My green card processing timeline

As I mentioned earlier, once I had obtained my K1 Fiance visa, there wasn’t much of a rest before I arrived in the USA, gotmarried and began the next phase of the immigration procedure which included more form filling, appointment attending and evidence gathering for the USCIS.  As the green card processing went on over a period of months, I thought it might be useful to write a summary of it as a chronological list - so here is my green card processing timeline.

IMPORTANT: Be aware that not everyone’s application follows quite the same pattern as my own.  I have read various accounts and the time delays can vary considerably, as can the order of events (for example, unlike me, many people receive their temporary work and travel permits before they get their green card).

January 14^th – My wife and I got married.  This fulfilled the requirements of my K1 fiance visa.  To become a permanent resident and obtain the necessary documents for getting work, however, I needed to apply for a green card next.

February 2nd - I received my social security card after applying for it at a social security office 10 days earlier.  Although it is not essential to the process of getting a green card, doing anything official can be difficult in the USA without a social security number, which is used as a form of I.D. proof, as well as for tax purposes.  The card had written across it that I could only work with DHS authorization.

January and February - My wife and I make up a list of everything that we would need as evidence and began gathering it together for my green card application.

February 25^th - Attend a medical and get my I-693 form filled out (confirmation of my vaccine records by a US doctor).

March 14^th - Put in the application for greencard (I-485), along with applications for a temporary work permit (I-765) and travel permit (I-131), all our evidence, a check for the fee, and a green receipt card for the USCIS to stamp and return to me.

March 18^th – Received the green receipt card I sent with package back, stamped by USCIS Chicago.

March 25^th - Received notification that my forms and fee money had been received (including receipts for the temporary work [I-765] and travel [I-131] documents as well as the green card) – but also informed that I’d forgotten to include payment for the biometrics appointment and I needed to send them the money before my case would proceed.

April 3^rd - Received confirmation that they’d received the money for the biometrics and that they would send me a date for my biometrics appointment in due course.

April 17^th - Receive a “Transfer Notice”, informing me that they have transferred my case to the California Service Center to speed up the green card processing.

June 30^th - Invited to attend a biometrics appointment on July 20th.

September 18^th - Receive notification that my green card application has been accepted and they will send me a green card shortly.

September 20^th - Received my green card in the mail.

Now that the green card process was complete and I had my green card, I requested that my social security card be changed to remove the writing on it that stipulated I could only work with DHS authorization.  Received my replacement card on September 26th.

I can take a breather now regarding immigration bureaucracy until my green card runs out in 2 years time and I have to replace it.

The USCIS Biometrics Appointment

Four months after I sent off my I-485Green Card Application, as well as my applications for temporary travel and work permits, known as the I-131 Advance Parole (AP) and the I-765 Employment Authorization (EAD), I received a letter inviting me to attend a USCIS biometrics appointment. 

It was good news, as it meant that I was getting closer to obtaining my green card, but also a bit of a pain as it meant my wife taking time off work to drive me to the nearest USCIS office, which was an hour and a half away. There was a stark warning on the USCIS biometrics appointment letter warning me that my application would be considered abandoned if I missed the appointment, so we set off an hour and a half early, giving us plenty of time to find the USCIS center and also some leeway in case there were any unforeseen travel problems.

The biometrics appointment is pretty straightforward and essentially just about getting your photo, fingerprints, iris scans, etc. taken.  In my experience, it is essentially the same information as was collected from me at customs when I entered the US for visits (except this time I had paid the USCIS for the privilege).

We got to the USCIS office without problems.  After coming through security at the door, I was given a form to fill out and told to wait.  There were lots of people booked for the same time, so they gave people waiting numbers according to a first-come-first-served basis.  Like with the London Embassy, there were security restrictions on electronic devices, so my wife and I left our ipods etc in the car and took in some books to read.

I was only kept waiting for ten minutes, however, and then sent through to a backroom where a lady collected my biometrics.  One worrying thing that she pointed out, that I hadn’t realized, was that my USCIS biometrics appointment was only for my green card.  Normally, she told me, she processed two lots of biometrics for people in my situation, one for the green card application and one for the temporary travel and work permits.  She asked me if I had received any other letters and I told her no.  She explained that it was therefore possible that I might be invited to go for a second biometrics appointment at some point in the future. 

I was less than happy at the prospect of my wife having to take another day off work and both of us traveling to the USCIS office again.  Plus it could cause a delay in the process.  I tried to get some advice and information off the biometrics lady, regarding what I should I do, but she said that she was unable to tell me anything more  and I should just wait to be contacted by the USCIS (to be fair, I think she just had the task of collecting the biometrics and had no access to my files, or knowledge of my case).

Despite my wife having taken an entire day of work, the actual biometrics appointment only took about 25 minutes.  I was still thinking about what the biometrics lady had said when I got home.  Then I remembered that I had received another letter from the USCIS a couple of months earlier, telling me that they were transferring my green card application to California to speed it up (I live in Florida).  Taking into account what the lady at the biometrics had said, my guess was that the USCIS were maybe skipping the temporary work and travel applications and just focusing on sorting out my I-485 green card.  My guess would later turn out to be correct.

