The interview was scheduled for 1:00pm in Garden City, a 40-minute drive from Downtown Manhattan where we live.
It looked unreal that I finally had a day off in the middle of the week....went to the gym, starbucks and then at 11:00 we were ready to go. We wanted to be there earlier so my wife could back in the city on time for her 4:10 class.
Stuck in traffic as soon as we cross the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn.
We also wanted to stop by a Citibank branch to get my wife's birth certificate translation notarized.
After traffic clears up, we get to Garden City at noon. We spend like 35 minutes at the bank but none of the two notary public wants to notarize a birth certificate, saying that they can't because it's an official document. We tried to tell them that they would just be notarizing the fact that my wife is competent to translate from Russian into English but there was no way.
Whatever... I didn't even think it was necessary...it was just to be over-cautious.
We walked into the building at 12:50, passed security, and gave our interview notice at window 1.
The room was very crowded. Many couples, mostly with attorneys. But also single people.
We sat down, my wife started to read NY Magazine, I made some work-calls.
Surprisingly after only 10 minutes a lady called a bunch of people and we were first to be called. They escorted us upstairs where we have been told to sit.
A bunch of single people were called before us, then a few couple....We were called at around 2:00pm. A short old lady all dressed up in red called us, she was our DAO.
She told us not to sit yet and she swore us in.
We sat. She said she would start with my wife's I-130 petition. She asked how an Italian guy met a girl originally from Ukraine. My wife immediately told her that she wasn't Ukranian but half Jewish/half Russian and that it was the USSR, even though today it would be Ukraine.
Whatever, we met in a Russian club in Brooklyn, blah blah blah....
Then we gave her some of our (many many) pictures. She commented our pictures in Brazil because she adopted some kids from there. Then she recognized Australia and we explained her that that's where we went from honeymoon. Then we gave her our wedding reception pictures. She asked us where we got married....legally in Manhattan City Hall, but big reception was in Italy one week later and then she asked if my wife's family flew over. Of course, along with all her girlfriends and some of her parents' friends.
By that time we started to chit chat. Unfortunately for my wife that had a class at 4:10, our DAO was like a machine-gun when she talked. She got into an argument because she started saying that Rome was more beatiful than Milan (never say that in my presence
) and because she said that pizza was invented in America and then brought in Italy.. ...we finally agreed that we made it better then.
I felt a decision was already taken. She asked for some proof of living together. I gave her copies of our lease (last year and next year, just renewed), copies of bank statement, joint health insurance, life insurance and 401k with my wife as sole beneficiary. She said it was more than enough and not to give her so much paper otherwise when they look into my file for naturalization they're gonna have a hard time.
Then she reminded me that I was still under oath and that she was gonna ask me every single question on the back of the I-485 again. She said that they check with multiple agencies including consulates abroad and that if they find out that I lied it's an automatic denial. I answered all NOs. She looked at me when she asked about the communist party thing because she said that in Europe there are many little communist parties. I laughed, my wife laughed with me (we always have little arguments about her coming from the Soviet Union) and I told her she could write "definitely NO".
That was it. She said that my background check is clean, she stamped both the I-130 and the I-485 with a big red "Approved" stamp and she said that she was gonna stamp my passport with a temporary green card stamp. Perfect, I told her, because we're going to St.Maarten for Thanksgiving and I didn't wanna have any trouble. She said that I should have my plastic card by then anyways.
Then she gave us a little speech on removing the condition 90 days before the second anniversary of permanent residence (she said 90 days are not 3 months)....
And then she said she likes to give speeches to Europeans in particular about naturalization. She said I will be eligible in 3 years (actually 2 years and 9 months) and then she started with the whole dual-citizenship thing because Europeans are not willing to give up their citizenship (and she's right, I'll never do it). I pretended I didn't know anything and let her talk. Basically, the US doesn't recognize dual-citizenship but they don't care if you have it.
But she said that if there's a war between Italy and the US I have to be on the US side.
After that, she said to go to lunch because it would have taken a while to get my passport stamped. So we asked her for direction to the nearest train station so I could drive my wife who needed to go back to the city asap for school. Big mistake. She took almost 10 minutes to tell us how to get there (really just one right turn!).
The interview was over. She escorted us out. It lasted almost half hour but just because our DAO, a very nice and cultured person by the way, really looooooved to talk a lot.
I drove my wife to the train station, had lunch, and came back and got my passport back. They took the I-94 but forgot to ask me the EAD card.
Also, they never ever asked (not even at security check) any ID to my wife, no DL, no passport. Weird...I could have brought my sister and they wouldn't have known.
Anyways, it's over. Thanks to this forum and the wonderful people I met here we got through this with no trouble, no RFEs and no legal fees.
