AOS Interview Experiences: Collection

**ari4u** · 14th February 2006 05:32 PM

**ari4u** · 14th February 2006 05:33 PM

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**ari4u** · 14th February 2006 05:34 PM

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**My Melody** · 14th February 2006 06:58 PM

wowwww, ari4u, that's what I am just looking for. Thank you so much for your effort in helping us, who are going to the "terrifying" interviews. Terrifying because we can throw into trash all our application fees, hard work and effort on the application just for something simple and silly that we might have done or said during the interview. Thanks once again

**ema76** · 14th February 2006 07:02 PM

Ari, as usual, you have a good idea. My interview is Feb. 22nd and I can't wait to see my interview thread in there !!

Ema.

**hbr11** · 14th February 2006 08:25 PM

I havent posted my interview experience elsewhere, so am just going to write it in here. I must say that I was not too prepared for the interview (esp compared to most of you), since I had been traveling all that week, and since I am basically lazy

My interview was for 9am, so we reached the DO 15 min before 9. There was no line at security, and we quickly made our way to the upstairs waiting room. I must say that the security guy here was much nicer than the ones at the front.
There were only 3-4 people in the room when we got there, and we put our appt letter in the slot alloted. In 5 min or so, we were called in.
Our immigration officer seemed to be a serious kind of person, and both me & my husband were very nervous. Anyway, I told him that my name was misspelt in the NOA & interview letter, and he said that he noticed that I had called etc about it.
Then he took us to his room, and swore us in. Asked some of the questions from the application, got us to complete some stuff in there that we hadnt filled out etc. He wanted to know if my ex husband had filed a petition for me, and I misunderstood - thought he was asking about the divorce petition. Anyway, since my ex was not a US citizen, we quickly disposed of that question.
Then he asked for proof of marriage. I gave him our marriage cert, and he was amused that we were married on July 4th. My husband said that it was so that its easy for him to remember our anniversary, and I said that this way we get fireworks for our anniversary

He laughed and talked about how he spent his 4th of July weekend, and I think from that point on the tension was dissipated. He asked for income statements etc, and we did not have anything more up to date from what we had submitted earlier (my bad), but he was okay with it. He asked us about how we met etc, and we told him. I could see he was amused

He then asked for pictures, and made some copies of the same, even though we offered to give him a couple. he made a copy of our house deed & took some of the receipts. Took a copy of my H1 approval doc also...
Then he said that he is going to make a decision at the end of the day (my heart sank at that point, but my husband thought nothing of it since the officer seemed to be fine with our stuff). He said that we should get the approval letter in a week, and the card soon after (and also that we could come in to get the passport stamped once we have the approval letter). He told us about the removal of conditions, and the kind of proof we should submit then.
Then he stood up indicating that our interview was done. We told him that we had tons of pictures more for him to see & he laughed saying that he wished he had more time to go over them!!
And that was about it.... We were back in our car by 9:14am
Later that day my online case status changed to "and interview took place etc etc", and the next day there was another LUD, and the 485 status "disappeared". Now we are waiting for the letter.
Ari, if you can let us know when you get an email notification or letter, that would be great, since I am in the same DO as you, and my interview was a day after.
Thanks to all of you for helping through this process

**ari4u** · 14th February 2006 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by hbr11

Ari, if you can let us know when you get an email notification or letter, that would be great, since I am in the same DO as you, and my interview was a day after.
Thanks to all of you for helping through this process

my LUD changed on the 10th of Feb and nothing since then. Hopefully i will get to see something in mail this week or the next. Will let you know. Take care

**hbr11** · 14th February 2006 08:51 PM

Thanks Ari4u. Your posts have been most helpful in this process

**AOS** · 15th February 2006 11:37 AM

what is LUD? thanks

**rex1960** · 15th February 2006 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by AOS

what is LUD? thanks

Latest Update

**AOS** · 15th February 2006 02:40 PM

Here is our experience..

