This morning we completed our AOS interview in Denver and were approved - yay!! Postings from others really helped us prepare for our interview, so we're sharing our experience to help out others preparing for their interviews. Bottom line: it's really not bad at all. 
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We married in November 2005 and submitted our AOS paperwork in January 2006. In May 2006, we recieved a notice to appear for our interview on June 14th. (Much to our pleasant surprise - based on the processing times listed on the BCIS website, we didn't expect an interview until September!)
We prepared **way too much** for our interview. We collected every concievable document showing our shared life: bank statements, leases, pictures, cards from friends and family, insurance forms... by the time we were finished putting all our documents together, we had filled an 1.5" binder.
Our interview was scheduled for 9:45 am. At 8:20 am, we headed out the door of our condo, only to find that we'd left the keys inside! After all that careful preparation, we were locked out of our home with a huge binder filled with documents and no way to get to the interview. We almost panicked. Our next door neighbor (on his way to work) walked by and we explained that we were locked out and really concerned about an important appointment we needed to reach in Denver. Our condo complex has "up units" and "down units". Ours is an up unit, so we couldn't even try to break in through one of our open living room or bedroom windows. However, our neighbor hopped up on the fence of our downstairs neighbor's unit, climbed up to our porch, got into our condo through our unlocked porch door, and got us back into our home. Relief! It was an amazing sight.
After that, we weren't nervous about the interview anymore.
We arrived at the INS office at 9:30 am for our 9:45 am appointment. By 10:15, we figured that we must have been assigned to the officer that was said to be running VERY late. At 10:30 am, another officer called us in and said that she had taken our case so we wouldn't need to wait for the other officer. From there it was easy. She swore us in, then asked if either of us had been married previously (no), or had children (no). She looked at our IDs. She just wanted Lynne's (U.S. citizen's) driver's license, but she also looked at the passport, social security card, I-94, H-IB and EAD for Rahul (who is Indian.) She asked if Rahul had entered the US any visas other than his F-1 (student) visa and his subsequent H-IB visa. He replied that he had previously entered with a B-1 visitor visa.
Rahul's birth certificate didn't have his name on it, because his parents hadn't chosen a name yet at the time of birth. The officer asked about this, and Rahul needed to explain and point out that his parents had written an affadavit declaring him to be the son born to them on the date named in the birth certificate. She accepted that.
Next, she asked what we had to show our joint residence and finance. We showed her our current lease and the expired lease for our current home. We offered the lease for our previous home, but she said she didn't need that. For joint finance, we gave her copies of the statement showing that we opened a bank account together one month before marrying, and a copy of our most recent joint bank account statement, and a copy of a Comcast bill in both of our names. She declined the majority of our carefully copied and filed documents and we made a joke about being over-prepared.
The officer briefly asked the name of Lynne's employer.
Finally, she asked a few questions from the I-485: whether Rahul intended to engage in terrorist activity; had committed any crimes; and one other that we're forgetting at the moment.
She added all of the documents into our file, then turned to the computer and started confirming Rahul's contact information and mailing address, saying that this was for the alien registration card. We had the greencard! She advised that it would arrive in the mail within 30 days.
The entire interview took about 10 minutes. (Some of the couples that were in the waiting room when we were appeared to take about the same time, some seemed to take significantly longer.) After all that preparation, she never asked any questions about our marriage, or looked at our supporting documents. It was clear that she considered our marriage to be legitimate from the time we walked into her office and was merely gathering the requisite confirmation. If we had known the interview would be such a breeze, we could have saved ourselves a lot of time.
Good luck to everyone preparing for an interview! If your relationship is good, you won't have any trouble at all.
. We married in November 2005 and submitted our AOS paperwork in January 2006. In May 2006, we recieved a notice to appear for our interview on June 14th. (Much to our pleasant surprise - based on the processing times listed on the BCIS website, we didn't expect an interview until September!)
We prepared **way too much** for our interview. We collected every concievable document showing our shared life: bank statements, leases, pictures, cards from friends and family, insurance forms... by the time we were finished putting all our documents together, we had filled an 1.5" binder.
Our interview was scheduled for 9:45 am. At 8:20 am, we headed out the door of our condo, only to find that we'd left the keys inside! After all that careful preparation, we were locked out of our home with a huge binder filled with documents and no way to get to the interview. We almost panicked. Our next door neighbor (on his way to work) walked by and we explained that we were locked out and really concerned about an important appointment we needed to reach in Denver. Our condo complex has "up units" and "down units". Ours is an up unit, so we couldn't even try to break in through one of our open living room or bedroom windows. However, our neighbor hopped up on the fence of our downstairs neighbor's unit, climbed up to our porch, got into our condo through our unlocked porch door, and got us back into our home. Relief! It was an amazing sight.
After that, we weren't nervous about the interview anymore.
We arrived at the INS office at 9:30 am for our 9:45 am appointment. By 10:15, we figured that we must have been assigned to the officer that was said to be running VERY late. At 10:30 am, another officer called us in and said that she had taken our case so we wouldn't need to wait for the other officer. From there it was easy. She swore us in, then asked if either of us had been married previously (no), or had children (no). She looked at our IDs. She just wanted Lynne's (U.S. citizen's) driver's license, but she also looked at the passport, social security card, I-94, H-IB and EAD for Rahul (who is Indian.) She asked if Rahul had entered the US any visas other than his F-1 (student) visa and his subsequent H-IB visa. He replied that he had previously entered with a B-1 visitor visa.
Rahul's birth certificate didn't have his name on it, because his parents hadn't chosen a name yet at the time of birth. The officer asked about this, and Rahul needed to explain and point out that his parents had written an affadavit declaring him to be the son born to them on the date named in the birth certificate. She accepted that.
Next, she asked what we had to show our joint residence and finance. We showed her our current lease and the expired lease for our current home. We offered the lease for our previous home, but she said she didn't need that. For joint finance, we gave her copies of the statement showing that we opened a bank account together one month before marrying, and a copy of our most recent joint bank account statement, and a copy of a Comcast bill in both of our names. She declined the majority of our carefully copied and filed documents and we made a joke about being over-prepared.
The officer briefly asked the name of Lynne's employer.
Finally, she asked a few questions from the I-485: whether Rahul intended to engage in terrorist activity; had committed any crimes; and one other that we're forgetting at the moment.
She added all of the documents into our file, then turned to the computer and started confirming Rahul's contact information and mailing address, saying that this was for the alien registration card. We had the greencard! She advised that it would arrive in the mail within 30 days.
The entire interview took about 10 minutes. (Some of the couples that were in the waiting room when we were appeared to take about the same time, some seemed to take significantly longer.) After all that preparation, she never asked any questions about our marriage, or looked at our supporting documents. It was clear that she considered our marriage to be legitimate from the time we walked into her office and was merely gathering the requisite confirmation. If we had known the interview would be such a breeze, we could have saved ourselves a lot of time.
Good luck to everyone preparing for an interview! If your relationship is good, you won't have any trouble at all.
