A real life question for a change.

[Reagan]

My fiancee' has been here one month and we will be getting married next week. Has anyone recently filed the necessary documents with INS after their girl has arrived? If so, what is the timeline, costs, possible snags, ect..? Does anyone know a good URL with current information besides the embassy or INS sites?

Thanks

Kevin

[Reagan]

... in response to A real life question for a change., posted by Reagan on Feb 24, 2002

Thank you, there is nothing like good solid information from someone who has actually gone through the process before. We will be getting married next week in Fort Worth.

Thanks again

Kevin

[keith]

... in response to A real life question for a change., posted by Reagan on Feb 24, 2002

I recently did the 485 and the fingerprint and the workpermit applications... my advice is... because you are getting married just a bit over a month of her arrival(you have plenty of time to take a few days after your honeymoon to decompress and then get back in the swing by looking at the websites that have been offered and get all your paperwork in gear... I got married about two weeks before the 90 days was up on her visa and after the honeymoon I wasnt exactly in the frame of mind to do the INS shuffle... fortunately I lucked out and also I was smart enough to briefly look at some websites and bring everything I could think of that I thought they would need... my only mistake was not making copies of all the information that they wanted from my tax returns... silly me I didnt read carefully enough the instructions and only made copies of the part that showed my income(honeymoon mind fog LOL) andso I ended up giving the INS the originals which I brought...  so once again... take a few days to decompress after the wedding and honeymoon... and then give yourself a kick in the pants and get your stuff together for the INS... and if it is anything like our local branch be sure to have a big meal cause you will be waiting for your number to come up for a long long time... perhaps they will let you slip out to your car and get a snack and come back in... be sure to ask first... also it may not hurt if you are not to far from the INS office to go there and get the exact instructions before you apply... our local office told me after the fact that they had a summary of what you need... but you can probaly find the same thing on the websites that have been offered...  good luck and
all the best,
Keith

[tfcrew]

... in response to A real life question for a change., posted by Reagan on Feb 24, 2002

Good for 30 days. Funny, it expires before the visa does.

Be sure @ the Dallas office that you have ALL the documents esp the last 3 tax yr returns. Our interview that day consisted of what amounted to "How are you all today?".
A very nice black lady but could not pronounce Svetlana's name ....it always came out as Svatleta or Steflava.
Where's the wedding?
Karl

[Stan]

... in response to A real life question for a change., posted by Reagan on Feb 24, 2002

I went to Milwaukee INS with my wife to file her 485 around the end of October and in November we had to go back for finger prints and a work permit. They sent us an interview date for Feb. 5th shortly after. Our interview was about 20 minutes long,, no problems even though I didn't bring my birth certificate or original divorce papers, (they only asked for hers and her son's) the form was decieving. Our INS agent was very helpfull and I know at the same office that they are giving some of our friends a hard time so it has a lot to do with who you get for an interviewing agent.

[SteveM]

... in response to A real life question for a change., posted by Reagan on Feb 24, 2002

In addition to the two listed by Dan, I found the checklist on Jonathan's site (formerly Den of Immigration) to be the most helpful in doing the actual filing:

http://alixtcat.50megs.com/

Good luck,

Steve M.

[Dan]

... in response to A real life question for a change., posted by Reagan on Feb 24, 2002

It depends on which INS Field office you file in. For instance, I understand that the AOS interview is conducted immediately upon filing in the Dallas office - whereas here in Denver, we are now 10 months into a possible 2 year wait for the interview.

You can check out the 'Immigration' pages that Patrick has listed on the entry page of this site. There are 2 that I find particularly useful:

1)http://warsaw-visaguide.hypermart.net/
2)http://www.mindspring.com/~docsteen/visainfo/visainfo.htm

The first one also has a section devoted to displaying actual information regarding AOS interview waiting times for INS offices around the country.

I hope this helps.

- Dan