At a glance
9/26/2005 RD NIW I-140 and I-485 (family)
9/28/2005 RD EB1B I-140
10/18/2005 AD both I-140
11/17/2005 FP(finger print)
9/7/2006 RD request to transfer I-485 to approved EB1B I-140
9/28/2006 AD all I-485 (email welcome notice)
10/6/2006 all cards received
A few facts/thoughts:
I will try to share as much info as I can recall, but I am sure I will miss some, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer any questions, but please keep in mind I am not an immigration expert. Please be advised that things happened to me, whether good or bad, may not happen to everybody.
1. about lawyer: we hired a lawyer to prepare the documents. As most others who have not gone through this process, we initially expected a lot from the lawyer, but the lawyer didn’t write a single sentence for us, except the cover letters. The lawyer first asked me to write a personal statement, which took at lease 2 months since I was expecting more help than the lawyer would offer, and sometimes it took longer than I expected to get opinions from the lawyer after a revision. At first, I thought this statement was part of the application package, but it was not – it was only a preparation for the reference letters. Then I prepared about 6-7 reference letters, mostly from universities. Again, the lawyer offered very limited help on writing the reference letters. So, do you need a lawyer? I would say no if you have a friend who has gone through this, especially if he/she is in the same field as you are. I would say a lawyer’s work worth less than $1000 in such cases, but they ask for a lot more. If you cannot get a copy of a successful package, then probably it’s better to get a lawyer. After all, a green card worth more than the lawyers ask. Here I also want to share my feeling about contacting the lawyer. I feel it was very hard to get hold the lawyer when you need help, but it was relatively easy to get help from his assistants. I also feel the assistants’ promise is more trustable than the lawyer’s promise.
2. about the reference letters: I made mistakes by sending the personal statement to people and ask for letters, thus missed some “big guys”. So don’t expect the lawyer or the people from whom you are seeking letters to actually write the letter for you. Among all the letters I ted, only one was actually written by a professor. Draft a few copies of essentially the same letter, add sections special to a referrer, email the draft to him and ask if he could help. Most people would help if they know you, but don’t expect everybody would. The good thing about writing the letter by yourself is that you can let the most important people to say the best words for you.
3. about publication/qualification: I can only say not having a good record of publication/citation doesn’t necessarily mean you are not qualified. I only have one journal paper, a few conference papers, and none of them has high impact. When it came to mention my publications in the statement/letters, I could only use words like “for example”. I didn’t even bother to mention the number of citations. The strength of my case, I guess, was my research field, which can be related to most major diseases as long as it requires medical imaging for diagnosis/treatment, and the projects I involved – I am co-investigator and site coordinator of 2 multi-site multi-million dollar projects. My boss helped a lot by emphasizing the critical role I play in these projects.
4. about using AP: we applied AP with I485 and the AP was approved in 11/2005. We visited China in July and came back in August using AP. We didn’t encounter any problem at all. It only took longer for the officer to write a lot of dates on the APs. We were asked to show some photo IDs, though, and we show our driver’s licenses.
5. about the I-94: before leaving for China, I asked the university lawyer about which I-94 we should turn in, and she said “just give all I-94s you have, but make copies before you give them up”. I did so.
6. about finger print: one of my fingers got a tiny cut about 2 weeks before my finger print appointment. The cut was still noticeable if you look VERY carefully, but it turned out not to be a problem. At first we received finger print appointment letters only for me and my wife, so we thought that my child didn’t need to do the finger print (and we didn’t pay for his finger print). But my child’s appointment letter arrived the same day but after we came back from the local ASC where we get our finger prints done, and his appointment date was about 20 days later. I didn’t want him to miss the school, so I brought him to the local ASC the next week, which was the Thanksgiving week, and it turned out OK to have his finger print done earlier than his appointment date.
7. about I-485 transfer: after the September VB came out, I contacted my lawyer (actually his helper) and asked him to request a transfer of my I-485 to the EB1B petition. He agreed but asked me to wait for about 2 weeks because they had a lot of such cases. The request was sent as he promised. The approval of my case proved that I-485 transfer is doable.
8. about case status inquiry: about 2 weeks after the request was delivered to the NSC, I called the 1800 number to check the status of my case. Whoever answered the phone seemed not familiar with the process and I only gave my name and case number to him. A few days later, I received a letter from NSC saying my case was waiting for visa number. There was no LUD at this time even though people usually get a LUD when they get such letters. I immediately write a status inquiry letter with a copy of the lawyer’s letter to NSC, saying that my I-485 has been transferred to EB1. Two day later, the case was approved. What I want to say here is, status inquiry may have resulted the immediate approval of my case; and writing a letter is better than making telephone calls.
9. about physical exam: I did my physical exam in 1/2005, anticipating the LC (PD 3/2004) based I-485 could be ted in 2005. It turned out the LC application is still pending in BPC, and I wasn't asked to re-do the exam (it's more than 20 months old when my case was approved).
By the way, the physical exams were covered by my health insurance, so check with your doctor if yours is covered too.
10. don't give up: back in 2002, we were very close to ting I485 – the LC was certified, and the physical exams were scheduled, but the company that sponsored the LC bankrupted and everything we had done was wasted. So don't give up, everybody will eventually get his/her green card.