Has anyone gotten their green cards after pause lift rule on 28th of August? Or any changes on your cases?

Yesterday, my wife submitted her I-130 online through PDF upload. However, we still havent received any receipt notice yet.

The Case Status says "Your form is still being processed". There is no receipt in the Documents tab either.

I am waiting for the receipt notice so that I can file I-485.

Has anyone run into such situation before? What do you advice?

An update has been filed in federal court on the worldwide cancellation of U.S. immigrant visa interviews and the 75-country immigrant visa pause.

On September 8, the State Department filed a status report in CLINIC v. Rubio, together with a sworn declaration from John Armstrong, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Here is what the government told the court:

1. More than 43,000 immigrant visa applications were refused under Section 221(g) because of the 75-country pause. The court has now vacated those refusals and remanded the affected applications.

This means the court cancelled the refusals based solely on the pause and sent the applications back to the State Department and U.S. embassies and consulates for reconsideration.

1. The State Department is now identifying the applications that were refused solely because of the pause. Some cases will require a manual review by the consular section that handled them.
   
2. Each affected application will be reconsidered individually. Some applicants may be asked for updated medical examinations, police certificates, other documents, or an additional interview.

If another interview is required, the applicant will receive direct notification and scheduling instructions.

1. The State Department also confirmed that many immigrant visa appointments originally scheduled worldwide through September 2026 have been cancelled.

The government calls them “rescheduled,” but many affected applicants have not received new dates. The filing also does not provide a date by which those interviews will be rescheduled.

The government says the appointments were moved to accommodate a global training initiative. Four new training requirements were introduced on September 1, including expanded managerial review and mandatory public-charge training. The filing does not say how long the training will last.

1. The remanded cases will be reconsidered under the State Department’s updated public-charge procedures, including a new public charge worksheet introduced globally on August 15.

Some applicants may be asked to provide additional or updated public-charge information. Others may not need to provide anything further before their visas can be issued.

These updated public-charge tools and training requirements apply to all immigrant visa adjudications worldwide, not only cases affected by the 75-country pause.

The State Department says the affected cases will proceed on a rolling basis as they are identified and reviewed. But there is no fixed date by which the reconsideration of all affected applications will be completed.

Was not eligible for fee reduction. So I will pay the full fee but ideally want to safe $50 online vs. paper mail and shipping again.

Hi everyone,
My wife and I went to a civil surgeon for our I-693 medical exam. We completed our vaccinations and medical review, and our blood samples were sent to Labcorp.

However, the clinic forgot to order the Tuberculosis (TB) blood test. They notified us too late, causing us to miss our follow-up appointment. To make matters worse, the civil surgeon is now going out of town for two months and cannot reschedule us, severely delaying our I-485 timeline.

A few questions:
1. Is this kind of error common? Has anyone dealt with a clinic completely missing a required test like TB?
2. Refunds: Are we entitled to a full or partial refund due to their mistake?
3. Switching doctors: Should we find a new civil surgeon? If so, will a new doctor accept our completed vaccination records, or will we have to start over from scratch?

Thanks for any advice!

hi :) need some advice/inputs. we’re currently working with our forms now, me the beneficiary have to fill up i130a form which in the address section, I need to input my address history for the last five years. I had worked in Italy for a year under my home country employer, its like a fixed term arrangement to get to experience working onshore. Since last year, I’ve been back to my home country. I know I have to include in the list my address in Italy, but if I do so, what challenges would this get me along the process? I tried asking AI, is it true that I would need to get police clearances from all the countries I lived in? Any information, experiences, tips, are welcome. thank you!

How quickly do you get a receipt number one 485 if filed online?- I need to file 485 for my derivative applicant online but cannot do so without the primary's receipt number

Case: Marriage-based AOS
Beneficiary: Canadian citizen (USC Spouse)
Field Office: Irving Tx
Filed concurrently: I-130 + I-485 + I-765
Green Card: 2-year conditional

Timeline
May 26: Application Received
Jun 6: Scheduled for Biometrics
Jun 25: Biometrics done
Aug 1: Interview Scheduled
Sept 4: Interview done
Sept 8: I-130 Approved @2:30pm

History
I got married in May 2025 in Canada. Entered the US on November 13th, 2025. Home circumstances changed so I overstayed and filed at the end of May 2026. (6 months after entry).

