sotero_gonzalez

so ive been browsing through some posts and i found a few about people that have been approved and have their drivers license that are in the hunt for a car but havent been able to get one due to no or very limited credit. i may know a person that can help. i dont want to post his info on here but if any of you are interested, pm me and i will send it to you. he works at the stadium nissan dealer in orange. hes been a family friend for more than 15 years. he is very well connected in that dealer since hes been there for over 25 years. he knows banks and credit institutions that will work with people that have limited or no credit. it might sound like im helping him make sells but im not, im trying to help my fellow dreamers and hopefully point a few of them in the right direction. any questions or concerns, pm me.

sorry, double post

I applied for advanced parole early last year. I got approved and went to Mexico in late April. My wife petitioned for me in July of 2017 (i485 since my i130 was already submitted and approved). In August we got a letter stating that I needed a sponsor because my wife's income was not enough. That same month I went through that "immigration physical" to make sure I had all of my shots and no TB. Mayor tip, don't loose your immunization card because you might end up paying through the nose for shots you may or may not have gotten after high school. I found a school friend that was able to sponsor me and sent back complete documents in September of 2017. On April 10th of 2018 we got the notice an interview date had been selected for my i485 case. My interview date was May 15th, 2018. I received a notice on May 18th that my i485 case was approved and I now have permanent residency for 10 years. Finally!! After being in the U.S since I was 4 years old, I have my permanent residency. I will update my timeline later but feel free to ask me any questions regarding advanced parole and any of the processes that follow. Again, if it weren't for this site that answered many of my questions when I first applied for DACA back in 2012, none of this would be possible. Thanks you to everyone that answered my dumb questions and everyone that is on here sharing the knowledge about these processes to the masses.

I have been doing a bunch of research on how to try and get an extension since I am reading about all the cases about permits expiring and not being able to get any answers from the people at the USCIS. So I reached out to the person that filled my original DACA application and I explained the situation. He told me that if and when your case has been pending for more than 90 days, you can fill out the request for an INFOPASS that you find on the USCIS site. There, you fill out your information and they set up an appointment to the nearest USCIS center according to your zip code. Once you set up an appointment, he said you need to take your social, id, EAD, copy or original check stub or money order you sent and the paper they stamp from your biometrics. He said also a letter from your employer signed by the highest up you can find also helps. He said that setting this appointment up and asking for an extension actually works, he has done it for a few of his customers. I am not at 90 days yet but will be soon. Has anyone on here tried this yet? Will it actually work? Please share your experience if you have.

So I have been going back and forth with a member of the forum on this for some time already, just wanted to get other peoples opinion. So here is what happened: I recently moved to Texas from California. I didn't bring all of my things with me and one of the things I didn't bring was my first approval letter. Shortly after arriving here in Texas I looked into joining DACA organizations and I found a few in the area. The organization that I found held an event where they filled out the renewal application for you. They helped me filled it out but since I was one of the last people to get to the even, I didn't have a chance to talk to an attorney and get my application reviewed. So since my EAD expires the first week of May, I found a local immigration attorney that was recommended to me by a co-worker. Took my application to him and he went over it, found nothing wrong with it. He saw that I didn't have the copy of my original approval letter and he said it was fine. All they needed was a copy of my social and EAD. He also saw that I had my passport pictures and he said that those weren't necessary. That for the renewal they didn't require pictures to be sent. Now I have asked around and I get mixed answers. The attorney even showed me the USCIS page where it says what to mail in for the renewal and I didn't see anything about passport photos, at least in the page he showed me. So I am asking here for someone to fill me in and tell me whether I messed up and should I be expecting a denial letter? will I have a chance to send pictures if they are required? I am so confused.

I have posted many replies on topics that talk about this but I have nothing concrete. So I got married to a U.S citizen before applying for DACA. After I got my DACA approved I started to look into whether my wife would be able to petition for me so I can get my residency. I talked to about 10 different lawyers in SoCal and I got mixed reviews. Some said it was possible and that I could start the process asap without any worries about having to leave the country. Others told me that people where applying for the advanced parole and some were getting their re-entry approved right away and others weren't so it was up in the air, almost a 50/50 chance. Based on this I decided to hold tight. This was all last year. Does anyone know if things have changed or if more and more legal re-entries are being granted? Has anyone actually gone through this processed and got approved? Any information will be of great help.

So I've been job hunting since I got approved, I'm sure I'm not the only one, I created a monster account, linked in, career builder and indeed account and didn't have any luck. So then I started to look for jobs for the city or the county. I applied for the social services agency in orange county and they selected me to take a written exam and move to the second phase of recruitment. However in the application it just asked if I can provide proof to work here legally, it didn't ask for my social. Does anyone know or has anyone tried to work for the county/state and if so what happened?

So today as every day for the past 7 months, I checked my status and the initial review circle was no longer blue. My case has finally been approved.

