khabibiuf

Hi All,

My wife is waiting for result of her AOS interview. We went into immigration office a few days ago to find out the status and the officer said the application had been forwarded from their office (Charleston) to Atlanta... and then Atlanta forward it to Texas.

Would the green card be mailed from Texas? I'm worried that her filed is being shuffled around from office to office and I hope they don't screw something up (misplace it).

Does what the officer told me sound correct?

Matthew Udall

I believe they have a card-manufacturing machine in Texas. They also have one in Kentucky. They also have card-manufacturing machines at the NSC, VSC and CSC. The trouble is though, that not all locations manufacture the same type of cards. This can be problematic when trying to track down a specific card of a certain type that has become delinquent in arriving to the client.

If a card is sent back to a location from the Post Office, it is sent to the location's PONDS Unit (Post Office non-deliverable unit) where it will remain for a specified length of time. If it remains unclaimed during that time, it is destroyed and the applicant will have to apply for another card.

Its been a while since I've reread my own notes about the tours I've taken of each of the service centers, but I believe each of the Service Center's PONDS Units are discussed in those notes. If you are interested in reading these notes, you can find them at, http://members.aol.com/MDUdall/Tournotes.htm

khabibiuf

How long does it take for Texas center to process and send out a card once a request is sent to them? Weeks... months etc??

Regarding PONDS. How does one know whether GC is in PONDS? I mean if we never receive the card we never know if it was ever sent etc... So how do we know whether to check PONDS?

Matthew Udall

Don't know, and that would of course change from day to day according to work-load, mandates from above and other factors.

You wouldn't know. I'd say figure out a reasonable time for the card to arrive, tack on the period of time that they hold cards at that particular PONDS Unit, and then contact them a couple of months before your estimated "card destruction" date if it hasn't arrived. This is not an exact science, and experience helps one to get a feel for when is the appropriate time.

Bluegrass Lass

Well, if you have moved at all during the process, you may want to consider it. Even if you have updated USCIS with your new address, it's always possible they sent it to your old address.

If you have not moved, then I'm not sure how you would know. All I do know, tho, is that once AOS is approved, the PR cards have started to arrived very soon thereafter. To give you an idea, my husband received his in about 2 weeks after the interview. That was this past January.

Good luck!

Matthew Udall

Good point Sunflower. Moving while a case is pending can be problematic.

Yes, I've received reports from clients where their cards arrived very quickly (which is a nice change as they used to take much longer to arrive). But remember, that what happens in one person's case does not guarantee a similar timeframe in another person's case (especially if comparing the speed from different card-manufacturing locations).

khabibiuf

It has been 3 years since we filed the original AOS application. Moved twice since then. The officer wrote down our current address on the fingerprint card at the interview. I'm assuming they will use that card/form to determine the address. I also changed the address at my local office and my wife also sent in ar-11 form.

I hope we've covered every possible hole here.

Matthew Udall

By the way, I was reading a report from the NBC (former Missouri Service Center) the other day (Thank you AILA), and the subject of EAD cards (manufactured at the NBC) not arriving to clients came up.

This is what they had to say:
There have been occasions of disconnect between systems that causes incomplete addresses to be printed on card mailings. If you are aware that your applicant's I-765 has been approved, but he/she has not received the card, please contact the NBC Attorney Liaison mailbox and provide the applicant's current and complete address.

NBC holds returned undeliverable EADs for 6 months prior to destruction, and checks every available resource to find the most current address in an attempt to re-mail the document. The NBC is also in the process of implementing a tracking system to account for these undeliverable EADs and to help identify any major trends or problems. However, if the EAD has not been returned to the NBC as undeliverable mail, and there is every indication that it was sent to the current and complete address that is in our system, we will not issue another card, as we have no basis on which to reproduce and mail a duplicate EAD.

Also, in the way of other news (Again, thank you AILA), apparently they are issuing a new type of admission stamp (that goes in someone's passport at the POE). You can read about this on the CBP's site, located at, http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/...s/03012005.xml

Brit3964

I've just had my PR card (10yr one) mailed to me from Mesquite, TX (TSC). Took 3 weeks to arrive from approval date but maybe I'm just lucky! Interview (I-751 with waiver) was in Charleston SC.