Date: 06/02/2008
Time: 2:00 PM
Place: USCIS office, Callowhill St. Philadelphia PA
1. N-400, filed Feb-2006
2. Fingerprint: Completed Mar-2006.
3. Received interview letter April 2006.
4. Interview completed Jun-2006, tests passed, the FBI name check is pending.
5. Aug-2006, approached US congress Representative, office sent letter to FBI, answer received in October: Name Check is pending,
letter also stated the date when FBI received request from USCIS; knowing of this date was helpful; I was using this date in my
11:15 Went through security then directed to the appropriate waiting room;
There were other couples, and I must say the office really looked busy as there were many IO’s. Well I assumed they were at the rate in which families being interviewed were going in and out.
Our chance came eventually and we were called in by a fine lady, whose first thing was to swear us in. She appeared like she wanted to laugh through some of the proceedings although she kept a serious look.
Some of the questions asked;
We are back from San Antonio and I was APPROVED!!!!
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.