Received Date for I 485 is July 10th, 2005
Notice Date is July 15th, 2005
Fingerprints done on July 26th, 2005
Interview Date on Feb 8th, 2006
Interview took place in Detroit, Michigan

Our appointment was at 9 am and we were there at around 8:30..we were called in at sharp 9..the immigration officer was a lady and there wasnt much eye contact..she asked us for my husbands EAD and other immigration documents and asked me to just place it on the table, which i did..she asked to place our ids on the table as well..she barely took a look at either..she asked us for our lease papers (on the table again)..she started going over the application and asked the usual questions..then suddenly turned to me and asked if i knew my mother and father in laws names..i told her what they were..we went really prepared in regards to what to show as proof..but she didnt ask to take a look at photos, nothing..she seemed very distracted with what was going on outside..she told us she couldnt stamp my husbands passport as they are waiting on clearance on background check and that as soon as that is done we should hear from them..we thanked her and left..we were out by 9:15am..we went in initially nervous..atleast me..and it wasnt even close to what we were thinking..every officer is different in the way they interview, I guess..she didnt need anything to keep with her and whatever she asked to see before on the table..she never looked at..all she asked me was for a copy of my naturalized certificate which i gave..and like many others we are still waiting..

**hbr11** · 16th February 2006 06:25 PM

**rorya** · 16th February 2006 07:56 PM

Had my interview today and the officer who was a lady was awesome. Very friendly and she had no hidden agenda to try and prove our marriage wrong. This is how interviews for this should be versus some of the horror stories you hear.

The only document she asked for was to see originals of: marriage cert, birth cert of me and spouse. She then asked for any documents I had showing joint documents: I handed her bank acc, and medical document showing joint memberships. Thats it!! She didnt even ask to see 1 photograph!! She took I-94.

She couldnt approve my case as they were waiting for an old labour application I had processed. They had requested the file. She called me back that afternoon saying they could not find the file in their system and that she was going to approve my case. Wow, I was impressed!
This was in the Denver Office.

My abbreviated timeline:
I-130, I-485, I-765: ND 10/12/2005
Biometrics: 01/28/2006
EAD approval: 02/05/2006
AOS Interview Date: 02/16/2006

**ageorge** · 24th February 2006 09:13 AM

Hi All,
Had my interview on 02/23/06 in the Charlotte, NC DO.

The interview was scheduled for 10:30 and they called us in at around 11:15 or so. The interviewer just wanted to see a few things..my childs birth certificate, Deed to our house, 2005 W-2 (He wanted the tax return but we have not yet filed our taxes), Recent paystubs (wanted employment letter but did not have it).
He did not ask us any other questions on how we met or anything else along those lines...I guess, the baby and house was proof enough.

Final result...well, name check pending!

**a_usc** · 24th February 2006 03:06 PM

Ari

FANTASTIC IDEA... this is something that a lot of us must've been wishing for... an easy and convenient way of finding interview experiences of diff ppl. I myself have been bookmarking such links in the browser on my notebook. Will check and let you know if I have one bookmarked that is not on your list yet... I doubt that I'd find one though

.

Gotta bookmark this page now, just in case it gets knocked off the first few pages... Good Job... THANKS.

USC

**ravekiss** · 24th February 2006 04:53 PM

I was feeling kinda lazy to type out my experience right now but since I see that there are no Interview experiences from NY I'll do it so that other persons in NY would have some hope.

