Newly arrived in States - CR-1 - multiple questions

[KevinNelson]

We just arrived two weeks ago. Like another poster stated in their tread, we were a bit too dazed from 12 hours of flying and 1.5 hours of off-boarding a plane and getting through the Visa line to really take in what the immigration officer told my wife and me.

 

I had paid the $165 immigrate fee, before leaving China.

 

So, we have the following questions. The USCIS website wants a receipt number. Fine. Except it always rejects receipt numbers from Guangzhou, GUZ. I tried using the phone number on the USCIS website. How on earth do you enter letters on a phone? After several attempts, I gave up. So how on earth are we to be able to check up on the green card status?

 

We have this packet of health information, which was barely looked at, then handed some of it back to us, including the health-check DVD. Will that DVD ever be needed?

 

When is the soonest we might expect direct mail from USCIS? At what time do we simply get in a car and start knocking on USCIS doors?

[dnoblett]

Card production can take 4 to 8 weeks, however in the interim the visa in the passport acts as a 1 year green-card.

 

Another thing to give 2 to 4 weeks is SSN, the SSA office won't issue one until they can verify immigration status which takes 2 to 4 weeks after arrival.

 

That DVD probably contains digital images of the chest x-ray, keep it as a reference for your family doctor if they ever want to see the x-rays.

[KevinNelson]

We got the green card yesterday, 8/8, about six weeks after entering the States. We discovered that somehow the Social Security Administration had entered in a wrong house address for the Social Security card, so on 8/7, we applied for a replacement card for the one that was supposedly mailed around 7/5.