.
    >
    > XX Feb. 2003 : We were worried because we still hadn't heard anything
    > from INS. However we are releived that our applications has been
    > accepted by INS, since they withdrew the money.
    >
    > We called INS at 1800# and we were advised that, "we MAY NOT receive any
    > notice or receipt etc. until INS has a decision on my EAD application.
    > The first thing we'd hear PROBABLY would be the fingerprinting notice."
    >
    > Upon asking, "How much time it will take, before we hear anything from
    > Charlotte office?" We were answered that. " Generally it 90 days but for
    > SOME REASON at INS Charlotte it might take up to 4 months "
    >
    > Our next question was about the interim Work Permit and response to
    > which was that we should wait upto 4 months before we should request INS
    > Charlotte for an interim EAD.
    >
    > My question is,
    >
    > #1. Isn't it true that if INS doen't decide on an EAD application with
    > # in 90 days, one may go to District Office in person to get an
    > # interim EAD?
    >
    > #2. Is it correct that the Distrtict office for NC residents is in
    > # Atlanta or can one get interim EAD at Charlotte office?
    >
    > Finally here we are after more than 7 weeks of applying AOS/EAD still
    > waiting to hear from them. I hope that this wait will end soon.
    >
    > In the mean while we sent them a letter asking about our case status,
    > answer to which we don't expect. We sent them the enquiry by
    > certified mail.
    >
    > Any ideas what to do next? Has somebody applied at INS Charlotte around
    > same time period. It'll be great if you could share your experience
    > dealing with INS Charlotte.
    >
    > I have seen on many unofficial websites which publish INS Processing
    > Times? Our case has already taken longer than time displayed on those
    > websites. Most of those websites state the processing times of INS
    > Charlotte as 30 days for Advance Parole; 30- 50 days for EAD; 243
    > days for I-485
    >
    > Is there anything we should worry about? Do we receive fingerprinting
    > notice before EAD. I read on a post on another website, in that case
    > alien spouse got the fingerprinting notice 3 weeks after receiving EAD.
    > Do we need to pay any other fee to INS upon attending fingerprinting
    > appointment (we sent $50 for fingerprinting with Form I-485). I heard
    > they take pictures for EAD, do they charge any fee? Any advice will be
    > appriciated. Please mail me your
    >
    > I shall update this post if there is any development in our case.
    > Afterall most of us on this website are in the same boat, aren't we?
    >
    > Thank you for reading my post.
    >
    > Regards, AS
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    > guest
    >
    > Posted via http://www.immigrationX.com

Hello!

My husband and I filed the same forms as you did, only in the Detroit
Field Office - which falls under the Nebraska Service Center. The
processing times listed on the websites I've checked are 60-90 days for
EAD and 365-380 days for AOS. We filed in the middle of December, they
cashed the checks we sent 2 days after receiving the forms, and we're
still waiting. It's been 11 weeks and counting. The only thing we have
received is a receipt notice stating they received our applications.

Here is what our receipt notice says with regards to the EAD:
"If you applied for Employment Authorization in connection with your
application, you will receive seperate notice of your appointment to
receive your Employment Authorization Document. If ninety days have
elapsed since you filed your application for Employment Authorization
you may appear in person at the district office to inquire as to the
status of that application. Bring this notice with you."

It is my understanding that this is the same procedure for all of the
field offices, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think you have anything to worry about at this point. Sometimes
no news is good news! You will not need to pay another fee for
fingerprinting when you have the appointment, you already submitted that
fee with your forms. The pictures required with the EAD application
should have been submitted with your application. The INS does not take
the pictures, you have to have them taken and submit them yourself. If
you did not include pictures with your applications, you will most
likely receive a RFE asking you to submit them.

Good luck!

FlightRisk

Your timeline seems fine.

You don't hear anything until you get the first NOA, which can take almost as long as to get your EAD. You will know on day 91 because by law, you can show up at the Charlotte office and get your temporary EAD, which they might just give you the 1 year EAD. They seem to know this and almost purposely time the EAD to be 90 days. So worst case, you will know then. It doesn't really help to send letter or anything until something is overdue, and then it's best to get Sen. Edwards' or Sen Dole's office to make a call, since there person has a direct number, and ask the DCIS person what is going on. They at least respond to them.

-fr

Robin

My husband and stepson will be having their AOS interview this
Thursday in Baltimore. Our timeline: (times are approximate as I
don't have the papers right in front of me)

Fedex'd AOS and EAD paperwork to VSC on November 25th.
Received NOA in January - Said they didn't open it until December
27th.
Rcvd Transfer notice to Baltimore for each application in the mail
mid-January.
Fingerprint notice arrived ~8-10 days after for mid-February appt.
Received AOS interview notices mid February for March 6th AOS appt.
Received EAD notice week right after for February 24th appt.


