davidAW

Rene closed the thread that I was posting to but after consulting with her I have opened a new one to let you know that things have progressed far faster than I had even dared hope for:

Not only did I get my EAD on July 30th but just this lunchtime I received a letter from USCIS with my AOS interview date!

My original AOS application was acknowledged by them on May 29th so its taken just 8 weeks to get an AOS interview plus the EAD. All of this was done by myself/my Wife. The interview is in Tampa in the first week of September at 8:00am (eeek!).

Despite the original thread being closed, I really wanted people to know that this can be done, even with a couple of RFI/RFE's thrown into the mix and without the expense of an Immigration Lawyer! Of course your mileage may vary and every submitted case is unique so my experiences can not be held up as any guarantee of how it will pan out.

I have also put together a brief time line (below) and I will continue to let you know how things progress.

All the best for now,

David

Noorah101

Congratulations!

Rene

Pipmeister

That's great, David. I see you got married on the same dame we did!
Just being nosey.. what type of RFI/RFE did they hit you for? We were worried that we hadn't put in an actual "letter" from my wife's employer to prove her employment - we included her latest paycheck for July which clearly shows who she works for, how much she earns and how long she has worked for the company along with her Tax returns and W2.

Noorah101

You can read all about David's RFE here: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=616302

Rene

Pipmeister

Hmnmn... makes me think whether we should try a get a "letter" from my wife's employer (HP) stating how long she has worked there, salary etc.. blah blah blah.. even though her pay slips show YTD earning for 2009 way in excess of the poverty +25% line.

With HR depts. now being outsourced these things can take 3 days to get them ordered and then another 2 in the post... hmmm..

davidAW

Hi Pipmeister,

Where we made our mistake (and this is probably where the services of an Immigration Attorney would have been handy) was in believing that my Wife, as a self-employed Realtor and the fact that 2008 was brutal for her in terms of commission income, USCIS would overlook one year out of a reported four years worth of income that was below the poverty guidelines.

I/we did not receive any RFE's, they were both RIE's (Request for Initial Evidence) and both concerned the 2008 income because in truth, we had not submitted a complete package in the first place.

In the end a friend of ours who is fully employed, taxed at source and who was prepared to sponsor me on a Joint Sponsor basis, stepped in. The newly submitted forms were acknowledged as received by USCIS on July 21st. On July 30th I had an EAD approval - quite outstanding!

The two RIE's added an extra three weeks in total to the timeline in terms of waiting for the actual RIE letter to arrive, preparing the new submissions and sending it all back! If we had got it right the first time, would it have shaved that three weeks off of the 8 that it has taken? I don't know. But its fair to say that the processing time in my case has been outstandingly fast.

David

Pipmeister

Hmm - I think I won't take any chances as a couple of weeks delays is potentially a couple of extra weeks without work (seeing as I got laid off last month).. I think we can wait 3 days to get the "official" letter of employment sent.

Thanks.

Folinskyinla

ROFL. However, I've been finding that CIS issues oxymoronic sentences like this one.

"any" = zero
"both" = two
zero is not equal to two.

jeffreyhy

Pm,

Note that 'current' income is not 'year-to-date' income. It could be more (e.g.if there has been a raise since the first of the year), or it could be considerably less (e.g. if someone has been let go recently.

Current income is what one is making now, in the most recent pay period, expressed on an annual basis.

The letter could be helpful in some circumstances, it could be not so helpful in others. For example, a letter describing a person as a regular employee as opposed to a temporary or contract employee would be helpful.

Why did you put the word ""letter"" in quotes?

Regards, JEff

Pipmeister

I guess I put too much faith in the USCIS in that if your Tax Return for last year shows an amount 12 x times what your monthly pay slip is for July 09 and that your YTD for this year is 7 x time the July Pay slip then it could be said that you are on the same salary as you were last year.

Also the payslip shows her Employee ID (not a contractor number), shows the number of set hours worked in the month (48) which cannot be called a temporary or part time worker, it also includes the details of the benefits accrued (neither would be given to contractors or part-time) and finally shows how many days vaction are left for the year (12) - again not something you would get if you were either a contractor nor part-time. Oh and there is the company shares program purchases.

Again, all the information you would need to prove that you were a fully time employee for the company and what you were earning.

But I guess a simple 3 lines on company headed notepaper would make it easier for them - even if it is a pain in the ass for us to get (thanks to the outsourced HP based in Mumbay!)

Noorah101

Perhaps USCIS would be satisfied with the pay stubs. There's no way of knowing ahead of time. The choice is yours what to send, and whether to risk getting in RFE if USCIS feels what you sent is not enough. I wouldn't actually go blaming USCIS for something they haven't yet rejected. You don't *have* to send the employment letter, it's just that it decreases the chances for an RFE.

Rene

Pipmeister

Yep, Rene, I know - and I wasn't bashing USCIS.. I think if I had to go through 100's of these things each day I would want the petitioners to make it easy to understand.

I will wait for the letter just to be safe.

jeffreyhy

PM,

CIS doesn't want to have to figure things out from a pile of documentation, and you don't want them to have to do that either. It takes enough time for them to process a petition or application as it is. Both they and you want you to provide clear and concise information, along with documentation that will allow them to quickly confirm your information.

You don't seriously expect every CIS case officer to be able to analyze and interpret the codes and styles of every employer's pay stubs to be able to figure out what type of employee the person is, do you?

You do have unreasonable expectations!

Regards, JEff

Pipmeister

erm, Jeff... I think that is what I said already!

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I'm just commenting that "mileage may vary" whether or not you have a lawyer. And this is particularly true of timeline questions. My crystal ball broke a long time ago and I prefer to not answer time line questions except in the vaguest terms unless there is a statutory time limit.

And CIS can be quite creative at times surprising even the lawyers.

Those who have followed my posts over the years know that I have no objection to DIY except in certain limited circumstances.

Over in the general immigration forum, J Craig Fong and I often make reference to "janitorial work" in trying to fix messes that could have been avoided. But I will admit that I kind of like janitorial work created by a DAO being totally OTL. At least I am not blamed for the mess -- when a DAO becomes OTL on one of my cases, it always seems to be my fault.

Good luck and take care.