I hope my experience helps. I recently went through the same thing. Only difference is that my case was in immigration court and not with an IO. My brother and myself were fighting deportation by applying for asylum. I went without an attorney because I could not afford one. I was lucky to have a very helpful judge preside our case. If I had any questions about the case and court procedures, he always gave answers that helped me approach my case better. Infact he even complimented the way we presented our case.
We were cross-examined by the judge and the DHS attorney for two and a half hours. Most of the questions came from the application and the evidence we filed with the court. When you get cross-examined, you are not allowed to have your application infront of you for reference. Basically you have to know your story pretty well. One advice I can give you is don't exagerate the story and don't make it too dramatic. One thing I saw they take very seriously is the one year rule. That was a big problem I face with my case but I somehow managed to convince the judge. I managed to win my case my case a few weeks ago and the DHS has upto 2/21/07 to appeal if they want.
I will give you a piece of advice. Have faith in God and everything will be okay. Don't be nervous at the interview and listen to the questions very carefully. They could ask you the same question in different ways and if you give different answers, you will face a problem. Try to give short answers as much as possible and not over divulge information. It might come to haunt you. Remember one thing, if the IO denies your case, it is not the end of the road for you. Your case gets referred to the Immigration court and I feel that you have a better chance at the court to get a favorable decision . Reason I say this is because the Immigration judges specializes in immigration law and are much more knowledgeable than the IO.
I wish you the best of luck and hope you reach your objective. Keep us posted.
