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Figured I'd share this in case it helps folks. Originally posted in November 2018 Filers thread.
I wore a suit, no tie, and she wore a nice dress and heels.
The next day I checked my USCIS account and saw our status changed to "Case Approved" and "New Card Being Produced" on the same day as the interview. Green card arrived today, exactly a week after we had our interview.
We had our interview today in Manhattan. No lawyer, had our binder prepared and organized but in the end we just gave him whatever he requested and took the rest home. Very similar experience to Vpanda85 above. We were on time for our 9:30 appointment but did not realize we first had to go to a window to get a ticket on the 9th floor - they then sent us down to the 4th floor and we actually started our interview at 9:45. The officer understood and did not make a big deal about it.
Asked how we met, kept 4 new photos for himself, asked where our parents live, asked for marriage certificate, 2018 tax return (we filed jointly), joint bank account statements (gave all of them since inception of account), for any insurance we have together (life, vision, dental, health), and for her recent I94 (traveled abroad twice using AP this summer). Asked for her SSN to update the 485 with, which we didn't bring and she didn't remember as it's brand new, but this wasn't a big deal and he was able to proceed without it.
In terms of atmosphere, he was very laidback and it was not a tense/stressful atmosphere. We chatted about the city, hockey (he, my wife, and I are all NHL fans), etc. before getting into questions about the form (DOB, parents' names, yes/no questions, places of birth, last entry into US, etc). All questions focused on 485, none on 130. Anecdotally, he somehow knew we were hockey fans - he prompted that conversation with "so you guys like hockey, who's your team?" - even though we did not submit any photos or evidence of this in our application. We're assuming they pulled it from social media and used that to verify if our story checks out.
At the end, he said that we'll get the card in 2-3 weeks and that he had no further questions for us. Did not mention anything about possibly requesting additional things in the mail. He also said "you'll be able to apply for naturalization three years from today," we understood this as his hint that we are approved but we'll wait for the USCIS status to change online to confirm. He smiled at us, we chatted some more about where my parents live in the US, we shook hands and that was it.
Interview was around 35 minutes in total. Overall, good experience with a kind and professional USCIS officer.
Asked how we met, kept 4 new photos for himself, asked where our parents live, asked for marriage certificate, 2018 tax return (we filed jointly), joint bank account statements (gave all of them since inception of account), for any insurance we have together (life, vision, dental, health), and for her recent I94 (traveled abroad twice using AP this summer). Asked for her SSN to update the 485 with, which we didn't bring and she didn't remember as it's brand new, but this wasn't a big deal and he was able to proceed without it.
In terms of atmosphere, he was very laidback and it was not a tense/stressful atmosphere. We chatted about the city, hockey (he, my wife, and I are all NHL fans), etc. before getting into questions about the form (DOB, parents' names, yes/no questions, places of birth, last entry into US, etc). All questions focused on 485, none on 130. Anecdotally, he somehow knew we were hockey fans - he prompted that conversation with "so you guys like hockey, who's your team?" - even though we did not submit any photos or evidence of this in our application. We're assuming they pulled it from social media and used that to verify if our story checks out.
At the end, he said that we'll get the card in 2-3 weeks and that he had no further questions for us. Did not mention anything about possibly requesting additional things in the mail. He also said "you'll be able to apply for naturalization three years from today," we understood this as his hint that we are approved but we'll wait for the USCIS status to change online to confirm. He smiled at us, we chatted some more about where my parents live in the US, we shook hands and that was it.
Interview was around 35 minutes in total. Overall, good experience with a kind and professional USCIS officer.
The next day I checked my USCIS account and saw our status changed to "Case Approved" and "New Card Being Produced" on the same day as the interview. Green card arrived today, exactly a week after we had our interview.
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