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-- Warning, long post! --
We had our marriage based AOS interview today, July 10th 2018 and it was set for 9am.
We arrived around an hour early just in case, as we wanted to make sure we beat any traffic or wrecks that occurred. I'd rather be there way early and have to wait than have to rush to make it. So due to being so early we just sat in the car until around 8:30am and then we went in the building, through the security and into the waiting room. We were called in around 9:05am so we were in the waiting room for around 25 mins or so, it didn't seem too bad.
My name was called and we were guided through into the office. The officer had us remain standing to swear us in and then we got on with the interview. He asked for our proof of ID at first, I handed my passport and my wife handed her driver's licence. He then began going through details from the petitioner of the I-130, basically just asking to confirm name, date of birth, name of her spouse (me of course), date of wedding, confirm that the signature on the form is hers. Then he asked the both of us a few questions, I can't remember all of them, but I will note down the ones I do remember below:
- So how did you guys meet?
- When was the first time you met in person?
- What platforms did you use to communicate before you came here?
- Why did you choose to live in the US instead of your (the beneficiary's) country?
- Have you (the petitioner) ever met your husband's parents?
- What other evidence do you want to submit to me today?
With that last question I submitted a number of new evidences that we hadn't submitted initially, these were:
- An Iphone text history between myself and my wife spanning before and after our marriage. Nothing fancy or lovey, just the usual day to day conversations, complaints etc.
- ******** conversations and phone calls between the two of us
- Skype conversations between myself and my grandmother about myself and my wife, how we're doing, how she's excited to meet my wife when we can finally travel etc.
- ******** conversations between myself and my parents talking about myself and my wife, showing them the wedding photos etc
---These chats served an important purpose; to show the officer that my family have spoken to my wife and to show that they're aware of our marriage etc.
- Hotel booking confirmation of places we've been to together, including honeymoon hotel reservations
- Western Union money transfers from myself to my wife
- Affidavit of Support from my wife's uncle who attended our wedding and who I get on with well, attesting to our legitimate relationship and that he's happy for us
- Affidavit of Support from my mother-in-law stating that she's letting myself and my wife live in her house until this process is over. Because of that, we have no rental agreements, leases or utilities in our names, so I wanted to show the officer that despite that, we are in fact legitimate, it's just premature and we don't have those documents yet.
- Affidavit of Residence from myself attesting to the fact I live in this residence with my wife and her mother.
- Advanced Health Care Directives/Power of Attorney for each of us.
- A selection of photos spanning the relationship. We brought ones we had submitted initially as well as new ones we hadn't submitted.
After the evidence was given to the officer, we went through the I-485, I basically just confirmed details on the form i.e. my name, date of birth, place of birth, date of marriage, as well as answered a number of the yes/no questions from that list.
The officer told us that since we submitted more evidence he would need time to review the case. He then detailed some information on the green card itself, what to expect, how long it should take in the mail if he approves it. He was very friendly, he made myself and my wife feel a lot more relaxed than we expected, which was great as we could show off the legitimacy of our relationship without feeling under pressure to perform for him. We just went in with the truth, supplied evidence and just showed the officer that we are genuine and how excited we were for the future together, getting a place, travelling to see my family, having kids, etc.
I told the officer we didn't have any financial ties together at this point, since we only filed 3 months ago and I never received an EAD or SSN. He understood that it was hard to have co-mingling finances when I can't work yet and with us living together with my wife's mother, so although we contribute to utility payments, we don't have our names on anything. He basically just said that once we go to remove conditions, they will expect us to provide solid co-mingling evidence such as place of residence and finances etc, which we understand and there will be no problem with that, as now we're over this hurdle, we can begin to get on with our lives and that will bring with it lots of legitimate evidence.
Around an hour or so ago we received the email we were waiting for. It says that my card is being produced and will be mailed to our address! So finally we were approved after a few hours of waiting and wondering when we'd find out if he approved or denied us!
My timeline is as follows:
Sent via USPS on April 10th with tracking to Chicago Lockbox.
Arrived at post office in Chicago, 60680 on April 12th
Picked up by USCIS on April 14th
Email & text notifications received April 19th at 10.30pm
I-797 NOA Receipts received in mail for all 3 forms on April 23rd
Biometrics Appointment notice received in mail on April 27th for May 11th
Courtesy letter for I-693 received on May 10th
Biometrics appointment completed on May 11th
Case Status: Testing & Interview: An interview has been scheduled (Waiting on the letter to confirm date) on June 4th 2018
Received interview appointment letter on June 9th with the interview appointment set for July 10th
Interview complete on July 10th and approved for permanent residence
I was happy to share this experience with the forum as it's been a good help to me and I wanted to pass on my experience to help others. Feel free to post here if you have extra questions for me that I didn't cover.
