Just arrived in the states! Questions...

[yanglan]

POE:

We arrived at JFK airport to a fairly long "Visa" line which I was told we needed to wait in. Kinda surprised there was no fast track for US citizens. With a couple hundred people in front of us and 6 officers working it took ~1 hour for our turn.

 

The officer was very nice and simply opened our package and checked through it for all required stuff (nothing more than a cursory check). He gave my wife's visa a purple stamp and wrote "IR1/H(or maybe A)#######(Her "registration number" from the visa)" We were pretty burned out at this time so I didn't quite follow what he was saying, but I think it was something like the stamp was good for 1 year and that the green card would be arriving for us in ~7-8 weeks since NY is a very busy port.

 

I don't remember him saying anything specific about the green card, am I right to assume it will be good for 10 years? Also, is the # he wrote with the H (or A I'm assuming here) her "A-number"?

 

SSA:

When we arrived I talked with an officer there about whether we actually needed see someone from the SSA or not since I had selected to receive a SSN after arrival on the visa application. He said that to be safe we should fill out an application and talk to someone.

 

It took about 20 minutes before we were called up. The worker, again very nice, took my wife's passport, asked her a few questions, and told us her SSN would be arriving in 7-10 days. He didn't mention anything about the visa application.

[dnoblett]

A# is Registration number on visa.

 

If you celebrated two years of marriage before using the visa to enter the USA the resulting green-card should be a 10 year card, the IR-1 tends to indicate this, if the visa is coded CR-1 and you were married less than 2 years prior to entry then the card should be a 2 year conditional card.

 

As for SSN, wait a couple weeks and if card does not show up in the mail, then visit your local SSA office and apply for one.

 

If you have not paid the immigrant fee do so now, USCIS will not issue a green-card until you do, however the passport with visa will serve as a green-card for up to a year until the actual card arrives in the mail.

http://www.uscis.gov/forms/uscis-immigrant-fee

[yanglan]

If you have not paid the immigrant fee do so now, USCIS will not issue a green-card until you do, however the passport with visa will serve as a green-card for up to a year until the actual card arrives in the mail.

 

Got it. I paid the fee back in April so we should be good on that, I just wasn't sure what he was talking about regarding the "1 year" thing.

 

If that "Registration number" is the "A-Number" than it must be an "A" not "H" he wrote by the stamp.

 

So since we've got the green card and SSN stuff out of the way, are there any other important things we need to do now that the lady is in the states?

[dnoblett]

USCIS requires having green card on your person, just have it in wallet like any other ID.

[RobertH]

USCIS requires having green card on your person, just have it in wallet like any other ID.

At $500.00 a pop for replacement my wife decided to just carry a photocopy of hers and leave the real one in the safe. $500.00 for a replacement card.... come on now quit trying to balance the budge on my dime.