So today I called USCIS again and asked for a service request. Finally, I was able to get one. According to the agent that helped me I should've heard from the USCIS in January, 90 days after they got my application because that is the average wait time. So I don't know who pulled the 6 month story out of their ass but every time I called since April 9th, which was my 6 months, they would just tell me to keep waiting and give me some random excuse about why it was taking long. I am seriously starting to believe what people are saying that some agents don't care about us and our struggle and will basically do anything to slow us down. I am glad I got this agent today, her name is Alexa and her agent id # is E4096 in case anyone wants to know. She was very polite and answered every single question I had. She asked if I had written down the names of the agents that had helped me in the past and told me the whole 6 month story so she can report them to their superior, but unfortunately I was too mad to write anything down. She mentioned that she checked two sources available to them where they look up the waiting time for different cases and that all deferred action cases fall under the same category where they should contact you 90 days after they receive your application. So they have until May 21st to contact me. If not I have to call back again and they have to tell me what is going on with my case. If only she would have helped me back in February when I started to call. UGH!!

Ive been in the U.S since i was 4 years old. All i remember from that life changing journey is that i was crammed in the trunk of a car for what seemed to be an eternity before arriving in the state of California, more especifically the city of Santa Ana. Growing up as an immigrant in Santa Ana wasnt all that bad until i got to high school. The dumb slurs about immigrants would get more irritating and more real. Ive always been proud of being a Mexicano, i am proud of my roots and my identity. Being like that always got me in trouble when i would hear negative things about immigrants because i always had something to say. While in high school i was a member of the Puente program. When it came time to apply to colleges and or scholarships, the harsh reality of being an immigrant sinked in. while everyone applied for their favsas and other government appointed grants, i had to settle for smaller ones where there were masses of others competing for as much as they could to apply towards their college educations. At that point i started to get a bit discouraged about the whole college idea. Ive always been a good student, school was always one of my biggest interests, but hearing stories of people like me going above and beyond to get a degree and not being able to get a job in their field of study was an enormous tragedy. Not wanting to deal with all of that dissapointment i got a job after i graduated high school and working became my priority. I thought that making my own money and being independent would be much easier than trying achieve and education that at the time would not benifit me in any way to get a job, i had a rude awakening when i became a part of the immigrant work force of california. In a society where a social security number gives you access to a drivers license, a cell phone contract and a job, things were beginning to be really hard for me. Asking others for favors like getting me a loan for a car or applying for a cell phone started to get old really fast. Driving with the fear of getting pulled over also took its toll on me. it seemed everywhere i turned and everything i tried to do was never going to be enough because of my status. Seeing others around me that were legal waste away their opportunity of going to college and getting an education really frustrated me. I would always ask myself, "why me?" "why couldnt i be one of the lucky ones to not have to deal with any of this?" Everything happens for a reason right? im still trying to find the reason for this. After working countless jobs from burger joints to fire and water restoration, I finally found one where I could work without worrying about my status. Its not the best job in the world nor does it pay well and on top of that I have to put up with the constant verbal abuse of the oowner since he uses my status to his advantage, but its better than not having a job. i decided to go to college where i have been going part time since 2008. It hasnt been easy working full time and going to school, but i wont give up, or atleast not yet. When the defferred action was passed it seemed too good to be true. After all this time something in our favor comes along and gets approved. This is the only thing that i have that can change my life. The big break i have been waiting for since my junior year of high school. hopefully it all goes well and i get approved sooner rather than later. Hope is still alive within me. thanks to all that read this and thank you all of you that put in a lot of time and effort on this forum providing others with help and hope.

I did the advance parole and I am now in the application process for permanent residency. I went back to my birthplace in Mexico where I had not been since I was 4 years old. It was culture shock to say the least. I visited my grandma whom I had not seen for a very long time and learned a lot about my roots and heritage. I was out of the U.S for a total of 6 days.

I am in the process of mine, I had to get a sponsor because my wife doesn't have enough income. Been just over 3 months since I sent the required forms with the information of my sponsor. Haven't heard anything yet.. In the USCIS website it says I may have to wait up to six months.

ive been trying to look in hospitals. don't really know how to go forth with that here in Texas whether there are agencies or what you need to do some freelance work

that's great! the course I took was for both court and medical interpreting. Since in SoCal there is a high demand for bilingual people in the court system so the school I went to threw both courses together. it was a bit more challenging but worth it in the end. I have been trying to find a gig like that here in Texas but haven't had any luck.

I got approved on the 17th, didn't call and I was already getting ready to engage my representative from congress

my uncle was doing this in California and from what he said its really good money. I went to the training school that he went to and completed the course. I was supposed to work with him on the down low and get paid cash but since he had a firm, one of his partners didn't approve. So yeah, this is a good move to make decent money without having to go to school a lot.

congrats. this has been one of the fastest approvals I have read about. I sent mine Jan 9th and I haven't heard anything since my bios on 2/28.

I just hope the members of congress here in Texas will actually try to help and not be on the side of that judge.

I see, and here I was thinking that the INFOPASS would be a viable option for extensions. I will just reach out to the congressman/woman of my district. Thanks for sharing your experience!

ah, ok. well hopefully they do the same here in Texas if I get approved. it would be nice to have a DL for longer than 2 years.

wish I was still in Cali so I can attend this..

ah, I see. how much is the tuition in Texas? I am waiting for my year to be up so I wont have to pay the out of state tuition fee since I just came from SoCal. Hopefully I can finish here.

wow, you got your second license for 6 years! are you in California? Just asking since they were the latest state to grant DL's to undocumented people. Maybe that's why you got it for 6 years. Anyways, congrats!

what is tafsa? are you sure you are not confusing it with fafsa? I know for a fact we cant apply for fafsa only the fee waiver where they cover your tuition only. but yeah, check with the school.