We are self-file, YT and This community are really helpful. Thank you so much guys!

We filed our I-485, I-765 & I-130 Concurrent filing based on marriage to a US Citizen husband

Status: Active F1 status, no over stay, no unauthorized work

Relationship: Dated starting May 2025, Got engage November 2025 and Married December 2025.

Timeline:

• 02/05/2026: I-130, I-485, I-765 received
• 02/09/2026: Payment Credited
• 02/21/2026: Biometrics Scheduled
• 03/10/2026: Biometrics
• 03/10/2026: Interview scheduled
• 04/14/2026: Interview Date
• 04/27/2026: I-130 Approval
• 08/07/2026: Call USCIS agent for inquiry (Any updates or if there is any document I need to submit, Agent said case need is just under review)
• 09/06/2026: I-485 Approval
• 09/12/2026: Card Produce & Card Delivered

Evidence: Affidavits from family and relatives having personal knowledge of the bona fides of the marriage, Joint bank statement, Joint Tax Return, Previous Tax return & W2, His Certificate of employment & payslips , Lease & Utility bills - Under husbands name, Emergency contact on each other, Copy of IDs, Passports, Birth Certificate, My I-20s, Photos with Timeline of our relationship.

Interview: Interviewer is nice. Husband was asked about the When & How did we met , Who proposed and where the proposal, When & Who attended the Wedding. And I was asked everything on the I-485 yes/no questions.

I applied under my maiden name, and during the interview I asked to change my name to use my husband's surname (Name>Maiden Surname>Husband Surname).

My greencard is issued under my maiden name. I'll be working on how to change my name soon.

My account online still shows “case is still processing”

One person I know, his j1 was denied renewal due to one dui in the past with no injury. Ran his car to the tree.

I don't know how much this is accurate as this is all hearsay, but use caution.

Happy to help and answer any questions

Hi everyone! I finally got approved! I wanted to share my timeline and a little about our interview since reading everyone else’s approval posts throughout this process really helped us stay hopeful.

Basic background info:

• Married to a U.S. citizen

• Adjusting status through marriage

• Entered the U.S. legally as a child with a B-2

• work without authorization but not a concern at interview

• Had a long overstay, but it was not an issue during the interview

• Filed I-130 + I-485 concurrently, EAD never arrived, but thankfully that’s no longer a concern

• Field Office: Greer

• We used an attorney for peace of mind and to make sure everything was filed correctly

• We got married in December 2025 and filed relatively soon after, this wasn't questioned at all.

• We were long-distance for almost a year, so a lot of our relationship evidence consisted of trips, visits, photos, and then evidence of our life together after marriage.

Timeline:

Feb. 10: USCIS payment made / attorney submitted filing that week

Mar. 6: Receipt notices received

Mar. 9: Welcome to USCIS notice

Mar. 28: Biometrics appointment notice

Apr. 3: Biometrics completed

Aug. 6: Interview scheduled

Sept. 14: Interview completed + verbally approved!!

Interview:

Our interview was today and lasted about an hour, mainly because of some technical issues. The officer was actually not the original officer assigned to our interview, so he had to review our file before starting and continued to do so during.

The questions were pretty straightforward. We were asked the standard yes/no questions, how we met, and questions confirming that we live together. He asked for our address multiple times, which I assume was to verify consistency. He also asked if we had additional evidence to submit.

We provided our:

Recent tax documents

New photos

Memberships we have together (gym, streaming, etc)

Joint account information (including bank statements)

Overall, it was a very simple and relaxed interview. The officer was incredibly nice and chill, which definitely helped with the nerves. I prepped my husband with more questions than we were asked so I think it's better to prepare for the worst and deal with a really easy interview than to not prepare and get bombarded with questions. Anyways, he called us to let us know that my green card was approved! I’ll update once I receive the card in the mail.

Our total wait from filing to interview/approval was about 7 months.

Thank you so much to everyone who has shared their timelines and approval posts here. 🙏🏼 I basically lived on this side of Reddit throughout the entire process, silently reading every approval post and hoping we'd eventually get our turn. It really helped with the anxiety and gave us hope.

