Jj Holmes

Hello to Group

Can anyone advise on the consequences of changing address (to another
State) during the AOS process

Do all your documents and papers simply transfer to the new Local INS
office, and they then pick up on impending paperwork and interviews? Is
the whole AOS process likely to be set back or delayed?

JJH

Caro

Avoid it if you can!!!!! It is a big mess, as changing your address and tranferring a file are knows to be the most problematic operations with the INS/BCIS.

Depending on which office you are transferring to, they will put you at the end of the line [or on the transfer line (which might take longer than the usual line)]. I have seen people on this newsgroup who filed with the office I transferred to after my file had arrived at the office and who had an interview for 1.5 months before we had. It was very depressing at the time, because for us, it seemed like there was no end in sight...

We didn't have a choice, but if you can avoid it, just do it! It will save you a lot of headaches...

Words of advice:
1) Make sure EAD and AP are valid for some time after the move. Transferring takes time, and the new office will NOT issue EAD or AP before you move.
2) Make sure you place a request of transferring your file at the new office when you arrive at the new office.
3) Check on your file every so often (~1/2 months) after placing the transfer request to make sure that the file is indeed getting transferred and has been transferred to the right office (do not take that as a given! Our file ended up in the wrong place).
4) Check that your address has been changed with the new office. That might take time. It took 1 year from our move before we got a confirmation that our address had indeed been changed in our file.
5) Always have an eye on your file for things that might expire (fingerprints, medical).
6) Be very patient!

Caroline

janousek

Hi Caroline,

Please refer to the following line in your post:

"5) Always have an eye on your file for things that might expire (fingerprints, medical)."

What's the duration before the fingerprinting and medical expires? Correct me if I'm wrong, Affidavit of Support (I-864)expires after 6 months/180 days.

Please reply.

Thanks
-Janousek

Caro

Fingerprints -> 15 months
Medical -> 12 months
Affidavit -> I don't *think* that it expires

Medical and Affidavit are painless (except the cost of the medical) to replace since you've got the ball for these two. I submitted my medical with the original packet and since it had been 21 months, I redid it. I didn't end up needing the new one but it provided us a great peace of mind knowing that we would not be delayed for something we had control over. We didn't not need a new affidavit either.

Fingerprints can be more annoying because you have to get a notice from BCIS to have them retaken, and it is my understanding that there is backlog involved with some of the background checks, so that it might take 2-3 months to complete. So, ideally, you want to have the fingerprints retaken as soon as possible after the first set expires. We contacted our congressperson after the first set of fingerprints had expired. We never heard back from her, but we received a new fingerprinting notice about 2/3 weeks after contacting her.

Caroline

John

My wife and I originally filed for AOS (for her) at the Memphis office.
About 1 year later we moved to Georgia and notified the INS of the move. The
application and associated files were transferred to the Atlanta office.
1-1/2 YEARS later I contacted the Atlanta office as to why we had not
received any notice from them regarding the transfer. They said the file was
still in the process of being transfered.

We finally received her permanent resident card in April of 2002 .........
4 -1/2 years after the initial AOS application and that was after contacting
our congressman's office to expidite the process.

My advice........... don't transfer.


--
John R

"JJ Holmes" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hello to Group
    > Can anyone advise on the consequences of changing address (to another
    > State) during the AOS process
    > Do all your documents and papers simply transfer to the new Local INS
    > office, and they then pick up on impending paperwork and interviews? Is
    > the whole AOS process likely to be set back or delayed?
    > JJH

summertime

I just thought I would chime in here. So my husband and I applied for AOS in March of 2003 and were quoted from San Jose CA a timeline of 12-18 months.

We are currently in the process of moving to the Philadelphia area and were planning on changing our address with the BCIS and unfortunately also having our files transferred to our new local office.

Well, we got our interview date this past weekend and it is set for late August - a mere 3 weeks after offically leaving CA.

We plan on going to the interview and hoping for a sympathetic interviewer!!! I've been trying to see if there is a grace period between moving & transferring the file so that maybe our file can still be processed through san jose even though we've offically moved.

Oy.

Thanks for listening!!!

Matthew Udall

Wow, that was a long time. Why didn’t your attorney simply call the Memphis office around a month after the move, to make sure that the file was indeed transferred? I agree that having a file transferred from one local office to another can be problematic, and that is why I always put reminders to myself in my office calendar, to follow up with the “old� BCIS office around a month to a month and a half later, after asking for the transfer of the file to the new office.

I wish they were all as good as the SF BCIS office, who recently sent written notice to let me know that my clients case had been transferred to the new office on a certain date.

Good luck with your case.

M.U.

John

Hey Matthew,

Everybody can't afford an attorney. We (I) filed all the paperwork
ourselves.

--
John R

"Matthew Udall" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by John
    > > My wife and I originally filed for AOS (for her) at the Memphis
    > > office.
    > > About 1 year later we moved to Georgia and notified the INS of the
    > > move. The
    > > application and associated files were transferred to the
    > > Atlanta office.
    > > 1-1/2 YEARS later I contacted the Atlanta office as to why we had not
    > > received any notice from them regarding the transfer. They said the
    > > file was
    > > still in the process of being transfered.
    > >
    > > We finally received her permanent resident card in April of 2002
    > > .........
    > > 4 -1/2 years after the initial AOS application and that was after
    > > contacting
    > > our congressman's office to expidite the process.
    > >
    > > My advice........... don't transfer
    > > John R
    > >
    > Wow, that was a long time. Why didn't your attorney simply call the
    > Memphis office around a month after the move, to make sure that the file
    > was indeed transferred? I agree that having a file transferred from one
    > local office to another can be problematic, and that is why I always put
    > reminders to myself in my office calendar, to follow up with the "old"
    > BCIS office around a month to a month and a half later, after asking for
    > the transfer of the file to the new office.
    > I wish they were all as good as the SF BCIS office, who recently sent
    > written notice to let me know that my clients case had been transferred
    > to the new office on a certain date.
    > Good luck with your case.
    > M.U.
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Matthew Udall

OK, I can appreciate that (and while I disagree because there are some who can afford an attorney, I think I know what you meant to say that "not everybody" can). To some, hiring an attorney to do the work and act as their representative with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State is a luxury. For some it’s more of a necessity than a luxury. Your post did not specify whether or not you had hired an attorney to act as your representative.

However if you had hired an attorney, than this would be one of many potential follow up situations that could have been handled for you by your advocate. Not saying you “have� to have someone take care of this and follow up for you, but rather that if you did have a representative he or she can do things for you with a simple phone call that you usually can’t.

You did not follow up on your own paperwork, and you lost a year and a half because of that. While I can appreciate the fact that you no longer could easily wait through the line at the Memphis office (once you moved) to double check, an attorney with the phone numbers for Memphis, sitting anywhere on the planet with a telephone could have helped and possibly sped up your case by a year or more. But again, to some that potential saving of time would have simply been a luxury.

Good luck.

M.U.

Shaun Su

If we do move but is able to pick up mail from the old residence, can we
move and retain our current file in the same district office?
The supporting documents won't match, of course. Does that pose a problem?

-shaun

"Caro" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Avoid it if you can!!!!! It is a big mess, as changing your address and
    > tranferring a file are knows to be the most problematic operations with
    > the INS/BCIS.