Chicago Local Transfer Interviews

wife's case finally approved

Hello
My wife's case was finally approved. Sorry couldn't post earlier as I was busy.
Details:
RD in NSC: 12/5/2000
TD to Chicago: 5/21/2002
Case transferred because of fingerprints being rejected twice(obscure INS LAW)

Interviewied on Aug 20th 2003.
Interview was very casual but we screwed up by not taking the right paper work..
1. The photograph apparently was not correct( There was no mention of getting a photograph in the interview letter though and even our lawyer told it's not necessary)
2. We did not have the W2 for 1999(had for 2001,2002).
They want every document they can lay hands on. This was surprising because we have been married for 7 years and that was not even the reason for transfer. Apparently they do not care for the reason and just go about every case the same way.
Anyhow, we had one month to send the deficient paper work which we did and the case has been approved in September 2003.
They also say that they will send the card in a few months by post.

Morale of the Story: Take every document you have and copies of those documents(they always want copies).
But it did not hurt us in any big way.
During the interview, it is pretty casual and we did not have to go in very early as our interview was at 11:00 AM. The interviewer are not super-friendly but they are pretty nice and casual to talk too. But they go by the book i.e. they look for all documents..

Sorry for not posting earlier
Good luck
 
oxygenman

Congratulations!

what do you mean "The photograph apparently was not correct"? what is this?

please let me know.

Thanks

wait_too_long
 
photos

My wife had some photos which she used for her EAD , I think.
From what we saw later, it appeared a little closer click then the one listed on the Immigration photos page. It was a couple of extra photos she had. If you get the photos taken as per the rules, you shouldn't see any problems.

Good Luck
 
Freedom Finally

Hi All,

Finally we got our Passports stamped today @ chicago
local Office.

Interview seemed to be mere formality, no major questions
asked. The officer did asked me about me working for
sponsoring Employer and about my new Job, the officer
didn't seemed to be to much concerned with my Job change.

My Interview time was 8:25am, and spouse time was 8:50,
and to my surprise, even after all the Notices on the Walls, for
expecting delays, we were asked exactly on time and we were
out of Office by 8:45am

Good luck to all the chicago X'fers, your days are not too far.

I will keep on visiting this board for a while, if anyone has any questions, i will be more than happy to answer.


Good Luck,

IJ
 
IJ:

Congratulations.

We will go next week. Is officer pretty nice to you? Did you give him all of your copies? You give him by his asking or just giving him everything.

Thanks.

Wait_too_long
 
Re: Freedom Finally

Originally posted by IJ
Hi All,

Finally we got our Passports stamped today @ chicago
local Office.

Interview seemed to be mere formality, no major questions
asked. The officer did asked me about me working for
sponsoring Employer and about my new Job, the officer
didn't seemed to be to much concerned with my Job change.

My Interview time was 8:25am, and spouse time was 8:50,
and to my surprise, even after all the Notices on the Walls, for
expecting delays, we were asked exactly on time and we were
out of Office by 8:45am

Good luck to all the chicago X'fers, your days are not too far.

I will keep on visiting this board for a while, if anyone has any questions, i will be more than happy to answer.


Good Luck,

IJ

IJ,
Congratulations!!! I have a few questions:

1) Did they insist on all the documents on their list of marriage related documents? ( By all, I mean ALL of their list)
2) Did you have ur birth certificate and your wife's??? did they have your names explicitly spelled out or did you take birth affidavits??
 
The officer was pretty nice, and infact this is my feeling that they just want to have all the paper work for Job related Interviews

And as per my attorney, we have a +ve factor of Emplyment
based petition, coz Chicago Local office does Family based cases
and with Employment based cases, they want to have all the documents mentioned along with 485 Application.

I only provided the Papers i was asked, i didn't volunteer for anything. And in the Paper work, i was asked for:
i.Employment Letter i
ii. Paystubs
iii. Affidavits for Birth (my BC was registered Late)
iv. Tax Returns
v. Birth Certificate for our Son
vi. EAD and Travel Documents

Questions i was asked:
Q. Are you working for Sponsoring Employer ? NO
Q. When did you leave him ?
Q. Where are you working now ?
Q. Are you renting there ? (as i'm working out of town)
Q. How did you enter Last time in US ?
And all the other questions were general questions like
Q. ever been convicted ??
Q. any relation with Terrorist group ?


