Targaff

Timeline (again, for completists):

March 22, 2003: I485/EAD application sent (confirmed received 24/3)
April 19, 2003: Confirmation letter (dated 19/4) received, incl. EAD
appointment date
May 1, 2003: EAD appointment at San Antonio BCIS office
May 30, 2003: AOS appointment letter received
June 17, 2003: AOS interview

Approved? Yes and no. I'll let you know when I find out for certain.

Got up early, travelled down from Austin through the numerous roadworks,
dodging badly-driven SUVs (no pun intended) as we went. One guy in front
of us even threw an empty beer can out of his window at one point, which
explained his erratic driving at least.

Arrived at around 7.15 and they were already letting people in! Last time
it was around 7.30 before they started letting people in, but I think
they've realised that getting that bit done early means not wasting time
later. Nice policy.

AOS interviewees wait in the same room as those people with queries and
EADs, namely the big room to the right of the entrance as you come in.
They come in and call your name when they want you, and interviews are (I
think) all conducted on the third floor, where there's a set of rooms
specifically for adjudications. I'd recommend sitting close to the door
nearest the entrance because that's generally where they come in to shout
your name (everyone except the guy who interviewed us, that is, who came
in the other one... go figure).

Our interview wasn't until 9am, so we had a fair wait, but we got called
at around 9.15 and taken to the adjudications room. The person seeing us
was Roy Garcia, who was standing in for someone else who was off that day
ill. The interview room had a nice view of the car park and... not much
else, and a bright and shiny US flag stood in the corner, just next to
the video camera, which so far as I could tell was not used.

After looking through the paperwork he started off by telling us the case
could be approved on the day if everything was in order. After looking at
my visa and EAD he took the I-94 out of my passport and then flicked
through the paperwork, asking me various questions about, well... me. I
didn't get asked a single question about my wife or her family, in fact
the only real question about us was how did we meet. It was not what
you'd call taxing.

We brought everything else we'd been asked to - I had a completed I-693
supplemental because I'd had the (****ing) injections the night before
simply because there was no way to prove that I hadn't (apparently
records for anyone who originally had their vaccinations done under the
UK school health service have been destroyed, so they were never even in
my medical records in the first place) and I couldn't be bothered arguing
about it. Apparently I am entitled to a waiver of the final Td jab,
though. The only other thing we'd been asked for were 2002 tax returns,
which we duly supplied, and this is where the hiccup lay, as we have co-
sponsors on account of our distinct lack of spondoolicks. It seems - and
I can't say I've ever seen this before , though we may just have missed
it -(and there was no request for any such thing on our "what to bring"
form, nor was this ever an issue at the K1 interview) - that presenting
the tax returns isn't enough, you also have to prove that the people who
are co-sponsoring are eligible to do so, ergo we were told that we
couldn't be approved until we provided copy passports or birth
certificates for the co-sponsors (my USC wife's parents) to show that
they were eligible (i.e. were citizens/legal residents). We were told
that if we managed to do it on the day then the case would be approved,
otherwise the file would go back on the shelf and be approved when
someone got to it.

We ended up getting the copy passports - one faxed from California and
one from Seattle - to the office at around 3pm, but since they were faxed
through we have no way of knowing whether the case actually was approved;
we can only take Mr Garcia at his word and presume that it was. In the
meantime I didn't receive anything in my passport in lieu of the I-94
that was removed, which left me with another hanging question... that
I'll post in a different thread.

If anyone has the URL for AOS interview feedback stuff I'll post there as
well when I get the chance.

--

Targaff

shaakq

congrats and hope all works out for u...

so u are saying that u submitted ur AOS/485 in march of this year and u already got an interview???? wow is that quick... can u please clearify if that is correct... because i though san antonio takes 1yr or longer...

thanks

Targaff

shaakq wrote in news:836406.1055950428
@britishexpats.com:

    > congrats and hope all works out for u...

Thanks

    > so u are saying that u submitted ur AOS/485 in march of this year and
    > u already got an interview???? wow is that quick... can u please
    > clearify if that is correct... because i though san antonio takes 1yr
    > or longer...

The timeline is correct, the I-485 went in this March. San Antonio actually
has a board up in its waiting room that gives the processing time for AOS
as 4 months.

--

Targaff

kitty-uk

Hi Targaff


I am glad to read that you had your interview, and once again you pass on other very useful tit-bit

I am sorry that Mr Garcia didn't give you any number to follow up your fax, and that it seems you are left hanging ...

As always wishing you the best Kit

Targaff

Targaff wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    > We ended up getting the copy passports - one faxed from California and
    > one from Seattle - to the office at around 3pm, but since they were
    > faxed through we have no way of knowing whether the case actually was
    > approved; we can only take Mr Garcia at his word and presume that it
    > was. In the meantime I didn't receive anything in my passport in lieu
    > of the I-94 that was removed, which left me with another hanging
    > question... that I'll post in a different thread.

Just a quick update on this, we got a letter from San Antonio today saying
we had been approved after all, so muchas gracias to Mr Garcia for
following through on that.

It also contained a replacement card for my I-94, which means my intended
question is now irrelevant, ergo I won't ask it.