You can check your status by getting your cancelled check and
copying down the EAC #'s. Then go to the INS website and use
the online status checking feature. They will tell you the
timeline and whether it's been transferred, etc.

My husband and stepson will have had their EAD cards for 11 days and
will have to turn them in if our AOS is approved. What a waste of
$240.00. However, they still went to get them just in case there are
problems with the AOS.


Good Luck!
Robin

Guest

Hi there,

Thank you so much for your responses. This makes me feel a lot better. I
trust word of mouth, more than I trust the BCIS comments.

Thank you Jacqueline for your reply. I was wondering if it'll be
possible for you to let me know the Charlotte office phone number? I
have no way to contact them other than the 1800# which is ~@#%^ only
good for ordering forms I guess.

As Dawn replied in the last paragraph, we sent the ADIT style
photographs along with our applications. So I guess, I won't be
photographed upon the EAD appointment as long as they are satisfied with
the format. Thank you Dawn!

Thankyou Flightrisk for your reply. I already have Sen. Edwards' office
phonenumber ready for the future use (I really don't wanna call this
number though).

Thankyou Robin for your reply too. You applied at a Service Centre.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Service Centres process applications little
bit different than Local offices. Like in your case they receive the
applications and send you the NOA's and then the case was
transferred to your Local district. You rceived the NOA's from the
Service Centre though.

The part worried us most was that we didn't have anything in our hands
to prove that they have accepted our applications, until we tracked the
fee transactions from our bank. Furthermore we were told by people at
1800# that when you apply at Charlotte office you DO NOT receive any
kind of NOA at all. What a bummer... How does a person, who sent the
application fee in form of Money Order would know that they have
accepted applications then??? It's not easy to track who cashed M.O. as
in case of checks.


I thank you all once again. Please stay in touch in case of any progress
in your respective cases. So would I.

Yes, talking helps David. It sure does.

My wishes and luck to everybody. I'll pray for you Robin hope your
spouse gets AOS. Don't think about $240. It's a price we all have to pay
to be with our loved ones. Beleive me, it's worth it!!!

Regards, AS



--
attestedspark
http://www.geocities.com/golyrical/index.html

Posted via http://www.immigrationX.com

Bluejjjj31241267

I am trying to find the # for the Charlotte office for you, but for some reason
the site I had originally got it from denies me access. It may be being
updated. If I find the paper I had before hand with it written on I will let
you know soon,
regards,
Jacqueline

Sharon

I sent my EAD/AOS to Charlotte in October, I did recieve a notice from
them telling me they had received my money orders and the cases would
be worked on in chronological order. I think it was sometime in
December that I received that notice.

I received a letter to go and get my EAD in the 3rd week of January
and had my EAD card in hand about 2 weeks later.

If it's a phone number you're trying to find for the Charlotte office
good luck! We never found one yet and always have to try use the 1 800
number to get any info.

Robin

guest wrote in message news:...
    > Thankyou Robin for your reply too. You applied at a Service Centre.
    > Correct me if I'm wrong, Service Centres process applications little
    > bit different than Local offices. Like in your case they receive the
    > applications and send you the NOA's and then the case was
    > transferred to your Local district. You rceived the NOA's from the
    > Service Centre though.
    >
    >> My wishes and luck to everybody. I'll pray for you Robin hope your
    > spouse gets AOS. Don't think about $240. It's a price we all have to pay
    > to be with our loved ones. Beleive me, it's worth it!!!
    >
    > Regards, AS

In your original message, I saw
that your checks were cashed in Vermont and thought you guys had
to go through VSC as well.


Thanks for the good wishes! I'm a little nervous about Thursday but
am confident things will go well.
On EAD pix - Baltimore gave us back the ADIT pix we sent in. They
have a digital EAD card system so they didn't need them.

Regards,Robin

Guest

Thank you Sharon for sharing your experience with us. That's what my
concern is. I have a question. Assume following situation

You mailed the applications to INS, with correct fee and photos etc. You
know they withdrew money from your bank after 20 days. Which I suppose
it happens do only when they accept your application.

You don't receive any notice stating that they have accepted your
application and it'll be processed in chronological order. Seems fine.
Let's say 95 days have passed since you mailed them the applications. In
this case, how to calculate 90 days time for interim work permit?
i) Beginning from the date the USPS delivered the application...or..
ii) Beginning from the date they cashed the checks??

And I learnt some horrible yesterday. The mails addressed to us was
being put in our neighbor's mail box.... It was very kind of him that he
came to our residence and ask if the mail belonged to us (he doesn't
know my first or last name). But most of the times he's travelling and
God only knows for how long it's been going on? I've started to wonder
what if INS already sent us something but wasn't delivered to us .

Regards, AS



--
attestedspark
http://www.geocities.com/golyrical/index.html

Posted via http://www.immigrationX.com