GC Interview Seattle DO

[Kirkland]

The interview took place @ 11:45 a.m. but we had been there for over an hour. There were at least another 50 couples waiting and as some couples left new couples would arrive, so the room had about 100 people waiting at all times.

Our IO was a really nice, young, fashionable and very serious Asian lady. Very tiny too she called us to her office introduced herself, and asked us to raise our right hands and swear that we would be telling only the true today. She asked if we had our IDs and passports with us, and I presented her with the file I had prepared for the interview. She verified that the address was still valid. The questions were:

1. Where did you meet?
2. Were you a student at that time?
3. What school were you attending to?
4. What was your major?
5. What was the name of the school you graduated from?
6. Did you have an engagement ceremony?
7. Did you have a reception?
8. To petitioner: Where did you work before? (We moved to Seattle from Michigan, and that's where we met.)
9. What documents do you have that can prove you have common assets or a relationship?

These questions were not asked just one after the other, but as part of a very formal conversation, and they were not asked to either one of us, so one of us would start the story, and the other one would continue...

At the end she took the following documents: joint accounts bank statements, car insurance, joint Amex statement, and corporate health insurance indicating our married status (and me as beneficiary because I'm still job hunting.) Finally, she looked at some pictures, but didn't keep any with her. Her feedback was very positive, she said she didn't need the pictures because they rather see the people interacting during the interview. She said that people's behavior tells a lot more than the pictures.

It was very smooth, and I'm certain we've got approved: now the question is when will we get the notification. She said we should hear from them in 2 weeks, but I'm hoping for next Tuesday.

[ella04]

Congratulations Kirkland! It was pretty easy!

[krona12345]

Congratulations!!


I have a question. When she ask for your passport what exactly she did with the passport. Did she open and start looking at the pages.Did she ask you about the anything inside of the passport. Do you have mutiples stamps in your passport going inside of the United States or other countries.



The reason I ask you is that I travel a lot and my passport has tons of stamps.

Thanks

[smilegirl]

Congrats Kirkland!!!!!! :-)

[woodenshoe101]

Congrats

Our IO told us "decision in 30-60 days, but i have to say that, it should be much faster". In reality is was 3 hours when an online update showed up.

I have a question. When she ask for your passport what exactly she did with the passport.

Our IO just pulled out the I94, then looked at my old visas, and some stamps. Nothing major. Lots of stamps should be no problem at all.

[smilegirl]

Congrats

Our IO told us "decision in 30-60 days, but i have to say that, it should be much faster". In reality is was 3 hours when an online update showed up.


Our IO just pulled out the I94, then looked at my old visas, and some stamps. Nothing major. Lots of stamps should be no problem at all.

Congrats to you too!!!!

[Kirkland]

The only reason they check your passport is to make sure that you entered the country legally. The IO checked only the US visa page.

[js360]

congrats....sounds like it went well. sounds like it was the same lady we had...although she asked you guys more questions, she asked us nothing of our relationship. maybe cause we have a 2 year old son together.

[Kirkland]

congrats....sounds like it went well. sounds like it was the same lady we had...although she asked you guys more questions, she asked us nothing of our relationship. maybe cause we have a 2 year old son together.

We don't have children and we're an interracial, interethnic, inter-faith marriage, so I was expecting for a lot more than that, but thankfully it was not a big deal

[Rose_uw]

Congratulation Kirkland. Now with the GC you should be fine to get that job you really wanted!
Enjoy and good luck

[js360]

We don't have children and we're an interracial, interethnic, inter-faith marriage, so I was expecting for a lot more than that, but thankfully it was not a big deal

we are also an interacial couple, but thats it, we are both originally canadian but my background is from fiji and my wife is just white.

[BumbleBee76]

Hey Kirk!! Congrats! So glad it went smooth for you, and painless LOL

My interview is in 2 weeks, so i am feeling a little nervous. Altho
I know i dont have anything to worry about.

Congrats once again, now go get that job your after!!!

[Atlanta_Brother]

Congrats Kirkland. Hopefully you should get your GC in the mail soon. If you get a welcome letter in the mail, this will be a good sign. Usually the GC arrives in the mail exactly within a week from your welcome letter. I would schedule an infopass apptt sometime at the end of the month to follow up with the Seattle DO if you don't hear anything & esp if there is no LUD change online status.

