hello guys,
i had my interview on Monday.it was in Hartford, CT scheduled for 8. We reached there at 7:30. They took the interview letter and we waited for almost an hour. At 8:20, a lady came in calling mine as well as my wife's name. Then she walked us to her room. Before even sitting down, she asked us to raise our right hands (i rose my left hand first because of nervousness) and swore us.
Then she opened our file, mine first, me being the DV winner. Then she asked for our passports, social security numbers and OPT cards. (She was very very young african-american lady but still seemed so knowledgeable about the whole thing). She took i-94s out of our passports and said that they will keep them. Then she verified our address. I had given my friend's address since we were graduating last year, hunting for new jobs and moving around.. etc. She asked me if we still live there and i said 'yes'. Then she asked most of the "were u involved in crime, ......" questions from i-485. and after that she stamped something at the end of our 485 and asked me to sign on top of it. Then she asked who was my sponsor. I said my 'uncle'. That was the only thing that she asked about the financials. We had our own incomes above the poverty line and had supplied our offer letter along with the application. We had also submitted an i-134 for both of us.
Then she opened my wife's file and went through the exact same thing. Then she asked for our degree certificate. I handed over our transcripts. (She took the originals for some reason, well i dont care)
She never asked for the DV fee receipt.
Then she asked when we got married. She asked for our 2008 tax transcript. Then she asked if I had anything that serves as a 'bonafide of our marriage' or something like that. I said we have a car insurance card back in the car. She didnot get happy with that. Then I said I have a rental agreement for our apartment.
Now came the tough part. The rental agreement had our 'real' adress (but I had said we were still lilving in our friend's house. That was so stupid of me). Then we talked for a couple of minutes about that discrepancy. I know we didnt perform well on that one and got very nervous. I should have told her the truth. There's lesson to be learnt here, folks!!!!!
Then she suddenly said something like, "ok, we'll have a background check, and also we'll look for visa numbers from (dept of state or sth, i forgot)...if eth is good, u'll receive your cards in 3-4 weeks...if not, we'll request you for further info"
i said "didnt we complete our FBI background check with the biometrics.
she said "USCIS has its own background check"
Then i asked "i thought you would stamp our passports". she said "we dont do it anymore"..
Thats it...the lady never smiled...i was so nervous to say anything there...we had thought we'd be decided that day...we returned with puzzled faces...
i had read in this forum where somebody had a similar situation and went back home to find out that his status got changed to CPO...but not in my case...
and last night...................i got an email from CRIS..........."Current Status: Notice mailed welcoming the new permanent resident."...this is the first time my status changed online...and what a change!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i hope i am getting to the end of the journey now...........