Hi All,
First of all I’d like to thank everyone on this forum for all the helpful hints. I’ve been a silent observer and have earned a wealth of information from all of you.
Background
We got married (me and my USC wife) in Dec 2003 which was a civil wedding in Chicago, IL. We also had a religious wedding in NJ in May 2004. I have been in the US for eight years now, first as a student on an F1 visa and then as an H1-B temporary worker. I submitted all the forms in Dec last year (as you can see from my timeline). I did not use a lawyer or any sort of legal help as mine was a very straight forward case. Of course, this forum was of immense help every step of the way. As soon as the application was sent in and I received my “Receipt Notices”, I decided to NOT wait for my FP/Bio appointment letter. I did a walk-in FP/Bio at the closest ASC and two weeks later I received my EAD.
My wife and I in the meantime took a vacation to my home country in April for about three weeks. I still had a valid H1-B and hence could travel in and out of the country. I was a little nervous that I might receive the interview letter while we were away and that I might possibly even miss the interview date. And I was right... well partly, since when we came back from our vacation, I saw that the interview letter was in my “held-mail”. But to my relief I saw the interview was not scheduled for another month and half (We came back on the 28th of April and the interview was scheduled for June 21st).
The interview preparation
I didn’t really start preparing for the interview immediately since there wasn’t really much to prepare for. My wife and I have been living together for two and half years now and we had tons of documents like joint bank accounts, joint bills, joint insurance, joint mortgage, joint car title, wedding and reception picture albums, mail with both our names on it etc. Also my wife had already changed her last name to my family name and hence we both have the same last name. So about a week before the interview we started putting together all the documents into a file and made copies of all of them. These were the following documents we put together:
1. Interview Notice and a copy of it
2. All previous notices from USCIS
3. EAD card from USCIS and a copy of it
4. Copy of I-693 (since we already submitted the I-693 with our application)
5. New I-864
6. New I-864A showing me as a co-sponsor (even though I’m the sponsored immigrant)
7. My W2s from the last three years and my wife’s W2 from the last year since she’s been working only for a year now and copies of all of them
8. IRS tax transcripts for the last three years showing that we filed jointly.
9. Last 12 months bank statements from both our banks showing the joint accounts
10. My stock balance showing my wife as a beneficiary
11. My 401K documents showing my wife as a beneficiary and a copy of it
12. My wife’s 401k showing me as a beneficiary and a copy of it
13. My pay stubs for the last two months and copies of them
14. My wife’s pay stubs for the last two months and copies of them
15. Employment verification letter from both our employers
16. My wife’s birth certificate and a copy of it
17. My birth certificate and a copy of it
18. Both our Passports with copies of them
19. My I-94 and a copy of it
20. My expired EAD card from my school days
21. Both my I-797s approval notices of my H1-Bs and copies of them
22. Our marriage certificate and a copy of it
And then the other stuff:
23. Mail with both our names on it
24. Mail from all our old addresses
25. Emails exchanged between us over the years
26. Greeting Cards exchanged between us as well as cards sent to us from other people
27. Pictures of our engagement ceremony, civil wedding, religious wedding and reception and the reception in my home country and copies of them
28. Pictures of the both of us together on other occasions such as fun trips, family vacations, with friends etc. and copies of them
29. Scrapbook that my wife put together when we first got married about our life together (this seemed to impress the immigration officer!)
