Adjustment of Status - I-485

I wanted to share my experience of getting a green card through marriage with USC.
My filed location was New Orleans. I didn’t really see posts about this office so hope this helps some people.

Aug 2017 Mailed my documents – 1 week later my check was cashed
Sept 2017 Filgerprint was done
Nov 2017 Received work permit
After this my case was stuck at ‘ready to schedule for an interview’ for months

And no update till May 2018…. When I check my case on the website my case was saying ‘we cannot provide information…please call 1800’ I did call the number several times just to make sure that my case wasn’t left out or anything. It seems that every time I called them my case was just stuck at ready to schedule in their system. I tried not to worry too much and just wait patiently.

I ended up filing for work permit renewal in June 2018 since it was expiring in Nov. (Till today I have not received the renewal one)

However, Sept 2018 my driver’s license was expiring because I initially got my license through H1B work visa and my work visa was expiring in Sept 2018. Although the work permit through the pending green card case was till Nov 2018 our DMV office would not let me renew my license since my work permit has less than 180 days till the expiry date. This was a whole drama I ended up going to another DMV which they were able to renew my license till Nov 2018.

Just a week after that drama I received an update on my case that my interview has been scheduled!!! I couldn’t have been more excited. About a week later I received a letter for the interview date and it was scheduled for the following month.

My interview was surprisingly pretty long. I think the whole interview process took about 30-40 mins. It wasn’t much about ‘us’ but rather confirming the information from my application. There were a lot of ‘have you ever’ questions. After that part was done the lady asked us about when we got married, how we met, where we got married, if we’ve traveled outside of the US, any kids… that was about it.

At the end she did say that my medical records expired so I need to submit a new one. I was in the process of getting a new one so I told her that I can bring it back in the next couple of days. She said until then my file will be just sitting on her shelf. She did not approve my case right away. She told me that she needs to do some background check and stuff but everything seemed okay.

My medical records were not done for another week and I was getting super nervous because my work permit expired in like 3 weeks. When my medical was finally done we dropped it off at the office on the same day. The next day my case was updated to case was approved and approval notice was mailed. 2 days after that (even before I received the approval notice mail) my case was updated to my card is being processed. The following day my card was mailed to me. They gave me a tracking number and it is supposed to be here by tomorrow. So I will have my green card just 2 weeks before my work permit expires!!

This whole process has been very long and exhausting but I am so thankful everything worked out right when I needed it! Hope everything goes well for everybody!