[VivaLasVegas]

The interview took place @ 11:45 a.m. but we had been there for over an hour. There were at least another 50 couples waiting and as some couples left new couples would arrive, so the room had about 100 people waiting at all times.

Our IO was a really nice, young, fashionable and very serious Asian lady. Very tiny too she called us to her office introduced herself, and asked us to raise our right hands and swear that we would be telling only the true today. She asked if we had our IDs and passports with us, and I presented her with the file I had prepared for the interview. She verified that the address was still valid. The questions were:

1. Where did you meet?
2. Were you a student at that time?
3. What school were you attending to?
4. What was your major?
5. What was the name of the school you graduated from?
6. Did you have an engagement ceremony?
7. Did you have a reception?
8. To petitioner: Where did you work before? (We moved to Seattle from Michigan, and that's where we met.)
9. What documents do you have that can prove you have common assets or a relationship?

These questions were not asked just one after the other, but as part of a very formal conversation, and they were not asked to either one of us, so one of us would start the story, and the other one would continue...

At the end she took the following documents: joint accounts bank statements, car insurance, joint Amex statement, and corporate health insurance indicating our married status (and me as beneficiary because I'm still job hunting.) Finally, she looked at some pictures, but didn't keep any with her. Her feedback was very positive, she said she didn't need the pictures because they rather see the people interacting during the interview. She said that people's behavior tells a lot more than the pictures.

It was very smooth, and I'm certain we've got approved: now the question is when will we get the notification. She said we should hear from them in 2 weeks, but I'm hoping for next Tuesday.

Did she take your I94 card / Advance Parole document (if you had one) at the interview? If yes that is a sign that your application should be approved or is approved already. Did you see the IO put a red stamp on your I485 / I130? My wife and I had her interview at the seattle DO on Oct 30'th and the adjudicatoon officer told us her case was approved and stamped her passport with the I551 stamp.

Congrats

[js360]

Did she take your I94 card / Advance Parole document (if you had one) at the interview? If yes that is a sign that your application should be approved or is approved already. Did you see the IO put a red stamp on your I485 / I130? My wife and I had her interview at the seattle DO on Oct 30'th and the adjudicatoon officer told us her case was approved and stamped her passport with the I551 stamp.

Congrats

none of that happened to us, our interview was on the same day as yours at seattle as well.

[Kirkland]

Thanks Atlanta I will schedule the infopass you suggested, just in case. Thanks BumbleBee76, you're right there is nothing to be nervous about: it's just a bit stressing not to be able to know how much longer is the wait.
Thank you js360, so you didn't have to deal with any "culture shock" issues? I've had these funny situations about things that I've done aaaaaaall my life and never thought twice about them, and suddenly they became "offensive/disrespectful" (i.e. cutting my nails anywhere else than in the bathroom, or a "friendly" kick in the butt...)
And Rose_uw: thanks to you too, and congratulations on finally getting the IL, I'm sure you will be fine, but I still wish you good luck. It's great that you have a job you enjoy: I haven't received another call from my dream company since the fiasco back in August, so now I'm looking at a totally unwanted vacation until next year maybe because I was informed that this company slows down hiring through the holidays

Finally, VivaLasVegas: Congratulations to you too. You probably were lucky enough to get a person with enough authority to decide and use the stamp: the rest of us just got a "secretary" kind of person who only reports the result of the interview and recommends the approval. She did put a check mark on one sheet of paper on both the I-130 and I-485 petition, but I couldn't read the page. She didn't request any of my documents.

[trawal]

What was the answer for question 9?

[VivaLasVegas]

none of that happened to us, our interview was on the same day as yours at seattle as well.

That is weird or I should say the Adjudications officer we had went out of the way to do all that. Are there any updates on your case online? My I-130 petition and my wifes I-485 still show a status of received and pending with a LUD of the day it was received by USCIS back in Dec 2007.

[VivaLasVegas]

Finally, VivaLasVegas: Congratulations to you too. You probably were lucky enough to get a person with enough authority to decide and use the stamp: the rest of us just got a "secretary" kind of person who only reports the result of the interview and recommends the approval. She did put a check mark on one sheet of paper on both the I-130 and I-485 petition, but I couldn't read the page. She didn't request any of my documents.

