Write Up - Our Interview Details
Please ref to adeboi’s document list from Page 22, that is EXACTLY what we followed while assembling our binder.
So anyhow, our appointment was at 1:00 pm so my spouse and I took the day off (cause you really can’t say when you’ll get called in and how long it takes). Being a little excited we managed to get ready and find ourselves at the USCIS office at 12:00 noon, a whole hour before our scheduled appointment (and knowing the USCIS god knows how many hours before we were actually called in).
*begin sarcasm* The very ‘courteous’ guard at the door first greeted us like dignified human beings there on legitimate business and informed us in a cool, calm and collected manner that we would have to return in 30 minutes before he would let us in
*end sarcasm*
Considering we had 30 minutes to kill, we drove down to the nearest Starbucks and I got the opportunity to introduce my wife to seasonal specialty Pumpkin Spice Latte. We enjoyed our coffee, read the news, checked Facebook, tweeted, checked e-mail and before we knew it the 30 minute break was up. We wrapped up at Starbucks and headed back to the USCIS office. We walk in and instead of the
*begin sarcasm* the very ‘courteous’ guard we got a less courteous guard who talked down to us and let us in
*end sarcasm*
My wife walks in through the metal detector, no problems, I begin walking through and of course ‘BEEP BEEP BEEP’ like my middle name was ‘Ironman’. (Later I joked with my wife that it wasn't a metal detector but an immigrant detector
)
*begin sarcasm* another very ‘courteous’ guard then requests me to raise my arms and stand straight and begins to sweep me with a hand held detector, the whole while sincerely thanking me for my cooperation and apologizing for the inconvenience
*end sarcasm*
Before I could thank the guard she point to the second floor without saying a word so assuming that was where the Promised Land was we faithfully headed up the stairs. Once up there I handed the appointment letter to the lady at the desk and dutifully waited for someone to head out and mispronounce the crap out of our last name (yes, in day and age my wife changed her last name!).
I noticed that the couple who walked in with us at noon was just about walking in toward the interview area around the time we made it up the stairs. Using my extraordinary deductive powers I deduced that we would be called in around 1:15 or so and sure enough a short tanned guy comes out at around 1:17 and butchers what sounds like our last name to death. Having lived through 8 years of people in the US assuming my last name has an accent because it is not a Anglo name and is not pronounced as it is spelled I stood up and we started walking toward the gentleman.
We exchanged hellos and he guided us toward his office, while we were walking he asked me where I was from, and I answer “India” and then he asked my wife where she was from and she replied with “Mexico” and he let out a loud ‘hmmmm’. Since I was confused about the ethnicity of the IO I made sure I slowed down and noted his name from the door before we headed into the office. His name removed any and all doubts about his ethnicity. He asked us how we met and my wife responded, he then asked her who she met from my family, and then asked me the same about her family. Asked where her parents lived and asked if we had a huge Catholic ceremony. We explained our travel plans and the fact that our multiple wedding ceremonies are to follow. He warned me about going to Mexico and said ‘I wouldn’t do it sir, I just wouldn’t’. He never swore us in, never asked us any I485 questions, nothing!
We had small talk and probably spent the next 10 minutes cracking jokes back and forth and having a regular small talk conversation. He then asked my wife to apply for a job there considering she is tri-lingual. He then said ok, I am approving you, I have no doubt this is a legitimate marriage, do you have any more joint bills I can add, I offered him some of the stuff we took with us (he never looked at my beautifully arranged binder or its contents, nor our pics). He then clicked a few buttons, explained the conditions and then thanked us for our time, and walked us out. We had the approval notices via e-mail and text even before we got home (barely 20 minutes away).
Our binder now rests untouched on my dining table, it was only today while going through it and laughing about the fact it took us longer to assemble it than we were in his office I realized he never took my I-94. In order to avoid any issues while travelling with my GC I will book an InfoPass after I have my GC in hand to hand over my I-94 to USCIS. That’s all folks.
Once again thank you to all my friends and fellow applicants on this board, thank you for everything, thank you for your support and thank for your encouragement. After they lost my file I had lost all hope, you guys kept me level. Thank you all very very much. I promise I will linger here till every July filer is done, and then I will search for “July 2011” in 1 year and 9 months to wipe the dust off this thread so all of us can regroup and go through that process again! And then when we apply for our N400s
P.S. My only advice for those to face an interview, and this is based directly on our small talk.
BODY LANGUAGE is everything, hold hands, sit back and relax, cross your legs if you want to, be calm, don’t sweat, look into their eyes, don’t look away while answering. That is how they detect fakes, that’s what he pointed out we did right and I right away noticed I was sitting all the way back, relaxed, legs crossed, we were holding hands, we (my wife and I) were cracking jokes, making fin of each other, just being ourselves. That’s what convinced him, that’s why he said he knew this was real and not fake.
