Nate21224

Recieved the green card in the mail today! Feels good to be done haha. Thank you all for the help and support! Maybe I should start a new thread but, what's next?

Got the name changed on the tickets. Thanks for the heads up! That could of been a disaster. I will post when we get the Green Card in the mail to complete the timeline for this thread.

Thanks for the tips. She did change her name however, she kept her maiden name as her middle name. Hopefully that helps with any confusion. Should I change the ticket name to her maiden name(already bought tickets and used the name on her green card) or just bring a copy of marriage certificate?

Application I-485 was approved today and the production of the card was ordered!!! FINALLY! A big thank you to everyone that has helped along the way. Now we will wait for the card in the mail. On a side note we will be going back to China in April. Will Huiying's green card and her employment/travel card be sufficient for her to re-enter the USA?

Recieved the official I-797 approval notice from USCIS today stating that Huiying's J1 waiver has been GRANTED! I am mailing another letter explaining the additional evidence as well as a copy of the I-797 and a copy of the original RFE tomorrow. I am not sure if this fulfills the RFE or if the officer wants to see the physical j1 waiver. If there is no determination with her AOS by the time we get the physical waiver then we will forward a copy of that too.

Just checked Huiying's J1 waiver status on the USCIS website and it is APPROVED! Now we will wait to get the official notification in the mail and we will forward it to USCIS (sounds dumb right) to the AOS department. Almost there!

Thank you sweetheart! 我爱你我的老婆! We have had two separate people contact us and tell us that this information has been helpful. Its great that we know this information is helping others. On January 2nd we received our NOS from the DOS. It stated that they sent everything to USCIS and recommend that Huiying receives a J1 Waiver. We already knew this because USCIS sent us the receipt for the J1 Waiver application. (DOS always seems to be slower than USCIS when it comes to mailing stuff) I wrote a second letter describing exactly what this new paper is and what it means. I sent it along with a copy of the letter from DOS, and a copy of the RFE to the USCIS office that issued the RFE on January 3rd. Hopefully, all of these extra papers make it to the USCIS officer. As of today the J1 waiver case still reads PENDING on the website and the i485 still reads as pending.

On December 20th Huiying and I went to the local USCIS via an appointment we made on infopass. We brought with us printed screenshots of the DOS J1 status website because; we had not received any paper work from the DOS or USCIS yet. I had also typed up a summary of what point we were at in the process and pleading to the USCIS officer to grant us a second RFE to buy us some time. We explained our situation and handed our paperwork to a lady at the USCIS building. We did not get to talk to a USCIS officer unfortunately. On December 27th we received the J1 Waiver case receipt from USCIS. This states that USCIS has received all appropriate paperwork from the DOS and recognizes our case. They will now proceed to review the case and issue a waiver if they agree with the decision the DOS of state has made. I immediately called the USCIS hotline and asked what the status of our case was (using the receipt number on the letter) I was informed it was still pending and that there is no solid timeline. The lady said some cases take up to 4 months and some take much less time depending on the complexity of the case. I asked if I could expedite the case and I was read a bunch of "reasons to expedite" The one that made most sense was something like "the individual will lose other benefits" I explained that we have a pending RFE that is asking for this exact J1 Waiver and if we do not submit it as soon as possible Huiying's AOS may be denied and she will fall out of status. I was given a confirmation number and was told I would receive an answer on the request to expedite in approximately. 5 days. On December 28th I mailed (overnight delivery) a copy of the USCIS receipt for J1 Waiver NOS case to USCIS AOS department. I included a cover letter explaining that this document is additional evidence for a RFE that was already submitted on December 20th. I also included a short explanation and that I had requested to expedite the J1 Waiver case. I checked the AOS case online and it is still "Pending" So, as of now the case has not been denied. Has anyone here had any experience in receiving a second RFE for the same thing? I am hoping that the obvious attempts to fully inform and update the USCIS officer will at least put us on her good side.

On December 11th the DOS gave us a favorable mention for the J1 waiver. We have not recieved any mail yet. I called in and asked for an update and was informed it was a favorable mention. The status was changed on the website later that day too. We have an appointment with a USCIS officer on Friday the 20th. Our RFE is due on the 23rd. We are going to gather all the info we have including printing out the status on the website and bring it with us to the meeting along with the RFE. Hopefully we get some sort of paper work from the DOS to bring to. We are going to ask for another RFE for further evidence. We are so close to being done with this mess of paper work I hope they see things like we do. I will update after our meeting. Wish us luck!