Thanks. I will let my better half know I guess to stamp the passport or not depends on each DAO. They however do take the Advance Parole document since it's no longer needed. Our DAO told my wife that she can keep the EAD as a souvenior (sp) they don't take those back.

As for your dream job I am guessing it's somewhere in Redmond?

[js360]

That is weird or I should say the Adjudications officer we had went out of the way to do all that. Are there any updates on your case online? My I-130 petition and my wifes I-485 still show a status of received and pending with a LUD of the day it was received by USCIS back in Dec 2007.

no updates yet

[chicklet]

The interview took place @ 11:45 a.m. but we had been there for over an hour. There were at least another 50 couples waiting and as some couples left new couples would arrive, so the room had about 100 people waiting at all times.

Our IO was a really nice, young, fashionable and very serious Asian lady. Very tiny too she called us to her office introduced herself, and asked us to raise our right hands and swear that we would be telling only the true today. She asked if we had our IDs and passports with us, and I presented her with the file I had prepared for the interview. She verified that the address was still valid. The questions were:

1. Where did you meet?
2. Were you a student at that time?
3. What school were you attending to?
4. What was your major?
5. What was the name of the school you graduated from?
6. Did you have an engagement ceremony?
7. Did you have a reception?
8. To petitioner: Where did you work before? (We moved to Seattle from Michigan, and that's where we met.)
9. What documents do you have that can prove you have common assets or a relationship?

These questions were not asked just one after the other, but as part of a very formal conversation, and they were not asked to either one of us, so one of us would start the story, and the other one would continue...

At the end she took the following documents: joint accounts bank statements, car insurance, joint Amex statement, and corporate health insurance indicating our married status (and me as beneficiary because I'm still job hunting.) Finally, she looked at some pictures, but didn't keep any with her. Her feedback was very positive, she said she didn't need the pictures because they rather see the people interacting during the interview. She said that people's behavior tells a lot more than the pictures.

It was very smooth, and I'm certain we've got approved: now the question is when will we get the notification. She said we should hear from them in 2 weeks, but I'm hoping for next Tuesday.

did you have a lawyer with you? did IO didnt at all tell you if your application is approved or not? I thought they're suppose to inform you right away

[woodenshoe101]

did you have a lawyer with you? did IO didnt at all tell you if your application is approved or not? I thought they're suppose to inform you right away

All they have to say is what the next step is. So if approved, they will say so. If the file needs a once-over they will say so. If you need to come for a stokes interview they will say so.

As for the LUD someone asked about, don't rely on that too much. My I130 still says "received and pending" but I got the approval notice 3 days after the interview.

[Kirkland]

What was the answer for question 9?

I answered that in the post: whatever documents she took from us. Amex statement, bank accounts statements, and utility bills.

[Kirkland]

did you have a lawyer with you? did IO didnt at all tell you if your application is approved or not? I thought they're suppose to inform you right away

She said that there shouldn't be any problem and that I should hear from them soon (so far I haven't heard anything.) I didn't have a lawyer and filed everything myself, but I couldn't see any reason for delays.

[trawal]

We don't have any utility on both of our names. I think bank statement and credit card would do. (She has additional card on my account). Any suggestions whether this would be enough?

[Kirkland]

We don't have any utility on both of our names. I think bank statement and credit card would do. (She has additional card on my account). Any suggestions whether this would be enough?

Trawal: there are IOs that don't even look at your paperwork. There are others that make you feel like an IRS audit, and go through everything. I would recommend that you take as many documents as you can produce. We have been together for quite a while, so I have accounts and tax documents that go back to 2004. Whatever you have in both of your names: health, car insurance, cell phones, loans... good luck, and do not worry. The interview is piece of cake if your marriage is not ficticious

[trawal]

we married in September and just have joint Credit Card and Bank Accounts. I will have joint lease from December. Hopefully these things will be OK.

Thanks for your response.

[VivaLasVegas]

Kirkland / Js360 : have either of you guys gotten the green card approval notice / plastic green card in the mail?

[js360]

Nope!!!

[Kirkland]

Hoping for next week... This is a pain!