Interview Experience - Extensive Travel - 800 days

A

aug15th

Registered Users (C)
I had my interview at the Dallas DO today May 14th. It went very well. I was very nervous about my extensive travel over the past 5 years. I had some 800 odd days of travel that included trips to a lot of countries in the world. But none of my trips was over 6 months, the maximum trip length was 110 days. I was working for a US company as a contractor and did have a letter from the company for the reason for the numerous visits.

But the interviewing Officer was very pleasant and the only documents he asked was the green card and driver's license and my passport. I used about 5 books of passport but did not have any of the old books. I just gave my new book but he did not even open it.

He went thru the application and when we came to the travel part, he asked where you an US employee for which I said yes and he went right past it. Whew! what a relief.

When it came to my wife's section, he asked whether I have applied for I130 for her. I said no and that I was waiting to get my citizenship before applying for her. He said I should have applied for her I130 and changed the status once I got my citizenship.

Finally, he tried to calculate my age when I got my Green card to see whether I had to register for Selective Services. I was almost 28 at that time, so I was ok.

The rest was painless, the six questions, the english sentence, after the end of which, he gave me a printout recommending me for approval.

Now I have to wait for my oath.

Bottom line, for those of you who have a lot of trips, just three tips. One, do not bring up anything on your own. Just answer whatever is asked. Second, It all depends on the rapport you develop with your interviewing officer. Once you establish a cordial tone, everything is easy. For me, my officer was a fillipino and I mentioned to him about my time in Phillipines and a phrase in Tagalog. Third, dress ultra formally. I had a suit and a tie and my officer commented that I am dressed ultra formal for the interview.

Good luck to everyone.
 
Dallas DO on stemmons does same day oath (my wife got), I think you too will get the convention center oath on June 25
 
Congratulations.
Question for you. Why were you not able to get a same day oath ??? Just curious.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Congratulations Aug15th!!!!

You said "Finally, he tried to calculate my age when I got my Green card to see whether I had to register for Selective Services. I was almost 28 at that time, so I was ok."


Could you explain more about this part??

Thanks
Homer
 
Congratulations, Aug15th. My interview is on May 22nd and my case is similar to yours, I too have 300 some days on my n400, many small trips to visit wife and havent filed 1-130. Good advise, I wont open my mouth more than asked.
 
Hey, good to see that you were outside for so long and were still approved. I am studying in the Netherlands, and, when I apply for citizenship at the end of next year, I will have been out of the country for only a few days less than the time spent in the country. I guess my case is a bit more complicated than yours, but you do give me hope :)

Congratulations...
 
Wednesdays are their holidays. That was the reason for not having oath on the same day. And all the interviewing officers were in their Tshirts and Jeans (not in their uniform). The mood was also very casual.

thedeepsea said:
Congratulations.
Question for you. Why were you not able to get a same day oath ??? Just curious.
Click to expand...
 
He asked me how old I was now? And got the date that I got my green card and he took out a sheet of paper and started calculating it. Finally, he arrived at the conclusion that I was almost 28 when I got my green card. So he said, I did not have to register for Selective Services.




HomerSimp said:
Congratulations Aug15th!!!!

You said "Finally, he tried to calculate my age when I got my Green card to see whether I had to register for Selective Services. I was almost 28 at that time, so I was ok."


Could you explain more about this part??

Thanks
Homer
Click to expand...
 
aug15th said:
Wednesdays are their holidays. That was the reason for not having oath on the same day. And all the interviewing officers were in their Tshirts and Jeans (not in their uniform). The mood was also very casual.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully you will be all done with the process in the very near future.
Good luck
 
aug15th said:
I had my interview at the Dallas DO today May 14th. It went very well. I was very nervous about my extensive travel over the past 5 years. I had some 800 odd days of travel that included trips to a lot of countries in the world. But none of my trips was over 6 months, the maximum trip length was 110 days. I was working for a US company as a contractor and did have a letter from the company for the reason for the numerous visits.

But the interviewing Officer was very pleasant and the only documents he asked was the green card and driver's license and my passport. I used about 5 books of passport but did not have any of the old books. I just gave my new book but he did not even open it.

