We are seeing interviews in marriage cases taking maybe 10 or 12 months. Take care, Jason

HI THERE,

Currently in the same boat as you. Just applied to change my status to marriage based GC from asylum. I just submitted the forms you mentioned and I was wondering if you got your interview yet? and if so how long did it take? I was hoping to get an estimated timeline.

Thank you for your help in advance!

You can try – I wrote about expediting with USCIS in January 2020 – maybe that post would help. Take care, Jason

Speaking as a lawyer, we are often overwhelmingly busy, and this makes it difficult to be more responsive. Clients often do not understand that and they have their own difficult problems to deal with, but we are also limited in what we as lawyers can do, and we have to manage our entire caseload. Take care, Jason

Thank you for the kind words. At the moment, I am very busy due to events in Afghanistan, and I am not taking court cases outside the DC area. However, we normally do take such cases and I expect we will be able to do so again before next year. However, it is often better (and less expensive) to find a local lawyer who is more familiar with the judge and the DHS (prosecutor). If your friend wanted to do a consult on the case, she can email me after next week and I can check my availability. Take care, Jason

Thank you so much Jason! I completely agree with you in that I should be in the same page with my lawyer. Frankly, I am also very confused why he still didnt want to contact them given that we already submitted almost all the documents he wanted to submit. I will wait for the latest deadline we gave for the office to reschedule the interview and if nothing happen, I will ask him if I can contact the local office about rescheduling.

Thanks so much again Jason!

Jason, thank you. I just received your book and recommend it to everyone. It is excellent. Thank you for writing it. Yesterday my friend received word that her case has been denied and received a Notice to Appear. We are surprised and still in shock as she has a very strong case. The NTA is next July, but after reading your immigration court chapter, we will call in regularly. Since she is Venezuelan, she is eligible for TPS. I need to go back and read your answer to my earlier questions on TPS and see if they answer our new questions. One question, is your firm limited to representing clients in your geographic area or could you represent a client in the midwest? At this point, she needs an immigration attorney who can represent her in court (Omaha, Chicago district). Her current attorney does not do court appearances. She needs a skilled immigration attorney who can strategize and put this case together and help her go in very prepared.

EAD renewals are slow – maybe 5 to 7 months; sometimes more. For asylum pending EADs (c-8), if the EAD expires and the 180-day extension ends, the person cannot work. All you can do is call USCIS, try to expedite (I wrote about this in January 2020), and/or file the renewal as early as possible (180 days before the old card expires). Hopefully, USCIS will start sorting out their problems soon. Take care, Jason