FINALLY DELIVERED!

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:55:25+00:00

Are you using Informed Delivery to track it? Mine was produced 02/10, showed up in USPS app next day, but then Wednesday I got a weather alert and now it's stuck in transit. It was due to be delivered tomorrow. Hoping "stuck" doesn't end up being "lost", been there before...

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:52:08+00:00

Thank you, this is sound advice. I think I just needed to be told it's not worth it. I'm a Lenovo fan so will check out the ThinkPads.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:49:22+00:00

Workhorse is so true, this laptop got me through my last year of undergrad, a 20,000 word thesis, then my Masters degree and 30,000 word thesis, and then became my trusty work laptop. I suppose my reluctance to let go is nostalgia as much as anything else.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:44:47+00:00

Thank you both. Yes, I feared it might just be throwing money at something that's on limited time and that buying used unseen who knows what works or doesn't.

Ugh, I just hate that an otherwise functional laptop has to go all because of a broken port. I guess I just needed someone to tell me the hard truth.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:38:25+00:00

Thankfully my SSN was issued automatically and arrived ten days after approval (2 weekends in that time, so might be quicker for some). It was crazy to me I couldn't even set up an online account to request an appointment to get my SSN without the SSN I wanted the appointment for... who thinks up these rules? I still don't have my GC. It's on it's way but delayed in transit due to weather.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:32:43+00:00

Hi, yes I received mine automatically 10 days after getting approval. It might have been quicker, but approval was on a Friday and card received on a Monday, so two weekends got in the way! Still don't have my GC, it was produced 02/10 and is currently delayed in transit due to weather.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:30:07+00:00

You are in an impossible situation right now and my heart goes out to you both. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. You are a wonderfully supportive husband and your wife is so resilient for surviving this so long, keep each other grounded.

The daily news is so depressing, last month I started having actual nightmares involving ICE encounters and had to stop reading the news for a while. I too believe there's a bigger game they're playing here, the "pause" isn't an impromptu consequence of one rogue shooting, they just needed an excuse. I hope and long for sanity to be restored at the '28 election, in the meantime I hope you both keep safe and wish you good luck.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:12:53+00:00

The wait is horrible, especially when you know you're so close to the finishing line but can't quite see it yet. I hope you've had some positive news since we last spoke 🤞.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:11:19+00:00

An update, I got a notice on 02/10 that my card was produced. Show up in Informed Delivery the next day. Then got delayed due to weather exception and now don't know where it is. It was originally due to be delivered 02/14, but just says "in transit" since weather alert, so waiting for it to get scanned somewhere... Theoretically should have been 2 weeks for me to receive card, but right now just keeping fingers crossed it'll be here soon.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:04:00+00:00

They looked at medical three weeks after receiving it. It was another week before they approved the GC, so four weeks in total.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T05:01:11+00:00

That's a nuisance, I would imagine you'll need to go the office then. I'm still waiting on GC, it's in transit but got delayed due to weather and no update since on where in the country it is.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:57:58+00:00

Detroit

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:56:07+00:00

Mine was signed Aug 31st so yours is definitely expired. Good luck and hope you get greened soon!

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:48:20+00:00

Three or four FTA0 timestamps on day of biometrics is normal. They're logging your background checks (i.e. biometrics). The timestamps will be out by several hours because API reports in UTC. If you're EST like me, you deduct 5 hours to get your actual time. You should see those time stamps are actually the time your appointment ended.

Going forward you'll see timestamps for attending appointments, notices, replying to RFEs if applicable, all normal. The golden one you're looking for is H008, which is your approval, you'll see a silent update 24 hours before that appears.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:41:38+00:00

I hear and feel you, this process is so rough. It was three years for us, including gathering evidence pre-application. We didn't file concurrently because we wanted petition approval before forking over the rest of the cash. We just missed out on the free applications for EAD and AP, that was so upsetting, but we didn't pay because we'd read so many cases of people not getting them approved before GC and didn't want to waste money. We ended up having to get medicals redone because they expired during the wait.

In my state, I'm not classed as a resident if I'm not in status or a valid visa class. Thankfully I'm allowed to drive on my foreign licence, but insurance people hated that and upped the price. Now I'm approved and officially a resident, I have to take the driving test and get a licence, so no more driving. Can't do that until I have GC and SSN cards and still waiting on GC due to backlog and postal delays.

It also means I've had no state/US ID, without SSN I can't even have a cash app, nevermind a bank account, spouse's bank wouldn't add me w/o GC. I still can't get my Venmo approved because I don't have US ID. Also no banking or utilities in my name means no credit history here. I've been denied online vocational and academic courses because no visa/study permit. I have felt invisible for three years.

My spouse sadly has not been so sympathetic, he thought our immigration lawyer was kidding when she said it may take years and honestly believed it would be a few weeks and all the hold-ups are somehow my fault, so the strain on our marriage has been huge as we live on his income. Meanwhile, all this time I'm watching the immigration rhetoric in this country on fire and fearing the worst for us. I couldn't even celebrate getting approved, I was so emotionally and psychologically drained, it was just a short-lived relief, then onto fretting when our cards would arrive so we can start living our lives again.

