Deb

Hi, I've been reading lots of stuff here for a long while, knowing my
turn at filing the paperwork and going through the process was coming
up.

My Canadian fiance, whom I've known for 3 years, came here to
live for a few months last year so that we could be certain what we
thought we shared was indeed real and that the magic of the long-
distance love affair could sustain a normal, everyday give and take of a
real relationship. He was here about 9 months-with some small back and
forth trips to Canada in between. Although he obviously wasn't able to
work while here, it was more important to us to make certain how we
feel, to both be absolutely sure about this change in our lives. Long
distance relationships are fun and exciting, but also frustrating,
difficult and somewhat unrealistic in regards to actually actually being
able to live together and creating a life with each other day in and day
out.

Well, to make a long story a LITTLE shorter...things went better
than we even could have anticipated, so he moved back to Canada last
September with the intentions of filing the fiance visa, etc. He needed
to get his passport replaced and some other paperwork together, and I
started pulling all the info together at this end. And as of December
we still have not filed everything, althought we were ready to go. In
the midst of that we got a little discouraged at the timeline situation
in Nebraska, so during a Christmas visit we decided to go ahead and get
married instead. We studied the instructions, info on this site, the
info in the FAQ listed sites and by the first week of February had
gotten married and sent in the 130 (Adjustment of Status), 485 (Pet. for
Alien Relative) and 785 (Request for Employment Authorization) to our
local Cincinnati office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services
office.

I thought perhaps we'd get a receipt, but with no receipt
received and none of the checks cashed, I called the Cincinnati office a
month later in March (last week). The woman I talked to was very nice
and helpful, and after scaring me by saying they had never received it
(it was sent with delivery notification so I knew they had), she found
it in the received and preliminary processing list.

Then she told me
something that I hadn't seen on here before....but you all may already
know this and I may have missed it. She said they have started
something new with applications. They are now sending applications to
what she called a processing office they have hired to go through the
applications. The firm will review the apps, make sure all the
attachments are correct and in place, and there are no problems. They
will then send them back to Cincinnati (in batches) and when Cincy gets
them they will be ready to move forward and can go ahead and process.
She said they are hoping this will improve service and the timelines and
make things go faster for the applicants. But in so doing, no one will
get a receipt, the checks will take a little longer to cash, but when
the office gets the applications back from the Chicago firm, the checks
will be cashed, and forms will be processed, applicants contacted for
fingerprinting, interviews, or (hopefully not) any problems or
additional materials needed, etc.

So, that's where we are. The checks
still have not been cashed and accordinging to the USCIS
website/Cincinnati info updated yesterday, they are processing
Employment Authorization w/ receipt notice date of January 29 2004 and
I485 with receipt date of April 14, 2003.

Obviously we are anxious to
get the employment authorization as he'd like to get started job
hunting, but we realize the other paperwork will take a long time.
We're happy to be together, though, and in the same country. Not that
I'm advocating doing it this way (vs. fiance visa) and I'll have to let
you know at the END of the process if we think it was worth it to do so.


Good luck to everyone else, hope this info is helpful to someone.

