Hi All!
My husband and I had our AOS interview today at 8:30am in the Houston, TX district office. We were approved after a quick, professional interview!!!
Here's our experience:
We drove to the office last night to make sure we knew where it was. We left at 6:45am this morning since we didn't know how bad traffic was going to be and did not want to be late. We got there at 7:30am and waited in the car until 8am to go in. We went through security, dropped off our interview appointment letter, and filled out a form with hubby's name, A#, address, and signature.
The waiting room had about 15 people already there. We only had to wait for about 20 minutes before we were called in by a middle age Hispanic man. He led us through the maze-like hallway to his office. We sat down and he introduced himself, saying he would be conducting this interview today. He then had us stand up and swear under oath that everything we said would be the truth.
We then sat down, and the IO stared to ask us questions. He first asked if we used a lawyer to submit our application and we said no, we did it ourselves. Then the questions he asked were just verifying the information we already submitted (our names, address, date of birth, place of birth, etc.) He asked my husband his marital status because on one section of the I-485, it was marked single. It was the section that asked for the entry visa information (type of visa entered on, date of entry, port of entry, was he inspected at entry and then it asked for marital status.) We took that as, what was his marital status at that time so we marked single. Apparently the IO insisted it needed to be marked married so we just changed it there.
The IO wasn't overly friendly, but he wasn't mean or rude. He was just very professional. He asked us for joint documents (bank statements & car insurance). He verified our employment info but didn't take updated paystubs. He did take our 2007 W-2s.
We offered him our lease agreement & copies of canceled rent checks, but he didn't take those either. He asked what else we brought to show proof of marriage. I pulled out a stack of cards from family and friends (congrats on engagement/wedding cards, Christmas cards, birthday cards, invites to my nieces/nephew's birthdays, etc) but he didn't look at them. He did look through the photo album we brought. Only question he asked was about a picture with me and my husband and my niece and nephew. He just asked if the kids were my siblings. I said no, they're my niece and nephew.
Lastly, he said he needed to run a namecheck on me (USC) with a variation of our last name. I took my husband's last name when we got married and it has a space in it. So when they did the namecheck, they have to check it both with a space and without a space. He typed in his computer for about 3 minutes then said okay, done. He then took my husband's EAD card and put it on a stack of other EAD cards on his desk.
He proceeded to pull out his approval stamp set and started stamping our application. He didn't say anything and we didn't want to say anything either so we just watched him. He then printed out an approval letter, stamped a signature on it and then asked if we've read through the conditional removal forms that we need to submit 90 days before the greencard expires. We said yes, and he said okay, here's your approval letter. You should get the greencard in about a week, but no later than 2 weeks. He asked if we had any questions and we said no.
He walked us back out and said have a nice day. We were both soooo happy and glad it was over! We were called in at 8:20am and left around 8:40am. He didn't ask any personal questions about "us." We had a large accordion type case with all our documents in labeled folders inside. I brought originals and 2 copies of everything. We were way over prepared, but that's better than being under prepared!!
Thanks to everyone on this forum!!! We didn't hire an attorney because it would have cost us an additional $1,000. I just made sure I read through ALL instructions on the USCIS website, checked and double checked everything, and stayed very organized. This forum helped a lot too!
Good luck to everyone on their individual cases! I'll let ya'll know when the greencard comes in! Looks like we'll be planning a trip to South Africa in December! Hubby will finally get to see his family after 9 years!
My husband and I had our AOS interview today at 8:30am in the Houston, TX district office. We were approved after a quick, professional interview!!!
Here's our experience:We drove to the office last night to make sure we knew where it was. We left at 6:45am this morning since we didn't know how bad traffic was going to be and did not want to be late. We got there at 7:30am and waited in the car until 8am to go in. We went through security, dropped off our interview appointment letter, and filled out a form with hubby's name, A#, address, and signature.
The waiting room had about 15 people already there. We only had to wait for about 20 minutes before we were called in by a middle age Hispanic man. He led us through the maze-like hallway to his office. We sat down and he introduced himself, saying he would be conducting this interview today. He then had us stand up and swear under oath that everything we said would be the truth.
We then sat down, and the IO stared to ask us questions. He first asked if we used a lawyer to submit our application and we said no, we did it ourselves. Then the questions he asked were just verifying the information we already submitted (our names, address, date of birth, place of birth, etc.) He asked my husband his marital status because on one section of the I-485, it was marked single. It was the section that asked for the entry visa information (type of visa entered on, date of entry, port of entry, was he inspected at entry and then it asked for marital status.) We took that as, what was his marital status at that time so we marked single. Apparently the IO insisted it needed to be marked married so we just changed it there.
The IO wasn't overly friendly, but he wasn't mean or rude. He was just very professional. He asked us for joint documents (bank statements & car insurance). He verified our employment info but didn't take updated paystubs. He did take our 2007 W-2s.
We offered him our lease agreement & copies of canceled rent checks, but he didn't take those either. He asked what else we brought to show proof of marriage. I pulled out a stack of cards from family and friends (congrats on engagement/wedding cards, Christmas cards, birthday cards, invites to my nieces/nephew's birthdays, etc) but he didn't look at them. He did look through the photo album we brought. Only question he asked was about a picture with me and my husband and my niece and nephew. He just asked if the kids were my siblings. I said no, they're my niece and nephew.
Lastly, he said he needed to run a namecheck on me (USC) with a variation of our last name. I took my husband's last name when we got married and it has a space in it. So when they did the namecheck, they have to check it both with a space and without a space. He typed in his computer for about 3 minutes then said okay, done. He then took my husband's EAD card and put it on a stack of other EAD cards on his desk.
He proceeded to pull out his approval stamp set and started stamping our application. He didn't say anything and we didn't want to say anything either so we just watched him. He then printed out an approval letter, stamped a signature on it and then asked if we've read through the conditional removal forms that we need to submit 90 days before the greencard expires. We said yes, and he said okay, here's your approval letter. You should get the greencard in about a week, but no later than 2 weeks. He asked if we had any questions and we said no.
He walked us back out and said have a nice day. We were both soooo happy and glad it was over! We were called in at 8:20am and left around 8:40am. He didn't ask any personal questions about "us." We had a large accordion type case with all our documents in labeled folders inside. I brought originals and 2 copies of everything. We were way over prepared, but that's better than being under prepared!!
Thanks to everyone on this forum!!! We didn't hire an attorney because it would have cost us an additional $1,000. I just made sure I read through ALL instructions on the USCIS website, checked and double checked everything, and stayed very organized. This forum helped a lot too!
Good luck to everyone on their individual cases! I'll let ya'll know when the greencard comes in! Looks like we'll be planning a trip to South Africa in December! Hubby will finally get to see his family after 9 years!
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