30. Travel itineraries of several trips that we made together
31. Phone bills showing calls made to each other
32. Title of our car that we own together and a copy of it
33. Joint car insurance and a copy of it
34. House title that we own jointly and a copy of it
35. Our joint mortgage and a copy of it
36. Joint utility bills and copies of them
37. Letters from two family members and three friends attesting our marriage
The Interview
The interview was scheduled for June 21st at 9:00AM at the Kluczynski Federal Building on Dearborn Street in Downtown Chicago. We live in the northwest suburbs of the city. It would take us about an hour and half to get through rush hour traffic. We left home at around 6:15AM with two briefcase bags full of all our documents. By the time we got to Dearborn street, it was 7:45AM. We parked in the nearest public garage and walked about two blocks to the federal building. There wasn’t much of a crowd and we got through security immediately. When we reached the USCIS waiting room on the 2nd floor, it was 8AM. My wife took a seat with our “luggage” and I presented the interview notice to the clerk at the desk. The clerk asked me to take a seat. There were about 50 other people in the room all waiting their turn I guess. About five minutes later the clerk called out our name and we approached the desk. She promptly handed us our interview notice and asked us to proceed to the 23rd floor. We took the nearest elevator to the 23rd floor and there was another waiting room there. We again presented our interview notice to the clerk there. She asked us to take a seat again. All the seats were taken and hence we had to stand outside the door because of the crowd. Within about 2 minutes, our name was called out again, this time by a middle-aged white woman. She happened to be the USCIS officer who was going to interview us. We followed her inside to her office. She asked us to remain standing and took our oath. After that we took our seats in front of her desk and the following happened:
- She asked for our driver’s license and we gave it to her. She looked at our licenses and asked if the address on them was our current address. We said yes.
- She asked if the address we lived in was a house or an appartment. We said that it was a house that we own together.
- She asked me my date of birth and my SSN for which I gave answers for.
- She asked me the standard questions of whether I have been arrested before, do I belong to a terrorist organization, have I voted before etc. They were the same questions that are in the I-485. I answered NO to all of them
- She asked me what I did for a living and I answered her with information about my job and the company where I work.
- She then asked me how I entered the US and I told how I entered the US as a student eight years ago and eventually moved to an H1-B.
- She asked me if I had the VISA or basically my passport. I gave her my passport.
- She asked if I had my I-94 card with me. I said yes and handed it to her. She took it and put it away in her desk drawer.
- She asked my wife her date of birth and where she was born. My wife said she was born in the US and gave her the US passport.
- She then asked if she worked and she answered in the affirmative and gave more information about her occupation and where she works.
- She asked how we met and where we met. We gave her the answers.
- She then asked if we had any joint bills or pictures. This is when we started flooding her with information. We gave each and every document that I have listed above. We just kept giving her copies after copies of our joint documents. We showed her all our pictures and she patiently went through all our photo albums. The officer happily accepting whatever documents and copies we had to offer her.
- Half way through taking all the documents, she started typing on her computer. She returned my wife’s passport to her but kept mine.
- She then asked me if I had recieved an EAD card from USCIS. I told her that I did and I gave her my current EAD card as well as my old EAD card from my school OPT. She took them and put them away in her desk drawer.
- Since she was done looking at all our albums, I starting putting them back into our bags. My wife asked her if she wanted to see more documents, since we had more! She said no and continued typing on her computer.
- Finally she printed something out and looked up at me and said “You are approved” and showed me my passport with the I551 stamp! Neither my wife nor I had noticed her stamping my passport!
- She also handed us a printed letter that she had signed to indicate that we have been approved. We later found out from reading the letter that this officer was actually the District Director of USCIS!
Maybe she was filling-in for one of her sub-ordinates?!
- She then congratulated us and said that the stamp on my passport is equivalent of a green card and is valid for travel, employment etc. She then said that I will be getting my actual card by mail in three to six months!
- My wife and I shook hands with her, thanked her, grabbed our stuff and left as fast as we could.
Post interview
We were overjoyed and heaved a HUGE sigh of relief. The interview was scheduled for 9:00AM but when we left the federal building it was 9:05AM. The interview itself would have lasted about a half hour. We are both home now and we have taken the day off from work to celebrate.
My Timeline
-----------
12/10/2003: Married
12/10/2005: Mailed I-130,I-485,I-765 on 12/10/2005 (after two years of marriage
)
12/13/2005: RD
12/15/2005: ND and checks cashed
12/15/2005: Notice of missing bio fee of $70
12/16/2005: Mailed $70 biometrics fee
12/26/2005: ND for bio fee and check cashed
01/20/2006: Walk-in FP done at ASC
02/01/2006: Received EAD in mail
04/21/2006: Interview letter received in mail, interview date: June 21st 9AM
06/21/2006: Attended interview. Approved and passport stamped!
