Adjustment of Status - I-485

Hi all,

This forum has helped me a lot during my process and I am hoping to pass it along. If nothing else it helps calm you down when you see so many people in the same boat as you. This is going to be one long post so bear with me. Maybe it helps people at different stages in their application.
I came to the US in Aug 2011 on F-1 visa for grad school. So my case is a little different than a lot of people here because by the time I applied for green card I already had a social security number, bank accounts, drivers license, credit cards etc.

I graduated in Dec 2015 and applied for EAD with OPT which was approved in Feb 2016. I started working on that EAD in May and got married to my USC wife who I had been dating for a while now in Aug 2016. We applied for green card in November and I had a priority date of Nov 4, 2016. I also applied for an EAD because my OPT was for one year expiring end of Feb, 2017. The checks were cashed on Nov 17. I got my NOA1 and biometrics notice for I-485 and I-765 on Nov 25 for Dec 7, 2016. I didn’t do an early check in because I was too busy so went on the date of my appointment. It was pretty straightforward and finished within half an hour.

Now the wait started….

I didn’t hear anything from USCIS for a while. Both my wife and I changed our jobs and moved to a new location. I updated my address with USCIS which was pretty straightforward. By end of January I hadn’t heard anything and I started panicking because if I didn’t get EAD by Feb end I would have to leave my job or go on administrative leave. I didn’t want to find out. I contacted my local congress woman’s office on Feb 1/2. By the time I heard back from them asking for a authorization/release form to be filled out I had already received a notification saying my case was approved on Feb 6 (Day 93). The card was mailed to me on Feb 10 which I received within a week. Excitedly I open the packet and see that they messed up the order of my name. (For eg if my name is John McLane Doe the EAD card said last name McLane, first name: Doe J. I was so pissed. I called USCIS next day. They opened an enquiry and told me I didn’t have to send in the card. Thankfully my work accepted the EAD. Few days later I received a mail with instructions to SEND THE CARD BACK with a letter explaining the error. Now I wasn’t too worried though cause my work didn’t care about the name error. But I am sure different HRs will react differently to this.

Now only thing left was for them to correct the error and schedule my interview which I wasn’t expecting anytime soon. My field office was Boston and the timeline was 6 months there. But on Mar 27 I got a notification that my interview is scheduled for April 27. In the meanwhile I got my corrected EAD on April 7.

Interview:

Our interview was scheduled for April 27 and 9:45 am in Boston. We took the T in and arrived in Boston by 8:30. We roamed around for a bit had breakfast then went into the USCIS building at 9-9:15. The waiting room was “yuge” and there were quite a few ppl there but it wasn’t packed. We checked in with the reception and found a seat to wait. Different officers were coming in announcing names which they weren’t able to pronounce correctly most times. A few of the applicants had lawyers too. Around 10:00 a guy came to us and said my name. He must have recognized us from our pictures we sent in as evidence. He was a Caucasian guy in his late 30s probably very pleasant. Told us he’ll be conducting our interview and to follow him to his office. He didn’t separate us either.

We went to his office down a long hallway and he asked us to keep our stuff down and stand in the back with our right hand raised and said “Heil Trump!”. Kidding he asked us if we’ll speak the truth etc. and then we sat in our chairs. He took my fingerprints again and asked if I had a Massachusetts ID now. I asked I already had fingerprints taken during biometrics. He said this is a new thing asked by the new administration for them to do to make sure the person coming for the interview isn’t an impostor.

He told us the interview will be in two parts. First part will seem weird. It’ll be some yes/no questions which you have already answered in your application but they need to get verbal confirmations. (The are you a terrorist, are you here to overthrow US govt, are you into polygamy, prostitution, kidnapping kids etc.) Then after that was out of the way he asked me my wife’s name. I told him. He asked if I knew her middle name. Then asked for her DOB. Then he asked me our current address. Wrote that on the application and confirmed online if it was changed. He then asked us about our house we had bought and renovated and left now because of jobs. If we had bought the place to flip it. We told him no we had to move for work because our commute was crazy from there. He then asked about our marriage ceremony. We told him it was a small ceremony with her immediate relatives, our best friends and our roommate. My parents couldn’t come because they had just come to US in May for my graduation. We are having another ceremony later this year where we are celebrating with all our family and friends. Then after some chatting he told us that he can approve our petition for green card! He congratulated us and told us that it’ll be a 2 yr conditional card because we haven’t been married for two years. Before the 2 yr anniversary (of the green card not marriage) I can apply to remove the conditions. (they take an application fee and biometric fee again. Great!) and if I wish can apply for citizenship after three years.

We were really surprised at how easy the interview was and he didn’t grill us at all. He didn’t ask for any more documents either but I had made copies and gave it to him anyways. He said that’s good it’ll help during removal of conditions. And if they have enough evidence at that time we probably won’t even have to go for an interview. My status was changed to case approved next day (Apr 28) and the card was mailed on May 1, 2017. Still waiting to get it. Probably today or tomorrow.

I know this is a long post but hopefully it can help people in various stages of their applications.

Good luck to everyone. Let me know if you have any questions.