I applied through my husband in January 2005, I received the letter to do biometrics/ fingerprinting a month later. I got approved and received my EAD in March 2005. After receiving the EAD card, I didnt hear anything until August 2005 when I received a letter to appear for the interview in January 2006. I got all my stuff together and went to the interview. The appointment was scheduled for 12:30pm in Garden City, NY. We arrived there 11:30 and proceeded through security and to a room on the 1st floor where we joined a line to give our letters in. We sat there for about an hour before my name was called and we followed an employee up to the 2nd floor and sat there for another half hour before being called in my the interviewing office. He was very nice and swore us in quickly. He asked for our marriage certificate, both birth certificates and my husbands certificate of citizenship. He compared them to the file of documents he had on his desk and gave them back to me. He then asked for my passport. I have an expired passport that has my visa and I94 along with my current passport. I gave him my current passport and he looked at the stamp I received when I cam into the country. The officer asked me if I came on a visa and never left the country since, to which I replied yes. He asked me the regular required questions like if I ever assisted anyone to enter the US illegally and some others. He asked for whatever documents we brought and we gave him our bank statements (both checking & savings), credit cards statements along with a copy of our credit cards (he made sure both sets were the same accounts). He asked for the Affidavit of Support which my lawyer handed him. He asked us how we met and I answered him. He wanted to see pictures, I had taken 3 albums so I showed him one and he looked through the pics and asked who were some of the people in there. He gave the album back to me and told me to choose 1 or 2 pics for him to keep in the file and I did. While I was choosing the pics I saw him take a stamp that said approved and stamp a few papers in the file he had. He also added some of the bank statements and other documents we had given him to the file. He then told us that everything looks good and once I pass the security clearance, I'd get my card in the mail in about 4-6 weeks. He didnt stamp my passport, he just wrote Pending I485 and signed his name with the date. That was it for the interview. I left worried about why he didnt stamp the passport. He didnt ask for drivers license or any id, nor did he ask for the I94. I went home and on my computer, I signed up for email notifications whenever my online status changes. I also found this forum the next day and read of all the horrible experience and long waiting times others were having for security checks.
However, almost 1 month later, I received an email from USCIS that stated:

"On February 21, 2006, after approving your application, we ordered you a new card. Your card will be mailed to you as soon as it is ready."

I was happy to get that email. Two days later I received another email from USCIS that stated:

"This case has been approved. An approval notice was mailed. If 14 days have passed and you have not received this notice, you may wish to verify or update your address. To update your address, please call the National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283."

Now I am even happier and most of all relieved. I now look forward to the approval letter in the mail and the green card after. I will update you guys when they arrive. To all the others awaiting security clearances, I hope my case gives you hope that you will be cleared soon. Dont give up hope.

**ari4u** · 24th February 2006 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by a_usc

Ari

FANTASTIC IDEA... this is something that a lot of us must've been wishing for... an easy and convenient way of finding interview experiences of diff ppl. I myself have been bookmarking such links in the browser on my notebook. Will check and let you know if I have one bookmarked that is not on your list yet... I doubt that I'd find one though

.

Gotta bookmark this page now, just in case it gets knocked off the first few pages... Good Job... THANKS.

USC

Thank you

If you look below the AOS Interview Timeline table, i have added a link to this thread so it would never get lost.

I would appreciate it if you can let me know of threads i missed.

Take care

**marion_etka** · 24th February 2006 09:13 PM

what was the exact date of your interview?

**My Melody** · 1st March 2006 02:34 PM

I attended the interview with my hubby on 2/28/2006. We arrived 15 minutes earlier than the appointment time, waited there for about 40 minutes when my name was called. The officer was a very nice young lady. She led us into her room. We said 'yes' after she asked to tell the truth.....something like that. Then we all sat down and she asked for our IDs. She put our driver's licences on her desk and glanced through the file with documents I sent with the application. She asked my full name, birthday, address and phone number and checked them on the file simultaneously. Then she asked if I have kids, I said no. Then three questions, like have I ever been arrested, used fraudulent documents etc..My replies were all no. I saw the photocopy of our marriage licence there, so I took out the original to her. But she told me that's ok and didn't even look at it. Then she asked for any joint documents. I gave her the letter showing that we opened a joint bank account last week, autoinsurance and health insurance with both our names on, the bill for newsapaper subscription with my husband's name as subscriber, the phone bill with family plan of 2 lines but me as account holder, the lease agreement with my name only but the manager had added his name as co-tenant on my request. The manager knew he was staying with me all the time since I moved in the apartment. I initiated to tell the officer that's because I moved in first and then he moved in with me. I didn't bother to add his name on all the bills, so that's all I got. She only asked for the copy of the lease agreement and kept it in the file. She also asked my hubby's 2005 tax form, which he didn't have. Fortunately we brought years of his pay stubs and a letter from his company saying he's current employee and current salary. She was satisfied and kept them in file too. Then she asked how we met. My hubby answered. She asked did we leave the country and I told her we went to my country to visit my family in Feb 2005. She asked if we had any pictures. I showed her 2 albums, one was our trip back to my country and another was our wedding. She asked if I made them, I said yes. She spent a lot time looking through all of them and smiling when she was looking.
Just 10 minutes in that room, she told me I was approved, explained the conditional thing and I will receive the green card in 2 weeks. I asked if she needs to stamp my passport, she said they usually does because it took long time to process the card but now I will get it in 2 weeks, so I don't need to stamp my passport. My hubby told her our plan to travel to my country in these 2 weeks but my Travel Document said it's no guaranteen that I can come back to US etc. She advised to have InfoPass appointment to stamp it before receiving the GC if urgent, but not to use the Travel Document. We will wait until I get the GC then.
We have been celebrating the whole day.
I have to thank all the people in this forum for their useful input as well as the nice, friendly, pretty officer who interviewed us :-)

