Permanent Residence Application: Requirements and Organization

By Victoria

Buckle up...this will be a long post. And complicated.

REQUIREMENTS

To jump right in, here is the full list of all the forms and documents we submitted with Colin's I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status -- Adjustment of Status (AOS) for short.

1. E-Notification Form G-1145
2. Adjustment of Status Form I-485
1. Copy of Foreign Birth Certificate
2. Copy of Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa
3. Vaccination Supplement (Letter)
4. Biographic Form G-325A
5. Two (2) Passport-Style Photos
6. Copy of Fiancé(e) Petition Approval
7. Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate
8. Arrival/Departure Form I-94
3. Affidavit of Support Form I-864
1. Proof of Sponsor's Citizenship (Letter)
2. Letter from Current Employer
3. Copy of IRS Individual Income Tax Return for Tax Year 2014
1. Copy of Form W-2
2. Copy of Form 1099-Misc 
4. Employment Authorization Form I-765
1. Government-Issued Identity Document (Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa)
2. (2) Passport-Style Photos

+ $985 Filing Fee

+ $  85 Biometrics Services Fee

Despite what appears to be an overwhelming list of required documentation, most of these files were easy to obtain or track down for the purposes of including in the application packet. Aided by the fact we had most of these already gathered, since we already anticipated needing them down the road, overall it took about 5 or 6 days to put the whole application together (which includes plenty of buffer time for me to obsessively review everything about 10 times).

ORGANIZATION

I still had two clear report covers left over from when I submitted the original petition application, so I used those to organize the AOS application. I divided the forms and documents into two packets: 1) Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status and 2) Additional Forms.

Packet 1: Main Application

This packet included main items 1 and 2 in the list I provided above -- so Form G-1145, Form I-485 (AOS), and the required evidence documents for AOS.

1. E-Notification Form G-1145
2. Adjustment of Status Form I-485
1. Copy of Foreign Birth Certificate
2. Copy of Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa
3. Vaccination Supplement (Letter)
4. Biographic Form G-325A
5. Two (2) Passport-Style Photos
6. Copy of Fiancé(e) Petition Approval
7. Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate
8. Arrival/Departure Form I-94

The AOS form itself wasn't too hard. Colin is the applicant, of course, so he had to fill it all in. There were questions about some biographical information and under what status he's registering for permanent residence (Box C, "I entered as a K-1 fiancé(e) of a U.S. citizen whom I married within 90 days of entry ..."). After that was a lot of yes/no questions about having ever participated in terrorism, drug trafficking, and other things that were obvious "no"s!

As you can see in the list, there are a lot of supporting documents that need to be submitted with the AOS. Our only big hiccup was the requirement to provide evidence of vaccinations that are required to be a resident of the United States. Colin had a medical exam completed within the past year as part of the K-1 requirements, so he didn't have to do another one in the US to meet the AOS requirements. However, the AOS says you still need to prove you received all the vaccinations...the thing that we got worried about interpreting is the instruction in a different form, Form I-693 Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, that states:

If the vaccination record (DS 3025) was not properly completed and included aspart of the original overseas medical examination report, you will have to have the Part 7. Vaccination Record completed by a designated civil surgeon.

Colin's DS 3025 was completed at the time of his medical exam in London and was submitted to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as part of his visa packet when he was checked at his US Point of Entry...so we interpreted that statement to mean he doesn't need to fill out the Vaccination Record for the AOS. If we interpreted it incorrectly, though, this will result in a Request for Evidence (RFE) from USCIS and we'll have to find a civil surgeon to fill out that form and submit it. This would delay the overall AOS approval process, so...we'll see what happens.

Anyway -- the evidence requirements for the AOS also include Form I-864 Affidavit of Support, but I moved that into the second packet because there were already too many sub-components in the first packet, and I was struggling to include everything in there without it getting messy.

Packet 2: Additional Forms

This packet included main items 3 and 4 in the list I provided above -- so Form I-864, Form I-765, and the required evidence documents for both.

1. Affidavit of Support Form I-864
1. Proof of Sponsor's Citizenship (Letter)
2. Letter from Current Employer
3. Copy of IRS Individual Income Tax Return for Tax Year 2014
1. Copy of Form W-2
2. Copy of Form 1099-Misc 
2. Employment Authorization Form I-765
1. Government-Issued Identity Document (Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa)
2. (2) Passport-Style Photos

Form I-864 Affidavit of Support is a form the US sponsor has to fill out. I basically needed to provide employment and income information to prove I'm financially capable of supporting Colin so he doesn't become a burden on the country. The income requirement is 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for your household size. I had to fill out a similar affidavit when Colin was filing forms for his London visa interview, but apparently the US sponsor has to do it again...so there you go. Nothing was too complicated with this one except digging up my old IRS tax return files (always save your tax returns going back three years!!) to copy numbers off of them and also submit a copy of my 2014 return with W-2s and 1099s.

Form I-765 is only one page long, so that's no problem. The only particularly complicated part of it is flipping through pages and pages of category references and explanations to find the one that applies to you, which you then write down on the form. For K-1 fiancé(e)s, the category is (a)(6).

So that's the rundown! You'll notice the sub-tabs are on the bottom of the pages instead of the sides -- I found a guidelines page by USCIS that stated they prefer tabs on the bottom due to the way they file the documents.

We also wrote up a cover letter to go in the mailing packet, just to introduce the purpose of the mailing and everything that's included. We have tracking confirmation from the postal service that the packet already arrived in the Chicago lockbox, but we're waiting for USCIS' confirmation that it's in their hands.