My June 7, 2007 AOS interview experience

[soul77]

I thought I'd post the entire experience here in case it might help anyone else who will be going through the experience soon or in the future. Also, I wanted to know what happens after the interview since we were not approved immediately. The interviewer said she would review the documentation and make a decision within a week. Is this normal? Anyway read my experience and if you had a similar one or you know in general what happens, please respond.

My wife and I arrived at the Denver, CO district office 30 minutes early for our 8:45 am appointment and they actually called us in 15 minutes early at 8:30 am. I am a US Citizen and I am petitioning for my wife who is an overstay (B-2 visa, expired November 2004). When we started the interview, the first questions came directly from the I-485 and I-130 applications. The interviewer checked off fields in the applications as we answered her questions:

• She asked my wife and I to state our full names.
• She asked my wife what her current address is and whether it was an apartment/house/etc. (My wife tripped up a little here because of the nerves but corrected herself immediately. She answered everything else perfectly after.)
• She asked if I lived at the same address.
• She asked each of us to state the other person's birthday.
• She asked if either of us had children.
• She asked where my wife was born.
• She asked my wife if she had ever worked in the US.
• She asked her if she had ever applied for permanent residency/AOS before.
• She asked me when I became a US citizen (I told her November of last year).
• She asked my wife what kind of visa she used to come to the US.
• She asked my wife when the first time she came to the US was and how long was her longest stay. (My wife first came in 2001 and stayed for 6 months and came/went as a tourist yearly until 2004 when she overstayed her visa and has been here since).
• She asked if my wife had ever left the US since she had overstayed her visa(My wife has not.).
• She asked if my wife had ever been deported or arrested.
• Finally she asked if my wife was a member of any club or organization.

Following the questions from the applications she asked us about our relationship:

• How long have you two known each other? (1 year, 3 mos)
• How and where did you meet?
• How did you propose to your wife?
• When and where were you married? (August 2006)
• Were there witnesses at the wedding? (No witnesses signed our marriage certificate because in the state of Colorado witnesses are not needed to certify a marriage. But we then told the interviewer that there were unofficial witnesses, they just did not sign the certificate and we showed her pictures from the wedding of the people who attended.)
• Did family or friends attend the wedding? Who?
• Did both of your parents support the marriage? (I said my mother did but my father did not initially. She then asked why my father did not support it and we told her because he thought we got married too soon and also because he is a very religious person and had very traditional views about courting, etc. She then asked if things had changed with my father and we told her yes, he eventually came around and we showed her pictures of my dad hugging my wife during Christmas while smiling).
• Have you met each other's families? (We told her that my wife had met my parents and my brother while we were in California during Christmas. We then told her that my wife had actually met my mother earlier a few days before the wedding but since my father did not initially support the wedding he did not come and my wife met him in California. Then we told the interviewer that I had met my wife's sister who lives close to us and that I had not met her parents because they live in Peru. However, I then said that I met her mom on MSN video chat and my wife jumped in and said, "you also met my brother that way." The interviewer smiled and laughed a little when we told her that).
• When was the last time you two saw each other's family? (We told the interviewer that we had not seen my parents and brother since January and that I had seen my wife's sister yesterday).

She then asked us to provide any documents that could substantiate the marriage. We gave her:

• a verification letter from our bank for a joint bank account (although the interviewer said she preferred a bank statement because it showed recent transactions, etc.)
• photos of our small wedding and a vacation to my parent's home in another state along with other random photos of our time together such as halloween photos, photos we took at a musical we attended, etc. (She made copies of a lot of our photos)
• a medical bill in my wife's name, with our address on it along with a copy of the cashed check that I used to pay for her bill
• joint tax returns
• a rental lease with both our names on it dating back to January of this year. Additionally, I provided copies of rent bills with both our names on it that showed how much rent was and utilities for the May 2006 and April 2006. (We lived together even before January but in a different apartment. The interviewer did not ask to see evidence for our previous apartment).

That was about it. It took about 20 minutes and we were done. She then told us that she was "fairly satisfied" with the documentation we provided. I'm not sure if she meant she was satisfied that it was good enough evidence to show that our marriage was real or if she meant that she was satisfied in the sense that she had enough to make whatever decision she needed to make. She then told us that she would make a decision within a week and send us a letter with her decision.