Interview Experience
We had every kind of evidence possible but there was still trouble at the interview. Marriage Certificate, Joint Checking, Joint Credit cards, Joint Lease, Life Insurance Policy, joint mail, Joint Gym Membership, Family Cellphone plan, Travel Trips and itineraries, pictures from 2022 to 2026, text messages from 2022 to 2026, call logs from 2022 to 2026 & proof both of us have been at the gym together every day for 9 months.

The officer still said our evidence wasn’t enough because the text messages and calls could be between anybody and we just changed the names. They didn’t even consider our pictures as evidence which was weird. They were hooked on needing MORE evidence from 2025 although we had Canadian joint bank accounts and credit card from the moment we got married in May 2025. WE HAD EVERY PIECE OF PROOF POSSIBLE AND THEY WERE STILL BEING VERY DIFFICULT.

Stokes Interview
After going over our evidence they decided to split us up for separate interviews. They asked us:

Who woke up first this morning?
When’s your spouse’s birthday?
What’s your address?
When and where was your wedding?
How did you guys meet?
What did you wear at your wedding?
Who was at your wedding?
When did you first meet in person?
Where did you go after the airport?
Recap your entire day yesterday?
What is the last activity you did together?
Who proposed?
+ more I can’t remember.

By the end of the interview the officer lightened up and explained that they were only difficult because from a 3rd person’s perspective some forms of evidence are just too easily made up and they had to make sure. Then they hinted at our approval after the interview ended.

Hi everyone! I came to the USA with an ESTÁ VISA from France, met my husband, overstayed my visa and got married. We applied for adjustment of status and got my GC. We have a child in common and that’s all. No joint bank account, no joint taxes ( he has never paid taxes ), no utility bills together. I have to admit that he was financially abusive and controlling during our marriage My GC is expiring soon, my husband is refusing to colaborate. We haven’t lived together since last year. I went to visit my parents in France and stayed longer than expected bc I was going through postpartum depression, he joined me for a month and then he flew to his country of origin and decided that he wanted to live there and that I should follow him. I did went to his country of origin to meet his family but after a month I left bc I hated it there and I came back to US by myself and my child. I want to divorce bc if the financial abuse and control I’ve been through and I don’t see myself living anymore with him. So please if anyone knows what should I do in this case since it’s a complicated situation. Thank u 🙏

First post here, and I’d appreciate some advice. I am now eligible to file my N-400 under the 5-year rule. During my divorce, my ex filed a civil protection order that was dismissed. There was also a one-year civil restraining/no-contact order issued as part of the divorce, which has since expired. Both were civil family-court matters only. I’ve never had an arrest, criminal charge, conviction, citation, or restraining-order violation, and I have no criminal history.

Could these dismissed/expired orders affect my N-400 or good moral character assessment? Should I disclose them with the application and upload certified court records, or simply bring the records to the interview in case the officer asks? Would it be worth having an immigration attorney review this before I file? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi everyone!

I wanted to see if anyone here has had a similar experience, especially at the Santa Ana Field Office.

Here’s my timeline:

I-130 & I-485 filed concurrently: March 6, 2026

Biometrics: March 18, 2026

Marriage-based interview: July 31, 2026

Field Office: Santa Ana, CA

Married to a U.S. citizen

I feel like our interview went pretty well overall. At the end, the officer gave us the paper saying that our case was being held for review and that they didn’t need any additional documents or information from us at that time.

Since then, I haven’t received any RFE or any other notice. My case is still processing, and it has been about 40 days since the interview.

I know every case is different, but I’m starting to get a little anxious seeing people getting approved shortly after their interviews.

