Moving during AOS

I always see other fellow Aliens asking on forums if they can change addresses while going through the AOS process, and if so, what the delay is.  I don't know about specific corner cases, but this is what I can tell you: This Little Alien changed her address while waiting to be scheduled for an interview, and I know there was no delay involved because I got my Interview Notice about 1 week after USCIS sent me a letter acknowledging my Change in Address.

This Little Alien's AOS process took 188 days.  During this 188-day period, my landlord tried to increase rent by $250 per month because our 1-year lease was about to be up.  Since the Hubby and I were not as loaded as our landlord was implicitly requiring us to be to continue staying at where we were, we decided to move.  And because of where we ended up moving, the jurisdiction of our case changed from the San Bernardino USCIS Field Office to the LA USCIS Field Office.

On an unrelated side note, I was very happy to have moved from San Bernardino County back to Los Angeles County:

Anyway.  Here's what you need to fill out and do, if you're doing the I-485 and I-130 concurrently like I did:

1. 2 AR-11's, 1 pertaining to the I-485 for the beneficiary and 1 pertaining to the I-130 for the sponsor

2. I-865 for the sponsor (I know you don't have to until the sponsorship takes effect when the AOS is approved, but we wanted to play safe)

3. Call up the USCIS service center for both the I-485 and I-130 to notify them of the change in address

Slightly over a week after I first called up USCIS, my USCIS case status changed from "Testing & Interview" to "Initial Review" after USCIS registered the Change in Address (which freaked me out), and then changed back to "Testing & Interview" after a couple more days.  And then USCIS sent letters acknowledging the Change in Address to my new address about a week later.

According to my read on a transcript of a Q&A Session between the National Benefits Center (NBC) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), there should be no delay in processing times for the I-130/I-485 resulting from a change in address if you do it before your interview has been scheduled.  The transcript can be found here: http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Outreach/Notes%20from%20Previous%20Engagements/2013/May%202013/NBC-AILA-QA-2013-05-01.pdf.  In particular, "the NBC notifies applicants of the I-485 interview about six weeks prior to the scheduled date, and transfers the file to the appropriate USCIS field office approximately three weeks before the interview".

My guess is that the implication of that quote is that your case file doesn't have to jump between offices if you change your address before your interview is scheduled.  And I'm guessing the jump between offices (and the resulting shuffle in paperwork) is what would cause a delay, so since my file stayed at the NBC the entire time, there was no delay for me.

Moral of the story, yes you can move as long as your interview has not been scheduled, there was definitely no delay for me as a result.

That's all for today, my fellow Aliens!

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!