Complete review:
First of all a bit of background info, to give you guys a better idea:
I am a Canadian citizen by naturalization, also Russian citizen by birth,
came to the US last september as a visitor (had no visa, since none is required from Canadians) and married US citizen (by birth) on November 12th,
first we tried to apply for adjustment of status in December, but they sent it back to us, cause of last year tax requirement was not met- in 2003 my wife declared only 13 000 dollars income, and even though by the end of 2004 her year-to-date was already over the poverty line, they only looked at the most recent tax year, disregarding my explanatory letter and paystabs+ letter from work.
Oh, well.
We submitted her taxes for 2004 in February, and on Feb 12th resubmitted the application.
This time it went better, on February 26 the check went through. Then there was nothing for a couple of months, I began to worry and called them couple of time to no avail.
Finally around April 16 or so we got two letters at once:
1) AOS NOA (adjustment of status notice of action) with the receipt and invitation to come for a work authorization process on May 3rd
2) Fingerprint appointment letter for May 10th.
To my total surprise just a few days later we've got a letter inviting us for an interview! It was scheduled for this morning, May 16th at 7.55 AM at the Los Angeles district office, here is how it went:
We got up around 6.10, left at 7.00 AM and drove downtown LA.
Parked at one of the lots on Almeida st, which I would highly recommend to use: it is only 4 dollars for the whole day and is within easily walking distance to the Immigration building on a corner of Los Angeles and Temple.
Even though we walked to the building around 7.30 it took good 25 minutes to get in, cause of the line up,- they screen people at the door, kind of like at the airport. I was getting a bit nervous, I hate to be late.
At exactly 7.55 we passed through the door, took an elevator upstairs and walked into the room 6024, which is kinda like a waiting room with a few windows at the front;
the security guard told us to place our appointment letter on a tray in window N. 6 and wait to be called.
It took about 15 minutes, then older looking gentlemen, white american in his 50th or 60th, called my name and we walked in after him:
to a maze of cubicles ,passed most of them, and to his cabinet.
The first thing was to swear us both in to "tell the truth the whole truth..." and so on, we raised right hands and said "yes".
Then he set us down.
He looked through the file and asked us both for CALIFORNIA i.d. We handed our driver licenses.
After that he asked ME all the usual questions, like "have you ever been arrested? are you associated with terrorist organizations?" and such, I said "no" on all of them except the "membership in the communist party", to which i noted that had been a member of Comsomol (Communist youth organization in a former USSR). He wrote it down.
Then he asked me how many times I was married, and I said "One. That is, one BEFORE that."
"Oh, yeah, good!" he said, and pointed out that on a marrige certificate they marked "zero". I told him it was probably a mistake, and he seemed satisfied.
Then he gave Audrey ( my wife) her (american) passport back, and told her what a huge mistake it was to send an original ( only later I discovered that you can get away without sending the original, despite of what is said on the application instructions),-
they have made a hole in it!
apparently, to make it easier to stick into the file- making it useless, of course
Next he requested proof of genuine marriage, and we kinda sucked on that:
The lease was on Audreys name only, cause she got it before I moved in (he remarked that we should have added my name later), we did have one joint credit card and I was added to her account, but only recently (end of april) , so, we did not even have a bank statement with my name on it yet! only checks.
Also the apartment has utilities included in rent, so we only had one bill to show with both our names- internet.
He asked for life and medical insurance, and Audrey said that she did not have it herself.
He asked for marriage pictures, and they sucked, too,- we did everything in one day and there was no wedding dresses or red roses- in fact, the pictures of the wedding day looked like average daily pictures(
I explained to him, though, that at that point Audrey's dad was not even aware that we were getting married, because she was afraid of telling him, but later in January I told him the whole thing anyway and he took it really well, so, now it is ok, and he even wants us to have another ceremony with real flowers and stuff.
Oh, well.
Then he asked us how we've met-
at first, once we answered "on internet" he seemed to get a bit unhappy, but then as the trips to Vancouver were mentioned got much happier, saying:
"Oh, so, she DID travel to Vancouver?"
"Yes, - we answered, - and many times! Also I have traveled to the US last summer, and we went together to Europe."
Then we also explained that the original plan was for Audrey to come to Russia and meet my mother, but it failed due to her visa been issued with wrong dates, so we went to Germany instead.
From this point on it went much better,- he looked at the russian visa in her passport, and also at pictures of us in Berlin and Vancouver, some of them rather sweet, -
if there were any doubts this was the breaking point, I guess, cause right after that he gave us small pieces of paper to sign, and I noticed it was information about the removal of condition on the green card!!!
Next thing he asked me to sign some other paper, I think it was application for a green card, took my fingerprint on that and placed a large red stamp in my passport!
Well, that was it- we were told that I am granted a conditional green card, and now can travel outside of the US, if I want to;
that we will have to apply for removal of the condition together in 21 month, but not more then 24 month, or else my green card will become invalid and I will be subject to deportation. He took my work authorization card, barely two weeks old, and threw it into garbage. (what a waste of money that was!)
He also said that my citizenship time starts from today, and I can apply for it (US citizenship) in 3 years- provided we are still married to each other,
and, finally, that my actual green card shall arrive in a couple of weeks by mail.
Wow, I have to say I did not expect everything to be over so soon, within just 3 month since we filed and, I am guessing, even before the fingerprint results are available!
Wish you all guys to have your cases dealt with as fast and as successfully, as this!
