It's A New Day !!!
Sing with me…
It's A New Day !!! (You must listen to the whole song, as it has true potential to become the anthem of our forum)
…
It's been a long time waitin'
Waiting for this moment
It's been a long time praying
Praying for this moment
We hope for this moment
And now that we own it
For life I ma hold it
And I wont let it go
…
YES!!! We cracked it and that was the Aha moment and since then we are feeling so different
(ofcourse in a nice way). No more worries switching different visas and maintaining valid status in this economy.
We always appreciated the knowledge and support we received on this forum and can’t thank enough each of you to fill the gap between 1st NL and SUCCESSFUL Interview. So we want to dedicate this success to all of us. This forum is a great example of
"People Help People".
Now, about the historical day
April 30th, 2009. Our interview was scheduled for
10AM. We arrived at our local office around
9:40AM.
(Actually, last night we slept at 5AM. You must know that last night before exam
. Let me tell you, it was all prepared but we just checking and revising the questions again and again that if IO asks this we have to answer this.) So, we arrived at the office and passed that air-port kinda security check. My husband said Good Morning and he got a response "Good Morning, SIR". And that extra SIR made us realize that we dressed up GOOD
. Actually we made a note of that your outlook should be positive, so we both were in full professional attire
(we both wore suits on that day). Immigration interviews are on 13th Floor, so we took the elevator and reached to the Reception. He was a normal security guy with a small deck
(that can’t hold more than 17" laptop!!!). He checked our interview letter and asked us to go to the 1st room. We went and showed our interview letter to the lady at the reception.
(this was a proper reception desk like the Ticket concessions at the theaters, complete glass-walled.). She checked it
(against the list she had for that day), stamped it, stapled two interview letters together and gave it back to us and asked us to go to the 2nd room. We went to 2nd room and one more reception desk
(same as 1st room) was there. We showed our interview letters again and that lady stamped it and took it and asked us to go and sit and wait. There were around 20 people already there before us in the room. So we thought it will take time. But just after 5 minutes, one guy came and told us that your case is PUSHED hence please go the next room. We were bit embarrassed as everybody was looking at us with that
"HOW" look but we can’t help it as who will tell them that we are one of those LUCKY DV winners
and that day we again realized that we are really lucky. So, now we were in that 1st room again and waiting. In this room also, there are 20+ people. Now we were in the situation like, "You reached school on the exam day, spotted your seat and now waiting for Professor with the exam paper. So what you do, you just brush up those last minute things again." And we were doing the same thing, revising those last minute questions. Finally the moment came and our name announced and time was
10:30AM. We looked at each other and wished BEST OF LUCK through the eyes.
We walked towards the door where our IO is waiting for us. He was a simple but professional Irish guy wearing half-sleeve sweater with daily officewear. He escorted us to his desk. While we were walking towards his desk, we noticed around that it was a normal IT office with little big cubicles around 20+ and yes that means 20+ interviews are going in parallel. And these cubicles
(as in IT office) had 3 sides covered and one side is open. They are of the height of 6" but semi-transparent and
NOT sound-proof. So, you can hear what’s happening with the people in cubicles around and so they can hear you too. BTW, this was
Newark, NJ office. Now, at the desk, we noticed that he been through our files. He asked us to sit and to raise our right hand to take an oath. Now, for those people like us who don’t know what you really have to say while taking the OATH. It’s very simple. Our IO asked us that "Swear that you will say truth and nothing but the truth." And we both said "Yes" And that’s just it.
Now, our REAL interview begins Yes, REAL means
(like any job interview) that’s what we thought
. Let me change the pattern to a kind of conversation, so that you can better visualize the scene. And BTW, my husband is a Primary qualified due to my native country.
IO: marked the marriage date on the marriage certificate on the file in front of us with the orange marker pen and then asked both of us for our I-94.
My Husband: gave his one I-94
(the white passport size, that he received at the airport on arrival) and told IO that he had another latest on the approval notice of H1-transfer.
IO: you have two I-94?
My Husband: Yes
and showed the other one on the approval notice.
IO: No, if you have another white one. This is not I-94 but just a proof of extension of your valid stay in USA.
My Husband: Why?
IO: explained. This white one has a special ink (a blue arrival stamp with the date). Because people do sell this for $5,000 to other people and then they forge it like name, dates, port of entry and use it to show their valid status. NJ people sell it in Texas. Texas people then forge it and use it in California. But they get caught because this special ink can be seen only in the Black Light
(like a Laser light in disco-pubs that anything white/blue will stand out) and that has some secret information which people can’t forge. Further, at a time you have only one I94 in white. Because whenever you go out of USA, you have to surrender your I94 and when you come again, you will get a new I94.
My Husband: stunned with IO explanation and said he didn’t know it this small piece of paper is so important and worth of $5,000 in the black market.
Me: gave mine.
IO: Stapled both in the files and asked
(my husband) Please give me your paystubs.