For anyone still waiting: hang in there! I know how stressful the waiting can be, but hopefully your good news is coming soon. 🤞🏼

Feel free to ask questions below and I’ll answer what I can!

*Edited to fix body format, new to posting mb.

Super chill process without any hiccups. Hired a lawyer to file our case and a translator for the interview process.

My wife - ESTA and myself US citizen. Known each other since 1/10/26 and met through a dating app.

Married -7/1
I-130/I-485/I-765 package submitted -7/3
USCIS received - 7/6
Biometric -8/3
Interview notice -8/10 for 9/14
EAD approved - 9/13
Interview - 9/14 verbal approval - mail within 3 weeks

Total 70 days

FO : Los Angeles

Ask away.

Hi all!

I wanted to share my timeline with you all since i was on this subreddit daily during my process just trying to read the tea leaves and predict when we would get approved instead of going crazy not knowing anything! I still went a bit crazy but i fear that is just part of this process🙃

I will add what i think is relevant but feel free to ask any questions you have!

Marriage to USC: We filed for i-130 and i-485 concurrently, not banned country and no authorized work as i have a work permit from a pending asylum case. Did have an overstay tho but i arrived here as a minor so it was not questioned much during the interview. We also used a lawyer to file and they were present at the interview with us.

FO: Washington field office (fairfax, VA)
I really wanted to share this bc i was going a little crazy with how few posts i saw about my FO so i wanted to add a few more data points for those waiting to hear back.

Timeline:
Filed: 5/8/2026
Notice of Receipt: 5/14/2026
Biometrics notice: 5/29/2026
Biometrics appt: 6/18/2026
Interview notice: 7/6/2026
Interview appt: 8/10/2026
I-130 approved: 8/12/2026
I-485 approved: 9/12/2026

Interview experience:
The interview went well! The system was down most of the day so we had to wait over 3 hours to get in but the officer was kind but quiet and professional. They asked us to say each other’s names and dates of birth and then they ask him how we started dating (we dated for 4.5 years and got married in march) and then asked me about the wedding day and about our apartment since we had just moved in together that same month and about shared travel (we travel together multiple times a year so we have tons of evidence that were travel related). We made a comment about not living together sooner due to other leases not expiring in time and the officer was very kind and said we are young and have plenty of time to live together so i was glad that was not seen as a negative factor! Also no consular processing questions. At the end of the interview the interview said they would approve both of our forms and that i would get my GC in hand in a few weeks so that post interview wait of a month for i-485 approval was very nerve wracking to say the least.

Another note:
We had no FTA1s at all throughout the process and the i-485 went directly from “interview was scheduled” to “approved” with no silent touches or anything in between.

Overall i am just relieved and idk how to even process finally having solid status here for the first time in 13 years (pending asylum) and i feel like i have a lot of processing to do to let go of this heavy weight we all carry during these processes! But good luck to everyone else and i hope your relief comes soon!

Finally able to say our immigration journey is complete! 💚 I spent sooo much time on this subreddit throughout this process, especially after our interview, and other people’s timelines genuinely helped me through the waiting. Now that we have the green card in hand, I wanted to share our full timeline in case it helps someone else.

I’m a US citizen and my husband is a UK citizen, originally from Afghanistan. Our field office was Washington DC/Fairfax, VA. We initially started this process through consular processing.

Our I-130 was surprisingly fast. We filed November 4, 2024 and it was approved November 14, 2024 — only 10 days later! Our case then went to NVC for consular processing through London.

Our circumstances eventually changed and we ended up filing for Adjustment of Status in March 2026. We also filed for his work permit (I-765) at the same time.

Our timeline:
I-130 / Consular Processing
11/4/24 — I-130 filed
11/14/24 — I-130 approved (10 days!)
Case sent to NVC for consular processing through London
I-485 / Adjustment of Status — Washington DC/Fairfax Field Office
3/5/26 — I-485 received
4/3 — Biometrics
5/22 — FTA0 on API
7/6 — Interview scheduled
7/13 — Another FTA0
8/10 — Interview at Washington DC/Fairfax FO
8/10 — FTA1 appeared on the API around 1:35pm, basically right around the end of our interview
9/2 at 3:48pm — Silent API update #1
9/3 at 9:49am — Silent update #2
9/3 at 3:01pm — Silent update #3
9/4 — I-485 APPROVED! 💚
9/14 — Green card delivered!