F1 married to USC
********************
Married: 8/12/2005
Mail I130, I485, I765, I131 to Chicago Lockbox: 11/15/2005
RD: 11/17/2005
ND: 11/25/2005
FP Letter recv'd: 12/1/2005
FP for both I485 and I765: 12/14/2006
Interview Letter recv'd: 12/28/05
AP approved: 02/6/2006
AP received: 02/10/2006 (even though my online status hasn't changed since RD in Nov. 2005)
EAD approved online: 02/10/2006
EAD Card received: 02/14/2006
Interview Date: 2/28/2006
Online status shows approval of I130: 3/01/2006
Online status of I485 disappears: 3/01/2006
Welcome letter received by mail: 3/03/2006
Online status of I485 shows approval: 3/06/2006
GC received by mail: 3/11/2006

DO: Los Angeles

**ari4u** · 1st March 2006 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by My Melody

I attended the interview with my hubby on 2/28/2006. We arrived 15 minutes earlier than the appointment time, waited there for about 40 minutes when my name was called. The officer was a very nice young lady. She led us into her room. We said 'yes' after she asked to tell the truth.....something like that. Then we all sat down and she asked for our IDs. She put our driver's licences on her desk and glanced through the file with documents I sent with the application. She asked my full name, birthday, address and phone number and checked them on the file simultaneously. Then she asked if I have kids, I said no. Then three questions, like have I ever been arrested, used fraudulent documents etc..My replies were all no. I saw the photocopy of our marriage licence there, so I took out the original to her. But she told me that's ok and didn't even look at it. Then she asked for any joint documents. I gave her the letter showing that we opened a joint bank account last week, the bill for newsapaper subscription with my husband's name as subscriber, the phone bill with family plan of 2 lines but me as account holder, the lease agreement with my name only but the manager had added his name as co-tenant on my request. The manager knew he was staying with me all the time since I moved in the apartment. I initiated to tell the officer that's because I moved in first and then he moved in with me. I didn't bother to add his name on all the bills, so that's all I got. She only asked for the copy of the lease agreement and kept it in the file. She also asked my hubby's 2005 tax form, which he didn't have. Fortunately we brought years of his pay stubs and a letter from his company saying he's current employee and current salary. She was satisfied and kept them in file too. Then she asked how we met. My hubby answered. She asked did we leave the country and I told her we went to my country to visit my family in Feb 2006. She asked if we had any pictures. I showed her 2 albums, one was our trip back to my country and another was our wedding. She asked if I made them, I said yes. She spent a lot time looking through all of them and smiling when she was looking.
Just 10 minutes in that room, she told me I was approved, explained the conditional thing and I will receive the green card in 2 weeks. I asked if she needs to stamp my passport, she said they usually does because it took long time to process the card but now I will get it in 2 weeks, so I don't need to stamp my passport. My hubby told her our plan to travel to my country in these 2 weeks but my Travel Document said it's no guaranteen that I can come back to US etc. She advised to have InfoPass appointment to stamp it before receiving the GC if urgent, but not to use the Travel Document. We will wait until I get the GC then.
We have been celebrating the whole day.
I have to thank all the people in this forum for their useful input as well as the nice, friendly, pretty officer who interviewed us :-)

