Getting Green Card

Green card

After you have been married the next step is to adjust to permanent residency. I am not sure how soon you must do this but I guess it was either 60 or 30 days after the wedding. But anyway it is good to do this as soon as possible and certainly before K-1 expires (90 days from entry).

Adjustment of status is same as applying for green card. You will do it with form I-485 and you also need:

Finger prints. You must ask a form FD-258 from INS and go to a designated fingerprint services, for example police station where officer will take finger prints from you.
Fingerprint laws has changed few times lately. For example I was fingerprinted first time when INS didn't have special requirements for fingerprints.
My fingerprints were bounced back as laws changed in April 1997 and they required that fingerprints must be taken by designated fingerprint service. I received this request after I got my green card . Well, I did it properly this time and went to Hayward police station as they were DFS.
After submitting my fingerprints again I received mail from INS again. They asked: "please advise us the reason why submitting fingerprints." I went to local INS office to ask what should I do and I was told not to worry as I already was granted a green card and INS shouldn't do that before getting fingerprints OK'ed in FBI. So I suppose everything is fine right now...
DFS system is defunct nowadays. Today you must go to "LEA" and take your fingerprints there. INS will give you list of LEAs on your area and FD-258 as request.
Certified copy or marriage. You will get this from the local record office. It is called Record of Marriages or something like that. Here is one problem you might face: usually recording a marriage takes months and it is possible that your marriage is not yet on computers. For example I had to wait almost 2 hours in Oakland Court House because they didn't find any records from me. Only thing they found was a name list of people who have got married lately and our name was on it. But they needed to find the official file from somewhere and it took almost 2 hours and 3-4 different officers.
Birth certificate, translated in English. You don't have to translate this with official interpretor. All you need is to translate it yourself and someone who knows your language sign it. Here is an example. You have to include both the original and translated birth certificate. And yes, even if you have filed your birth certificate earlier and they have kept it - you must get another one.
Photos - they have strict instructions what kind of photos these must be. They have instructions about this and if you didn't get those, you must ask for those. Usually there are photo studios in the corner of INS building - at least in San Francisco there are many of those in next blocks. They are specialized for immigration photos and know what to do - that's how I took my pictures on a way to INS.
Affidavit of support OR employer letter.
Medical examination is not needed if your K-1 examination was done within past year
Form G-325A, Biographic Information Sheet.
Evidence of status - I94 in your passport (copy of it)
Evidence of eligibility: copy of petition approval (I-129F). We had lost this but didn't have any problems.

I-485 must be filed "in-walk" to the closest INS office to you. If you are not sure which is the INS office closest to you call them (and be prepared to wait hours in phone). Like for me it wasn't clear if I should go to San Francisco or San Jose INS because I live about halfaway in Hayward.

Employment Authorization Document - EAD

When you file I-485 you should also file I-765 - application for EAD. Because your K-1's work permit will expire in 90 days you need another document to be authorized to work in the U.S.A.

I have heard that this is sometimes very tricky. Some places don't issue EAD to you like I got it: they took my pictures and gave it to me same day I filed my I-485/I-765. Some places send it later.... so what to do after K-1 expires and before EAD arrives? Some people talk about "receipt rule", a rule that says that if you have filed I-765 and they haven't answered to you yet you could work under that rule. This is where you should be careful... I have heard of some cases where an alien had to stop working because K-1 expired and he/she didn't have an EAD yet. But I have heard this problem is under investigation right now... any comments about this?

Interview in INS

We were invited to green card interview after 4 months I filed I-485. Interview was nice...officer will go through your application and verifies that all is correct and if something has changed like phone number he/she will make corrections. He also asks basic questions... like how did you meet, are you expecting babies, and so on. Also, they want to see documents of life together - photos, checking account with both of your name (we didn't have such) and so on. If you don't have such documents .... improvise... we showed him our healt plan cards (same health plan number in both) and California State tax return check with both of our names and copies of our joint tax return. Our invitation didn't ask us to bring these but we did anyway - and it was good thet we were prepared because they asked to see those.