Hi All,
Before my interview I was always looking for interview experiences in Denver, but couldn't find many recent experiences. So here is my experience
In summary, Though I didn't get the stamp in my passport on the spot, I would say the interview went really well. The officer said that my FBI name check is not complete yet, but other than that everything else looked good. He said he will go ahead and approve the 130, and we will receive our green card once the name check is complete.
A little bit about our case - I am an Indian on H1 married to a US citizen; We have known each other for 6 years now and have been married for a year now.
Our interview was at 8:15 in the morning. We live 45 mins from the Denver DO. We left our home at 6:00. Due to the early morning rush hour, we reached there by 7:35. I was expecting this great hall with 40ft roofs and a huge waiting hall. The office was much smaller than what we expected Looks like the office occupies just one half of the first floor. We went through the main door and there was a small sign with an arrow saying USCIS next to the elevator. We walked in that direction and found the entrace to the waiting hall. There was a no food or drinks beyond this point sign on the door. My wife wanted to bring her water with her, so we had the bottle of water with us and we decided that we will step away from the door and finish our water. As we were in the hall way, the security gaurd came out and asked us very politely whether we wanted to come in. We said we just wanted to finish our water before entering the hall. He replied no problem and took the interview letter from us and told us to come in whenever we are ready. We walked in to the waiting hall a minute later through the metal detectors.
The waiting hall was just about 20 x 30, with 5-6 rows of chairs. We made ourselves comfirtable in one corner. There were 4-5 couples already waiting there. I thought to myself there aren't any Indians here, thats interesting As we were waiting we saw the interview officers opening the door and seeing-off people and calling people in. All of them were neatly dressed and polite. We saw 4-5 different officers; One of the officer, who was an african american, appeared really stern. He called one of the couples and asked the man to stay outside and interviewed the wife separately. I thought I dont want that guy to interview me A little later one of the officers came out and called our name. We had our attorney with us, and all of us walked into the opened door.
He introduced himself and again he was really polite. He walked us to his office and told us to sit in the first two seats and gave the corner seat to our attorney. He asked us to keep standing and raise our right hands. He read the oath and we said yes in the end. He asked me to give my passport and I-94, and my wife her drivers license. He asked me to give my license also if I had one. I gave my license also. He started looking through my passport and asked me when I first entered US, I replied June 2006 (nervous
) . He was a little puzzled and asked June 2006? My wife corrected that and said June 2000. He looked through all my visas and was making sure that I didnt have any over stays or I wasn't here illegally. After that he started asking the questions,
Hopefully the name check wont take that long.
Here is my time line ...
10/30/2006 - RD
11/06/2006 - RFE (Birth Certificate)
01/16/2007 - Response to RFE received
01/19/2007 - Advance Parole Approved
01/24/2007 - EAD approved
01/29/2007 - Interview notice received
03/01/2007 - Interview done - Name check pending
Before my interview I was always looking for interview experiences in Denver, but couldn't find many recent experiences. So here is my experience
In summary, Though I didn't get the stamp in my passport on the spot, I would say the interview went really well. The officer said that my FBI name check is not complete yet, but other than that everything else looked good. He said he will go ahead and approve the 130, and we will receive our green card once the name check is complete.
A little bit about our case - I am an Indian on H1 married to a US citizen; We have known each other for 6 years now and have been married for a year now.