--

Targaff

Rete

Congratulations on getting the letter.

As for your question on providing proof of citizenship or residency, yes it is a requirement of the financial sponsor to prove this.

Did your replacement I-94 contain the I=551 stamp?

And would you place your AOS interview experience on the appropriate pages for us? Thanks so very much.

AOS filing; AOS, I-130 and K-1 Interview Experiences:
http://www.kamya.com/interview/intro.html

Rete

Targaff

Rete wrote in news:838825.1056062400
@britishexpats.com:

    > Did your replacement I-94 contain the I=551 stamp?

seems so, nice red stamp saying "Processed for I-551 Temporary Evidence of
Lawful Admission For Permanent Residence, Valid Until 6/16/04, Employment
Authorized" and then a hand-written "Issued Jun 17 2003" underneath.

I think he chose the least flattering ADIT photo on purpose... :>

    > And would you place your AOS interview experience on the appropriate
    > pages for us? Thanks so very much.

Thanks for the URL, I'll post it later today when I've got some chores
done.

--

Targaff

shaakq

Targaf

can u please post ur e-mail address or send me an e-mail as i have some personal questions to ask...

thanks

Rete

Thanks Targaff

Rete

Targaff

shaakq wrote in news:839701.1056116610
@britishexpats.com:

    > can u please post ur e-mail address or send me an e-mail as i have some
    > personal questions to ask...

shaakq, if you take a moment to look at my posting details you can work out
what my e-mail address is. I'm not posting it in full to the newsgroup, I
already get enough spam as it is.

--

Targaff

shaakq

i dint quite understan as to where i will find ur e-mail... i dod appreciate all ur help and i do understand ur concern on not posting ur address to the whole group....because on top of most of postion their is an option to send e-mail / send pm but i dont see that on ur postings... so can u just e-mail me thru clicking that

thanks

shaakq

All, do u know if i can send a personal check with AOS application for San Antonio office...or does it have to be certified check??? also who should it be made to??? also do i need a seperate check for AOS and seperate for Finger printing???

thanks

shaakq

Did u have to submitt the vacination supplement with the original submission of AOS(I-485)

or did u have to take it later for the AOS interview

thanks

Targaff

shaakq wrote in news:846791.1056559357
@britishexpats.com:

    > All, do u know if i can send a personal check with AOS application for
    > San Antonio office...or does it have to be certified check??? also who
    > should it be made to??? also do i need a seperate check for AOS and
    > seperate for Finger printing???
    >
    > Did u have to submitt the vacination supplement with the original
    > submission of AOS(I-485)
    >
    > or did u have to take it later for the AOS interview

Shaakq,

Firstly: I note you're posting via the British expats forum; Just
looking, I note there are over 160 pages worth of topics there and I know
for a fact that many of the questions you ask have been dealt with before
or are already answered in the various FAQs. I would suggest researching
either there or on the BCIS website itself before posting a question, as
I get the impression that you don't. The forum is here to help you, but
to some degree you're also expected to help yourself to some extent.
Otherwise at some point, someone - probably someone with a low patience
level like me - will shout RTFM. You'll notice that all of the pages I
have listed below are from the BCIS website itself or from well-
publicised FAQ sites.

Be that as it may: can I presume from the fact that you've shown a
particular interest in my San Antonio thread that this is the office you
will be adjusting through? If this is the case, the office's website
contains the following:

http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/...io/aboutus.htm

} Paying Fees
} Please note that this office does not accept cash. Fees must be paid
} only by money order or bank cashiers check.

That pretty much rules out personal checks. If you are going through a
different office, check their individual page for details. They are all
accessible here:

http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/...fices/index.ht
m

And speaking more generally, the K1 FAQ has advice on what sort of things
you need to be asking (and also the sage advice "By reading the
newsgroup, you can get an idea of what things you need to know." - note
*reading*):

http://www.k1faq.com/#6.2

Regarding who it should be made out to:

http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/...fices/fees.htm

} On March 1, 2003, the INS became a part of the Department of Homeland
} Security. INS immigration fees for immigration services and benefits
} previously payable to the "Immigration and Naturalization Service"
} should no longer be made out to INS. They should now be made payable to
} the "Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services." (Note: Payments
} that have already been submitted made payable to the "Immigration and
} Naturalization Service" will continue to be accepted.)

Do you need a separate check? Well, whether you *need* one or not is a
debatable question, as the money goes to the same place either way, but
in all the FAQs I've seen it's generally recommended that you do.

Concerning the vaccination supplement, you don't need to submit it -
they'll request it from you when they give you an interview date. In the
case that your AOS were over a year after your K1 visa medical it would
probably be pointless anyhow because you'd need to have one done as part
of the full physical in any case. You'll almost certainly have to get one
done at the end of the day, but there's no real reason not to wait until
they actually tell you this.

--

Targaff

shaakq

Thanks Targaff for all ur help... the reason why i asked was because when i called the BCIS 800 number they said that it was ok to make personal checks and also to make checks payable to U.S. treasury and NOT BCIS... thats why i was confused and whanted to ask someone who delt with that office...

so thanks again