Adjustment of Status - I-485

I’m a US citizen. Here's our experience getting a marriage-based green card for my wife via the San Francisco field office.

Some facts of our case:
* We didn’t use a lawyer.
* We adjusted from a B2 visa.
* We have been married 17 years and had lots of evidence.
* We did a concurrent filing: I-485, I-130, I-131, I-765, I-693 and I-864w.
* My wife had lived and worked in the US before on a previous work-based green card.

Timeline:
* Dec 12, 2017 - priority date
* Jan 13, 2018 - received RFIE regarding i-864w
* Feb 1, 2018 - USCIS received our response to RFIE
* Jun 27, 2018 - EAD/AP combo card approved (received July 3)
* Apr 5, 2019 - Interview scheduled
* May 15, 2019 - Interview
* May 23, 2019 - Card in production
* May 29, 2019: Card mailed
* May 31, 2019 - Card in hand

The RFIE wanted further evidence supporting our I-864w. We had submitted an i-864w instead of i-864 because between my wife's lifetime SS credits and mine during our marriage we had accrued more than 40. The instructions for I-485w indicate that you should send in your social security statements as evidence, but that did not satisfy them. My wife’s number of credits was completely clear in the SS statement, so that was not an issue. In our response we provided two addition pieces of evidence that satisfied them:

1. I went to the SS office and got a printout that showed how many credits I had earned on a quarterly basis. I had them stamp it.
2. We wrote a detailed letter describing exactly which credits were earned during our marriage, year by year, laying out the precise case.

Our interview letter was sent to our old address even though we had submitted a change of address 7 months before and received notification of the change. On top of that, the letter was lost in the mail (after being scanned for informed delivery - we were in touch with the person at our old address).

We called USCIS and they told us that if we call back 5 business days before the interview they would fax the letter to us. We had also submitted a request for a duplicate through Nancy Pelosi’s office on April 29. This was very effective. The San Francisco field office sent us a duplicate to our correct address, which we received on May 4.

Our interview was smooth and lasted half an hour. We brought all of the usual pieces of evidence including proof of joint taxes, property and finances. Most of the time was spent confirming the information on the applications. The IO didn’t ask us any questions really about our marriage itself, such as how we met. Nor did he ask for specific evidence. He just had us hand over the evidence we had, and we explained it as we went. He took a few notes. He wasn’t interested in our photos. He looked at one or two of them but didn’t keep any.

At the end, he handed us the white form-letter saying “case must be reviewed” and said that we should hear something in 2-3 weeks. Our I-130 was approved the same day (May 15) and the notice arrived on May 20. The I-485 was approved on May 23 and the notice arrived on May 29.

Hope this helps. Good luck, everyone!