DO: Chicago
First of all I’d like to thank everyone on this forum for all the helpful hints. I’ve been a silent observer and have earned a wealth of information from all of you.
Background
We got married (me and my USC wife) in Dec 2003 which was a civil wedding in Chicago, IL. We also had a religious wedding in NJ in May 2004. I have been in the US for eight years now, first as a student on an F1 visa and then as an H1-B temporary worker. I submitted all the forms in Dec last year (as you can see from my timeline). I did not use a lawyer or any sort of legal help as mine was a very straight forward case. Of course, this forum was of immense help every step of the way. As soon as the application was sent in and I received my “Receipt Notices”, I decided to NOT wait for my FP/Bio appointment letter. I did a walk-in FP/Bio at the closest ASC and two weeks later I received my EAD.
My wife and I in the meantime took a vacation to my home country in April for about three weeks. I still had a valid H1-B and hence could travel in and out of the country. I was a little nervous that I might receive the interview letter while we were away and that I might possibly even miss the interview date. And I was right... well partly, since when we came back from our vacation, I saw that the interview letter was in my “held-mail”. But to my relief I saw the interview was not scheduled for another month and half (We came back on the 28th of April and the interview was scheduled for June 21st).
The interview preparation
I didn’t really start preparing for the interview immediately since there wasn’t really much to prepare for. My wife and I have been living together for two and half years now and we had tons of documents like joint bank accounts, joint bills, joint insurance, joint mortgage, joint car title, wedding and reception picture albums, mail with both our names on it etc. Also my wife had already changed her last name to my family name and hence we both have the same last name. So about a week before the interview we started putting together all the documents into a file and made copies of all of them. These were the following documents we put together:
1. Interview Notice and a copy of it
2. All previous notices from USCIS
3. EAD card from USCIS and a copy of it
4. Copy of I-693 (since we already submitted the I-693 with our application)
5. New I-864
6. New I-864A showing me as a co-sponsor (even though I’m the sponsored immigrant)
7. My W2s from the last three years and my wife’s W2 from the last year since she’s been working only for a year now and copies of all of them
8. IRS tax transcripts for the last three years showing that we filed jointly.
9. Last 12 months bank statements from both our banks showing the joint accounts
10. My stock balance showing my wife as a beneficiary
11. My 401K documents showing my wife as a beneficiary and a copy of it
12. My wife’s 401k showing me as a beneficiary and a copy of it
13. My pay stubs for the last two months and copies of them
14. My wife’s pay stubs for the last two months and copies of them
15. Employment verification letter from both our employers
16. My wife’s birth certificate and a copy of it
17. My birth certificate and a copy of it
18. Both our Passports with copies of them
19. My I-94 and a copy of it
20. My expired EAD card from my school days
21. Both my I-797s approval notices of my H1-Bs and copies of them
22. Our marriage certificate and a copy of it
And then the other stuff:
23. Mail with both our names on it
24. Mail from all our old addresses
25. Emails exchanged between us over the years
26. Greeting Cards exchanged between us as well as cards sent to us from other people
27. Pictures of our engagement ceremony, civil wedding, religious wedding and reception and the reception in my home country and copies of them
28. Pictures of the both of us together on other occasions such as fun trips, family vacations, with friends etc. and copies of them
29. Scrapbook that my wife put together when we first got married about our life together (this seemed to impress the immigration officer!)