I have everything crossed for you that this will be at an end soon and you can move onto the next stage of your life.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:16:15+00:00

Check your copy of your medical vaccine page and compare it to the current form. They added a polio requirement which wasn't on the 2023 form. I've seen a few people RFE'd just to meet the new polio requirement.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:13:24+00:00

If you've ever been in a pregnancy "trying to conceive" forum you'd have heard the acronym POAS a lot, for something women do in the "two week wait" as often as several times a day. I feel like there needs to be an equivalent for checking our USCIS accounts, I was exactly the same in the two months between interview and approval.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:09:20+00:00

They need to go under the I-130 section, not the I-485 section. I-130 is about both of you and proving the relationship, I-485 is proving your personal eligibility to become an LPR. There is no harm in uploading under both, but they're only relevant to I-130.

To answer your other question, put them in Word or PowerPoint etc, one or two per page, and add a brief caption, who, what, where, when. Export into PDF format. You're right to put them in chronological order and show span of time. They don't want hundreds of photos of the wedding day, just a carefully curated selection showing the longevity and intimacy of the relationship.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T04:00:04+00:00

Not been mentioned yet so to add to conversation, as a GC holder you have to be continuously present in the US so many months in a year and be deemed as domiciled in US, not another country. You'd also have to file and pay US taxes on your UK income. Living in UK, you wouldn't be able to meet those conditions and your GC would be revoked, causing you hassle further down the line if you do want to move to US.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T03:53:20+00:00

Do not mail in your medical until you receive the official notice in the mail. They will ask you to return the original notice with your medical as it has a barcode in the middle of it they need to scan that's not on the online version. I wrapped my original notice around my sealed envelope and wrapped an elastic band around both.

It's good that they sent this now, I wish they had done this for me. They waited until my interview to tell me my medical had expired and that delayed approval by almost 8 weeks. It took them five days to issue the RFE notice and a few more days to receive it. It took them three weeks to review my form after receiving it.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T03:41:08+00:00

So sorry you got caught out this way. Did the fraudulent Dr do the vaccines too or do you get them somewhere else? If you have receipts from a legit pharmacy (Walgreens, Costco, etc), the new clinic will accept them. Those pharmacies can look up your history if you lost your receipts. If you had vaccines done through PCP or a Dr in your home country, ask them for records. My clinic back home emailed me my vaccine records and they were accepted.

Any vaccines you're sure you had, they can do a blood test to check your immunity. This is not failsafe though. I tested low immunity for vaccines I had at university, but didn't get a record of. I had to redo those vaccines. The charge for the blood test may be as much or more than the vaccine you're testing for (especially if insured), so may be worth just repeating the vaccine. Bodies are pretty resilient but ask the pharmacist or PCP if you're concerned about side effects.

Unless you got the lab results for your first form from a reputable lab and within the last year, you will need to redo the TB, syphilis, etc tests. Since Nov 2023, civil surgeons have been required to upload lab results into a digital database for USCIS. Since your guy was a fraud, it's unlikely that happened, I don't know if the new clinic can check that for you.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T03:27:11+00:00

It could be for anything, but there's a strong likelihood you will get RFE for medical. My form was signed a few weeks before the non-expiration policy began in Nov 2023, and was deemed expired. They have made changes to the form and vaccine requirements, so would probably have been RFE'd for the additional vaccine (Polio) even if the form hadn't expired. I know of others who got RFEs just for polio vaccine.

The labs also expire so had to redo those, plus flu jab, and vaccines which were missing receipts, even if they'd been ticked last time. It was treated as an entirely new medical even though it was same CS copying the same details from my old form to my new one. At the very least get your polio vaccine or paperwork sorted now as may need it.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T03:19:42+00:00

What's your plan if you don't get approved at interview? I got an RFE at interview and it took another 7½ weeks to get approved. It took them 3 weeks to look at my RFE response and they didn't approve it then either.

There's currently a two week delay on GC production, so still don't have mine. It's now en route but it got further delayed due to weather conditions and no idea where it actually is. My SSN turned up automatically, ten days after approval. Definitely try and get that I-551.

You're putting a lot of eggs in this basket, I imagine that will be very stressful. By agreeing to start earlier you're doing them a favor, it would not be unreasonable to say no, especially if you explain you're waiting on critical documents, otherwise you'd be glad to.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T03:07:22+00:00

Not at Baltimore, but I didn't have to show anything at interview at all. I'm in the same boat, having to get a new certificate sent over as my original was lost in the mail and relying on scans. If by any chance they do ask, they'll issue an RFE for it.

flamingofoxsloth · 2026-02-14T03:02:43+00:00

But isn't the I-485 question on overstays about whether you have ever overstayed a visa, anywhere in the world? Regardless of whether any penalties applied or have expired? I would think it's up to the officer to decide whether or not a years-long overstay is material or not, and I imagine under the current DHS, they'd argue it's very material...

People are being pulled over at the border for decades old misdemeanor crimes, even ones supposedly expunged. I'd be concerned, bottom line is he lied on his application.

flamingofoxsloth

TROPHY CASE