We had our marriage based AOS interview today, July 10th 2018 and it was set for 9am.
We arrived around an hour early just in case, as we wanted to make sure we beat any traffic or wrecks that occurred. I'd rather be there way early and have to wait than have to rush to make it. So due to being so early we just sat in the car until around 8:30am and then we went in the building, through the security and into the waiting room. We were called in around 9:05am so we were in the waiting room for around 25 mins or so, it didn't seem too bad.
My name was called and we were guided through into the office. The officer had us remain standing to swear us in and then we got on with the interview. He asked for our proof of ID at first, I handed my passport and my wife handed her driver's licence. He then began going through details from the petitioner of the I-130, basically just asking to confirm name, date of birth, name of her spouse (me of course), date of wedding, confirm that the signature on the form is hers. Then he asked the both of us a few questions, I can't remember all of them, but I will note down the ones I do remember below:
- So how did you guys meet?
- When was the first time you met in person?
- What platforms did you use to communicate before you came here?
- Why did you choose to live in the US instead of your (the beneficiary's) country?
- Have you (the petitioner) ever met your husband's parents?
- What other evidence do you want to submit to me today?
With that last question I submitted a number of new evidences that we hadn't submitted initially, these were:
- An Iphone text history between myself and my wife spanning before and after our marriage. Nothing fancy or lovey, just the usual day to day conversations, complaints etc.
- ******** conversations and phone calls between the two of us
- Skype conversations between myself and my grandmother about myself and my wife, how we're doing, how she's excited to meet my wife when we can finally travel etc.
- ******** conversations between myself and my parents talking about myself and my wife, showing them the wedding photos etc
---These chats served an important purpose; to show the officer that my family have spoken to my wife and to show that they're aware of our marriage etc.
- Hotel booking confirmation of places we've been to together, including honeymoon hotel reservations
- Western Union money transfers from myself to my wife
- Affidavit of Support from my wife's uncle who attended our wedding and who I get on with well, attesting to our legitimate relationship and that he's happy for us
- Affidavit of Support from my mother-in-law stating that she's letting myself and my wife live in her house until this process is over. Because of that, we have no rental agreements, leases or utilities in our names, so I wanted to show the officer that despite that, we are in fact legitimate, it's just premature and we don't have those documents yet.
- Affidavit of Residence from myself attesting to the fact I live in this residence with my wife and her mother.
- Advanced Health Care Directives/Power of Attorney for each of us.
- A selection of photos spanning the relationship. We brought ones we had submitted initially as well as new ones we hadn't submitted.
After the evidence was given to the officer, we went through the I-485, I basically just confirmed details on the form i.e. my name, date of birth, place of birth, date of marriage, as well as answered a number of the yes/no questions from that list.
The officer told us that since we submitted more evidence he would need time to review the case. He then detailed some information on the green card itself, what to expect, how long it should take in the mail if he approves it. He was very friendly, he made myself and my wife feel a lot more relaxed than we expected, which was great as we could show off the legitimacy of our relationship without feeling under pressure to perform for him. We just went in with the truth, supplied evidence and just showed the officer that we are genuine and how excited we were for the future together, getting a place, travelling to see my family, having kids, etc.
I told the officer we didn't have any financial ties together at this point, since we only filed 3 months ago and I never received an EAD or SSN. He understood that it was hard to have co-mingling finances when I can't work yet and with us living together with my wife's mother, so although we contribute to utility payments, we don't have our names on anything. He basically just said that once we go to remove conditions, they will expect us to provide solid co-mingling evidence such as place of residence and finances etc, which we understand and there will be no problem with that, as now we're over this hurdle, we can begin to get on with our lives and that will bring with it lots of legitimate evidence.
Around an hour or so ago we received the email we were waiting for. It says that my card is being produced and will be mailed to our address! So finally we were approved after a few hours of waiting and wondering when we'd find out if he approved or denied us!
My timeline is as follows:
Sent via USPS on April 10th with tracking to Chicago Lockbox.
Arrived at post office in Chicago, 60680 on April 12th
Picked up by USCIS on April 14th
Email & text notifications received April 19th at 10.30pm
I-797 NOA Receipts received in mail for all 3 forms on April 23rd
Biometrics Appointment notice received in mail on April 27th for May 11th
Courtesy letter for I-693 received on May 10th
Biometrics appointment completed on May 11th
Case Status: Testing & Interview: An interview has been scheduled (Waiting on the letter to confirm date) on June 4th 2018
Received interview appointment letter on June 9th with the interview appointment set for July 10th
Interview complete on July 10th and approved for permanent residence
I was happy to share this experience with the forum as it's been a good help to me and I wanted to pass on my experience to help others. Feel free to post here if you have extra questions for me that I didn't cover.
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