My Husband: gave it and also mentioned that he printed a copy of April paystub yesterday at midnight.
IO: That’s great. He marked the gross amount on my paystub with orange marker.
IO: You know what,
"You are APPROVED!!!"
Me and My Husband: Surprised with open mouth
and asked "Really, I mean it was so quick and you didn’t ask us any questions"
IO: I will ask you questions but it’s just a formality as I know the answers of all these questions but I still have to ask you and I will be surprised if you answer wrong for any of these questions. And then he started asking questions on
Page 3 of I-485.
Me and My Husband: No to every question.
(singing in our head, Na Na Na... Na Na Na…)
IO: See, I told you. Because your background check came with
NO RECORDS(we didn't ask him, he just told us...). And he started marking and writing something on the files and entering information on the PC.
Me and My Husband: We are controlling ourselves
(Don’t Yell, Don’t Yell). Now my husband started questioning as IO was very friendly.
My Husband: Since you have taken our I94s, would you stamp our passport or give us any letter of proof?
IO: No
(and smiling), because now card production is so quick that you will receive your cards within 10 days and you will need the stamp only if you want to travel outside US within 10 days.
My Husband: OK but I have seen that sometimes there are typos on the Green Card and you have to again apply for the correction, so during that time wouldn’t it be good to have that stamp in the passport as a proof.
IO: No, not exactly. As you already have a welcome letter and you can always tell the officer what happened and they can always look up in the system with A#.
My Husband: Decided not to irritate much on the same thing, as he realized that it’s unnecessary if we will get it in 10 days. Keep Quiet.
IO: Since you are concerned, let me confirm your details in front of you so that there won’t be a chance of typos. Let me start with your wife and he turned the PC towards me.
Me: Confirmed First Name, Last Name, Middle Name, Date of Birth, Address, Nationality and Immigration type as DV7.
My Husband: What does DV7 mean?
IO: There are different DV types based on which category you are in and where you are doing it and whether you are primary/derivative. In your case it’s DV7. Then he added if you do it in London, its DV1. And turned the PC to my husband to verify his details.
My Husband: Confirmed First Name, Last Name, Middle Name, Date of Birth, Address, Nationality and Immigration type as DV6.
IO: Before my husband could ask, he said. You are DV6 because you are primary and your wife is DV7 because she is your derivative.
My Husband: Thanks, good to know that.
IO: Ok, let me send them for production. He clicked something and showed us the message as below on the PC.
Your application has been approved.
Card production has been ordered for ASCxxxx.
Also, he showed us that the information we confirmed are grayed out except the Address.
Me and My Husband: Very happy
as we don’t have to go and check our status online that when our cards will be sent for production.
My Husband: Now relaxed and asking general questions. Do I have to update my SSN?
IO: Yes, once you get the cards in hand, you can go to SSN office and show them that you received Green Card and they will send you the new SSN card at your home. But there is no hurry, you can do that anytime before 6 months.
My Husband: Does the quota for DV ever get exhausted?
IO: Very rare.
My Husband: How many DV cases come to NJ?
IO: Around 150 that includes CP cases as well which got interviewed in native country. And also mentioned that NY office receives more cases around 1000+ every year.
My Husband: Smiling at me, try to say that that’s why our process was quick in NJ because of less number of cases.
IO: Finally, he took out the red square stamp. And stamped "Approved" on our files and told us again that
"You are approved and enjoy the day!!!"
My Husband: We will always remember you whenever we will recall this day.
Me and My Husband: Thanked multiple times.
It’s true that we are lucky to have such a cool IO, as he made it so simple and light for us. Actually, he gave us additional information. We were back in our car in the parking by
11AM. It seems 30 minutes, but as you can see it was less like an interview and more like a chat over the lunch table
(like do you know this and do you know that ). I must say that
Newark, NJ office really
EXPEDITE the DV cases.
We can now understand the feeling of joining the elite club of DV Green Card holders. Those who are on their way, please find below some tactics and documents that we followed and used.
- Always used Cashier’s check for all the fees.
- Wrote our DV# (in pencil) on top-right of all our papers/copies.
- Dress well and speak confidently.
- Chicago Lockbox Cover letter(attached at the end).
- To order Tax Transcripts(attached at the end).
So, its
2 months (since we sent our package to Chicago on March 2nd, 2009) and
3 months (since we started the process with DS122), short but memorable journey.
Cheers to DV2009 program!!!
Please let us know if we can help someone with any queries as we gained a lot on this forum and would be more than happy to share.
FYI:
- My husband came on H1 and then he transferred his H1 to another company.
- I came on H1 and adjusted to H4 last year.
- My husband alone could not be eligible for DV as he is not a native of eligible countries, but he applied for DV as I (a spouse) am native of eligible countries. So we filed two applications, with one my husband as primary and the other with me as primary. And to a surprise, not me but my husband won the lottery. We again realized that "We made for Each Other".