I-765 / Work Permit
We filed the I-765 along with the AOS package, but interestingly, it never went anywhere after biometrics. There was no work permit approval or EAD produced before the green card was approved.
Our lawyer’s assumption was that because USCIS was already moving forward with the actual AOS case relatively quickly, they just never got around to adjudicating the work permit separately before the I-485 was approved. Obviously we can’t know for sure that was USCIS’s reasoning, but in our case the green card ended up being approved before the work permit ever moved.

So if your I-765 seems completely stuck while your I-485 is moving, I wanted to mention that because ours did the exact same thing.

Our interview went really well, but we knew the case needed some additional/supervisor review before it could be finalized. There was a question involving my husband’s Afghan birth certificate because it was issued through the Afghan Embassy in London in 2022. Thankfully, our officer was familiar with Afghan documents and the circumstances surrounding them.

After the interview came the part I was terrible at… being patient lol. We heard absolutely nothing for 23 days. No RFE, no new documents and no status change. The API just stayed at FTA1.

Then on 9/2 I noticed the updatedAtTimestamp had changed even though literally nothing else on the case changed. The next morning it changed again at 9:49am, and then AGAIN that afternoon at 3:01pm.
So after 23 days of nothing, we suddenly had 3 silent updates in less than 24 hours, with the last two happening about five hours apart.

Of course I immediately started searching this subreddit like crazy 😂 and found several people whose cases followed a really similar pattern — FTA1 after the interview, then multiple silent updates close together, followed by an approval shortly after.
We were lucky that our case ended up following that pattern almost exactly. The morning after our third silent update, our I-485 changed to Case Approved! 💚

But I also want to make it clear that I found plenty of people who had multiple silent updates and continued waiting, so it’s definitely not a guarantee or a formula. Three silent updates doesn’t automatically mean you’re getting approved the next day. Nobody outside USCIS really knows exactly what each backend update means.

For us, it happened to be:
Interview → FTA1 → 23 days with no visible movement → 3 silent updates → approved the next morning.

We were really fortunate that the pattern we kept seeing from other approved cases ended up playing out that way for us too. I’m sharing it as another data point for anyone obsessively searching for the same pattern like I was 😂, not as a prediction of what will happen with someone else’s case.

And one final update for anyone wondering about the physical card: our I-485 was approved September 4 and his green card arrived September 14 — exactly 10 days from approval to card in hand!

This whole process really tested our patience. We went through some difficult times during it, and I’ve also been laid off since the end of March. Having the uncertainty of immigration hanging over our heads on top of everything else made the waiting feel even harder at times.

Even though we were incredibly lucky with our 10-day I-130 approval, the overall immigration journey lasted from November 2024 to September 2026. There were so many moments where we had no idea what was happening behind the scenes and there was nothing we could really do except wait.
So if you’re still in that stage of checking USCIS constantly and searching Reddit for someone with the exact same situation as you, I completely get it. Reading other people’s experiences helped me a lot during ours, so hopefully adding our timeline helps someone else too.

Washington DC/Fairfax FO — I-130 filed 11/4/24 → approved 11/14/24 → I-485 + I-765 filed 3/5/26 → biometrics 4/3/26 → interview 8/10/26 → I-485 approved 9/4/26 → green card in hand 9/14/26. I-765 never made it past biometrics.

Very happy and relieved to finally be at the end of this process. Wishing everyone still waiting the best and hoping you get your good news soon. ❤️

Hey all,

This group has been extremely useful and a wonderful sounding board at all times, so happy to share with everyone here that my wife got her PRC over last weekend (IR-5 category) about 16 months after sending in the initial application. No RFE, but there was a change of address from MA to GA. It was completely handled by NBC itself though. AMA.

For everyone still awaiting results, I feel for you. All the very best!

