Hi! Please post your marriage-based petition interview here, thank you very much!!!

[Bella Blues]

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing great! My USC fiancee (he's white) and I are getting married in about three weeks, after which he will file a petition on my behalf. We would like to know what to expect and what to bring during the interview.

We have been living together since 2003, have a 3 year old son and we've got another baby on the way (that's why we decided to finally get married!)
due in December.

How soon after the September wedding should we file the petition? Should we wait til I give birth to our second child or should he petition me ASAP? Also, what happens during the interview??? I would really appreciate it if you can share your experience with me. Thank you very very much!

 

[sarrebal]

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing great! My USC fiancee (he's white) and I are getting married in about three weeks, after which he will file a petition on my behalf. We would like to know what to expect and what to bring during the interview.

We have been living together since 2003, have a 3 year old son and we've got another baby on the way (that's why we decided to finally get married!)
due in December.

How soon after the September wedding should we file the petition? Should we wait til I give birth to our second child or should he petition me ASAP? Also, what happens during the interview??? I would really appreciate it if you can share your experience with me. Thank you very very much!

All it's gonna happen at your interview with two kids from the marriage is a handshake and a stamp on the passport. Green card after a couple of weeks in the mail.
You could apply as soon as you have marriage certificate in your hand.

 

[dr_lha]

All it's gonna happen at your interview with two kids from the marriage is a handshake and a stamp on the passport. Green card after a couple of weeks in the mail.
You could apply as soon as you have marriage certificate in your hand.

Exactly, especially as your husband is white!

EDIT: I just realised people might not realise I'm being funny here, I just though the way the OP announced her husband was white was funny.

 

[ps182]

Exactly, especially as your husband is white!

EDIT: I just realised people might not realise I'm being funny here, I just though the way the OP announced her husband was white was funny.

Because he is white , he gets to sit on the 4th chair from the left and gets to open the door with his right hand during the interview . He is also allowed to wear Fishing gear for the interview .....

For you , because you are not white educate yourself before the interview : Please watch the BLUE COLLAR TOUR , and read some stuff by Larry the cable guy ...

Hope this helps ..

 

[justnew]

There is a comphresive post by Ari4u about interview exeperience, I think it's the first sticky, take time to read it and you will get all the information you need or you can PM Ari4u if you still can't get it

Goodluck

 

[Bella Blues]

LOL everyone!

Hi everyone, thanks for the laughs (the funny replies) LOL

I wasn't sure wether I should be worried or not, I didn't want to be too confident that just because we've got kids we will not be grilled at the interview. I've heard horror stories about those immigration officials, you never know what they're thinking and they always do their homework!

 

[a_booth]

One mistake we nearly made was W2s!!!
As my wife is American, little did we know, but she is still required to file annual taxes even though she wasn't residing in the U.S.

At the time of the interview, we found out she was ineligible because she hadn't filed her last 3 years taxes.

Fortunately, because she was with me and it was at the embassy, we went to the tax office, filed them there and our application was approved.

If she had not been there or the tax office closed, the whole application process would have been rejected.

As well as the delay of re-applying and the additional financial costs involved in a new application, being previously rejected can count against a new application.

 

[Bella Blues]

Thank you

There is a comphresive post by Ari4u about interview exeperience, I think it's the first sticky, take time to read it and you will get all the information you need or you can PM Ari4u if you still can't get it

Goodluck

Thank you, I did look at Ari4u's sticky post and found the thread about interviews. I read most of the interview stories that were shared.

The reason that I don't want to be too confident when we go in for our interview is because even though we have been living together for three years and we have a 3 year old son and another baby coming in December, we don't really have any joint accounts together. We are both on our lease agreements, and my cell phone is in his name/Sprint account, but other than that we have separate checking and savings account and we keep our money/income separate and we just split our household bills down the middle. We plan on opening a joint bank account savings/checking soon after the wedding where we can put wedding gifts and etc. and we plan to start using that account (make monthly deposits) for our household. We also have been filing taxes separately, we alternate each year in claiming our son so that we each get a full refund every other year (we think it's better to get a big refund check every other year than share one check every year).

Anyway, do you think this will be an issue? should we have more joint accounts? Will it matter that our joint bank account won't be that old???
Thanks!

 

[dr_lha]

Frankly, the evidence you have (joint bills, lease) and the fact you have a kid and are pregnant should easily be enough. A joint account would be the icing on the cake, and easy to set up.

USCIS officers know that people in fake marriages for immigration purposes usually don't have children! I think you will be fine.

 

[cherr1980]

You have no idea what people do to get some things in life...so I would not totally disregard that people who fake do not have children. I am not saying that this is your case though, I am just claryfing.

Anyway, if the officer at the interview ask you why you don't have joint accounts, you just explain the facts. By the way when you say that "we just split our household bills down the middle", you mean that if the electric bill is $80 each one pay separately $40 and $40? anyway...the household bills should come to your or his name right? so they won't be able to know that each one are paying half & half. Plus they really don't look at the cost or things like that...it's the names on it.

In any case, you should gather your son birth certificate and if you have medical bills from your doctor's visit due to your pregnancy that indicates something that you did together or that he paid it, etc, etc.

Good luck,

 

[Bella Blues]

You have no idea what people do to get some things in life...so I would not totally disregard that people who fake do not have children. I am not saying that this is your case though, I am just claryfing.

Anyway, if the officer at the interview ask you why you don't have joint accounts, you just explain the facts. By the way when you say that "we just split our household bills down the middle", you mean that if the electric bill is $80 each one pay separately $40 and $40? anyway...the household bills should come to your or his name right? so they won't be able to know that each one are paying half & half. Plus they really don't look at the cost or things like that...it's the names on it.

In any case, you should gather your son birth certificate and if you have medical bills from your doctor's visit due to your pregnancy that indicates something that you did together or that he paid it, etc, etc.

Good luck,

Hi there, about your question, the utility bills are in his name and then we add all of the totals together and I issue him a check for the amount. He pays our cell phone bills, all the other bills we share 50/50. After our wedding, we are planning on opening a savings account to deposit our wedding gifts and then we will both deposit an equal amount of money in there every month (maybe $700 a month each) and then we will use that account to pay rent/bills.

Yes, we do have our son's birth certificate, we plan to bring him along since we don't have a babysitter anyway (my mom works and his parents are in Northern CA, we are in Los Angeles). Depending on when we get our interview, we probably will be tagging along both boys (my 2nd baby's a boy, according to the sonogram). I will also bring our baby album if that will help, we have pictures of us in the delivery room (my fiancee helped deliver our first son and will do it again in December).