I don't know what to expect from here on out but obviously my wife and I are hoping we will be approved. I'm not sure what more evidence I could have provided but I think what we gave her should be good enough. Has anyone else received a similar response after the interview (i.e. was told that a decision would be made in a week)? If so, can you respond with what happened in your case?

[la2]

Same Situation

Hello soul77. After posting my thread, i read your experience and gave me somehow a relief about my interview today. We had almost the same questions and the immigration officer told us to wait in the mail if our case will be approved. I'm still thinking until now if there was something my husband and i said that could have made the officer to further review our case. But we're also hoping it'll be approved. I also checked my case in the uscis.gov website and found out that my EAD card has been ordered today (June 7) and should be receiving it within 30 days. So that too somewhat gave me hope. Please update me about your case as soon as you hear from them. Thanks and God bless.

[soul77]

Hello soul77. After posting my thread, i read your experience and gave me somehow a relief about my interview today. We had almost the same questions and the immigration officer told us to wait in the mail if our case will be approved. I'm still thinking until now if there was something my husband and i said that could have made the officer to further review our case. But we're also hoping it'll be approved. I also checked my case in the uscis.gov website and found out that my EAD card has been ordered today (June 7) and should be receiving it within 30 days. So that too somewhat gave me hope. Please update me about your case as soon as you hear from them. Thanks and God bless.

la2,

It's always comforting to know someone else is in the same boat! Its also comforting to know that others have been in the same boat and everything turned out fine. In response to my question someone on another board said the following:

I had my interview in Feb 2007.
I was told the same thing.. did not get stamp in passport.

A week later I got a Congratulations letter from USCIS in the mail and the card was mailed to me in a week after that.

So at least one person has said everything turned out alright. I'm hoping others on this board might be able to shed some more light whether its positive or negative. I'll keep you up to date with anything new that happens in our case. Oh and congratulations on your EAD approval! My wife just got her EAD card last week and we applied for her social security card as soon as we got the EAD card!

[la2]

Thank you..

Thank you so much for your reply. It really does help a lot knowing you're not alone in a certain sitation. I'm really happy i found this website after searching for possible questions they may ask in the interview. I posted my experince in the family based greencard section, with a title "much more detailed experience so you might wanna check out what my questions were. Let me know how soon your wife got her SS. Thanks to you again and keep me posted.

[cogar]

to soul77 and la2

Hello,

How r u ....good to hear that both of u had a good interview.....now I wana ask something really really strange and I am very confused...
my Q is......I came here on a visitor visa n later met someone totally unintentional and felt in love n got married without letting my parents know but my spouse's parents fully support and know our marriage...n even my spouse's sister has sponsored I 864 for me as an joint sponsor n she was the only one at the wedding n also signed as an witness...while the rest of my sposue's family was not present at the marriage coz they live in another far state.............so when they ask me at the time of interview that does ur parent know ur spouse wat should i say.....as my parents r from a strict religious conservative family and i cant tell them this on phone....I am planning to tell them once I visit them after this whole process will be over....so how should I handle the immigration officers when they ask me this Q.....

I will truly appreciate ur response as I have butterflies in my stomach....

Thanx in advance

[alizka]

My experience

Hi,
my husbands and I we had an interview 2 weeks ago in Florida. We were separated and it was really strange. Some of the question we were asked were really stupid....such as what`s the name of your toothpaste etc. However, we did well.

At the end of the interview we were told that we have to wait for a while for the decision. They didnt tell us how long. The next day they called my spouse`s father who lives in another state and asked him question about me. It is really strange. My father-in-law answered all their question. I don`t know what immigration officers can do and what they cannot. Can they come to visit us?

Did you (guys above) get your decision yet? How long after the interview?

Thanks for responds.

[soul77]

I just wanted to update this old post in case there are others out there who are or might some day be in the same boat as my wife and I.

First, I'm FINALLY happy to report that my wife is a permanent resident! We filed in February 2007 and had our interview in June 2007. At which point, as you may have read in my original post, our officer (her name is Amber Vasek) told us she would have a decision within a week. A week later we got nothing. A month later, nothing. A year later, still nothing. Two years later, absolutely nothing. Finally two years and a month and a half later, my wife FINALLY gets the acceptance letter.