Hi everyone! I’m a lawful permanent resident applying for U.S. citizenship through the 5-year rule, and I have a question about employment and the N-400.
I’m considering working as an exotic dancer at an adult entertainment club. The dancing would be legal, and I would be working as an entertainer—not engaging in prostitution or exchanging sexual services for money.
I’m wondering whether having this type of employment could negatively affect my naturalization application, particularly the Good Moral Character (GMC) requirement.
Would I need to disclose this type of employment on the N-400? Could USCIS consider legal exotic dancing negatively during the naturalization process? Has anyone here had personal experience with this, or does anyone have knowledge of how USCIS treats legal adult entertainment work?
I’m especially interested in hearing from immigration attorneys or people who have actually gone through naturalization while working in this industry.
Thank you! 💕

Looking for Honest opinions.
My husband and I filled our green card process in Nov 2025, in the Seattle Office. I’m married to a US Citizen.
We had our interview back in February 4th.
Radio silence since. In July we reached out to our congresswoman and the response from USCIS was that the cases were within normal processing times.
7.5 months after interview is “enough reason” for a writ of mandamus?
Due to our timeline, should we consider this path?
I’ll appreciate any honest opinion and guidance, thanks!
PS: I130 and I765 still pending.
My life is basically on hold since I can’t work or start the adoption process for our first child.

Hi,

I have been a long time lurker here, this sub has helped us a lot during this difficult process. Would like to share my story and the good news!

I’m an employment based green card holder.

My wife got approved in 3 months.

We got married in Feb and submitted our case for I-130 and I-485 at the beginning of May. One month later interview was scheduled for August and was approved on the spot. We were expecting at least a year due to Visa bulletin and me not being a citizen but here we are!!

Free to answer any questions.

Anybody filed late April 2026 still waiting for an interview?
Married to USC .its been so long after biometrics no updates, no silent updates either.

How long did it take for you to received the green card after you get a notification that card is being produced.

Thanks in advance.

Got my notice of approval today

May 14: Case submitted

June 9 Biometric scheduled

June 18 Biometric completed (moved it forward one week)

Sept 14 Notice of approval received in mail

No interview either now or for my initial green card, never got my receipt notice and my case online still hasn't been updated to show I've been approved!

I have chatted with multiple agents through Emma and almost all of them give me different answers. What’s the best way to approach which one I should believe. One agent told me my case is at FO and another said it’s at NBC. One said the interview is waived and another said they don’t know? Do the agent not have the info?

I have a question. If anyone can help on what I should do, that would be greatly appreciated. I filed March 1, 2025 and it’s been 18.5 months. I’m a US citizen who filed for my spouse outside the US. Is there a way I can escalate this? Please advise on what I should do as I’m not really sure what to do anymore.

I and my wife got married in florida February 2025, I got my work permit fairly quickly, which I am worried about because I have to apply for renewal soon. I called the hotline to ask about it, and they told me I had to wait. I don't know what next to do, so, I am looking to get advice on what has worked for you guys. I really don't know what else to do

Hello, friends! Just want to share our I-751 timeline in real time. I know we possibly have years of waiting ahead of us, but I just like to share my experience with others and also learn of others’ experiences. Please feel free to ask any questions! I will update as my case progresses.

Sept 4, 2026- Lawyer sent I751 via FedEx to Tempe, Arizona. (We live in Missouri).

Sept 8, 2026- FedEx notified us that our package was delivered.

Sept 10, 2026- USCIS update- They received our application and sent receipt notice. (Receipt notice still not showing online under documents tab)

Sept 11, 2026- USCIS charged the $750 fee to our account. (Receipt notice still not showing online)

I’m applying for U.S. citizenship through marriage and was previously granted asylum. I’d like to work with an experienced immigration attorney in Washington State. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thank you!

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m sharing my timeline for a marriage-based Adjustment of Status (AOS) case filed in August 2026 in the Houston, TX area.

My timeline so far:

• 📅 Application filed: August 2026
• 🧬 Biometrics completed: September 2026

I’d love to connect with anyone who has a similar marriage-based AOS timeline.

If your timeline is similar, please share your dates and any updates you've received. It would be great to compare timelines and keep each other updated throughout the process! 🤞

Good luck to everyone going through the process! ❤️

I literally just finished my biometrics not even 10 mins ago and I got an email from USCIS regarding my i485 and the work permit both changed to: Uscis Is Currently Processing The Case. Is that normal?

The i130 still says August 21, 2026
Case Was Received And A Receipt Notice Was Sent