30. Travel itineraries of several trips that we made together
31. Phone bills showing calls made to each other
32. Title of our car that we own together and a copy of it
33. Joint car insurance and a copy of it
34. House title that we own jointly and a copy of it
35. Our joint mortgage and a copy of it
36. Joint utility bills and copies of them
37. Letters from two family members and three friends attesting our marriage
The Interview
The interview was scheduled for June 21st at 9:00AM at the Kluczynski Federal Building on Dearborn Street in Downtown Chicago. We live in the northwest suburbs of the city. It would take us about an hour and half to get through rush hour traffic. We left home at around 6:15AM with two briefcase bags full of all our documents. By the time we got to Dearborn street, it was 7:45AM. We parked in the nearest public garage and walked about two blocks to the federal building. There wasn’t much of a crowd and we got through security immediately. When we reached the USCIS waiting room on the 2nd floor, it was 8AM. My wife took a seat with our “luggage” and I presented the interview notice to the clerk at the desk. The clerk asked me to take a seat. There were about 50 other people in the room all waiting their turn I guess. About five minutes later the clerk called out our name and we approached the desk. She promptly handed us our interview notice and asked us to proceed to the 23rd floor. We took the nearest elevator to the 23rd floor and there was another waiting room there. We again presented our interview notice to the clerk there. She asked us to take a seat again. All the seats were taken and hence we had to stand outside the door because of the crowd. Within about 2 minutes, our name was called out again, this time by a middle-aged white woman. She happened to be the USCIS officer who was going to interview us. We followed her inside to her office. She asked us to remain standing and took our oath. After that we took our seats in front of her desk and the following happened:
- She asked for our driver’s license and we gave it to her. She looked at our licenses and asked if the address on them was our current address. We said yes.
- She asked if the address we lived in was a house or an appartment. We said that it was a house that we own together.
- She asked me my date of birth and my SSN for which I gave answers for.
- She asked me the standard questions of whether I have been arrested before, do I belong to a terrorist organization, have I voted before etc. They were the same questions that are in the I-485. I answered NO to all of them
- She asked me what I did for a living and I answered her with information about my job and the company where I work.
- She then asked me how I entered the US and I told how I entered the US as a student eight years ago and eventually moved to an H1-B.
- She asked me if I had the VISA or basically my passport. I gave her my passport.
- She asked if I had my I-94 card with me. I said yes and handed it to her. She took it and put it away in her desk drawer.
- She asked my wife her date of birth and where she was born. My wife said she was born in the US and gave her the US passport.
- She then asked if she worked and she answered in the affirmative and gave more information about her occupation and where she works.
- She asked how we met and where we met. We gave her the answers.
- She then asked if we had any joint bills or pictures. This is when we started flooding her with information. We gave each and every document that I have listed above. We just kept giving her copies after copies of our joint documents. We showed her all our pictures and she patiently went through all our photo albums. The officer happily accepting whatever documents and copies we had to offer her.
- Half way through taking all the documents, she started typing on her computer. She returned my wife’s passport to her but kept mine.
- She then asked me if I had recieved an EAD card from USCIS. I told her that I did and I gave her my current EAD card as well as my old EAD card from my school OPT. She took them and put them away in her desk drawer.
- Since she was done looking at all our albums, I starting putting them back into our bags. My wife asked her if she wanted to see more documents, since we had more! She said no and continued typing on her computer.
- Finally she printed something out and looked up at me and said “You are approved” and showed me my passport with the I551 stamp! Neither my wife nor I had noticed her stamping my passport!
- She also handed us a printed letter that she had signed to indicate that we have been approved. We later found out from reading the letter that this officer was actually the District Director of USCIS!
Maybe she was filling-in for one of her sub-ordinates?! - She then congratulated us and said that the stamp on my passport is equivalent of a green card and is valid for travel, employment etc. She then said that I will be getting my actual card by mail in three to six months!
- My wife and I shook hands with her, thanked her, grabbed our stuff and left as fast as we could.
Post interview
We were overjoyed and heaved a HUGE sigh of relief. The interview was scheduled for 9:00AM but when we left the federal building it was 9:05AM. The interview itself would have lasted about a half hour. We are both home now and we have taken the day off from work to celebrate.
My Timeline
-----------
12/10/2003: Married
12/10/2005: Mailed I-130,I-485,I-765 on 12/10/2005 (after two years of marriage
)12/13/2005: RD
12/15/2005: ND and checks cashed
12/15/2005: Notice of missing bio fee of $70
12/16/2005: Mailed $70 biometrics fee
12/26/2005: ND for bio fee and check cashed
01/20/2006: Walk-in FP done at ASC
02/01/2006: Received EAD in mail
04/21/2006: Interview letter received in mail, interview date: June 21st 9AM
06/21/2006: Attended interview. Approved and passport stamped!
DO: Chicago
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