We DID go to our interview as scheduled and WE ARE SO GLAD we did. First let me explain the situation. In early November I get a letter regaridng the interview and it is scheduled for December 5. Of course having only about a month left, we start gathering supporting documents...About 2.5 weeks before the interview I get an e--mail (I signed up for the updates over the internet) that says that my interview was cancelled ...I call 1-800 number right away, I heard before that such messages can be an error, so to confirm that it might have been an error, I call...Believe it or not the 1-800 person tells me that it was in fact cancelled and I should not go to the interview - as you can imagine I am devastated...in about a week I get another e-mail update telling me that my papers are in BSC and my interview is deshceduled....I cannot believe it!!!! Despite the fact that all possible sources tell us that it was cancelled, not willing to deal with the option of not showing up (just in case it was not cancelled), we make a decision that unless we get a paper notice of the canelation in the mail, we are still going to go. (about 6-7 hour drive from where we live now)....so we do that. ]
Now to the day of the interview...
We showed up about 30 minutes prior to the time indicated on the notice. The guard at the door, does not check our notice againts any hard copy list or computer, but lets us in and tells us to wait. We are very confused, since we assume that our interview was cancelled and since he did not check us in or anything, we are nerveous that we might have to wait the whole day until we find that out, however we do not say anything and decide to wait...The waiting room is about 1/3 full - some couples, some people dressed in uniform, some random (single people and families)...some have lawyers, some have kids, some have piles of supporting docs. We are waiting....When people who showed after us are being called, we decide that we are going to wait another 30 minutes and then try to see if we have been cancelled, we are pretty much sure at that point that we will have to leave with empty hands...
The next moment a lady walks in, and.....calls my name!!!! It was so unexpected!!! She tells us to follow her and takes us to her office. We say the oath and sit down. She starts through the routine questions and starts with the question of my date of birth --- which I do not understand (for whatever strange reason
) and ask her to repeat it. Then she pretty much just asked how we met (I was telling the story and kind of messed it up a little bit), then she asked why we lived separately (I was still in school and my wife had a job in DC), so we explained. Then she asked about our honeymoon and we showed the pictures. Then she asked about I-864 and why it was not notarized, I explained that we mailed it when they came up with the new form and the new guidance, which did not require notarization. She asked why we used the old form in that case...I had nothing to say besides "I am sorry...". She did something on her computer, which kind of made us nerveous for a bit, but....she was simply printing the new form, which she gave my wife to fill out. That was pretty much it, she stampped the forms with "approved" stamp and stampped my passport and said the card will be on its way in about a month. Then she explained about the conditions and such...and we were out in about 10 minutes
Thanks everybody for your help. Goodluck to those who are waiting. Please always go by the hardcopy notices, DO NOT take electronic messages seriously unless you get the same notice in the mail. WE did not and as you can see it was the right choice. I cannot imagine the array of problems we would have to deal with if we would have actually followed the e-mail and the "advise" of the 1-800 customer service....
Now to the day of the interview...
We showed up about 30 minutes prior to the time indicated on the notice. The guard at the door, does not check our notice againts any hard copy list or computer, but lets us in and tells us to wait. We are very confused, since we assume that our interview was cancelled and since he did not check us in or anything, we are nerveous that we might have to wait the whole day until we find that out, however we do not say anything and decide to wait...The waiting room is about 1/3 full - some couples, some people dressed in uniform, some random (single people and families)...some have lawyers, some have kids, some have piles of supporting docs. We are waiting....When people who showed after us are being called, we decide that we are going to wait another 30 minutes and then try to see if we have been cancelled, we are pretty much sure at that point that we will have to leave with empty hands...
The next moment a lady walks in, and.....calls my name!!!! It was so unexpected!!! She tells us to follow her and takes us to her office. We say the oath and sit down. She starts through the routine questions and starts with the question of my date of birth --- which I do not understand (for whatever strange reason
) and ask her to repeat it. Then she pretty much just asked how we met (I was telling the story and kind of messed it up a little bit), then she asked why we lived separately (I was still in school and my wife had a job in DC), so we explained. Then she asked about our honeymoon and we showed the pictures. Then she asked about I-864 and why it was not notarized, I explained that we mailed it when they came up with the new form and the new guidance, which did not require notarization. She asked why we used the old form in that case...I had nothing to say besides "I am sorry...". She did something on her computer, which kind of made us nerveous for a bit, but....she was simply printing the new form, which she gave my wife to fill out. That was pretty much it, she stampped the forms with "approved" stamp and stampped my passport and said the card will be on its way in about a month. Then she explained about the conditions and such...and we were out in about 10 minutes Thanks everybody for your help. Goodluck to those who are waiting. Please always go by the hardcopy notices, DO NOT take electronic messages seriously unless you get the same notice in the mail. WE did not and as you can see it was the right choice. I cannot imagine the array of problems we would have to deal with if we would have actually followed the e-mail and the "advise" of the 1-800 customer service....