Hi guys,
Thank you for all your input and help, it guided us along the way!
Here is the report:
We arrived on time at the office and after a short security check we sat down in the waiting room. You didn't have to hand the interview notice to anyone, the officers just come into the room and call names. We watched CCN while waiting, they had a pretty big flat panel TV. The room wasn't full, ca. 30 people were there, 90% Indians, 9% Mexicans (all for naturalization cases) and another couple and us. The officers came out from time to time to call names and sometimes to hand notices to people that they were rescheduled. We were nervous for a second there that we would be rescheduled!!!
Anyway, we were scheduled for 2:15pm, but we were called in a little late (not a big deal). Our interviewer was in her late twenties and very friendly. She led us to her room through several cubicles, the whole atmosphere in the office seemed to be quite relaxed. She didn't close the door and asked us to put down all our stuff on her desk (about 20 folders and 2 photo albums). Then she offered us her hand and we introduced ourselves to each other, she swore us in and asked us to sit down.
She started with skipping through the papers (the papers we sent in) for quite some time until she found the sheets with our biographic info. She verified my name, birth date, parent's names, if I ever was married or had kids (no, no). Then the same with hubbie.
Then she looked at the affidavits we handed in and she remarked that we do not need a co-sponsor (daaah, just Missouri thought so) and handed us the papers from my mother in law back and asked hubbie to write a quick notice (she handed him a pen and a block of paper) that he has no W2's cause he was at college and his mom claimed him in her tax returns as a dependent. She then put the paper in the folder.
Now she asked if we had documents that prove that we live together. We handed her (I made copies and brought the originals): the lease, bank statement, credit card statement, health plan, life insurance, car insurance, electricity bills. I had more but she said: oh that's fine! She then did something in her computer (I was pretty amazed, they have super new Dells) and said oh let's see the pictures, and she seemed to love to look at pictures.
She flipped through the wedding album and then the other album. Then she said: oh I thought you guys just met this year during your J1 traineeship? And we were like: oh no, long time ago in Germany, when hubbie spent his exchange year in Germany! She loved those pictures of castles, she loves to travel. Finally she saw our cat's pix and said how cute she was and showed us a frame on her desk with her cat! We chatted about 3 minutes about cat health (!!!!) and she took during that chat the I-94 out of my passport and stamped the green card stamp inside. Then she said: you card is ordered! Should come within 2 weeks. Then she wrote down on a sheet of paper when we should file for removal of conditions.
The last thing was that she told me that probably when I re-enter the US in January (I will fly to Frankfurt next week) it might happen that the immigration officer wants me to come with him to verify the stamp since a lot of people apparently mess with them and fake them. But they will just take my fingerprint to compare it with that on file, so no biggie. Maybe it won't even happen.
The amazing thing was: we weren't really nervous. I expected to be a wreck, but it was smooth. It is true: if you don't have to hide anything, you don't need to be nervous at all. Just be prepared and everything will be fine.
The whole interview took 20 minutes (major parts filled with chat!) and we went home. We then went to a nice alumni dinner of hubbie's college and celebrated that we are done with immigration for 2 years, yeah!
Merry Christmas, Hanukkah or Holidays to all of you and good luck!
Thank you for all your input and help, it guided us along the way!
Here is the report:
We arrived on time at the office and after a short security check we sat down in the waiting room. You didn't have to hand the interview notice to anyone, the officers just come into the room and call names. We watched CCN while waiting, they had a pretty big flat panel TV. The room wasn't full, ca. 30 people were there, 90% Indians, 9% Mexicans (all for naturalization cases) and another couple and us. The officers came out from time to time to call names and sometimes to hand notices to people that they were rescheduled. We were nervous for a second there that we would be rescheduled!!!
Anyway, we were scheduled for 2:15pm, but we were called in a little late (not a big deal). Our interviewer was in her late twenties and very friendly. She led us to her room through several cubicles, the whole atmosphere in the office seemed to be quite relaxed. She didn't close the door and asked us to put down all our stuff on her desk (about 20 folders and 2 photo albums). Then she offered us her hand and we introduced ourselves to each other, she swore us in and asked us to sit down.
She started with skipping through the papers (the papers we sent in) for quite some time until she found the sheets with our biographic info. She verified my name, birth date, parent's names, if I ever was married or had kids (no, no). Then the same with hubbie.
Then she looked at the affidavits we handed in and she remarked that we do not need a co-sponsor (daaah, just Missouri thought so) and handed us the papers from my mother in law back and asked hubbie to write a quick notice (she handed him a pen and a block of paper) that he has no W2's cause he was at college and his mom claimed him in her tax returns as a dependent. She then put the paper in the folder.
Now she asked if we had documents that prove that we live together. We handed her (I made copies and brought the originals): the lease, bank statement, credit card statement, health plan, life insurance, car insurance, electricity bills. I had more but she said: oh that's fine! She then did something in her computer (I was pretty amazed, they have super new Dells) and said oh let's see the pictures, and she seemed to love to look at pictures.
She flipped through the wedding album and then the other album. Then she said: oh I thought you guys just met this year during your J1 traineeship? And we were like: oh no, long time ago in Germany, when hubbie spent his exchange year in Germany! She loved those pictures of castles, she loves to travel. Finally she saw our cat's pix and said how cute she was and showed us a frame on her desk with her cat! We chatted about 3 minutes about cat health (!!!!) and she took during that chat the I-94 out of my passport and stamped the green card stamp inside. Then she said: you card is ordered! Should come within 2 weeks. Then she wrote down on a sheet of paper when we should file for removal of conditions.
The last thing was that she told me that probably when I re-enter the US in January (I will fly to Frankfurt next week) it might happen that the immigration officer wants me to come with him to verify the stamp since a lot of people apparently mess with them and fake them. But they will just take my fingerprint to compare it with that on file, so no biggie. Maybe it won't even happen.
The amazing thing was: we weren't really nervous. I expected to be a wreck, but it was smooth. It is true: if you don't have to hide anything, you don't need to be nervous at all. Just be prepared and everything will be fine.
The whole interview took 20 minutes (major parts filled with chat!) and we went home. We then went to a nice alumni dinner of hubbie's college and celebrated that we are done with immigration for 2 years, yeah!
Merry Christmas, Hanukkah or Holidays to all of you and good luck!
