My wife's EAD application is pending at VSC for more than 4 months now. On 91st day (Which happened to be a Wednesday), we reached Arlington office at 1.45pm. They asked us to wait in a room, after a while someone picked up her receipt and gave her a form to fill out. After 30 minutes they asked her to wait in another room after verifying the payment info. She was done by 3.15pm, so I should say it was a painless and quick procedure. She was issued EAD valid for one year.
Today, I went to the local USCIS office at 10 w jackson blvd, and got the IEAD. This office is just outside the Jackson Blue Line Subway station. They opened the doors at 6AM. When they opened the doors, there were around 50 people in the line.
They were asking for EAD, 140 reciepts, IL driving license/state ID or some postal mail to prove that you are IL resident.
Got the IEAD for 3 months. Out by 9AM.
Today I went in because it's 91 days after my I-765 Employment app was processed. I was told to do this after phoning the 1 800 number, they told me go in to the Honolulu office and request an Interim EAD because it had not yet been approved.
When I got there, I was told that it had actually been approved May 16th ( I was also told that when I went to get biometrics the person did not stamp both my letters and do fingprint/photo for the I-765, just the I-485, so I went there again).
We went and got my wife's interim EAD and walk-in Advance Parole in NYC on 5/25/04. The application has been pending for more than 150 days.
We lined up at 5 AM, got into the building at 7 AM. We went to a room on the 1st floor, where the EAD receipt was checked, we were given a yellow sheet and asked to put the A# and name on it. We then went to the 9th floor, where after waiting for 40 minutes, we received a ticket #. They said it would take a while to do the background check, so we went to the 8th floor to take care of the AP.
We applied for EAD at Vermont. Receipt date was 2/19/2004. But we did not receive our Ead and it was not approved either. On 5/21/2004 we went to NY office, at 5 am, and went inside at 7.30 am( there was no crowd).Submitted the new application at 8.00 am. They made us to wait, telling they were doing the extensive background check until 12.30 and then after a photograph we were issued an EAD for 8 months.
In front of us there was a person whose EAD was lost in the post from Vermont was denied an EAD, asking her to call Vermont and wait.
We filed for an EAD renewal to VSC on Jan 30th 2004. Apparently we did not check how much VSC was back logged. EAD was expiring on 8th of April. When the Employer asked for a renewed EAD, we checked the status & realized the seriousness. We took an appointment with the local Tampa USCIS on March 19th (49th day of filing EAD). We showed all the documents to the officer, she did not allow me to utter a single word. She gave me an appointment for March 24th for Interim EAD. On March 24th Local USCIS issued an interim EAD in 10 mintues for 8 months.
[Federal Register: March 31, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 61)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 15991-15992]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr31mr10-1]
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Rules and Regulations
Federal Register
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ICE Detention and Removal Operations Director issued a memo to field office directors clarifying the February 22, 2010 memo on removal goals.
Work permits and c9 I-765 application - The center recommends applicants and attorneys to follow the current Pre-Order Instructions which points out that applicants should file the renewed I-485 application with the TSC (Texas Service Center) when the form has been denied and renewed by the IJ. This also holds well when the applicant or attorney submits a new Form I-485 application to the IJ.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that it has published new versions of the Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, Form I-600 and the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, Form I-600A . The new date on the bottom of both forms is “12/30/09 N.” Due to the changes on the forms, previous versions will no longer be accepted after a 60 day transition period.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will begin implementing new enhanced security measures for all air carriers with international flights to the United States to strengthen the safety and security of all passengers—superseding the emergency measures put in place immediately following the attempted terrorist attack on Dec. 25, 2009.
This explains visa number usage, spillover of visa numbers into other preference categories, and the visa number backlog.
Preference Categories
The primary reasons for entering the immigration process in the U.S. are family and employment-based. To manage this process, family and employment-based immigration is broken into preference categories. Congress sets limits on how many individuals may immigrate to the U.S. each year (i.e. visa numbers) and also sets limits on how many individuals may immigrate within each preference category.
ICE updated its list of Student and Exchange Visitor Program approved schools.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that travelers interested in applying to the Global Entry and Privium Trusted Traveler programs may do so at one of five “one-stop-shop” joint enrollment centers established as a pilot initiative in the United States and the Netherlands through the Fast Low-Risk Universal Crossing (FLUX) program.
These Questions & Answers address the automatic extension of F-1 student status in the United States for certain students with pending or approved H-1B petitions (indicating a request for change of status from F-1 to H-1B) for an employment start date of Oct. 1, 2010 under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 H-1B cap.
A: The cap is the congressionally-mandated limit on the number of individuals who may be granted initial H-1B status or visas during each fiscal year. For FY 2011, the cap is 65,000.
The H-1B Program
U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields, such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers.
For more information about the H-1B program, see the link to the left under temporary workers for H-1B Specialty Occupations, DOD Cooperative Research and Development Project Workers, and Fashion Models.
How USCIS Determines if an H-1B Petition is Subject to the FY 2011 Cap