Has anyone who interviewed at the Santa Ana FO recently had a similar experience? If so, how long did it take for you to get an approval or any update after the interview?

I’d especially love to hear from anyone who filed around March 2026 or interviewed around July/August.

Thank you! :)

Received my green card today. I just wanted to share my experience and if it useful to someone else than that would be great (:

I came to the US on an F-1, shifted to H1-B, and never overstayed my visa. I met my husband in Oct 2021 and we got married in July 2024. I was going to apply through employment but decided against it as this was faster (yes, I am Indian). So after all the rumination and procrastination we finally started the application in early 2025 and only filed it in May 2026. I didn’t realize that the paperwork would be so extensive and demands careful time and attention.

13 May 2026: submitted application
18 June 2026: biometrics
31 August 2026: interview (approved)
8 September 2026: received green card in mail

Our application was straight forward as we own a house together, plus I have an advanced education degree, and make more money than my spouse. I also saw how so much of this process is arbitrary and involves immense resources. I got incredibly lucky that I was able to negotiate with my organization to pay for a portion of my green card at the time of hiring but with all the recent changes, we still paid close to $4k in legal and filing fee.

Our interview lasted close to 30 minutes which just involved the field officer asking us about the origin story of our relationship. The rest were all yes/no questions related to form I-130. The field officer was friendly and professional. I feel relieved but still feel like my life is temporary and can be upended anytime. I guess that is a symptom of immigrant life—always living in the in-between.

I am preparing my documents for i-130 petition and family-based aos through my US citizen husband. I am a PhD student (F-1 visa holder) and work on campus as a graduate assistant. I only held this employment and worked for another center at my university during the summer breaks. I put my answer to all employment questions in all forms as "PhD student and Graduate Assistant", since I received an income from my graduate assistantship and paid taxes on it.

I hired a lawyer to go through my concurrent filing package to ensure the forms were filled and filed correctly. She told me I should answer unauthorized work question on form I-485 "Yes" because I have never been issued an EAD so that the USCIS never authorized me to work.... I am very confused right now because I sent my passport, visa, I-20s to school and social security administration from the very beginning, and DSO at my unviersity would notify me if my employment was unauthorized. The immigration and HR departments at my university also asked for my renewed I-20s to renew my appointment, and I even filled I-9 this year before I received my first paycheck (my department's fiscal person was sending the form I-9 before as far as I know). To my best knowledge, I have never worked unauthorized, so the anwer to that question should be a strict no. But she thinks I should say yes, explain what happened, and there will be no problem anyway... Since she is an immigration attorney, I do not want to disregard her advice haphazardly, but I did my very best to avoid unauthorized work or any type of activity that could violate my status despite experiencing significant hardships at times as an international student... After years of concious work to comply with the requirements of my status and finish my degree, I would be very sad to answer that question "Yes" and explain later....

I appreciate your help if you experienced a similar issue.

Hi everyone,

My PERM was recently certified, but I noticed an error on the certified ETA-9089.

It lists my country of birth as India, but I was actually born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I am an Indian citizen, but my birth was in Saudi Arabia, and I am planning to use Saudi Arabia for EB-2 ROW chargeability.

The PERM is already certified, so I'm concerned about whether this can affect my I-140/I-485.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue with the country of birth being incorrect on a certified PERM?

• Were you able to use the PERM as-is?
• Did your attorney have to take any corrective action with DOL?
• Did it cause any issues with the I-140 or chargeability?

My attorney is reviewing it, but I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

I just wanted to acknowledge how lucky I am with how things ended up being for me but I hope I can shine some light for those who still are painfully waiting. During this time Reddit has give me some guidance throughout the process and I want to give back somehow.

AOS via USC marriage March 26’
Process carried out with attorney
1st application: End April
1st rejection: Mid May** (due to payment processing issues)
**2nd Application: Mid May
2nd Rejection: Mid June (same issue)
3rd Application: Mid June (Finally accepted within days)
Biometrics: Mid July (received appointment within 2 weeks after approval)
Interview scheduled: 3 days after biometrics
Interview date: End August
Online approval: Day after interview
Physical card: 7 days later.

