Interview experience on 7/24 (employment based)

[bgfork]

Arrived at the field office 7am. Called into the interview room at 7.15am (exactly on time)

Questions asked

• What's your name? What are your parent’s names?
• Current job title
• Current & Previous addresses
• Address outside the US
• Where do your parents live?
• When did you last enter the US? What’s your status?
  • Corrected the info of last entry (the form wasn't fully updated when submitted and did not reflect my most recent entry)
• What's your previous job outside the United States?
• What are the societies / clubs that you participated in?
• Went through questionnaires (have u had any criminal records, etc - answered no to all of them)
  • Have you received any military, paramilitary or weapon training?
    • Clarified that military service is mandatory in my country unless I do a JROTC-like program in high school. Basically it was a classroom based program + some workouts for 4 hrs/week, 20 weeks a year from 2007-2009. No weapon training since we were like 15-17. 90% of my all-boys high school participated.
• Has your job changed?
  • Switched team but doing mostly the same stuff
• What's your current manager’s name?
• What does your job entail? Do you supervise anyone?

At the end, the officer handed me a piece of paper saying case is being held for review and I should wait for up to 120 days. I told him I was hoping it would be processed sooner than later due to the upcoming August retrogression, and he said sorry there's nothing he could do. Either way, looks like the retrogression had already become effective so I'm probably looking at a ~3 months wait. I'm a tiny bit worried that my answer to the question 'have you received any military training' may have flagged it for further review but plenty of people from other countries have gone through more legit programs or even downright 2-year military services (Koreans, Israelis, Germans, etc) and got their gc just fine

Documents asked to see / make copies of

1. EAD cards (the old ones, since I don't have the GC-based EAD/AP one in my hand yet)
2. SSN card
3. Birth certificate
4. College diploma
5. IRS tax receipts (most recent year)
6. W-2 forms (all of them)
7. Employment verification letter & I-485 Supp-J
8. Paystubs (I provided 3 months)
9. Passport & previous passports
10. Current ID issued by the state (I don't drive)
11. Medical exam

[yko]

Arrived at the field office 7am. Called into the interview room at 7.15am (exactly on time)

Questions asked

• What's your name? What are your parent’s names?
• Current job title
• Current & Previous addresses
• Address outside the US
• Where do your parents live?
• When did you last enter the US? What’s your status?
  • Corrected the info of last entry (the form wasn't fully updated when submitted and did not reflect my most recent entry)
• What's your previous job outside the United States?
• What are the societies / clubs that you participated in?
• Went through questionnaires (have u had any criminal records, etc - answered no to all of them)
  • Have you received any military, paramilitary or weapon training?
    • Clarified that military service is mandatory in my country unless I do a JROTC-like program in high school. Basically it was a classroom based program + some workouts for 4 hrs/week, 20 weeks a year from 2007-2009. No weapon training since we were like 15-17. 90% of my all-boys high school participated.
• Has your job changed?
  • Switched team but doing mostly the same stuff
• What's your current manager’s name?
• What does your job entail? Do you supervise anyone?

At the end, the officer handed me a piece of paper saying case is being held for review and I should wait for up to 120 days. I told him I was hoping it would be processed sooner than later due to the upcoming August retrogression, and he said sorry there's nothing he could do. Either way, looks like the retrogression had already become effective so I'm probably looking at a ~3 months wait. I'm a tiny bit worried that my answer to the question 'have you received any military training' may have flagged it for further review but plenty of people from other countries have gone through more legit programs or even downright 2-year military services (Koreans, Israelis, Germans, etc) and got their gc just fine

Documents asked to see / make copies of

1. EAD cards (the old ones, since I don't have the GC-based EAD/AP one in my hand yet)
2. SSN card
3. Birth certificate
4. College diploma
5. IRS tax receipts (most recent year)
6. W-2 forms (all of them)
7. Employment verification letter & I-485 Supp-J
8. Paystubs (I provided 3 months)
9. Passport & previous passports
10. Current ID issued by the state (I don't drive)
11. Medical exam

Thanks for sharing your experience. It shows how useless these newly required eployment-based interviews are. Were you told what to bring to the interview in advance?

[yko]

Arrived at the field office 7am. Called into the interview room at 7.15am (exactly on time)

Questions asked

• What's your name? What are your parent’s names?
• Current job title
• Current & Previous addresses
• Address outside the US
• Where do your parents live?
• When did you last enter the US? What’s your status?
  • Corrected the info of last entry (the form wasn't fully updated when submitted and did not reflect my most recent entry)
• What's your previous job outside the United States?
• What are the societies / clubs that you participated in?
• Went through questionnaires (have u had any criminal records, etc - answered no to all of them)
  • Have you received any military, paramilitary or weapon training?
    • Clarified that military service is mandatory in my country unless I do a JROTC-like program in high school. Basically it was a classroom based program + some workouts for 4 hrs/week, 20 weeks a year from 2007-2009. No weapon training since we were like 15-17. 90% of my all-boys high school participated.
• Has your job changed?
  • Switched team but doing mostly the same stuff
• What's your current manager’s name?
• What does your job entail? Do you supervise anyone?

At the end, the officer handed me a piece of paper saying case is being held for review and I should wait for up to 120 days. I told him I was hoping it would be processed sooner than later due to the upcoming August retrogression, and he said sorry there's nothing he could do. Either way, looks like the retrogression had already become effective so I'm probably looking at a ~3 months wait. I'm a tiny bit worried that my answer to the question 'have you received any military training' may have flagged it for further review but plenty of people from other countries have gone through more legit programs or even downright 2-year military services (Koreans, Israelis, Germans, etc) and got their gc just fine

Documents asked to see / make copies of

1. EAD cards (the old ones, since I don't have the GC-based EAD/AP one in my hand yet)
2. SSN card
3. Birth certificate
4. College diploma
5. IRS tax receipts (most recent year)
6. W-2 forms (all of them)
7. Employment verification letter & I-485 Supp-J
8. Paystubs (I provided 3 months)
9. Passport & previous passports
10. Current ID issued by the state (I don't drive)
11. Medical exam

By the way, did you have to provide a new J supplement or just a copy of the one you filed?

[bgfork]

Were you told what to bring to the interview in advance? << the USCIS provided a list of documents in the interview notice, but not 100% comprehensive (there was a bullet point that says: any supporting document)

did you have to provide a new J supplement or just a copy of the one you filed? << I provided a new one that my company gave me a few weeks ago. I have switched team since my PERM/I-140 was approved but my responsibilities are largely the same.