So - 70 days after filing my papers I had an AOS interview in Chicago yesterday. I thought I'd capture what happened for the benefit of others.
Before I do that - I wanted to thanks to everyone on the board. This posting in particular was very helpful : http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?288201-How-to-Apply-for-a-Green-Card-Do-it-Yourself listing all the forms and giving examples of cover letters, etc. I'm convinced hiring a lawyer would, if anything, have slowed me down. Seeing some of the sleazy-looking lawyers in the hall waiting with clients made my skin crawl.
I'm a L1A holder, married to a USC. We were already married when I entered the US, but at that stage we didn't intend to immigrate since it was a work transfer.
Our appointment was for 11.30, and we arrived about 40 minutes early. Went through security - I panicked at the last minute after reading about camera phones not being allowed in, so my wife and I left our phones behind. They didn't seem to be checking for that, so we panicked for nothing and it was painful not having. We were called in at about 11.20 (so I'm glad we arrived early).
Before we sat down we were asked to raise our right hands and swear to tell the truth. As we sat down he wanted to see our Drivers Licences and my passport and I-94.
Our IO was really friendly, and spoke more about himself than he asked us questions. He mentioned that he had looked through our file before he called us up - and had actually googled the company that I work for. He asked for originals of our wedding certificate, my wife's (the USC) birth certificate, and our son's birth certificate. He kept copies of the two birth certificates.
My son's birth certificate set off a whole conversation - we had both the original BC, as well as a US consular report of birth. For some reason that side-tracked us into a conversation about President Obama and whether, even if he were born in Kenya, he would have been a 'natural born' US citizen and thus eligible to be President. He wasn't disputing the President's birthplace, more of an intellectual discussion. Interestingly had the President been born now - he could be because if one parent is a USC they have to have lived in the US more than 2 years (I think) post the age of 14 in order to pass citizenship directly. But - in 1961 - the parent had to have lived in the US more than 5 years after the age of 14 to pass on citizenship, and his mother was only 19 so wouldn't have qualified.
Anyway - this gives you the tone of the interview. We talked about that, other cases he'd had, his upcoming vacation plans, his own ancestry, his wife. At the end of the interview my wife inquired whether he was going to ask about our marriage (he didn't ask anything - how we met, nothing). He said that in their experience if a couple have a child together then it's almost inevitably legitimate. This gave rise to another conversation about how many cases were rejected. He said they estimate as many as 30% of marriage-based green card cases are bogus. Most get weeded out with the initial documentation, but still a fair few crop up in the interview.
He then asked a few questions from the I-485 form (was I a terrorist, was I ever arrested, had I ever voted and was I ever in the military). This of course gave rise to another long discussion about a previous case he'd had about someone who had accidentally voted and what a big deal it was. He explained that they asked the questions not actually expecting anyone to answer yes, but how it gave them additional ground to charge someone were they to be arrested for something else (so rather than having to prove them a terrorist, it was easier to prove they had lied about giving assistance to a terrorist in the form for example). Anyway - really chatty guy - you get the idea. The voting question also sparked a train of thought from him on the gubernatorial race in Illinois and all the negative advertising going on. He was very careful not to be endorsing a party though.
He asked when I was next travelling. I told him soon. So he said it was probably best to get a I-551 stamp put into my passport. He popped off to ask his supervisor for permission. Came back into the office - said his supervisor was going to send an email to the downstairs hall (where they do the info-passes), he'd quickly approve it on the computer and I could go downstairs to get the stamp.
We discussed his upcoming vacation a little more, and that was that.
So - really nice guy. It was great to speak to a human being that was reasonable and intelligent. Put a really nice human face on USCIS for me.
We went downstairs, got the stamp (which is valid for 2 months) and when I got back to my phone saw the card production email had been sent.
My advice is to be relaxed and remember it's a person (who is probably a little bored) on the other side of the table. Engaging them in real-life conversation about topics other than yourself is good.
Before I do that - I wanted to thanks to everyone on the board. This posting in particular was very helpful : http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?288201-How-to-Apply-for-a-Green-Card-Do-it-Yourself listing all the forms and giving examples of cover letters, etc. I'm convinced hiring a lawyer would, if anything, have slowed me down. Seeing some of the sleazy-looking lawyers in the hall waiting with clients made my skin crawl.
I'm a L1A holder, married to a USC. We were already married when I entered the US, but at that stage we didn't intend to immigrate since it was a work transfer.
Our appointment was for 11.30, and we arrived about 40 minutes early. Went through security - I panicked at the last minute after reading about camera phones not being allowed in, so my wife and I left our phones behind. They didn't seem to be checking for that, so we panicked for nothing and it was painful not having. We were called in at about 11.20 (so I'm glad we arrived early).
Before we sat down we were asked to raise our right hands and swear to tell the truth. As we sat down he wanted to see our Drivers Licences and my passport and I-94.
Our IO was really friendly, and spoke more about himself than he asked us questions. He mentioned that he had looked through our file before he called us up - and had actually googled the company that I work for. He asked for originals of our wedding certificate, my wife's (the USC) birth certificate, and our son's birth certificate. He kept copies of the two birth certificates.
My son's birth certificate set off a whole conversation - we had both the original BC, as well as a US consular report of birth. For some reason that side-tracked us into a conversation about President Obama and whether, even if he were born in Kenya, he would have been a 'natural born' US citizen and thus eligible to be President. He wasn't disputing the President's birthplace, more of an intellectual discussion. Interestingly had the President been born now - he could be because if one parent is a USC they have to have lived in the US more than 2 years (I think) post the age of 14 in order to pass citizenship directly. But - in 1961 - the parent had to have lived in the US more than 5 years after the age of 14 to pass on citizenship, and his mother was only 19 so wouldn't have qualified.
Anyway - this gives you the tone of the interview. We talked about that, other cases he'd had, his upcoming vacation plans, his own ancestry, his wife. At the end of the interview my wife inquired whether he was going to ask about our marriage (he didn't ask anything - how we met, nothing). He said that in their experience if a couple have a child together then it's almost inevitably legitimate. This gave rise to another conversation about how many cases were rejected. He said they estimate as many as 30% of marriage-based green card cases are bogus. Most get weeded out with the initial documentation, but still a fair few crop up in the interview.
He then asked a few questions from the I-485 form (was I a terrorist, was I ever arrested, had I ever voted and was I ever in the military). This of course gave rise to another long discussion about a previous case he'd had about someone who had accidentally voted and what a big deal it was. He explained that they asked the questions not actually expecting anyone to answer yes, but how it gave them additional ground to charge someone were they to be arrested for something else (so rather than having to prove them a terrorist, it was easier to prove they had lied about giving assistance to a terrorist in the form for example). Anyway - really chatty guy - you get the idea. The voting question also sparked a train of thought from him on the gubernatorial race in Illinois and all the negative advertising going on. He was very careful not to be endorsing a party though.
He asked when I was next travelling. I told him soon. So he said it was probably best to get a I-551 stamp put into my passport. He popped off to ask his supervisor for permission. Came back into the office - said his supervisor was going to send an email to the downstairs hall (where they do the info-passes), he'd quickly approve it on the computer and I could go downstairs to get the stamp.
We discussed his upcoming vacation a little more, and that was that.
So - really nice guy. It was great to speak to a human being that was reasonable and intelligent. Put a really nice human face on USCIS for me.
We went downstairs, got the stamp (which is valid for 2 months) and when I got back to my phone saw the card production email had been sent.
My advice is to be relaxed and remember it's a person (who is probably a little bored) on the other side of the table. Engaging them in real-life conversation about topics other than yourself is good.