Date: 06/02/2008
Time: 2:00 PM
Place: USCIS office, Callowhill St. Philadelphia PA
I Had my interview today, in the DO of Atlanta, GA at 10:00. I was really stressed. The officer who called us was a nice young lady in her mid 30's. We took the Oath to tell the truth, she asked for IDS, marriage ceriticate, previous divorce certificate, she asked where my husban worked, she verified our address and phone number. And finally she asked for most recent taxes for my husband and jpint sponsor. We had a bit of a problem with the taxes because we didnt have the most resent tax return/w2 for my joint sponsor or my husband for 2005.
By the end it turned out that we were waaaaay overprepared. We did our final preparations last night, the only thing we were worried about were those 3 months that we didn't live together after we got married so my husband even printed out a calendar and made references to receipts for every single weekend that he went to visit me while I was up in school.
The news item and related documents are available here:
http://www.immigration.com/newslette...prmprocss.html
Please note, for now (June 2008), premium processing is only available if you meet ALL of the current requirements:
1. Your are currently on H-1;
2. Your H-1 status is expiring within 60 days when you apply for I-140 premium processing; and
3. You are not eligible to receive 1-year H-1 extensions because your labor certification was filed less than one year ago.
This issue has come up several times. Here is what USCIS says:
USCIS Considerations to expedite Cases
All expedite requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and are granted at the discretion of the Director. The criteria are as follows:
* Severe financial loss to company or individual
* Extreme emergent situation
* Humanitarian situation
* Nonprofit status of requesting organization in furtherance of the cultural and social interests of the United States
This morning, I was working on explaining to a client (whom I respect greatly), one of the foremost musicians from India, how EB1 (Extraordinary Ability) category applies to musicians and performers. As I was sending him the basic information on EB1 category, I thought I will share the general criteria with all of you. This information is for EA, generally and applies to all fields - not just music. See attached.
Regards to all. Rajiv.