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Hi everyone. I was a silent reader from the start of my process and would like to share my experience as a little appreciation to those who were helpful.
I came to US in November 3, 2018 as a J1 trainee for one year, working at hotel in Nashville, TN. My wife was working at the same hotel and we met and started dating after 6 months. We had our marriage in August, 2019 and started the application in October, 2019. So my priority date was set on October 11, 2019.
Today, February 12,2020 we had our interview and were approved 5 hours after it was done.
We started our application in Nashville, but moved to Chicago in December, 2019, and changed address after a week we got here. Though on December 19, 2019 we got a confirmation letter from USCIS with a change of address, not surprisingly we received an interview notice on December 23, 2019 for Memphis Field Office ( of course haha) for January 23, 2020. Obviously, we could not have attended this interview, so the lawyer wrote to them to cancel and reschedule to Chicago, our current state. I thought at that time that rescheduling the interview would add at least 2-3 months to our process, but to our luck, on January 8 we got a new interview notice for February 12, 2020, Chicago field office.
Security check was very quick and we were the only ones in the waiting room (probably because interview was scheduled at 01:05 PM). The interviewer was tough sometimes, but usually she was nice, she advised me to be careful in Chicago not to get shot over something
. She asked:
How I came to the States
How long I worked there
How did we meet and started dating
How many guests we had in our wedding
Why my parents were not there ( because of visa problems in my country)
Where do we live now, who else lives with us, how many bedrooms we have
Do we plan to have children
Where does my wife work
Do I work now ( I do delivery to support my wife, so she said it is illegal to use my SSN for that, but that is forgiveable)
Then those ye/no questions around 10.
Then she looked at my medical results and suddenly asked me why I chose this hospital for it, I could have gone to some hospital near my wife's workplace. I answered that this hospital was in the list in USCIS website and it comes out when I put our zip code, I mean it is just 5 min drive from our apartment, why would I go to somewhere else.
She also saw that I had a nice job back in my country ( I worked for one of big 4 companies), and asked why I didn't stay here with H1B visa. I said I didn't intend to stay here when I entered through border, I came as an exchange trainee to learn accounting. But it is what it is.
Then she asked for more evidences ( she asked to give 15 photos exactly), joint tax return, full bank statement, bills, letter from wife's employer, cards, flight and hotel tickets from our trip.
And I got a parking ticket since I came to Chicago, so I showed her that and she started to discuss it with me, asking why I didn't park in right place
After all she gave me a paper and said our case will be reviewed and we will get results in mail in a couple weeks.
Interview was finished at 2PM ( lasted almost 45 minutes) and at 7PM I saw the status changed to "New card is being produced".
Thank you to all who were helping others here and commenting. Wishing good luck to everyone who is in this process.
I came to US in November 3, 2018 as a J1 trainee for one year, working at hotel in Nashville, TN. My wife was working at the same hotel and we met and started dating after 6 months. We had our marriage in August, 2019 and started the application in October, 2019. So my priority date was set on October 11, 2019.
Today, February 12,2020 we had our interview and were approved 5 hours after it was done.
We started our application in Nashville, but moved to Chicago in December, 2019, and changed address after a week we got here. Though on December 19, 2019 we got a confirmation letter from USCIS with a change of address, not surprisingly we received an interview notice on December 23, 2019 for Memphis Field Office ( of course haha) for January 23, 2020. Obviously, we could not have attended this interview, so the lawyer wrote to them to cancel and reschedule to Chicago, our current state. I thought at that time that rescheduling the interview would add at least 2-3 months to our process, but to our luck, on January 8 we got a new interview notice for February 12, 2020, Chicago field office.
Security check was very quick and we were the only ones in the waiting room (probably because interview was scheduled at 01:05 PM). The interviewer was tough sometimes, but usually she was nice, she advised me to be careful in Chicago not to get shot over something
. She asked:How I came to the States
How long I worked there
How did we meet and started dating
How many guests we had in our wedding
Why my parents were not there ( because of visa problems in my country)
Where do we live now, who else lives with us, how many bedrooms we have
Do we plan to have children
Where does my wife work
Do I work now ( I do delivery to support my wife, so she said it is illegal to use my SSN for that, but that is forgiveable)
Then those ye/no questions around 10.
Then she looked at my medical results and suddenly asked me why I chose this hospital for it, I could have gone to some hospital near my wife's workplace. I answered that this hospital was in the list in USCIS website and it comes out when I put our zip code, I mean it is just 5 min drive from our apartment, why would I go to somewhere else
.She also saw that I had a nice job back in my country ( I worked for one of big 4 companies), and asked why I didn't stay here with H1B visa. I said I didn't intend to stay here when I entered through border, I came as an exchange trainee to learn accounting. But it is what it is.
Then she asked for more evidences ( she asked to give 15 photos exactly), joint tax return, full bank statement, bills, letter from wife's employer, cards, flight and hotel tickets from our trip.
And I got a parking ticket since I came to Chicago, so I showed her that and she started to discuss it with me, asking why I didn't park in right place
After all she gave me a paper and said our case will be reviewed and we will get results in mail in a couple weeks.
Interview was finished at 2PM ( lasted almost 45 minutes) and at 7PM I saw the status changed to "New card is being produced".
Thank you to all who were helping others here and commenting. Wishing good luck to everyone who is in this process.
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