Putting together an AOS Application: An Overview

AOS, or Adjustment of Status, is the process of applying for a Green Card while the Beneficiary is physically present in the United States.  There are plenty of ways that an Alien can become eligible for AOS, and the most common means through which an Alien obtains eligibility is through marriage.  In fact, according to the March 2013 Annual Flow Report published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 26.5% of all adjustments to Legal Permanent Residency (LPR) in 2012 were through marriage to a US Citizen.

Because it is so common, people make the (flawed) assumption that AOS through marriage is easy.  Let me get this straight:

Myth: Getting the Marriage Certificate from the County Clerk is equivalent to getting a Green Card in your hand.

Fact: If it were that simple, all the Immigration Attorneys would be unemployed.

The Hubby and I decided to prepare the AOS Application ourselves to skip on paying a few grand to an Immigration Attorney.  This Little Alien doesn't advocate one way or the other with regards to hiring an Immigration Attorney, but here's why we didn't hire one:

1. Our case was straightforward: Girl comes to the US for school, meets Boy, fall in love, get married
2. Our relationship went back almost 4 years as of when we filed. How is an Attorney supposed to understand the progression of our 4-year relationship half as well as we did?  Why get someone else to write your story when you know it best?
3. We like living life in hard mode: Girl and Boy did college in hard mode, why not immigration too?

Even with a straightforward case, it was painfully tedious.

Apart from the fact that USCIS doesn't have a centralized location where you can query the forms you need to file for AOS based on your basis of eligibility, there is also the question of establishing the fact that your marriage was "bona fide", or entered in good faith.

What's hardest about establishing this "bona fide" thing is the fact that there is no right or wrong way to do it.  How pleased USCIS will be with a given quantity and quality of evidence submitted partly depends on luck, and there is no telling how lucky you will be.  For example, you could submit a more comprehensive set of evidence than I did, but your Immigration Officer could be having a bad day while mine is having a good day.  And suddenly you are getting a Request for Evidence (RFE), and I'm already getting my Notice for an Interview.

This Little Alien will go over in a later post the Evidence that the Hubby and I submitted, and our reasons for including each of them.  It isn't the perfect application and I'm not saying that including all of our Evidence will guarantee a successful AOS application.  But I hope it helps a few lost Aliens because this Little Alien definitely looked up a lot of sketchy sites to come up with ideas on what to include as Evidence.

And then the waiting after submitting.  I come from SoCal where everybody is trying to immigrate to because West Coast, Best Coast.  I waited all the way from Thanksgiving until the 1st week of April between my biometrics and my interview appointment.  Needless to say, these were the holidays that felt very bland because there was this AOS cloud hanging over my head: Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, and a very special person's birthday.  No, I don't celebrate President's Day or MLK Day, is this going to hurt my next background check?

And then, THE interview.  I have already posted my interview transcript, and will post about what the Hubby and I did to prepare for the interview and what we brought to the interview as evidence.  We were lucky to get approved on the spot, but I do know that some people have to wait more after the interview.

But trust me, all the pain and frustration is worth it when you get your alien hands on the Green Card, and  you don't have to ever worry about forcefully being separated from the people you care about :)

That's all for today, my fellow Aliens!