Green Card Application
I was born in India, which means that by default I have a long wait to get to be a US Permanent Resident. This is because only 7% of Green Cards in each Employment-Based category can go to people of each birth nation. This is, in theory, so that a diversity of nations are represented in US immigration. Since there are lots of Indians and Chinese coming in through the EB category, we both have waits.
I married Julie in Aug 2023, which allowed me to apply for residence in the US as the spouse of an American. This is the timeline and the process for what we did.
Most of the paperwork is quite straightforward but it is typically annoying to do and there's a lot of work. In this sort of situation, I prefer to have a lawyer. Emily Wages came well recommended to me, so I went with her.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2023-08-02 | I got Married |
| 2023-08-10 | I Started Application |
| 2023-12-19 | I Finished Application |
| 2023-12-20 | USCIS Acknowledged Receipt |
| 2024-01-18 | I went to my Biometrics Appointment |
| 2024-02-01 | USCIS Approved EAD (received I-797) |
| 2024-02-05 | USCIS Produced EAD Card |
| 2024-02-08 | I received my EAD (Has Advance Parole) |
| 2024-07-20 | USCIS Started Reviewing I-130 |
| 2024-07-22 | USCIS Approved I-130 |
| 2024-07-24 | USCIS Started Reviewing I-485 |
| 2024-07-25 | USCIS Approved I-485 |
| 2024-08-02 | USCIS Printed Green Card (No Tracking Available) |
Overall, the process was quite fast. The biggest delay was the fact that I dragged my feet on finishing the application and making sure it had all the supporting material. We had quite a bit of stuff, which probably helped, including news articles about our IVF journey.
The USCIS website is quite nice. It records all of your stuff and you can look at your progress through the steps and everything. The timeline is an estimate for when your thing will be done, and it does move back and forth, presumably depending on other case load or not. At one point I was 3 weeks away before it switched to 5 months away. Later, I was supposedly months away when my case was suddenly picked up.
In the end the total time was 7 months and 5 days which is really quite fast! Within a month of application I had my I-765 EAD which allowed me to stay in the US even if I didn't have my H-1B, and Advance Parole which allowed me to re-enter the US in case I left.
I did travel abroad for my cousin's wedding, and when I returned I did so on my H-1B. This is not too good a move since it progresses the time on your H-1B (which has a maximum duration) but if you use Advance Parole to re-enter you have to go through Secondary Screening and that's quite a bit slow.
