DACA to AOS - Page 189

You sound like those 10 years old on PSN that try to act tough by intervening in none of their business.

He attacked me, and I had to defend myself. You should tell him to take a chill pill.

All I am doing is helping out fellow dreamers and I get attacked

All he said was that you're in a "world of hurt" if you believe you'll be approved as fast as that kid with a one-week DACA timeline. He was referring to the possible mental/emotional hurt that comes along with setting unrealistic expectations. Let's all be adults and call a spade a spade: he very neutrally warned you that your process will likely take much longer than a week, and you somehow took that as a personal attack.

You are helping other dreamers by sharing what you submitted, whether or not you hired a lawyer, what your timeline is, answering their questions, bouncing around ideas, and eventually what questions were asked during your interview and what pieces of evidence you brought.

You are not helping fellow dreamers by accusing another fellow dreamer of wishing you the worst or telling them you're wrong when you haven't even been proven right.

All he had to say is don't get your hopes up it may take long or it may be fast. That's all he had to say.

But no he says you're in world of hurt. That's messed up.

Apperantly he can tell the future. Like I said just because his took 8 months it doenst mean I should suffer like he did.

That DACA guy with the one-week timeline is an outlier, and he applied for something completely different than you. Pinning your hopes and dreams on that person's experience is a one-way ticket to disappointment and hurt.

I hope you get the speedy process that you want. And I get it -- just because it took him 8 months, doesn't mean that it would take you just as long. But ultimately, you need to entertain that possibility and be prepared.

Also, I think you are more than smart enough to understand what he meant. You can't control how someone communicates to you, but you should be able to control how you respond.

You're cool

I know what he meant but he should have said it differently.

When I originally shared my approval update, I was just coming out of wisdom teeth surgery and was high on painkillers. Since then, my husband and I have some more things to share from the whole AOS experience. We want to give you guys a complete run-down so that you get a detailed idea of one couple's process from start to finish:

1. Basic info
   - I am B2 overstay, DACA (two renewals)
   - Husband is citizen by birth
   - College grads/yuppies with no criminal record
   - I lost my I-94 years ago, so I submitted an I-102 along with the normal packet
   - We submitted application a month and a half after getting married
   - We used a lawyer. We could have self-filed, but it was nice to have a professional set of eyes to helps us navigate the process. We paid $900, after a discount, since the same lawyer helped my mom with her marriage AOS.
   - Priority date: 3/28/17. Approval date: 7/28/17
   
   
2. Front-loading USCIS with evidence
   - We included the I-864 and I-693, which are not required until the interview.
   - For the I-864, my husband submitted his three most recent pay stubs and three most recent federal tax returns
   - He also submitted his personal bank statements, life insurance policy statements, and his IRA and 401K account information to establish other assets
   - In lieu of an I-94 number, I submitted copies of my entry passport, the entry stamp, and the airline ticket to show that I entered with inspection
   - I submitted the I-693 with the initial packet. Apparently this is optional; you can submit it at the interview, but I wanted to get everything done ahead of time.
   - We also submitted ~30-40 photographs taken throughout our relationship, with descriptions and dates written on the back
   - I wanted to submit my own financial information to show that I met the I-864 requirements as an individual, but my lawyer advised against it
   
   
3. We practiced questions/reviewed our packet
   - You know those questions about which side of the bed you sleep on, who wakes up first, etc.? We practiced those, even though our officer didn't end up asking that at all.
   - The night before, we read through our G-325s to make sure that we can remember our answers. We don't always remember our addresses from the past five years, so it's helpful to review them. Our officer verified everything in those forms with each of us, and even though he didn't expect us to remember everything verbatim, it helps to be familiar with what you wrote down.
   
   
4. We triple-checked and reviewed everything ourselves
   - Even though we had a lawyer, we still double-and triple-checked every single thing we submitted. Having three or more sets of eyes was how we made sure everything was correct.
   - Double- and triple-check your copy of the I-693!! This is what got me the RFE; my civil surgeon didn't know he had to test me for gonorrhea, and he used an expired form. When I went back for the test results and new form, I found several input errors that caused the clinic to reprint my form several times. DO NOT rely on others to be accurate. You need to see exactly everything that's being submitted for you.
   