He went thru the application and when we came to the travel part, he asked where you an US employee for which I said yes and he went right past it. Whew! what a relief.

When it came to my wife's section, he asked whether I have applied for I130 for her. I said no and that I was waiting to get my citizenship before applying for her. He said I should have applied for her I130 and changed the status once I got my citizenship.

Finally, he tried to calculate my age when I got my Green card to see whether I had to register for Selective Services. I was almost 28 at that time, so I was ok.

The rest was painless, the six questions, the english sentence, after the end of which, he gave me a printout recommending me for approval.

Now I have to wait for my oath.

Bottom line, for those of you who have a lot of trips, just three tips. One, do not bring up anything on your own. Just answer whatever is asked. Second, It all depends on the rapport you develop with your interviewing officer. Once you establish a cordial tone, everything is easy. For me, my officer was a fillipino and I mentioned to him about my time in Phillipines and a phrase in Tagalog. Third, dress ultra formally. I had a suit and a tie and my officer commented that I am dressed ultra formal for the interview.

Good luck to everyone.
Click to expand...



are you saying he didn't even bother looking at the letter from your employer?

glad to see this post though- nice to see something normal rather than the usual immigration-nazi-type posts around here=)
 
Congrats OP! This case shows how much depends on the IO and his/her attitude. Other IOs have asked for passport and checked travel dates thoroughly, so the issue is very open to interpretation.
 
US CIS is far from being fair and treating everybody equally. If you have tricky case with absences all you can do is hope to get lucky :-(
 
Feliz-LA said:
US CIS is far from being fair and treating everybody equally. If you have tricky case with absences all you can do is hope to get lucky :-(
Click to expand...
you talking from personal experience or opinion? if the former please provide your example..

thanks. nice to know when someone is offering personal experience vs. just banter...
 
Feliz-LA said:
US CIS is far from being fair and treating everybody equally. If you have tricky case with absences all you can do is hope to get lucky :-(
Click to expand...

I am under impression that IO is there to help us finish transformation from permanent residents to the citizens of US. I don't see why would they be against aproving our applications unless there is an objective issue with it.
 
None of my documents was checked. I had a big file and did not have to open it. My passport was also not opened. A funny incident though, For one of my visas, the travel agency had pinned a picture of mine on the outside of the passport. My officer thought that my passport was issued like that and said, "hmm, they have changed the passport to show the picture on the outside". I didnt bother to correct him :)
 
Feliz-LA said:
US CIS is far from being fair and treating everybody equally. If you have tricky case with absences all you can do is hope to get lucky :-(
Click to expand...

It might also have to do with Dallas DO. Me, my family and a lot of my friends had interviews or had to interact with them. I havent heard one case where the officer was rude or the person was grilled. Every one of these experiences has been straight forward. So based on my experiences and the experiences of my family and friends, all I can say is, most of the officers in USCIS are fair and courteous except for the odd one who has a bad day. Plus it is also like the regular world, if you treat someone fair, chances are you will be done the same.
 
aug15th said:
None of my documents was checked. I had a big file and did not have to open it. My passport was also not opened. A funny incident though, For one of my visas, the travel agency had pinned a picture of mine on the outside of the passport. My officer thought that my passport was issued like that and said, "hmm, they have changed the passport to show the picture on the outside". I didnt bother to correct him :)
Click to expand...

Hehe, they are clueless... but that works in your favour, eh?
 
aug15th said:
It might also have to do with Dallas DO. Me, my family and a lot of my friends had interviews or had to interact with them. I havent heard one case where the officer was rude or the person was grilled. Every one of these experiences has been straight forward. So based on my experiences and the experiences of my family and friends, all I can say is, most of the officers in USCIS are fair and courteous except for the odd one who has a bad day. Plus it is also like the regular world, if you treat someone fair, chances are you will be done the same.
Click to expand...

My experience was also very similar and I'm in the Dallas DO. My IO was VERY pleasant. I had a total of 415 days outside the US with 2 trips of 5 months apart with 2 weeks in the US between and my IO didn't ask me a single thing about them. I was still working for my US company and being paid in the US, but she didn't even bring it up or query it.

I am so glad I didn't get any of the IOs I read about sometimes in these forums here.

Maybe they really are just friendlier in Dallas :)
 
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