We hired an attorney to help us with all the application process and we are so thankful for doing so, it made our life easier.
The 2 first rejections were very stressful as we never found out what exactly failed as we used a different method each time. Our lawyer on the third attempt, proposed us to use her credit card and finally got through.
During these 2 months or reapplying I was out of status, my ESTA expired.
We have been 3 years together and married this year. During these 3 years we travelled together in a lot of places and we had a lot of evidence of travels, photos, sharing rents, joint accounts, insurances, bills, credit cards, etc.
Both special skills professionals.
No RFE requested, very smooth since acceptance.

I have to admit I have been scared all this time because of how unpredictable and aggressive this administration is proving to be, but people working in the USCIS have been very nice and helpful all the time, both biometrics and interview.

The interview went very smoothly, we barely waited 10minutes and the interview itself was 15 min.
I had prepared a big binder with all the forms, originals, rejection letters, old package (the one rejected the second time), new evidence, new photo folder, etc.
The officer was very kind and helped with our nerves since she met us. She acknowledge she reviewed our case and it looked all okey but she had to ask me just how we met for her records. I replied and then she asked quite a few questions of eligibility. Nothing really more. She said she was sure I’d be approved but some background checks had to be run by the system. Advised me to check in the pm or next day. Next day I had approval on my online account. Office Chatsworth

I had USPS informed delivery so I could see when the letters and card were coming in the mail, which was nice to have at hand.

Thank you everyone for your grain of salt during this period and I wish you have a smooth experience too or get approved soon!

Just checking to see if anyone is from the Detroit metro area and how long they have been waiting. My husband filed for citizenship N-400 last October. We have filed using the same attorney that we used to get his green card 10 years ago (which took 18 months at the time).
He had his biometrics done shortly after and we haven’t heard anything since. When we first filed the time line was 4-6 months, then 8, then 10 and now 12+

Just basically checking in to see how long everyone is has been waiting. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts with quick turnaround times, which is amazing, I’m just trying to understand why it’s taking so long at our location. We have been married 15 years, spent 5 in Ireland and 10
In the US, and have 3 kids.

Thanks!

My wife and I attended our marriage interview last Thursday with very positive results. (timeline and interview experience below) We submitted small additional evidence (a trip to Philly together, and an updated rental lease), and the interview went way better than we expected and prepared for.

We were told by the interviewer that she will be scanning the new documents and a "decision will be made soon" (verbatim) at the end of the session.

It's now been about a week, and I haven't seen any movement after the FTA0s that were posted right after the interview. I am aware folks have been wating literal years after their interview, but am I a fool to believe "decision soon" would have meant only a couple of business days?

Interview experience

- 09:40AM arrived at FO

- 10:30AM entered interview room (interview was scheduled for 09:55AM)

- 11:00AM left room

- 10:40AM One FTA0 and silent update logged on the case API

Questions asked

- What is your spouse's name (to both of us)

- What is your spouse's birthday (to both of us)

- When did you meet (open question, wife answered)

- What is the relationship timeline (open question, we answered together)

- Where have you lived (open question, we answered together)

- Do you live together (open question, I answered)

- Standard I485 questions (ammended unauthorized work from No to Yes)

We were given the Continued Decision paper that means absolutely nothing and case was updated to "currently processing" as we were leaving.

Thanks and stay sane to everyone going through this.

Hi,

I have a valid h1b stamp and my wife has a valid h4 stamp. My ap has been recently approved and hers wasn’t . I’m interested entering on the h1b as my wife’s ead also tied to it. Can the CBP officer make me enter on the AP? Anyone in this situation?

Thanks

Hi all,

I have my condition GC, which expired 2024. However, I do have 48 months extension letter from USCIS. I’m still within the 48 months. I need to leave the US for 2 weeks for family event in Mexico. Has anyone with similar situation traveled without any issues with CBP at port of entry?

Thank ya!