Our interview was at 8:15 in the morning. We live 45 mins from the Denver DO. We left our home at 6:00. Due to the early morning rush hour, we reached there by 7:35. I was expecting this great hall with 40ft roofs and a huge waiting hall. The office was much smaller than what we expected
Looks like the office occupies just one half of the first floor. We went through the main door and there was a small sign with an arrow saying USCIS next to the elevator. We walked in that direction and found the entrace to the waiting hall. There was a no food or drinks beyond this point sign on the door. My wife wanted to bring her water with her, so we had the bottle of water with us and we decided that we will step away from the door and finish our water. As we were in the hall way, the security gaurd came out and asked us very politely whether we wanted to come in. We said we just wanted to finish our water before entering the hall. He replied no problem and took the interview letter from us and told us to come in whenever we are ready. We walked in to the waiting hall a minute later through the metal detectors. The waiting hall was just about 20 x 30, with 5-6 rows of chairs. We made ourselves comfirtable in one corner. There were 4-5 couples already waiting there. I thought to myself there aren't any Indians here, thats interesting
As we were waiting we saw the interview officers opening the door and seeing-off people and calling people in. All of them were neatly dressed and polite. We saw 4-5 different officers; One of the officer, who was an african american, appeared really stern. He called one of the couples and asked the man to stay outside and interviewed the wife separately. I thought I dont want that guy to interview me A little later one of the officers came out and called our name. We had our attorney with us, and all of us walked into the opened door. He introduced himself and again he was really polite. He walked us to his office and told us to sit in the first two seats and gave the corner seat to our attorney. He asked us to keep standing and raise our right hands. He read the oath and we said yes in the end. He asked me to give my passport and I-94, and my wife her drivers license. He asked me to give my license also if I had one. I gave my license also. He started looking through my passport and asked me when I first entered US, I replied June 2006 (nervous
) . He was a little puzzled and asked June 2006? My wife corrected that and said June 2000. He looked through all my visas and was making sure that I didnt have any over stays or I wasn't here illegally. After that he started asking the questions,- He asked us each others full Names, our Adress, Date of Births and Occupations & Where we work, Social security numbers, etc.
- Asked us whether we have any kids together and whether we have any kids before this marriage. We responded no and He added to the 485 application that we were not married before and we didn't have any kids before this marriage. And asked me to sign the 485 again with the added information. I signed it and passed it to my wife, he said she doesnt need to sign it.
- Then he asked the "no" questions - interestingly he only asked some of the questions. For all the questions he asked from the applications he made a tick mark next to the information on the application, it looked like he was just verifying what was in the applications.
- He asked my wife how often does she meet my parents - she said she has only met them once, but she talks to them over the phone often. I added that she met my parents during our wedding in India.
- We had a court marriage (the legal one) in US and went to India for the cermony. He asked whether any of my wifes family was present at our court marriage - we said no, and explained that they live far away, besides we had our wedding planned for a month away from our court marriage and her mom came to India with us. Officer asked how she took it, and he joked that he is yet make that long journey.
- Had a problem with me not having the birht certificate - We had the non-availability and affadavits. Had to explain that my parents never got a birth certificate for me and people in India has to go and register the birth at the registrar office, etc.
- He asked us whether the address we live at is owned by us or whether we are renting - we said yes we own it and he asked us for a mortgage statement, we said we dont have mortgage statement but we have a property taxes statement on both of our names and gave it to him
- He asked if we have any insurance papers on our names - we presented the auto and medical insurance papers.
- He asked my wife when did we start living together - She replied since July 2002. He asked my wife again whether we had worked out all of the kinks in the relationship before actually getting married.
- Asked if we have any pictures from our marriage in India. We brought out our neatly done wedding album. He looked through the album and was going to make a copy of some of the photos. I offered the loose pictures I brought with me. He looked through some of them and picked 3 photos out of my 60 pictures.
- Asked my wife whether she thinks that I married her for love but not for the immigration purposes and will bring all my family later to US. Asked if she still would like to go forward with this process - ofcourse she replied yes.
- Told us that everything looks good but he cant approve it today as my FBI name check has not come back yet. It might take upto 6 months to get it. He told my wife that how ever he is going to approve the 130. Told us that we should get the green card as soon as the FBI clears it. and explained that if they issue me the card in the next 6 months then it will be a temporary card and we need to file an application to remove that temporary status.
- Made copies of our drivers licenses and was making jokes about how their copier is almost dead (Yes it was really dead, the copies made were really bad
Hopefully the name check wont take that long.
Here is my time line ...
10/30/2006 - RD
11/06/2006 - RFE (Birth Certificate)
01/16/2007 - Response to RFE received
01/19/2007 - Advance Parole Approved
01/24/2007 - EAD approved
01/29/2007 - Interview notice received
03/01/2007 - Interview done - Name check pending