F1 married to USC
********************
Married: 8/12/2005
Mail I130, I485, I765, I131 to Chicago Lockbox: 11/15/2005
RD: 11/17/2005
ND: 11/25/2005
FP Letter recv'd: 12/1/2005
FP for both I485 and I765: 12/14/2006
Interview Letter recv'd: 12/28/05
AP approved: 02/6/2006
AP received: 02/10/2006 (even though my online status hasn't changed since RD in Nov. 2005)
EAD approved online: 02/10/2006
EAD Card received: 02/14/2006
Interview Date: 2/28/2006
Online status shows approval of I130: 3/01/2006
Online status of I485 disappears: 3/01/2006

DO: Los Angeles

CONGRATS!

**ema76** · 1st March 2006 03:16 PM

My Melody,

Congrats to you !!!!

Ema.

**My Melody** · 1st March 2006 03:26 PM

Ari4u & Ema76,

Thanks :-)

**NewUSPR** · 23rd March 2006 06:14 PM

Well first of all, my husband works from home, and usually gets up between 8-9am, since we live an hour - with no traffic which is impossible - from San Francisco and the interview was at 10am we needed to leave the house at 8am the latest. He only needs half an hour to get ready so I let him sleep until 7:30am (big mistake), he didn’t get up until 7:45am. We got out of the house around 8:15am, the he needed to put gas, the traffic was TERRIBLE, it was 9:30am and we had not pass the toll plaza at the Bay Bridge (if anyone knows the area will know exactly what I’m talking about.) We got to the front of the building exactly at 10am while going through security it was 10:05am when I handed the Interview paper to the receptionist. You can imaging during all this time and while watching the clock, I’m getting sick of my stomach, I literally almost threw up, I wanted to go to the bathroom really bad, and of course wanted to kill my husband – no the best moment to do that . I went to the ladies room and my husband wasn’t in the waiting area when I came back and a lady told me that he went towards the offices; he was already talking to the gentleman who interviewed us.

This interviewer was very serious and asked a lot of questions, first asked for identifications (DL or ID, passports, EAD) then started with personal questions to each of us, then the I-485 questions, then asked me questions about my husband, he barely asked anything to my husband. We commented later-on that he asked ME questions about MY parents, and asked my husband questions about his parents-weird. Then he asked for joint receipts, we gave him a savings and health insurance but he wanted more which we don’t have for reasons that I won’t explain since this is already too long. So finally he was happy to see pictures and hear about my husband's kids. I think this last detail was what convinced him, because he looked more relaxed once we started talking about them. Who know, at the end he gave me this letter I mentioned in my original posting, explained few things, and walked us to the door. It lasted about 45min. not as fast as RareGold’s, but with the same happy result.

**beiwen** · 23rd March 2006 10:18 PM

First of all, I want to thank all of you guys. This forum has been really helpful in understanding and providing information on the interview procedures and papers to take and everything. Thanks ari4u, especially. You are a keystone in this forum!!