(I wasn’t too disappointed with this situation. Although my research had recommended putting in the I-131 Advance Parole (AP) and the I-765 Employment Authorization (EAD) applications in with the I-485 Green Card Application, basically because they are free to apply for if submitted this way, my research also suggested that the temporary work and travel permits usually take almost as long to process as the actual Green Card, so were of very limited practical value to me anyway.)

I-485 Green Card Application and I-684 Affidavit of Support

Unfortunately, the bureaucracy didn’t stop for me once I had entered the US with my K1 Fiance Visa and got married.  The K1 Fiance Visa can only be used once, so having entered the USA and got married, its use was essentially over, although I did, of course, keep all my documents in case they were needed for proof further down the line (the I-94 inside my passport, for instance, was essential later for proving that I had entered the country legally, as was the I-797 approval notice that was received by my wife at the end of the I-129 petition process).  Anyway, I was now ready for the next stage after getting married in the US (Florida), making my I-485 Green Card application for permanent residency, known as an adjustment of status or AOS.  If that was successful, then I would receive a USCIS Green Card and be classified as a resident alien by the USCIS.  Along with the I-485 Green Card application, I also applied for Advance Parole (AP) and Employment Authorization (EAD), as there was no fee to pay if I filed them at the same time as my application for adjustment of status (AOS).

The I-485 Green Card application is a thick form with lots of questions, but I had got used to filling out those when undergoing the K1 Fiance Visa Process.  What was a pain about applying for Adjustment of Status, in my wife and I’s experience, was putting together all the masses of evidence that was needed to go with the accompanying I-684 Affidavit of Support.  As well as providing proof that we were are married, my wife also had to present proof that she was financially solvent and able to support me.  This basically involves collecting together piles of tax returns that have to be sorted through and copied, as well as letters from my wife’s boss and months and months of bank statements, amongst other things.  I also had to include the I-693 vaccination supplement, a copy of my I-94, the I-684 Affidavit of Support, along with copies of all the bank, employment, and tax documents.  We also included evidence of our relationship, including: copy of marriage license, wedding cards and photos, letter from bank showing we had a joint bank account and a few other things, such as the I-797. 

As I mentioned, as well as the green card application, I also put in applications for temporary travel documents and temporary employment permission, known as I-131 Advance Parole (AP) and the I-765 Employment Authorization (EAD), so that I have the option of traveling and working while we wait for the adjustment of status application to be processed, although in practice the AP and EAD can also take months to be processed.  I thought it was worth putting them in, however, as there were no extra costs, given that they were filed with my I-485 and I-684.

The whole package of five application forms and status adjustment evidence was so big and heavy it cost us $14 for the postage!  (That was on top of the $980 we had to pay for the processing of the application!)  There is also a small fee at this point that you have to pay towards the biometrics that you will have to get later.  We actually forgot to include this the first time round and were sent a letter saying that they wouldn’t start processing our forms until they had received it.  They also send letters acknowledging receipt of the various forms.

The next stage after this is the biometrics appointment.  They send a letter inviting you when they are ready.  It took over four months for me just to get the I-131 Advance Parole (AP) and the I-765 Employment Authorization (EAD), never mind the Adjustment of Status, so try to keep patient!

USCIS I-693 form and Vaccination Supplement

After getting married in the USA (Florida), I now had to file an I-485 Green Card application for permanent residency.  This is also called seeking an adjustment of status (AOS).  If all went well with that, then I would be issued with a USCIS Green Card.  Before I could do that, however, I needed to get certification to show that all my vaccinations and health checks etc. were in order.  This was to be done with a USCIS I-693 form, I discovered, which I had to get filled out and then include when I sent in the I-485 Green Card application package. 

As I had had a K1 Fiance Visa Medical Exam back in London only a few months prior and had brought my copy of the vaccinations sheet with me to the USA, that made things a little easier when sorting out the USCIS I-693 form.  Essentially, because I had had my K1Fiance Visa Medical Exam within 12 months previous to putting in my I-485 Green Card application, I didn’t need to undergo another medical (phew!) and I only needed the USCIS i-693 supplemental form filling out, not the entire I-693 form.

The I-693 supplemental form relates only to the vaccination supplement part of the form and has to be filled out by a designated civil surgeon, which basically means a USCIS approved doctor.  There is a list of practices on the USCIS website that I used to help me find a designated civil surgeon.  Apparently, prices vary considerably, so you are supposed to shop around.  In my small city, however, there were only two practices with a designated civil surgeon and one of them never answered my calls, so I didn’t have a great deal of choice.  The price wasn’t bad, however.  I forget what the fee was but it was somewhere in the region of $35.  I had to keep telling them that I only needed the I-693 supplemental form doing, however, and did not require the entire medical (which would have cost considerably more and was completely unnecessary in my case).

Anyway, I booked an appointment and it was all very straightforward.  As it had already been determined that I met the US vaccination requirements for the medical exam back in London, I just took along my passport as ID and my copy of the vaccine worksheet that I had been given to me after my London medical and they copied my details from the vaccine worksheet over onto the USCIS I-693 supplement.   I didn’t need any extra vaccinations.  The I-693 supplement was then stamped and signed by the designated civil surgeon and I was given a sealed envelope that I was told under no circumstances should I open. 

Now that I had sorted out my USCIS i-693 supplemental form, I was ready to put together my I-485 Green Card application package.