We had our green card AOS interview today at 8am. We woke up at around 5:55am to shower, get dressed, double-check to see we had all documents, and head over in separate cars, since I headed straight to work right after. The drive is 15 mins from our place typically but took closer to 25 mins due to rush hour.
Building
After much traffic, we arrived at the federal office right at (or slightly before 8am). When we got to the building, the security officers had some confusion about where to go. We both went through the security checkpoint and were asked to remove shoes and any items in our pockets. I also had to remove my belt. Tip: better to go in together with your spouse so that they only have to consider the interview appointment form once for both--without it, they won't let you in. The federal building allowed us to use cellphones which I was surprised about since I read that you couldn't use cellphones in the federal buildings--they just told us to put them on vibrate once in the waiting room and during the interview. Parking was pricey at about 5-6 dollars for each of us (mostly due to the length of the interview--see below).
Waiting Room
When we got to the waiting room, the security officer told us to take the appointment letter and put it in a tray; we'd be called. So we waited. The wait was only about 10 mins or so and was in a room with about 20-30 other people. When we got called, we walked up to meet the FO. It seems no one got called in the order they came into the room, it's just whoever's FO is available. We were the second group to be called despite the number of people already in the room.
FO/Interview
While FO was friendly, the interview lasted 45-50 mins, much longer than we anticipated. It was conducted in his own office at his desk. We didn't think there'd be any issues with our case as everything was in order, but the FO asked us for several original documents (drivers licenses, passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, visa, etc.), made photocopies of each, asked paraphrased Y/N questions on the I-485 (illegal gambling, criminal acts, military background, etc.), reviewed photos in an album we brought along, asked us how we met each other, when we got engaged, when we got married, who was at the ceremony, reviewed our financial information, asked me to fill out an Affidavit of Support on the spot, and so on. We talked about theme parks a bit. No "intimate" questions as far as I can recall. It was very thorough though.
My wife and I got married a couple months before my lottery number was pulled so this may have had an effect on the length of the interview. She is also a current student on F-1 visa. We'd never had any issues with immigration, always had clean records, etc. In the end, the officer said that while we would not have been approved on the spot anyways because he'd have to check with the KCC (?) for visa number availability, he gave us an RFE additional school transcripts for my wife since she entered the country on the F-1. The deadline to send them in is June 20, 2016. My application, however, was fully approved but pending "initial review" per the myUSCIS website.
We asked about the EAD and AP documents and the FO said that both were still processing within the 90 days but were later than usual. He said it was likely we'd get either of those documents before getting the GC. After the interview, we were sent back out into the waiting room as the FO went to photocopy photos from our albums. He then called us and we retrieved the albums and other things he photocopied.
Conclusion
My wife and I prepared for about 2 hours the day before, quizzing each other on questions we thought we be pertinent to the interview (and seeing what other questions were listed online). We also printed out everything again from our AOS application and additional supporting documents. Still, despite the preparation, we figured this had to be one of the longest interviews on record for any AOS applicant. We're both pretty exhausted from it. We mailed in the transcripts requested just now on the same day. It should arrived within the next day or two. Hopefully we have a good update soon.
