Did today, Oct. 14 Did infopass appointment immediately after receiving approval emails. 12 pm for me and 1 pm for my wife because I have 4 year kid with us. Reached 12:01 pm. We both entered together. Officer did not cared about my wife's 1 pm appointment. Stamping seems trivial job since no officer took more than 5 minutes to put stamp and collect material from us. We were out at 12:25 pm. I will advise everybody to have infopass for stamping at Atlanta although approval letter says go any day in morning. All you need is apporval letter, all eads, all APs, I-94, and two passporty style photos. We were told that it will take 6 to 8 months for plastic cards. Let's hope we get within 3 weeks since we are travellig abroad.
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Its my turn to say my I-485 was approved and passport stamped Details ------ Mar 20, 2003 RD Apr 2, 2003 ND Apr 15, 2003 FP1 Apr 29, 2003 AP1 Apr 30, 2003 EAD1 May 4, 2004 EAD2 May 6, 2004 FP2 Aug 26, 2004 AP2 Sep 23, 2004 AD Oct 5th Passport Stamped Stamping Exp in Tampa ---------------------- I had my stamping done in Tampa, they didnt let me at the appointment time and I had to join the huge crowd which came for the walk in. After waiting for 3 hours, I was called and the officer asked for my I-94 Courtesy Approval notice of I-485 (Lawyer gets the original) Passport 2 Photos (New standards) After that I was asked to wait for 15 minutes and after 30 minutes I was called again and they took my fingerprint of the index finger and asked me to sign. The passport was then stamped valid for 1 year. The actual plastic card would take 6 months to 1 year they said. The office is very very busy. If you are going for stamping in Tampa, go early in the morning. H1 and GC Saga -------------- Aug 11, 1998 H1 approved Jan 15, 1999 EmpA tells me about approval asks me to go for stamping on 19 th . Jan 19, 1999 Stamping rejected, asked for more tax docs for allmost all who went that day Jan 26, 1999 Stamped, EmpA asks me to fly on 27th Jan 28, 1999 Ist day in the US, no one came to recieve as promised, found my way and reached place to stay 2AM, found EmpA had no paycheck systems, no medical insurance, salary paid on the 25th of the next month, no bench money . Apr 12, 1999 Got a project Oct 17, 2000 EmpA had visited client, Middlemen had fought, project in jeopardy. Wanted peace, changed to EmpB. Almost perfect guys, good pay, good insurance, freedom to work anywhere, as long as I wanted... Oct 31, 2000 Sent application for GC Jun 12, 2001 Asked for Status, EmpB said they lost my file and lawyer confused me with another contractor with same name . (still didnt learn the GC Lesson, no matter who is your employer, you are screwed in GC ) Jun 26, 2001 EmpB Filed my Labor for GC Mar 08, 2002 Had to go to India due to family tragidy... Mar 15, 2002 Came back to US, wrong dates stamped in the passport. Didnt notice due to my state of mind... Mar 16, 2002 Sent the EmpB H1 for stamping to St Louis Apr 10, 2002 New visa Stamped. (Still didnt know dept of State sets Visa, Dept of justice INS/BCIS sets Dates till when you can stay in the US ) Sep ?, 2002 Labor Cleared Sep ?, 2002 I-140 Filed. EmpB refused concurrent filing stating some story . Jan ? 2003 I-140 Approved. Employer delays GC, Learnt my GC Lesson, found my own Lawyer filed my I-485 through him. Got it approved! I wish to thank each and everyone of you in this site for their contributions. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had seen this site earlier. The first 18 months I was in the midwest and I didnt have any desi friends to tell me about this site. I learnt a lot from this site, usefull tips, experiances, general immigration advise and humour. Even small tips make a difference (I had no idea I could use AAA services to take the picture instead of going to Walmart or Sears to save a few bucks). I want to Thank Rajiv Khanna and the moderators for maintaining this site so well. Edison, Dsatish and others have done a great job -Thank you. I do believe that this site is the greatest conribution made for the immigrant in the US. Keep it up and way to go! For those who are waiting for GC, Hang on, I am sure you will get it, I wish you the best of luck! In Him
Hello Friends, I reached at the INS office in chicago around 7 a.m today with our courtesy approval copy for stamping, there was no huge line and I walked in straight inside the office. The lady at the counter gave me the ticket and at our turn at around 8:30 am, both me and my wife's passports were stamped and our finger prints were taken. The immigration officer asked for all the old EAD's and advance parole document which we handed over to her. Following documents are needed for the Stamping: 1. Courtesy Copy or original 2. Two Photograph 3. I-94 card 4. All old EAD's and Advance Parole (Does'nt matter if you have all of them just hand them whatever you have). Then we went to the Social Security office to remove the restriction on our SS Card "Valid for work with INS authorization" with the temporary GC stamp on our passport. The lady there took our old SS card and told us that we will receive our card in mail without restriction in 2 weeks or earlier. All went fine and we were done with the whole process in less than 3 hours.
Went for FP around 8:10 am at Hackensack. There were about 10-15 people in queue. Friendly staff. At Hackensack, they take print with ink as well as Optical scanner. My wife and self took on Optical scanners and were out by 9:00 am.
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Hi Folks I recently came back from India via Paris (Air-India) on Advance Parole, here is what happend: 1. At Delhi Immigration counter they checkd my Original Advance Parole document but returned it - no other question asked 2. At Bombay before security check (due to Transit), they kept copy of advance parole & just saw the Original. 3. At Paris, the immigration officers came inside the aircraft (Remembr you are not allowed to get off the plane) - they asked for my passport, Advance parole Original, checked and returned everything. 4. At US Immigration (Newark), after initial check, we were asked to go for secondary inspection in a waiting area. We had to wait for almost 1 hour as there were few people ahead of us. Officer checked everything and called us, asked me how I am adjusting my status (I Said via Employment), he asked how many years I have been in US. That was it and he stamped my Passports. I would suggest to carry color copies of Advance Parole and originals, also receipt notice of I-485, EAD Cards and may be last couple of paystubs. Hope it helps