   
5. We printed almost everything for the interview
   - My husband's passport and birth certificate. The officer only asked for the birth certificate.
   - Copies of my birth certificate, its translation, my entry passport and entry stamp, and my airline ticket
   - Joint lease agreements
   - Rent payment schedule from our tenant online account
   - Letters from Wells Fargo confirming our joint account
   - Statements from our joint checking account
   - Evidence from our brokerage/investment accounts naming each other as beneficiary
   - Evidence from our auto policies naming each other as a spouse
   - Evidence from our life insurance policies naming each other as beneficiary
   - My latest W-4 and DE-4 showing that I checked the "Married" box, because I switched jobs right after we got married
   - Evidence from my current work's employee profile, where I named my husband as my emergency contact
   - Greeting cards from our parents, which were addressed to both of us. Our officer saw them, but didn't want them. He said we had enough.
   - Additional pictures taken after our initial packet. Our officer did not accept these, either, as he said we submitted enough pictures ahead of time.
   - Tickets for concerts/exhibits we went to together. Our officer did not accept these, because they did not list both of our names on them. What we should have submitted were plane tickets to back up the trips we told him we have taken in the past.
   - A box of trinkets from various milestones in our relationship. Our officer didn't look at this, either.
   - A copy of every EAD I've ever received and my social security card. Our officer didn't look at this, either.
   - Note: The interview schedule notice includes a checklist of everything you're supposed to bring. We used that as guidance.
   
   
6. Questions our officer did ask/How we knew we were okay
   - He asked to confirm our information on the G-325s. I said the wrong date for my mom's birthday, but I got her month and year right. My husband remembered the months and years of his parents' birthdays, but not the dates. Didn't seem like a big deal.
   - He asked about the places we lived in and our places of employment for the past five years
   - He verified information from the I-130
   - He verified information from the I-485, including all the questions about criminal history
   - He asked about my current immigration status, to which I answered DACA.
   - He asked about my job experience as a private tutor years ago, and I told him I was undocumented when I was doing that job. That worried me a bit, but I figure he would have figured it out that undocumented people had to work, too.
   - He asked me, specifically, to describe our relationship. I did not know how much detail he wanted, so I started off with an overview and waited for him to ask follow-ups. But he did not.
   - He asked how we decided to get married, who proposed, and who attended our wedding.
   - At some point, he said that we have provided a lot of good evidence in our initial packet, which made us feel good about the overall status, despite the RFE.
   
   
7. Overall field office experience
   - We went to the Los Angeles field office, and we started our appointment about 15-20 minutes early.
   - Our officer was very by-the-book. He was friendly and explained every step thoroughly, but he wasn't chatty or jokey in any way. Some people have reported having conversations with their officers, but that wasn't the case for us.
   - He gave us the option of waiting for him to print out the RFE or wait to get it in the mail.
   - When I dropped off the RFE evidence, I was in an out of the office in less than 15 minutes. I was told before I left that the officer was satisfied with the updated I-693. That's when I knew that approval was just a matter of time.
   
   
8. General advice
   - Relax. If your DACA is not expiring anytime soon, I suggest you take the "set-it-and-forget-it" approach to save yourself the mental burden.
   - Be organized! Make copies of everything you send to and receive from USCIS. We also kept a Google Drive folder so we could access everything at home and at work.
   - Build your interview evidence over time. Don't scramble at the last minute like I did; take 1-2 hours a week from now until your interview date to help your future self.
   - Keep a binder for your interview evidence. I bought a three-ring binder with plastic pockets and dividers to organize our files. It helped us get to the right document faster when our officer requested it.

Awesome list! Thank you very much for sharing this.

Quick question, how did you answer such question?

I answered it honestly.

I meant how do you answer that? Is this the same as asking why you two decided to get married?

I'm just confused with the wording.

I mean, yes, dude. The officer is going to want to know that you got married for the right reasons (i.e. not purely for tax or immigration benefits). So "How did you decide to get married" or "Why did you decide to get married" will get you to the same answer eventually.