I filed my I-485 application in July 2004. I received an appointment notice for AOS interview in July 2005, scheduled for September 28.
Did my medical at Dr. Kleris about a month in advance, they just take your blood for analysis and do a Mantu test (for TB), that's all. If you can't do a Mantu test, they'll send you away to do x-rays elsewhere, they can't do it. I had to do a physical at my regular doctor's and have their office send a fax stating that I have no active TB to Dr. Kleris.
Now, the interview...
We arrived 15 minutes prior to the interview, parked right next to the USCIS building, following the sign Immigration and Naturalization Parking. Plenty of parking space, $7 for 60-90 minutes.
Went through the metal detector (keep your phones on, they check it), went upstairs, found the waiting area, put the appointment notice in the basket, turned the phones off. About 10-15 minutes later we were called in. Officer D. was a very nice slender young woman.
When we walked in, she asked us for our IDs. My husband had his DL, and I showed my passport. In my opinion, she deals with a lot with people who don't speak English very well and don't know much about immigration, just because of the way she was asking questions. She pointed to my husband's driver's license and asked me if I "had one of these". Sure, I did, although it's still Missouri license. She asked me if I still lived in MO. Of course, not. She asked me why I didn't change it to GA license, and I honestly said it would be too much trouble. She said she understood.
We were then sworn to tell the truth. She asked me a bunch of questions: birthday, address, telephone, names of my parents, country of birth, country of citizenship. She got a bit sceptical because I was born in one country, but I am a citizen of another. Then she asked me "for a card that you got when you entered the US". I had to think for a moment and then I had to ask if she meant I-94 card. Yes, she did. She added it to the file.
She asked me about the first time I ever entered the US. Checked my IAP-66 from 11 years ago. Checked in her database whether I actually received my HRR waiver (I had the original approval notice with me). Then she went through 10 years worth of all my I-20 forms, checking each and every one of them to make sure I was in status all the time. Strange, isn't it? I had nothing to worry about since I was always in status, but being out of status is forgiven when you marry USC, or so I thought.
She asked for copies of IAP-66 and all of my I-20 forms. I gave her what I had, and she made copies of the rest of them, including my old passport. She was quite suprised that I kept every single immigration document ever issued to me. Asked me if I was still a student, and I still am.
The officer then asked my husband (who dosed off by then, so he didn't react right away when she talked to him) where he worked, how long, in what capacity, for what kind of salary. She took all of his paystubs for the last 3 months and the letter from work. We didn't have to renew the affidavit of support, but we had to produce the latest tax return. W-2 form for 2002 was missing from the file, so we gave her a copy. I never got the transcripts from the IRS, even though I ordered them twice, but we didn't need them after all. She asked how many people we had in the household. Two. No children? No. Anywhere in the world? No. When are you going to have children? We'll get to it next year, we promised.
She then went over the questions from I-485: "were you ever...". No, no, and no.
I had to remind her to collect my medical.
She told us that the fingerprints I submitted the week before came back, and had already been checked.
She didn't ask anything about married life, no questions whatsoever, no request for joint anything, no pictures, nothing. I had all of it ready for show and tell. She left the office to make copies of the stuff, and came back several minutes later asking if we brought the champaigne. We were very happy, she stamped my passport, promised me an unconditional GC in a couple of weeks, collected 4 of my previous EADs, and off we went.
I got my plastic GC yesterday, exactly a week after the interview.
Did my medical at Dr. Kleris about a month in advance, they just take your blood for analysis and do a Mantu test (for TB), that's all. If you can't do a Mantu test, they'll send you away to do x-rays elsewhere, they can't do it. I had to do a physical at my regular doctor's and have their office send a fax stating that I have no active TB to Dr. Kleris.
Now, the interview...
We arrived 15 minutes prior to the interview, parked right next to the USCIS building, following the sign Immigration and Naturalization Parking. Plenty of parking space, $7 for 60-90 minutes.
Went through the metal detector (keep your phones on, they check it), went upstairs, found the waiting area, put the appointment notice in the basket, turned the phones off. About 10-15 minutes later we were called in. Officer D. was a very nice slender young woman.
When we walked in, she asked us for our IDs. My husband had his DL, and I showed my passport. In my opinion, she deals with a lot with people who don't speak English very well and don't know much about immigration, just because of the way she was asking questions. She pointed to my husband's driver's license and asked me if I "had one of these". Sure, I did, although it's still Missouri license. She asked me if I still lived in MO. Of course, not. She asked me why I didn't change it to GA license, and I honestly said it would be too much trouble. She said she understood.
We were then sworn to tell the truth. She asked me a bunch of questions: birthday, address, telephone, names of my parents, country of birth, country of citizenship. She got a bit sceptical because I was born in one country, but I am a citizen of another. Then she asked me "for a card that you got when you entered the US". I had to think for a moment and then I had to ask if she meant I-94 card. Yes, she did. She added it to the file.
She asked me about the first time I ever entered the US. Checked my IAP-66 from 11 years ago. Checked in her database whether I actually received my HRR waiver (I had the original approval notice with me). Then she went through 10 years worth of all my I-20 forms, checking each and every one of them to make sure I was in status all the time. Strange, isn't it? I had nothing to worry about since I was always in status, but being out of status is forgiven when you marry USC, or so I thought.
She asked for copies of IAP-66 and all of my I-20 forms. I gave her what I had, and she made copies of the rest of them, including my old passport. She was quite suprised that I kept every single immigration document ever issued to me. Asked me if I was still a student, and I still am.
The officer then asked my husband (who dosed off by then, so he didn't react right away when she talked to him) where he worked, how long, in what capacity, for what kind of salary. She took all of his paystubs for the last 3 months and the letter from work. We didn't have to renew the affidavit of support, but we had to produce the latest tax return. W-2 form for 2002 was missing from the file, so we gave her a copy. I never got the transcripts from the IRS, even though I ordered them twice, but we didn't need them after all. She asked how many people we had in the household. Two. No children? No. Anywhere in the world? No. When are you going to have children? We'll get to it next year, we promised.
She then went over the questions from I-485: "were you ever...". No, no, and no.
I had to remind her to collect my medical.
She told us that the fingerprints I submitted the week before came back, and had already been checked.
She didn't ask anything about married life, no questions whatsoever, no request for joint anything, no pictures, nothing. I had all of it ready for show and tell. She left the office to make copies of the stuff, and came back several minutes later asking if we brought the champaigne. We were very happy, she stamped my passport, promised me an unconditional GC in a couple of weeks, collected 4 of my previous EADs, and off we went.
I got my plastic GC yesterday, exactly a week after the interview.
. 
).