Interview people, yet another rant from ProActive on bringing an attorney with you

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ProActive

Registered Users (C)
I have lots of sympathy for people going through an interview at the local office, so here is yet another rant for you.

I did not have my lawyer with me and I was ok. I did a 1hr preparation session with him the day before the interview.

It is important to have copies of your previous INS documents (H1, LC, I140 approvals) and personal documents based on what the INS asked for in the interview notice, for example Birth/Marriage certificates, Diplomas, Lease contracts, Bank statement with copies and translations where appropriate. The INS may have lost any important documents from your file in the time elapsed since the file submital. It happened in cases I am personally aware of.

There may be questions asked on your status since you last entered the US, on your familial status, on your work responsibilities and company well being and even on your political history - not all the above may apply to you of course.

The next level of paranoia is to bring copy from the applications them selves, phone statements, travel statements. In my case the INS temporarily misplaced the pictures and I was very happy to have a backup set with me.

Bring and attorney with you if you are not sure you can handle the questions properly, for example because you have a complicated case or because you do not react well under stress or because your are not a well organized person and cannot handle lots of documents. I am not trying to be a smart ass, just pointing out that now is the time to evaluate correctly your skill set.

Keep in mind that hundreds or thousands of interview occur for employment based cases. I have not heard of any case being denied. Your goal is simply not to be further delayed and get the stamp in the passport on the spot.

Good luck!
 
copies for the interview...

In the list of documents to take to the interview, INS mentions: Tax return, W2 forms

Can it be a photocopy or we need to get a document/probe from the IRS?

I used to receive (from IRS) around July-August (each year) a copy of my tax return of the previous year.... This year I didnt receive anything.... But I kept a photocopy
 
ProActive, Nice to read your post. A question for the doc.s to prepare.

I received the interview notice from my lawyer.
I don\'t know whether you keep your notice, but they checked all the boxes of the items on this notice.(I believe SJ form is same)
My question is for two items among them.

Q.1 for the first item:
 "(omitted)......., ALL ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS FILED WITH YOUR ADJUSTMENT APPLICATION/PETITION."
Did you bring all the originals and copies of the documents you had filed for I-140 and I-485 applications?
Or, are those documents something else than I think?
How did you prepare for them?

Q.2 for the fourth item:
"BOTH THE PETITIONER AND BENEFICIARY NEED TO KEEP THIS APPOINTMENT. COPIES OF YOUR INCOME TAX
FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS WITH W-2\'S."
Is it the meaning that I need to make as many copies of the tax returns(and W-2\'s) as the number of my family members?
How did you do that?

I\'ll be asking the same question to my lawyer pretty soon, but I just want to ask you first to know how was your experience.
Thanks for your reply, in advance.

-Hal
 
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Q1. I had lots of original documents with me including diplomas, birth/marriage certificates with translations and copies. I even had extra diplomas and certificates compared to what I\'ve submitted for I485. The officer did not ask for any of them :)

Q2. One copy is enough.

In my short experience INS officers are pretty reasonable people. Having more than one copy of anything is not useful. Keep in mind that they already have a big file for you, they will minimize the amount of papers they need to keep on the long run.

Good luck!
 
Thank you for your reply, ProActive.

As your experience, one set of each requested copy of document would be enough.
I just got my lawyer\'s recommendation about it, and it is the same as your opinion.

Thanks a lot.
-Hal
 
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