Interviewed in San Jose -- Indictment case

ciba

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   Interviewed in San Jose -- Indictment case

   e-mail message sent by suffergc
on 11/19/01








Hi Ciba, How are you doing? I finally find the sense to write you
about my interview that I had in San Jose local INS in the week
before last week. Here\'s the background of my case: EB3 China,
PD: 01/98, RD: 01/05/01, ND: 01/19/01, EAD/Advanced parole: 02/??/01,
FP: 03/??/01, Transffered date: 04/23/01, interview: 11/08/01.


Actually I was a little surprised that I only waited 6 months for
the interview and I was given only 2 weeks to prepare for the interview,
-- a friend of mine was given 2 months from the appointment letter to
the interview date.


Before my interview, I had a meeting with my lawyer to talk about some
unusual and uncertain points in my case:


(1). I have an indictment: I was charged by my first employer in U.S for
transportation of technology to my previous employer. The case was finally
dismissed without jeopardy. But my lawyer told me that INS may use a
"different" standard than the U.S justice to judge if a immigrant is
"crimal" or not. So I still need to be careful though the case was dropped.


(2). I was forced to change job "after" "180 days" of filing of I-485:
before my previous employer shut down its business, it sold the department
that I was working in to my current company, and, I got a job offer from
current employer to continue the product. This may cause me trouble because...


(3). It\'s very embrassing that if the above "180 days" was counted by RD
(receipt date) I\'ll be fine, but, once INS asks to use ND (notice date)
as the start I\'ll be in trouble since my job change date is only 178 days
from the ND. My lawyer told me that even if most INS officers use RD, it\'s
possible that some may still use ND because there\'s no written document
about which date to use. Of course, if the INS officer insists to use ND
then I\'ll fail the interview and have to file an I-140 amendment first.


My interview was scheduled in the afternoon, I, my wife and our lawyers
(lawyer and her assistent) arrived in San Jose INS 15 minutes before the
appointment time. We entered the building, passed through the security
check, went upstairs to the hall, dropped the appointment letters in a
box in the window, then sit down to wait with the other about 30 people.


After 50 minutes (a little bit long I guess), my name was called and an
officer took us to her room. The INS officer seems to be very exprienced
since during the whole interview process, there was another apprentice
officer sitting besides her with a note and pen, and the officer frequently
turns to that apprentice to teach him something. Now the real process finally
started.


Here\'s the list detailed process:


(1). First she took our fingerprints and signatures, then we were asked to
swear that we\'ll tell the truth (sorry I don\'t know which term to describe
this process).


(2). Passorts, I-94 cards, driver licenses, EAD cards, advanced paroles.
Name, address, birth dates, birth places, marriage status, marriage place.
The officer checked our phsician examination record in her archive. Also
she asked if we are still married, we laughed and answered "of course".


(3). Last time to enter U.S. The officer found that the H1B visa which I
used to enter U.S expired after 3 months of the entrance time. She asked
my lawyer if there was an extension for my H1B. My lawyer said yes, then
the officer searched her archive and found the copy of H1B extension. It\'s
seems that the officer wanted to make sure that I have legal visa to cover
all time
 
cont.

(4). Latest employment letter. The officer noticed that I changed my job
and asked if my title and position changed, I told her that I got exactly
the same title and even work in the same product. I was happy the see that
she didn\'t question anything about RD or ND.


(5). The officer started to go through the routine questions that I have
answered in our I-485 application form. Only one question "Have you been
arrested, indicted or..." is important to me since I did have an indictment.
This is only question I need to answer "yes", upon my answer, the officer
searched my archive to find the indictment copy, then asked me what was my
indictment about, -- this is real reason for my interview. Now it\'s my turn
that I have been prepared for: I started to tell her the brief process of
my case from begin to end. Actually the whole story is just that I left my
first employer because I was paid undurably low and joined my previous employer,
-- unfortunately I got indicted after the first employer failed to ask for
huge amount of money from my previous employer, --- I believe this kind of
story is happening every day in Silicon Valley. After my statement, the
officer didn\'t say anything about it, --- I think this is another important
success.


(6). Finally the officer told me that my indictment is the reason for this
interview because my fingerprint matches the indictment record of FBI. To my
dissapointment, she told my lawyer that she couldn\'t give me instant approval
because even if my indictment dismissal letter was notarized by the lawfirm,
she still needs to send an email to FBI to confirm it and to make sure I don\'t
have any other records, -- I really don\'t understand why didn\'t INS do this
kind of investigation before the interview. I was shocked for a while before
my lawyer asked the officer to give me an appointment letter for passport
stampping so that I don\'t need to wake up at midnight in the morning to stand
in the long line in front of INS for the stamp. The officer said it\'s hard
for her to esitimate time for her to get response from FBI, but, to my surprise,
she said I can leave her our passports and she can stamp them and mail them
back to us. This made me to feel much better so that I was encouraged to
ask the officer if she will send the passports by priority mail, the officer
said "no just regular mail", -- at this time my lawyer helped me again, she
gave the officer an Fedex number which the officer can use to send the passports
to me by Fedex without any charge to INS! So this was all, the whole interview
took about 20 minutes. I think my lawyer did great job to help me through my
tough case: to prepare all necessary document for our I-485, to help us to
prepare for the interview, and, even more, to relief my pain to at the end
of the interview.


Here\'s some advices that I have to all interview waiters:


(1). Immigration to U.S could be a long and pain process that you need to
pay enough patience and efforts (actually this could be a good learn process
for your future success), but please DON\'T WORRY, there\'s nothing to be afraid
of: INS officers are just nice people that are not indend to give you hard
time, you\'ll ultimately get the approval if you didn\'t do anything seriously
wrong. Law is law, the INS officers will not change it during your interview,
instead, they will just strictly follow it.


(2). An exprienced lawyer for your interview is always a good plus, --- imagining
that during interview, sometimes the INS officer may directly question your
lawyer instead of yourself and good lawyers usually don\'t make mistakes. If
you know the reason for your interview, consult your lawyer and do some
preparation for it.


(3). Make sure you used a valid visa to enter U.S for you last entrance, and,
since then, be careful to always have legal status. If not, ask a good lawyer
to find a good explaination for it.


(4). If you changed job after 180 days, make sure that have a job that is
similar (at least title sould be the same) to your previous one (i.e. the
one that you claimed in your Labor Certificate) before your interview. If
not, I guess you can find a reason to postpone the interview and get more
time to find one so that you have a valid employment letter for your interview.


(5). If you do think you have any problem that may affect your case, consult
your lawyer to see if you need to exit U.S and enter again (e.g., go to Canada
to have vacation, but I heard that it\'s the best to go back to your homeland).
It\'s most likely that a new entrance to U.S may clear something for you because
the immigration officer will question you before grantting you the permission
to enter U.S. If you worry that you may fail to get the visa stamp in abroad
U.S embassy, talk to your lawyer to see if you are qualified to get the visa
stamp (that you can use to enter U.S so that you don\'t need to go to abroad
U.S embassy to risk the visa interview) BEFORE you exit U.S, --it does work
for some cases (at least I succeeded once).


(6). If you believe you don\'t have any of the above problems, just take good
sleep and enjoy your life in U.S without worrying about anything, -- you already
got your PR! Have you any questions, please ask Ciba to tranfer them to me and
I\'ll be glad to help. Again I want to thank Ciba and everybody that helped
me with advices and encourage!


Have a nice day,


Suffergc
 
No Title

suffergc,

Congratulations. I hope and wish that you get your Passports stamped soon. Thanks for sharing this info with us...

ciba, thanks for posting this info here...

Goodluck
PCee
 
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