And for dress code, we were dressed in Casuals.

We generally take this Interview to be some kind of tensed environment, but when you are actualy there, its more of a chat. So don't worry and just go prepaired with all documents.


Good Luck,
IJ




Originally posted by waiting_to_long
IJ;

One more question, Did you need to dress up like job interview?

Thanks
 
IJ or any body,

Could you answer my questions ?


1. Now, I'm reporting job change to INS with my attorney.
Because my attorney is asking lots of documents including UI3-40 Unemployment report form to IDES ( We had submitted it for labor cert ) and tax returns, I'm so worried about it.

It's not a prblem to get the forms. But, I'm worried about INS's response to Job Change. Do they have a bad feelings of it ?
Do they ask losts of questions relating to job change ? Or they accept it easely ?

2. My spouse didn't get the 2nd fingerprinting notice yet.

My receipt date Oct 1, 2001
transfer date Nov 22, 2002
second fingerpring Aug 20, 2003

Should he just wait for it ?

Thank you in advance.
 
Sueh,

I don't understand why your attorney wants to Inform
INS about Job change, my attorney actually said NO to
inform INS.

Definately during the Interview they will ask you questions
like this as this being a Employment based petition:

Are you still working for your sponsoring Employer ?
When did you leave him ?
Where are you working now ?
Do you have Employment Letter ?
Is your Job same as mentioned in Labor Petition ?

If one has left his Employer after 6 months of filing 485,
and at the time of interview has a Job with the same skillset
and same salary i don't think there would be any problems.

But again, it all depends upon your attorney how comfortable he is handling cases like this. In my case my Attorney was Pretty Confident about everything.

And in my case also, we received Spouse 2nd FP Notice after 2 months. I did my FP on 31st May and for my wife it was in Aug'03
so i would say try to take help of Congressman and see if that expedites the case. Another thing, do you have a address change, actually in our CASE, spouse Notices were coming at the old address and from that they were being forwarded.

Good Luck,
IJ








Originally posted by sueh
IJ or any body,

Could you answer my questions ?


1. Now, I'm reporting job change to INS with my attorney.
Because my attorney is asking lots of documents including UI3-40 Unemployment report form to IDES ( We had submitted it for labor cert ) and tax returns, I'm so worried about it.

It's not a prblem to get the forms. But, I'm worried about INS's response to Job Change. Do they have a bad feelings of it ?
Do they ask losts of questions relating to job change ? Or they accept it easely ?

2. My spouse didn't get the 2nd fingerprinting notice yet.

My receipt date Oct 1, 2001
transfer date Nov 22, 2002
second fingerpring Aug 20, 2003

Should he just wait for it ?

Thank you in advance.
 
IJ, Thank you so much.

By the way, how can I contact congressman ?
can you provide his or her name and any contact source like phone no or address ?
 
http://www.house.gov

You can find out Representative for your area here. I was in touch with Judy Biggert Office, and even though it was late, i guess they really helped in getting my wife's FP Notice !!

Good Luck
IJ


Originally posted by sueh
IJ, Thank you so much.

By the way, how can I contact congressman ?
can you provide his or her name and any contact source like phone no or address ?
 
Re: Re: Freedom Finally

Dfagen,

Sorry for the Late reply !!

All those documents are for Marriage Based Petitions. Though I did carry Marriage Photos, Bank Statement, Lease Papers, Life Insurance Policies.....but i wasn't asked any of those documents.

Yes they did ask me about our Marriage and where was it registered but wasn't asked for marriage certificate, but they did ask me for the Birth Certificate for our 1 year old son.

As for Birth Certificate, we had Originals with ourselves, with our Names spelled out, and along with that we had Affidavits, copies of which she filed in our file.

I believe your Interview date is for Next week, so Good luck with that.

-IJ

Originally posted by dfagen19
IJ,
Congratulations!!! I have a few questions:

1) Did they insist on all the documents on their list of marriage related documents? ( By all, I mean ALL of their list)
2) Did you have ur birth certificate and your wife's??? did they have your names explicitly spelled out or did you take birth affidavits??
 
