Baltimore - my experience
I am sorry if my one-liner just went through. I don't know what happened. If it didn't go through, I was saying thanks for all who are contributing. I learned a lot during my process. I thought of posting my experience but I felt I didn't have anything not mentioned in the forum. Now since someone seems to be interested in Baltimore, here I am.
I am (should say was) someone with F1(opt) and recently married to US citizen. I sent I-485 and I-130 and their "entourage" on December 27, 2006. Then I waited for almost two weeks before I got the first notice with ND January 8th. It was just acknowleding that they have accepted it and other actions will follow. Then in the next few days I got finger printing notice for Jan 24. I did that and waited for the longest five or six weeks in my whole life. By Mid march I got my work permit. But at the same time I got a notice to appear for "Initial interview" on April 24th. First I was not sure what the "initial" interview means but from this board I understood it just means an interview and prepared as such. we (my lovely wife and I) actually prepared as if we were preparing for the second interview so that we don't mess anything. We got our relevant pictures together (we had to leave some pictures out
), our apt lease, insurance, the new tax return we filed together, our bank account and ofcourse all copies of documents we submitted.
The interview - well we arrived 30 minutes before our time, gave our notice to the lady at the desk and waited for about 30 minutes. Then we were called by serious but friendly woman. She took us to her office and swore us in. she asked me my name and birth day and she asked ME my wife's full name and birth day. She asked me about my level of education and what I am doing. After this in a conversation mode and she just relaxed asked (without pointing to any of us), tell me how you met and decide to get married. My wife and both started to talk and she laughed said you guys like to talk about that huh? anyways my wife told her the story which she listened as if she was her friend not an interviewer. At that time it looked everything was fine. She asked us to show her pictures, we gave her. And then she asked for common asset, we gave her all the other documents. Then she aske me all the yes and No questions. After that when I was thinking i will get stamp she said "ok I will review the documents again and will inform you my decision in one or two weeks. you will get someting by mail". She took the copy of our licenses and we left. I felt there was nothing wrong so I was happy even though I didn't get a stamp.
In a week I got the second most anticpated email in my whole life. I am now a registered alien
. The next week my physical card arrived. I noticed the approval date was the interview date. I wondered why she didn't tell us right there or even why it took for an email. I am not complaining just wondering. It totally took 4 and half months. I didn't have any RFE and I didn't use any lawyer. All help I got was from this forum by reading silently. THANK YOU ALL.