Huiying called the embassy back and asked if they could send us a letter. They claimed they can only do so if the DOS gives them permission. They said to call DOS and tell them to send a letter of authorization. I called DOS I explained our situation to a very rude lady in the phone. She kept cutting me off and saying things like "That is not the correct procedure. " or "You don't need to explain this to me, I am a visa expert." She said there is nothing she can send me and the Chinese embassy can send us "what ever they want." I called USCIS and explained my predicament. They said that they can not extend the time frame for a RFE. He suggested making an appointment with my local USCIS office and bringing any paper work I do have related to the waiver. He said that an officer may be able to help us or guide us on any other options. DOS received the waiver from the Chinese embassy on November 4. Our RFE is due December 23 (6 weeks from now). The DOS timeline for waivers is 6-8 weeks. I have doubts of the DOS being ahead of schedule. I hope we didn't spend all this money and come all this way to get a waiver and then have to redo the entire AOS...

UPDATE! Huiying called the embassy today to check on the status of her NOS. They informed her that her application for NOS had been approved on November 4! They have now sent the results to the DOS. Huiying mentioned about the chinese embassy sending us a confirmation letter and they said they would not. Tomorrow Huiying is going to call back and try to explain her case and and hopefully get them to send us a confirmation email at the least. I will also call the DOS and explain my situation and see if there is anything they can do to expidite the case or inform us of the status. I will keep you all updated.

UPDATE Huiying's employment card/travel card came about a week ago. We had our interview yesterday! I was prepared with all the paper work requested. I had copies of everything and had all of it organized. We have two photo albums we brought aswell. We walked into the lady's office and she was very short and unemotional. She seemed to be in a hurry or something. No smiles or laughs. We sat down and she says, "The problem with your case is the J1 visa. We need a waiver." We explained everything that we have gone through to this point and the status we are at now (Chinese embassy in NYC says they approve and are sending the case to DC for them to approve and issue a waiver) We brought a translated email from the embassy. The officer seemed pleased with our paperwork and statements. She said she will issue us a ROE at the end of the interview. She then went over our submited AOS paperwork and we verified our signatures and our address. She asked us maybe 3 personal questions like "How old are your husband's children?" She didn't once ask us about how we met or anything of the nature. She printed the ROE handed it to us and said, "Thank you, I wish I could finish your case today but, we need to J1 Waiver. If you had the waiver today I would approve everything now." We were in and out of her office in maybe 10 minutes. Huiying contacted the embassy in DC today. They told her they will have a repsonse for her in the next 30 days. We will then need the DOS to issue the waiver in the next 50-60 days.

Update for anyone following along: Huiying recieved and went to her biometrics appointment about a month ago. We recieved a notice for interview on September 26th about 2 weeks ago. On September 13th her employment card was authorized and we are now just waiting for it in the mail. Now, the J waiver... It was a little difficult dealing with the Chinese embassy and the strange paperwork they requested, some of which could only be obtained in person in China (her family helped us out with that) We finally were able to get them all of the required paperwork about 2-3 weeks ago. There is a 2-4 month processing time for the Chinese Embassy once the paper work is recieved. After the Embassy makes their decision they forward it to the DOS and Huiying. Then we have to wait for them to issue the waiver. We are hoping this entire process does not take too long. I am sure the officer at the interview will ask about the J-1 waiver. We are going to tell them the stipulations the Chinese embassy has on obtaining one and that we could not even file untill we had a reciept for a AOS. The hopes are that they will send a RFE and give us the (83 days I think) to respond. By then we should at least have a response from the Chinese Embassy and we will send this to USCIS. We are hoping at that point they issue a second RFE and give us another 83 days. This all seems like so much juggling of paperwork and unkown time frames overlapping but we are hopeful. I will let you all know how the interview goes.

How did you manage to get out of obedience school for 1% ?, please tell me the secret I guess that 1% of the time is when she has me so fooled that I don't even realize she is still holding my leash haha.

Before we got married I had a guy or two say things like this. "Oh, so she wants a green card huh?" I shook it off but, it eventually began to stick in my head and bother me. I finally said something to Huiying. I said flat out... "Do you want to get married just to get a green card?" She paused and looked at me. She replied with "Let me tell you three things. If I just wanted to marry someone to get a green card then number one, he would have more money than you. Number two, he would not have any kids. Number three, he would be, much better looking too! STUPID QUESTIONS GET STUPID ANSWERS!" I try to refrain from asking stupid questions now.