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Long but informative post
I just wanted to share my experience with my interview and timeline with anyone who's interested.
We filed the I130, I765 and I485 concurrently. Chose not to file for AP right away, but ended up filing separately.
Timeline:
PD - 3/21/18
EAD/Social - 8/16/18
Filed for AP - 10/30/18
Received AP - 1/19
Filed EAD extension - 6/19
Received extension - 6/19
Interview scheduled - 9/19/19
Interview Date - 10/24/19 - 7:15am
Interview was scheduled for 7:15am, we left the house a little after 5am to make sure we would be there ontime. We were taking the train and it had us reaching USCIS at around 6:47am....good time. I googled the directions a million and half times and was ready for this journey. Somewhere during this train ride, i decided to google it again and the saw that we could get off at an early stop, switch to another train and end up at the Jacob Javits Center a few minutes early.....#winning. My husband trusting my judgement (because i'm always right) decides to go with the flow. We get to the Jacob Javits center in good time (about 6:40am) and we both take a deep breath. We ask for help with finding the immigration portion of the building only to be told that WE WERE AT THE WRONG FREAKIN BUILDING!! (THE HORROR). We needed to be at the Jacob Javits FEDERAL Building which was 20 minutes away. Panic set it, but i took a deep breath, called an uber and the journey continues. My husband couldn't do anything but shake his head (because i'm still ALWAYS right).
We arrive at the Federal building at 7:02am and there are signs for USCIS all over so we know that we're at the correct place. We take another deep breath. THEN WE GET TO THE LINE.....There's a good 50ppl in front of us...NOOOO WE GOT AN APPOINTMENT. I speak with Security to inform him that we have a 7:15am appointment and he encouraged me to get back in line because everyone on line had an appointment. OK, so NOW i'm **** in my pants cause we're gonna be late.
To my surprise, the line is moving in good timing and we got to the through the front door and what do you know.....there's another screening. Something like an airport screening.....everything off, shoes, belts, earrings etc. We take everything off and throw it back on in record time. Hit the elevator and get to the 7th floor. We're directed to the proper room (room 700) and asked to join the line. We were like 5th in line so not bad. By the time we get checked in it was 7:23am. Not too bad. All she needed was the appointment slip. No ID's passports etc. We were given our number and told to sit down.
We take our seat and by 7:33am we were called it. We had a Russian examiner who took us waaaayyyyyyy in the back. When we arrived at the office he swore us in and told us to take a seat.
Interview time:
I prepared a HUGE binder along with 4 large envelopes for the interview....i was ready to nail this thing. When we got into the office, i saw that there was a paper on his keyboard. The interviewer asked for our passports which we gave. He took a copy of my husband's passport and his last entry into the US. He then looked at my passport and asked my husband when did i get it. My husband says, "we'll we traveled in xyz month"....the IO said "i didn't ask you that, when did your wife get her passport, it's an easy question"? My husband replied with the right date then apologized for his "mistake".
The IO asked me (the Petitioner):
Where did we travel and what was the purpose of the travel?
Where does my husband work
What does he do at work
He asked my husband the last 2 questions.
He then asked me for the names and DOB of my husband's children
He asked for any joint documents:
As stated i had a HUGE folder of documents, i gave him the car title, hotel receipts, credit card statements and as i'm getting out other things, he asked if we had any joint financial docs. I give him what i have (bank statements, letters from employers, tax transcripts. he asked for 2018 taxes which i provided).
He asked me what was the name of the hotel and the reason for going
He asked me who sold us the car and when was it registered
He also asked what were my step children's mother's name...i gave the name, told him she passed away and he asked when and how.
He asked for pictures, we had TONS, he looked at the first 3 pages of the wedding book, glanced at the other pictures for a total of 6 seconds. I told him i had other stuff he said he was ok and told me i could put everything away. I felt cheated...i've spent endless hours on our supporting documents, but if he was satisfied then so was i!!
He went thru the I485 questions and asked my husband why did his application say that he had 6 kids when he only had 3, we both explained that i have my own 3 so it's a habit to say that we have 6 children. He crossed that out and continues with the questions. He asked my husband if he was a prostitute and laughed. He jokingly asked if he was sure he wasn't a pimp with a crew on the corner (lol)
He asked for a few minutes, did some stuff on the computer, filled out some papers in the folder and handed my husband a pre-printed paper (the one that was on the printer) stating that the case had to be reviewed. He told my husband that they have to run his fingerprints one last time and if all is well, he'd get his greencard in 2/3 weeks. While my husband was not too thrilled not getting approved on the spot, i still feel like we were approved and I'M EXCITED!!!
My husband (the beneficiary) was only asked about 4/5 questions outside of the I485. One would think that i was the beneficiary. The interview was smooth though. At no point did we feel intimidated or afraid. We were out before 8am.
The end.