Farhan

Originally posted by Deb
    > Hi, I've been reading lots of
stuff here for a long while, knowing my turn at filing the paperwork and
going through the process was coming up.
    >
    > My Canadian fiance, whom
I've known for 3 years, came here to live for a few months last year so
that we could be certain what we thought we shared was indeed real and
that the magic of the long-distance love affair could sustain a normal,
everyday give and take of a real relationship. He was here about 9 months-
with some small back and forth trips to Canada in between. Although he
obviously wasn't able to work while here, it was more important to us to
make certain how we feel, to both be absolutely sure about this change
in our lives. Long distance relationships are fun and exciting, but
also frustrating, difficult and somewhat unrealistic in regards to
actually actually being able to live together and creating a life with
each other day in and day out.
    >
    > Well, to make a long story a LITTLE
shorter...things went better than we even could have anticipated, so he
moved back to Canada last September with the intentions of filing the
fiance visa, etc. He needed to get his passport replaced and some
other paperwork together, and I started pulling all the info together at
this end. And as of December we still have not filed everything,
althought we were ready to go. In the midst of that we got a little
discouraged at the timeline situation in Nebraska, so during a Christmas
visit we decided to go ahead and get married instead. We studied the
instructions, info on this site, the info in the FAQ listed sites and by
the first week of February had gotten married and sent in the 130
(Adjustment of Status), 485 (Pet. for Alien Relative) and 785 (Request
for Employment Authorization) to our local Cincinnati office of the
Citizenship and Immigration Services office.
    >
    > I thought perhaps we'd
get a receipt, but with no receipt received and none of the checks
cashed, I called the Cincinnati office a month later in March (last
week). The woman I talked to was very nice and helpful, and after
scaring me by saying they had never received it (it was sent with
delivery notification so I knew they had), she found it in the received
and preliminary processing list.
    >
    > Then she told me something that
I hadn't seen on here before....but you all may already know this and I
may have missed it. She said they have started something new with
applications. They are now sending applications to what she called a
processing office they have hired to go through the applications. The
firm will review the apps, make sure all the attachments are correct and
in place, and there are no problems. They will then send them back to
Cincinnati (in batches) and when Cincy gets them they will be ready to
move forward and can go ahead and process. She said they are hoping
this will improve service and the timelines and make things go faster
for the applicants. But in so doing, no one will get a receipt, the
checks will take a little longer to cash, but when the office gets the
applications back from the Chicago firm, the checks will be cashed, and
forms will be processed, applicants contacted for fingerprinting,
interviews, or (hopefully not) any problems or additional materials
needed, etc.
    >
    > So, that's where we are. The checks still have not
been cashed and accordinging to the USCIS website/Cincinnati info
updated yesterday, they are processing Employment Authorization w/
receipt notice date of January 29 2004 and I485 with receipt date of
April 14, 2003.
    >
    > Obviously we are anxious to get the employment
authorization as he'd like to get started job hunting, but we realize
the other paperwork will take a long time. We're happy to be together,
though, and in the same country. Not that I'm advocating doing it this
way (vs. fiance visa) and I'll have to let you know at the END of the
process if we think it was worth it to do so.
    >
    > Good luck to everyone
else, hope this info is helpful to someone.

Deb - Have you
heard anything from the office yet?

Deb

Originally posted by farhan
    > Deb - Have you heard
anything from the office yet?


No nothing....still. Should I
be worried? There's been no receipt notice from them, none of the
three checks have cleared, and no contact.

According to the website,
where you can check status of apps at district offices (last update of
timeline was March 16), the Cincinnati office is working on Employment
authorization apps from January 29. Our date will be about 10 days
after that I believe. Since I don't have an official receipt from them,
I'm not sure what date they are using as the receipt date. The date
they received the application from me. Or the date they receive it
back from the center they sent the apps to for initial review.

Should I
call? Should I wait longer? Any suggestions?????

Farhan

Originally posted by Deb
    > No nothing....still. Should I
be worried? There's been no receipt notice from them, none of the
three checks have cleared, and no contact.
    >
    > According to the
website, where you can check status of apps at district offices (last
update of timeline was March 16), the Cincinnati office is working on
Employment authorization apps from January 29. Our date will be about
10 days after that I believe. Since I don't have an official receipt
from them, I'm not sure what date they are using as the receipt date.
The date they received the application from me. Or the date they
receive it back from the NBC they sent the apps to for initial review
(Chicago I think).
    >
    > Should I call? Should I wait longer? Any
suggestions?????

We sent our paper to cincy office on March
5th - still no word. its strange, i will call them tomorrow to ask about
it. is there phone # to local office?

Deb

Originally posted by farhan
    > We sent our paper to cincy
office on March 5th - still no word. its strange, i will call them
tomorrow to ask about it. is there phone # to local office?



Hi Farhan.

The Cincy number is 513-684-2934. Good luck...and
please let me know what you find out. I may call them again myself as
well.

    :-)


Deb