It looked unreal that I finally had a day off in the middle of the week....went to the gym, starbucks and then at 11:00 we were ready to go. We wanted to be there earlier so my wife could back in the city on time for her 4:10 class.
Stuck in traffic as soon as we cross the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn.
We also wanted to stop by a Citibank branch to get my wife's birth certificate translation notarized.
After traffic clears up, we get to Garden City at noon. We spend like 35 minutes at the bank but none of the two notary public wants to notarize a birth certificate, saying that they can't because it's an official document. We tried to tell them that they would just be notarizing the fact that my wife is competent to translate from Russian into English but there was no way.
Whatever... I didn't even think it was necessary...it was just to be over-cautious.
We walked into the building at 12:50, passed security, and gave our interview notice at window 1.
The room was very crowded. Many couples, mostly with attorneys. But also single people.
We sat down, my wife started to read NY Magazine, I made some work-calls.
Surprisingly after only 10 minutes a lady called a bunch of people and we were first to be called. They escorted us upstairs where we have been told to sit.
A bunch of single people were called before us, then a few couple....We were called at around 2:00pm. A short old lady all dressed up in red called us, she was our DAO.
She told us not to sit yet and she swore us in.
We sat. She said she would start with my wife's I-130 petition. She asked how an Italian guy met a girl originally from Ukraine. My wife immediately told her that she wasn't Ukranian but half Jewish/half Russian and that it was the USSR, even though today it would be Ukraine.
Whatever, we met in a Russian club in Brooklyn, blah blah blah....
Then we gave her some of our (many many) pictures. She commented our pictures in Brazil because she adopted some kids from there. Then she recognized Australia and we explained her that that's where we went from honeymoon. Then we gave her our wedding reception pictures. She asked us where we got married....legally in Manhattan City Hall, but big reception was in Italy one week later and then she asked if my wife's family flew over. Of course, along with all her girlfriends and some of her parents' friends.
By that time we started to chit chat. Unfortunately for my wife that had a class at 4:10, our DAO was like a machine-gun when she talked. She got into an argument because she started saying that Rome was more beatiful than Milan (never say that in my presence
) and because she said that pizza was invented in America and then brought in Italy.. ...we finally agreed that we made it better then.I felt a decision was already taken. She asked for some proof of living together. I gave her copies of our lease (last year and next year, just renewed), copies of bank statement, joint health insurance, life insurance and 401k with my wife as sole beneficiary. She said it was more than enough and not to give her so much paper otherwise when they look into my file for naturalization they're gonna have a hard time.
Then she reminded me that I was still under oath and that she was gonna ask me every single question on the back of the I-485 again. She said that they check with multiple agencies including consulates abroad and that if they find out that I lied it's an automatic denial. I answered all NOs. She looked at me when she asked about the communist party thing because she said that in Europe there are many little communist parties. I laughed, my wife laughed with me (we always have little arguments about her coming from the Soviet Union) and I told her she could write "definitely NO".
That was it. She said that my background check is clean, she stamped both the I-130 and the I-485 with a big red "Approved" stamp and she said that she was gonna stamp my passport with a temporary green card stamp. Perfect, I told her, because we're going to St.Maarten for Thanksgiving and I didn't wanna have any trouble. She said that I should have my plastic card by then anyways.
Then she gave us a little speech on removing the condition 90 days before the second anniversary of permanent residence (she said 90 days are not 3 months)....
And then she said she likes to give speeches to Europeans in particular about naturalization. She said I will be eligible in 3 years (actually 2 years and 9 months) and then she started with the whole dual-citizenship thing because Europeans are not willing to give up their citizenship (and she's right, I'll never do it). I pretended I didn't know anything and let her talk. Basically, the US doesn't recognize dual-citizenship but they don't care if you have it.
But she said that if there's a war between Italy and the US I have to be on the US side.
After that, she said to go to lunch because it would have taken a while to get my passport stamped. So we asked her for direction to the nearest train station so I could drive my wife who needed to go back to the city asap for school. Big mistake. She took almost 10 minutes to tell us how to get there (really just one right turn!).
The interview was over. She escorted us out. It lasted almost half hour but just because our DAO, a very nice and cultured person by the way, really looooooved to talk a lot.
I drove my wife to the train station, had lunch, and came back and got my passport back. They took the I-94 but forgot to ask me the EAD card.
Also, they never ever asked (not even at security check) any ID to my wife, no DL, no passport. Weird...I could have brought my sister and they wouldn't have known.
Anyways, it's over. Thanks to this forum and the wonderful people I met here we got through this with no trouble, no RFEs and no legal fees.