One Lasst question IJ

Originally posted by IJ
Dfagen,

Sorry for the Late reply !!

All those documents are for Marriage Based Petitions. Though I did carry Marriage Photos, Bank Statement, Lease Papers, Life Insurance Policies.....but i wasn't asked any of those documents.

Yes they did ask me about our Marriage and where was it registered but wasn't asked for marriage certificate, but they did ask me for the Birth Certificate for our 1 year old son.

As for Birth Certificate, we had Originals with ourselves, with our Names spelled out, and along with that we had Affidavits, copies of which she filed in our file.

I believe your Interview date is for Next week, so Good luck with that.

-IJ

Thanks for the erplies to those q's.... My interview is on the 29th.

1)From what I understand, the officer was more concerned about you job related documents. You mentioned that you need to take all the documents required for the I485.. Could you clarify (do we need to redo the biographical information form and medical)

2) Your case is an AC21, right? What was your response to "Why did you leave the original employer?" Also, did she want to see proof that you are working in a similar position? If so, what kind of proof? (Did she want to compare the labor cert with the new job duties, did she ask for your labor cert?)

3) Did your lawyer go with you? If he did, did he have anything to say or do at the interview?

Thanks a bunch
 
Re: One Lasst question IJ

1)From what I understand, the officer was more concerned about you job related documents. You mentioned that you need to take all the documents required for the I485.. Could you clarify (do we need to redo the biographical information form and medical)

Right, Officer was more interested in Job Related Documents, will all the documents, i mean what ever was submitted with 485 application, carry originals for them, no need to redo biographical information or medicals.


2) Your case is an AC21, right? What was your response to "Why did you leave the original employer?" Also, did she want to see proof that you are working in a similar position? If so, what kind of proof? (Did she want to compare the labor cert with the new job duties, did she ask for your labor cert?)

Right, my case is an AC21, Officer asked me if i'm working for the sponsoring Employer, she didn't ask me WHY. She did ask me "So are you still working as ........................?" reading out designation from Labor Certification, then she asked me "Do you have Employment Letter and Pay stubs ?"


3) Did your lawyer go with you? If he did, did he have anything to say or do at the interview?

We were accompanied by our Lawyer, she was fully prepared for AC21, if incase she need to convience Officer. No she dint do anything, just sat behind us. And in the end Congratulated us saying that "U guys R lucky, u got called on time, and interview also dint took so long"

Just a tip:

I had made zerox of all the Copies, so whenever Officer used to ask me something, i used to show her Originals and handover the copies to her
 
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Interview notice for spouse

Looks like Chicago BCIS is moving in a hurry! My wife received the notice for her 485 interview on Nov 19, '03. Strangely, I haven't received mine yet.
If anyone else with the same experience can enlighten me on how long I should wait before knocking on BCIS's door to get my interview notice, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks
 
HELP ME OUT

I got interview letter scheduled on Nov 13 for me.
But, nothing for my husband, even second fingerpringting notice.

My receipt date : Sep 1, 2001
Notice date : Oct 1, 2001
Transfer date : Nov 22, 2002
Second finger pring : Aug 26, 2003 ( Only for me )

Artemis, Were you both fingerprinted in Aug ?

Anybody, If we didn't get interview letter for my hubby, should I go there by myself or should we both go ?

If I go by myself, Would they approve for mine or hold mine ?
 
Re: HELP ME OUT

Sueh,

We both received fingerprint notices for the same day - Aug 22.

I suggest you go to the BCIS office ASAP and ask them if they can schedule your husband's interview on the same day as yours. A friend of mine was successful in doing this in May '03. His case was similar to mine (and kind of the opposite of yours) - he was the primary applicant and his wife received the interview notice but not him.

I'm no expert on this. Others may have better suggesions. But I've decided to try the above myself if I don't receive a notice by the end of the week.

Good luck.
 
We are going for interview, our lawyer suggested us taking our children (2 and 3 years old) with us, what is your suggestion? shall we take kids with us?

Thanks

Wait_to_long
 
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