Going Insane F*Ing Ins

Well got my welcome letter from the UCIS today. It was mailed from the
Texas Service Center.

Well Jayis wasn't it nice to get that from them. I appreciated it for
the fact of all the heartache and uncertainly in the 12 months dealing
with the immigration people so it was a nice gustier on their behalf.

The said in the letter I should have my Green Card in 3 weeks. I don't
know why they could not of sent it with that welcome letter !

I have been reading on here about the Vermont Service Center and the
waiting times that goes on up there. Dose anyone know if the Texas
Center is any good or not ? Are they normally good with keeping time
frames ?

Hope yer all keeping well.

Slan Leat

Mick.

sphyrapicus

All Service Centers are under the auspices of the USCIS = slow, inefficient, understaffed, etc... Don't kid yourself by thinking that one of the Service Centers will emerge as something other than slow, inefficient, or understaffed.

ElusiveSongbird

The Seattle Center did! They got my green card out ahead of schedule by 3 months.

But then it could be due to the fact that I didn't go through the fiancee visa routes (a well researched and calculated risk to spend more time together instead of getting frustrated filling out form after form after form, and then waiting endlessly miles and oceans apart) ..... didn't engage a lawyer (our love is true and our marriage is real, didn't see any point in paying a lawyer to tell USCIS that) ...... did study US Immigration laws and procedures thoroughly to see what was required of us and made sure we were not doing anything illegal ..... and in the end, USCIS couldn't find any reason to delay!

Congratulations, Mick! You will get two more welcome letters and the card is no longer green but glittery cream!

sphyrapicus

Seattle is not a Service Center. Do you think the rest of us all went the fiance visa route, that our marriages are not real, that we don't study immigration laws and procedures....? Sorry to say, it doesn't make a difference. We all have to wait.

ElusiveSongbird

Oh dear! I apologize. Being from a 3rd world country and having to master English alongside 7 other languages and dialects, I don’t write it well.

My comments were tongue-in-cheek …… I meant to say that, perhaps USCIS tend to speed up cases of those who do not go through the proper channels, people like me! I came to the US on a tourist visa, managed to convince the officers at POE to let me in after a 2-hour interrogation, and found myself in the category of - Alien entering the US to visit and then deciding to marry and file for adjustment of status. I personally feel that this the best of the five ‘marriage to US citizen’ scenarios as ultimately, we all want to stay with our spouse in the US and not have to return to our home country in order to obtain an immigrant visa. For my husband and me, it not only saved us the agony of separation and stress of waiting in anticipation, but allowed us to adjust to living together and in a totally new environment (for me). We were able to get to know each other better, learn to tolerate and improve individual habits and work at our differences before making the final commitment to marry. Believe me, there were moments when I just wanted to pack up and fly back to the family, friends and sense of security I had left behind. It would have been easy to do, given my visitor status on USCIS records at that time. Thankfully, my love for him and my appreciation for this country grew.

Many thought I would encounter huge problems when filing for AOS and advised us to engage a lawyer. Others debated on the need to pay not inexpensive legal fees when our relationship was bona fide and we essentially did no wrong. The interrogation episode haunted me and I researched further until I found a fine print which indicates that the more time that passes between an entry and the marriage, the easier it will be to prove non-immigrant intent at the time of entry. Over 90 days was the suggested time. My husband and I had already qualified …. the rest is history.

I was certainly not undermining the personal feelings and admirable efforts of everyone here. If I did offend anyone, it was unintentional and please accept my apologies. I do realize that mine is not the recommended route to take and I am not encouraging anyone to follow my steps. I merely wanted to share a process that worked very well for me in the pursuit of happiness we are all undertaking.

God Bless!

Rita

PS : My AOS interviewer has become a good friend. He is very helpful and has been with USCIS for 9 years. If any of you need critical information or advice that is not available elsewhere, PM me and I will be happy to see if he can help.

Danny Davis

Relax, I know it is frustrating. I just wanted to tell you that they were
true to their word on my wife's green card. It was 3 weeks to the day that
we received her Green (sparkly cream) Card.

Good Luck and Welcome to the USA,
Dan Davis

"Going Insane F*ing INS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Well got my welcome letter from the UCIS today. It was mailed from the
    > Texas Service Center.
    > Well Jayis wasn't it nice to get that from them. I appreciated it for
    > the fact of all the heartache and uncertainly in the 12 months dealing
    > with the immigration people so it was a nice gustier on their behalf.
    > The said in the letter I should have my Green Card in 3 weeks. I don't
    > know why they could not of sent it with that welcome letter !
    > I have been reading on here about the Vermont Service Center and the
    > waiting times that goes on up there. Dose anyone know if the Texas
    > Center is any good or not ? Are they normally good with keeping time
    > frames ?
    > Hope yer all keeping well.
    > Slan Leat
    > Mick.

Hebapotamus42

The USCIS does not speed up cases (unless there is an emergency). If you got your greencard ahead of time, you were lucky. It had nothing to do with how you entered.
You and your husband didn't qualify for anything. There is no rule saying that if you marry after 90 days, things will be alright. What you did was illegal because you lied at POE. Even though things still worked out, you shouldn't even suggest this route as an option for others because they could get fried. While I congratulate you for adjusting status successfully, please keep in mind that the purpose of this newsgroup is for people to share experiences and information (and let off steam) relating to the immigration process. It is not about finding loopholes in the process or how to trick immigration officers.