Family Based Greencard

Hello, my experience was somewhat painless and from marriage date to receiving my conditional green card it took a total of 8 months. We opted to NOT use a lawyer to save on expenses. We did everything ourselves and after a few I-797C notice of action forms for petty things, we finally got some responses we wanted to see. See timeline below. The major thing to note is be very careful to make sure you aren't filling out your forms and sitting on them a while before submitting them. They update their forms pretty consistently and if you fill out an earlier edition they will send it back to you. Be sure to look in the bottom left hand corner of all applications to make sure it's the most up to date revision AS WELL the top right hand corner to make sure the form isn't expired. This was our mistake for about four tries before we realized what we were doing wrong. We also overpaid. Because we filed the I-485 together with the I-765 we didn't actually have to pay for the I-765 form.

APRIL 10, 2017 - Sent all of these forms together to the USCIS Chicago Lockbox
 G-1145, I-130, I-130A, I-485, I-765, I-693, I-864 and a G-325A
(This is where we had some back and forth for not doing the most revised version of applications)

JANUARY 27, 2017- Married my husband in the U.S.

APRIL 2017 - Once we finally received our marriage certificate we could start our immigration papers. It took a very long time to get this in the mail. We had to call. Not sure if that's normal but we would have loved to start the paperwork earlier - but you need the marriage certificate.

MAY 16, 2017 - USCIS receives all forms
JUNE 1, 2017 - Forms accepted by USCIS and in review
JUNE 2, 2017 - I-485 Biometrics Appointment Letter received in the mail
JUNE 12, 2017 - I-765 accepted by USCIS and in review
JUNE 17, 2017 - I-765 Biometrics Appointment Letter received in the mail (yes I had two appointments)
JUNE 20, 2017 - Biometrics Appointment for I-485 scheduled
JULY 5, 2017 - Biometrics Appointment for I-765 scheduled (I was going to be away this date so I actually just walked in on June 27 to see if I could get in, they did take me which was great)
AUGUST 9, 2017 - Received letter with a scheduled initial interview for I-485

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017 - IMMIGRATION INTERVIEW. This lasted about 20 minutes and was really painless. We were nervous but if you have a legit marriage you will have no issues. You should know about each others family, jobs, how you met, where and when you married, birthdates, etc. Most of the info they really just take off your original applications. Don't be nervous. You should know these answers
APPROVED ON THE SPOT FOR MY GREEN CARD. Yay! They gave me a letter and said it would arrive in the mail in 3-4 weeks so I'm just waiting for that. It's worth mentioning that I never received and EAD during this entire process and now that I have a green card it's not necessary. This is a conditional green card. Meaning it is good for two years. 90 days before it expires I have to file another form to have the conditions lifted and then I'll be really permanent.

Good luck everyone! Be patient and make sure you read all the fine print of each application. Be sure to have all originals, copies, support documents, photos (we had 36). Put it all in a nice binder and be organized. You'll have to pull stuff out at your interview.

Hope this helps you :)