5 Documents USCIS Sends Marriage Green Card Applicants

United States Green Cards

 

After you file your marriage-based application for adjustment of status there are several items that you should expect USCIS to send to you.  This is a general list of documents to expect.  You may receive more items than what are listed below.  You may also receive fewer items.

Receipt Notices

The first thing that you’re going to get from the immigration service is receipt notices. You will get a receipt from the immigration office saying that they received your various applications for the marriage adjustment. Things like your immigrant petition, your adjustment of status, your employment authorization document if you filed for that, your travel document, if you filed for that, etc. So you’ll get receipts for those various documents from the immigration service.  The receipt notices allow you to verify that USCIS actually received your applications.  These receipt notices will have receipt numbers on the top left of the documents typically.  You can enter those numbers into the USCIS website and actually get the status of your case as your case moves through the USCIS process.

Biometrics Appointment

After you get the receipts, the next thing you’ll get from the immigration service is a notice for a biometrics appointment. The biometrics appointment is where the immigration service takes your fingerprints and your photograph and they use that information for their security background check on you. The biometrics appointment notice will tell you where to go for the appointment, what day and what time to show up for the appointment.

Employment and Travel Document

Several weeks after your biometrics appointment you will receive your employment authorization document and travel document in the mail if you applied for either of those documents. Both items will be on a single card.  It looks basically like a driver’s license and it says authorized for work on it.  If you applied for travel, then the bottom of that same card will also say it is authorized for travel.  You can read a bit more about this card by clicking this link.

Interview Notice

Several months after receiving your employment and travel documents, you will have an interview at the immigration office.  The next document that you’ll get from USCIS is the interview notice, which will again, give you a day and a time to show up at the immigration office for the actual interview.

Green Card

United States Green CardsAfter you finish the interview at USCIS, if you were approved, you will receive your green card in the mail.  The green card typically arrives anywhere from one to four weeks after the interview.  It will arrive in your mailbox.  If you used an attorney for the filing, the attorney may have received the green card instead.  It depends on the law firm, but you can request the attorney to receive the green card or to have it mailed to your home address.  When the attorney prepares the application for you, one of the forms actually has a box that they can mark to let USCIS know which address to send the green card to.

Each Case is Different

Remember, each case in immigration law is different.  The ultimate number of items that you receive from USCIS will depend on your particular case.  The items mentioned above are generally what you can expect to receive from USCIS.

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