The end.
First of all a bit of background info, to give you guys a better idea:
I am a Canadian citizen by naturalization, also Russian citizen by birth,
came to the US last september as a visitor (had no visa, since none is required from Canadians) and married US citizen (by birth) on November 12th,
first we tried to apply for adjustment of status in December, but they sent it back to us, cause of last year tax requirement was not met- in 2003 my wife declared only 13 000 dollars income, and even though by the end of 2004 her year-to-date was already over the poverty line, they only looked at the most recent tax year, disregarding my explanatory letter and paystabs+ letter from work.
Oh, well.
We submitted her taxes for 2004 in February, and on Feb 12th resubmitted the application.
This time it went better, on February 26 the check went through. Then there was nothing for a couple of months, I began to worry and called them couple of time to no avail.
Finally around April 16 or so we got two letters at once:
1) AOS NOA (adjustment of status notice of action) with the receipt and invitation to come for a work authorization process on May 3rd
2) Fingerprint appointment letter for May 10th.
To my total surprise just a few days later we've got a letter inviting us for an interview! It was scheduled for this morning, May 16th at 7.55 AM at the Los Angeles district office, here is how it went:
We got up around 6.10, left at 7.00 AM and drove downtown LA.
Parked at one of the lots on Almeida st, which I would highly recommend to use: it is only 4 dollars for the whole day and is within easily walking distance to the Immigration building on a corner of Los Angeles and Temple.
Even though we walked to the building around 7.30 it took good 25 minutes to get in, cause of the line up,- they screen people at the door, kind of like at the airport. I was getting a bit nervous, I hate to be late.
At exactly 7.55 we passed through the door, took an elevator upstairs and walked into the room 6024, which is kinda like a waiting room with a few windows at the front;
the security guard told us to place our appointment letter on a tray in window N. 6 and wait to be called.
It took about 15 minutes, then older looking gentlemen, white american in his 50th or 60th, called my name and we walked in after him:
to a maze of cubicles ,passed most of them, and to his cabinet.
The first thing was to swear us both in to "tell the truth the whole truth..." and so on, we raised right hands and said "yes".
Then he set us down.
He looked through the file and asked us both for CALIFORNIA i.d. We handed our driver licenses.
After that he asked ME all the usual questions, like "have you ever been arrested? are you associated with terrorist organizations?" and such, I said "no" on all of them except the "membership in the communist party", to which i noted that had been a member of Comsomol (Communist youth organization in a former USSR). He wrote it down.
Then he asked me how many times I was married, and I said "One. That is, one BEFORE that."
"Oh, yeah, good!" he said, and pointed out that on a marrige certificate they marked "zero". I told him it was probably a mistake, and he seemed satisfied.
Then he gave Audrey ( my wife) her (american) passport back, and told her what a huge mistake it was to send an original ( only later I discovered that you can get away without sending the original, despite of what is said on the application instructions),-
they have made a hole in it!
apparently, to make it easier to stick into the file- making it useless, of course
Next he requested proof of genuine marriage, and we kinda sucked on that:
The lease was on Audreys name only, cause she got it before I moved in (he remarked that we should have added my name later), we did have one joint credit card and I was added to her account, but only recently (end of april) , so, we did not even have a bank statement with my name on it yet! only checks.
Also the apartment has utilities included in rent, so we only had one bill to show with both our names- internet.
He asked for life and medical insurance, and Audrey said that she did not have it herself.
He asked for marriage pictures, and they sucked, too,- we did everything in one day and there was no wedding dresses or red roses- in fact, the pictures of the wedding day looked like average daily pictures
(I explained to him, though, that at that point Audrey's dad was not even aware that we were getting married, because she was afraid of telling him, but later in January I told him the whole thing anyway and he took it really well, so, now it is ok, and he even wants us to have another ceremony with real flowers and stuff.
Oh, well.
Then he asked us how we've met-
at first, once we answered "on internet" he seemed to get a bit unhappy, but then as the trips to Vancouver were mentioned got much happier, saying:
"Oh, so, she DID travel to Vancouver?"
"Yes, - we answered, - and many times! Also I have traveled to the US last summer, and we went together to Europe."
Then we also explained that the original plan was for Audrey to come to Russia and meet my mother, but it failed due to her visa been issued with wrong dates, so we went to Germany instead.
From this point on it went much better,- he looked at the russian visa in her passport, and also at pictures of us in Berlin and Vancouver, some of them rather sweet, -
if there were any doubts this was the breaking point, I guess, cause right after that he gave us small pieces of paper to sign, and I noticed it was information about the removal of condition on the green card!!!
Next thing he asked me to sign some other paper, I think it was application for a green card, took my fingerprint on that and placed a large red stamp in my passport!
Well, that was it- we were told that I am granted a conditional green card, and now can travel outside of the US, if I want to;
that we will have to apply for removal of the condition together in 21 month, but not more then 24 month, or else my green card will become invalid and I will be subject to deportation. He took my work authorization card, barely two weeks old, and threw it into garbage. (what a waste of money that was!)
He also said that my citizenship time starts from today, and I can apply for it (US citizenship) in 3 years- provided we are still married to each other,
and, finally, that my actual green card shall arrive in a couple of weeks by mail.
Wow, I have to say I did not expect everything to be over so soon, within just 3 month since we filed and, I am guessing, even before the fingerprint results are available!
Wish you all guys to have your cases dealt with as fast and as successfully, as this!
The end.
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