This whole experience has been awful. When we first had our interview, we were excited about getting the results a week after the interview as officer Vasek promised. However, we never, ever received anything from her...ever! We went to infopass nearly 2 dozen times during the last two years. We called USCIS and put in a service request 4 times. Each time, we received the same generic letter. The 90 days always came and went without any word from officer Vasek or USCIS. Each letter was worded the exact same way with the exact same amount of time. Everyone who deals with USCIS should take note that the letters are plain lies to keep you quiet for an extra 90 days.

We contacted several of our representatives in our state after we waited without a word from USCIS for over a year. That, unfortunately, did us no good since all they can do is put in a congressional inquiry and after several of those, we noticed that even our congressmen were lied to. That is, they each received the exact same letter claiming that the case was with another department (supposedly DHS) and could not be ruled on until they got it back from that department. Each letter was identical and each claimed it was a security issue.

Finally, after nearly two years of waiting and paying to renew my wife's employment authorization document multiple times at nearly $340 a year, we decided to get a lawyer to see about a writ of mandamus. Well, the lawyer advised us not to do it because it was not very likely to work with an I-485 case. It was far more successful in N-400 (Citizenship) cases. Instead, the lawyer contacted our field office and our officer directly and demanded a REAL status update rather than those **** generic letters filled with lies they are accustomed to sending. To our great surprise USCIS finally responded with a real, personal letter. We found our that the case had never been in another department as USCIS had claimed! It was a complete and utter bald-faced lie! How is it legal for them to lie to my representative and me? It's truly infuriating!

Anyway, in addition to finding out that the lies were simply delay tactics, we also received a list with 13 different items we needed to send to USCIS before they could finally rule on our case. Here are some of the highlights of the list:

1) All copies of W-2s and taxes for both my wife and I from 2008 and 2009.
2) A notarized signed affidavit from my employer detailing his knowledge of my marriage to my wife, including a list of my emergency contacts. Luckily my employer is a very good person and didn't hesitate to do as they asked but imagine if my employer lived in another state or was on vacation or was too busy to go to a notary after work as a favor for me?
3) Two notarized letters, one from each of my parents stating in as much detail as possible their knowledge of our marriage.
4) A copy of each page of all our bank accounts (including any blank pages) for the last year.
5) A copy of our rental agreement, our previous rental agreement, and the last rental agreement I had before we even met. Yes, you read that right, they asked me for a copy of the rental agreement I signed years ago before I even met my wife. Lucky for me I'm a pack rat and had it but that's absolutely ludicrous to ask for that.

I'll leave out the rest of the ridiculous list. I'm surprised they didn't ask me for a notarized letter explaining why my wife and I didn't have children yet! Here is the kicker: they sat on our case and lied to us and our representatives in congress for well over two years AFTER the interview but as soon as our lawyer contacted them directly, they replied except they did not give us a lot of time to gather all the documents they requested. No, no, that would be too fair. No, instead they gave us 7 days to get my wife re-fingerprinted and only 3 weeks to gather all of the documents: three weeks! They sit on this and lie to us for over two years and then they give us arbitrary deadlines of 7 days and 3 weeks or they drop our case. Like I said before, we had everything and our employers and my parents were more than happy to help so we turned everything in within two weeks but I still feel their arbitrary short deadlines are wholly unfair and ridiculous.

In any case, finally, after this whole ordeal, we received the welcome notice last week and the green card is on it's way. I wanted to share my experience for a couple of reasons. First, I know there must be many other couples out there in similar situations and I wanted to let you all know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if that tunnel is unjustly long. Second, to voice the fact that USCIS and Officer Amber Vasek are blatant liars! This system must change, this cannot be the right way to do things. Our lives have been on hold for two years because of their willful negligence. My wife has not been able to get in-state residency for school due to her status prior to the approval of the I-485 so we could not afford to send her to school and we want to wait until she is done with school to have kids so we had to wait until this got resolved before we could move on with our plans. It cannot be that the only way to get USCIS's attention is through lawyers and it cannot be/should not be legal for them to send letter stating complete falsehoods to me (a US Citizen) and my congressional representatives.

Good luck to you all and God bless!