Case Approved

Immigration Court Journey to Green Card
I hope this one helps someone. I was in deportation proceedings in Immigration court. I got married to a US citizen. My field office is San Bernardino, CA and my immigration court was Santa Ana, CA. My wife filed for I-130 with USCIS in June 2020, and it was approved in Feb 2021. The I-130 was approved with no interview. My attorney advised to use the Immigration Court for Adjustment of Status. The main reason was because I already had a work authorization based on my case in court and if the case was to be withdrawn we would have had to apply for another work authorization based on the marriage application with the USCIS as the court work authorization would become useless 30 days after withdrawing the case. The work authorization based on marriage application take about 8 months to be approved and my job was very strict on having status. I would thus have been out of a job without work authorization as I waited for the approval. We had an option to apply to court for the case to be terminated so that we use to USCIS to adjust status. But my attorney and I chose the court route. Even though you are in immigration court, you first have to file i-485 with USCIS, then after fingerprints file everything again with the court. You pay the filing fee only to USCIS. We filed I-485 with the USCIS in June 26 2021. Did fingerprints in July 2021, we then used the notice from USCIS to file to Immigration court the adjustment of status with the evidence, background check and Immigration physical, this we did in August 2021. I was scheduled for Master hearing before a judge in Santa Ana in July 2022. During the master hearing I was not required to attend and it was conducted online with my attorney. During the master hearing, my attorney was given the final hearing when the Adjustment of Status will occur for Oct 12 2022. I went for the court date in Oct 12, with my attorney and the I-485 was approved by the judge. He gave me the judgement to take to USCIS. In court I was questioned by the government attorney in regards to my application. They did not separate us with my wife. The judge asked the government attorney if he wanted us separated and questioned separately but he said there was no need. My wife was not questioned at all. The judge chose not to ask us any questions but just approved the I-485. I called after 3 business days the USCIS customer care number to book for an infopass appointment. The USCIS called me 5 days later and scheduled an appointment at my field office in San Bernardino, CA. I went to the field office for my appointment, they asked for my ID and also the judgement from the court and gave me a form to fill on where I want the green card to be mailed to. 3 days later using the case number I had from USCIS given when I filled the I-485, I was able to see the card in a day went to it being produced and mailed a day after. I wish everyone the best. Thank you
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