I've attached my table of contents
I just wanted to share my experience with my interview and timeline with anyone who's interested.
We filed the I130, I765 and I485 concurrently. Chose not to file for AP right away, but ended up filing separately.
Timeline:
PD - 3/21/18
EAD/Social - 8/16/18
Filed for AP - 10/30/18
Received AP - 1/19
Filed EAD extension - 6/19
Received extension - 6/19
Interview scheduled - 9/19/19
Interview Date - 10/24/19 - 7:15am
Interview was scheduled for 7:15am, we left the house a little after 5am to make sure we would be there ontime. We were taking the train and it had us reaching USCIS at around 6:47am....good time. I googled the directions a million and half times and was ready for this journey. Somewhere during this train ride, i decided to google it again and the saw that we could get off at an early stop, switch to another train and end up at the Jacob Javits Center a few minutes early.....#winning. My husband trusting my judgement (because i'm always right) decides to go with the flow. We get to the Jacob Javits center in good time (about 6:40am) and we both take a deep breath. We ask for help with finding the immigration portion of the building only to be told that WE WERE AT THE WRONG FREAKIN BUILDING!! (THE HORROR). We needed to be at the Jacob Javits FEDERAL Building which was 20 minutes away. Panic set it, but i took a deep breath, called an uber and the journey continues. My husband couldn't do anything but shake his head (because i'm still ALWAYS right).
We arrive at the Federal building at 7:02am and there are signs for USCIS all over so we know that we're at the correct place. We take another deep breath. THEN WE GET TO THE LINE.....There's a good 50ppl in front of us...NOOOO WE GOT AN APPOINTMENT. I speak with Security to inform him that we have a 7:15am appointment and he encouraged me to get back in line because everyone on line had an appointment. OK, so NOW i'm **** in my pants cause we're gonna be late.
To my surprise, the line is moving in good timing and we got to the through the front door and what do you know.....there's another screening. Something like an airport screening.....everything off, shoes, belts, earrings etc. We take everything off and throw it back on in record time. Hit the elevator and get to the 7th floor. We're directed to the proper room (room 700) and asked to join the line. We were like 5th in line so not bad. By the time we get checked in it was 7:23am. Not too bad. All she needed was the appointment slip. No ID's passports etc. We were given our number and told to sit down.
We take our seat and by 7:33am we were called it. We had a Russian examiner who took us waaaayyyyyyy in the back. When we arrived at the office he swore us in and told us to take a seat.
Interview time:
I prepared a HUGE binder along with 4 large envelopes for the interview....i was ready to nail this thing. When we got into the office, i saw that there was a paper on his keyboard. The interviewer asked for our passports which we gave. He took a copy of my husband's passport and his last entry into the US. He then looked at my passport and asked my husband when did i get it. My husband says, "we'll we traveled in xyz month"....the IO said "i didn't ask you that, when did your wife get her passport, it's an easy question"? My husband replied with the right date then apologized for his "mistake".
The IO asked me (the Petitioner):
Where did we travel and what was the purpose of the travel?
Where does my husband work
What does he do at work
He asked my husband the last 2 questions.
He then asked me for the names and DOB of my husband's children
He asked for any joint documents:
As stated i had a HUGE folder of documents, i gave him the car title, hotel receipts, credit card statements and as i'm getting out other things, he asked if we had any joint financial docs. I give him what i have (bank statements, letters from employers, tax transcripts. he asked for 2018 taxes which i provided).
He asked me what was the name of the hotel and the reason for going
He asked me who sold us the car and when was it registered
He also asked what were my step children's mother's name...i gave the name, told him she passed away and he asked when and how.
He asked for pictures, we had TONS, he looked at the first 3 pages of the wedding book, glanced at the other pictures for a total of 6 seconds. I told him i had other stuff he said he was ok and told me i could put everything away. I felt cheated...i've spent endless hours on our supporting documents, but if he was satisfied then so was i!!
He went thru the I485 questions and asked my husband why did his application say that he had 6 kids when he only had 3, we both explained that i have my own 3 so it's a habit to say that we have 6 children. He crossed that out and continues with the questions. He asked my husband if he was a prostitute and laughed. He jokingly asked if he was sure he wasn't a pimp with a crew on the corner (lol)
He asked for a few minutes, did some stuff on the computer, filled out some papers in the folder and handed my husband a pre-printed paper (the one that was on the printer) stating that the case had to be reviewed. He told my husband that they have to run his fingerprints one last time and if all is well, he'd get his greencard in 2/3 weeks. While my husband was not too thrilled not getting approved on the spot, i still feel like we were approved and I'M EXCITED!!!
My husband (the beneficiary) was only asked about 4/5 questions outside of the I485. One would think that i was the beneficiary. The interview was smooth though. At no point did we feel intimidated or afraid. We were out before 8am.
The end.
I've attached my table of contents
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