the interview went smooth and fast, it lasted only about 20 minutes. The interviewer was a very kind gentleman. He first asked for our DLs in the corridor before getting to the interview room and took copies of them right there (i had copies, though). He led as to the room, he swore us in as soon as we were in there. Immediately, he proceeded to verify our names and address. He asked me all the questions on form I-485 about being involved in communist party, terrorism, and so on. I answered them (no, no, no...)
After that, by checking my files, he asked me if this was my first marriage (yes), if I had any children (no) and if my phone number on records was ok. Then she asked my wife (USC) the same questions.
He asked us for the originals of our birth certificates and marriage license. We showed them to him and he checked these originals with the copies he had in our files on record (we had submitted copies last year). He gave the originals back to us. He looked again at the files... I could see all the paperwork we submitted last year was there.
Then he asked for the 2005 taxes (we had filed jointly). As my wife had signed my affidavit of support, the officer asked us for her employer letter and her tax returns of 2004 and 2003.
He asked us if we were living in our own house or were in a lease. We had a lease, and gave him a copy.
He asked if we had any joint account. We gave him our checking and savings statements (we had several from all the year round).
He asked us also if we had health insurance. We gave him the copies of our health insurance cards (which we've got through my wife's job).
He asked us if we had a car or car insurance in both of our names. We don't have such things. my wife explained why. The officer said it was ok.
And that was it. there was no other questions about our relationship. Nothing... We were waiting for him to ask things. But nothing. He didn't even ask for bills or photos (we had taken our wedding album, and a bunch of other pictures)
Then, he stamped the approval on the files and told us I would receive a letter of approval in a week or two, and my green card in 4-6 weeks.
He was very polite. He also told us he was very happy to see we had all the documents and copies he asked for. He told us most people go to the interview with less than half of what they are required to bring. We had prepared two folders: 1 for originals and the other for copies. The folders were indexed and the documents well organized.
So, a piece of advice: take all your papers/documents properly organized. The officers will thank you for that.
They want to go fast. They want to approve. I heard they get mad when they are busy, and people don't seem to help with the paperwork they are supposed to bring already properly prepared from home.
Again: do your homework and your interview will be a pleasant meeting, just as ours was.
Finally we said bye, he went with us to the corridor and showed us the way out to the elevator.
We are soo happy...
Thank you all guys. This forum is so supportive!!
Time to celebrate now!

**Iluvus** · 24th March 2006 06:18 PM

ummm.... shouldnt this thread be a sticky??

**ari4u** · 24th March 2006 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Iluvus

ummm.... shouldnt this thread be a sticky??

This thread is linked form the AOS Interview timeline thread which happens to be a sticky.

The first post has a lot of useful information.
http://www.immigrationportal.com/sho...d.php?t=188386

**eric v** · 25th March 2006 12:06 AM

Keep up the good work old chap! thanks much!

**Glacier05** · 30th March 2006 12:01 PM

Hello,

I had my Interview yesterday in Northern Virginia. The appointment was at 1:00 PM, we arrived at abt 12:30. We were called in at our scheduled time. The officer was cordial. He asked the usual questions, like if I have ever been arrested etc..., He went through the affidavit of support, had questions for my husband regarding his employment letter, checked our passports, asked us both questions about each other, i.e our In-Laws Names, How we met, when we got married, how many guests, What cars we own, date of births, my employer details etc...
He took copies of our 2005 tax returns... we filed seperate returns, and he asked us why we would do that.
He asked for the Joint documents proof, took the entire set of copies that I had made for joint accounts which include utility bills, home title, insurance cards etc.
He went through the photos that I had brought with me. I just took about 15 pics with me, He joked abt how people bombard him with photo slideshows etc etc... then he went out for a few mins...and came back and handed me my passport with the I-551 stamp!!!! and congratulated me...
The whole thing lasted about 40 minutes.

So, finally...its done. I was told that I would get the actual green card in the mail in a few weeks.

I'd like to thank everyone in this forum...its been so helpful to me... and
Ari4u, special thanks to you!

Good Luck everyone....

**cherr1980** · 30th March 2006 12:17 PM

Congrats!!!

**abhp123** · 31st March 2006 03:51 PM

I had my AOS interview yesterday in Seattle. For timelines pl' see my signature. The interview itself was a breeze. The lady was very nice and all she asked for was proof of relationship and we had plenty of those. She also asked how did we meet and whether our faimilies knew each other before. That was it..no tax returns, W2s nothing...just our Ids. Unfortunately, the name check is not done yet...so she told as that we are approved pending name check and we should get the card in mail as soon as the name check is done.

This forum has been very helpful to us...so thanks to all the contributors here...

and good luck to everybody!

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San Jose - Feb 9th

Got my approval notice

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