Hi everyone, i'm an April filer, and would have posted my experience in the April filers thread, buti figured more people might benefit from my story.
Our DO is Memphis DO.
A little background; My wife and i met in January, and we got married in March and filed about a week after marriage. One reason we filed fo early, was because my OPT was about to expire and she didnt want me to be out of status. I worked in Mississippi and my wife worked in california albeit for the same company. We've been trying to get transferred to the same location for a while now. Our back up plan, was to move to a different state and both get jobs there if our current comany failed to transfer us. We are both engineers so we thought moving wonty be so hard.
Well the whole process went smooth, and we received interview letter in august for october 23. We arrived at the USCIS office about 15 minutes early. I can say ive never been as NERVOUS as that in my entire life. Not even for Job interviews. We waited for over an hour before we were called in. Our interviewer was this short African American male probably in his late 30 - 40s. While other couples were being called in, we tried to observe the interviewers, and they looked pretty nice so my wife was calm. Well we were called in about an hr later, we were sworn in an all that normal stuff. The interviewer started flipping through pages of our files, and said we will have to re-schedule this case. Am like wow,'i asked why and he said there's not enough time blah blah blah this is not the norm. He asked my wife where he lived and she said california he asked me the same question and i said mississipppi. He then said well how can we be married and not live together i explain the job situation to him, but he didnt seem to buy it. He stepped out for a minute, came back in and told me to follow him. He escorted me outside and told me to wait. He was with my wife alone for about 15-25 minutes. I was so nervouse for her, because i put all the documents together, but i did label the files. Apparently he quizzed her about if we had a checking acct together she said yes, showed him the statements, she even had her checkbook in her purse so she showed it to him with both of our names on it. Eventually, he took her out and brought me back in. he asked me if i wanted to withdraw the case and i said know. He asked me if my wife and i had lived together, i told him no and explained the whole JOB situation to him. He flat out told me look "this looks like a fraud" and this would be a very long case. I smiled and laughed and said well it is what it is. I told him "it would have been easy for my wife and i to come prepared with stories that werent true, but we decided to come and tell them the truth yes our story is wierd, but we didnt have anythng to hide so i didnt see any need to say otherwise". After all that, he seemed to calm down and dropped his very aggressive nature. He started talking calmly and i asked him well, you deal with these cases all the time what would you suggest he said its always good to live together for a while before filing, i agreed and said okay. I told him what our plans were for leaving together and he said that was good. One thing i observed in all this, he kept asking me regular interview questions..so i kept wondering in mymind, if this was a fraud, or if he thought it was, why would he even still proceed. Through all thses, with God's grace i kept my calm and just smiled. At this point he was more calm. A lady interviewer then came into the room to drop hime $5..lol..i guess for their lunch..she cracked a joke and we all laughed. Another guy also came into the room then he called the guy and said; this is our fraud officer and he then pointed to me and said this was the couple i was telling you about. Apparently when he stepped out of the room initially, he went to consult with the fraud officer. The fraud officer asked me what was going on and i told them the same exact thing. This is the story of our lives, it is wierd, but the truth. He looked at me,and we all had a good conversation. the lady interviewer who had come into the room kept looking and smiling at me, and i could tell she believed me. Our interviewer then told me well. they would contact me if they needed anything else. I gave him some more documents, and that was it. he didnt even get to see our photo album. He escorted me out, i met my wife in the waiting room, looked like she had tears in her eyes, i had a big smile on emy face(..lol..unbelievable)...she said my smile made her feel better..lol..we left and she was very sad that we didnt get an answer. In my mind, i felt we still had a chance because i know God was on our side and the conversationw e had at th end. On friday i logged on to check our case status, no updates, I-485 still wasnt on line. On saturday morning, i logged on again and lo and behold I-485 was online with status of "CARD PRODUCTION ORDERED". i was shocked and happy. happy that we were approved, shocked that with everything we went through we were approved.
I Learnt a big lesson; i mean we didnt have a lot of documents, but the only docuuments he kept were bank statemnet, we also have a credit line together, insurance papers emails and phone records. that was all. It was just favor from God. sometimes, all your documents dont count. Just stick to the truth and as long as you dont have anything to hide, you will be fine with God on your side. This wa smy experience. i hope it helps somebody....
One more thing, my observation was that from the beginning, he tried to intimidate us so that he could feel comfortable. Dont be rattled even when it looks like the interview is headed in the wrong direction!!!
Our DO is Memphis DO.
A little background; My wife and i met in January, and we got married in March and filed about a week after marriage. One reason we filed fo early, was because my OPT was about to expire and she didnt want me to be out of status. I worked in Mississippi and my wife worked in california albeit for the same company. We've been trying to get transferred to the same location for a while now. Our back up plan, was to move to a different state and both get jobs there if our current comany failed to transfer us. We are both engineers so we thought moving wonty be so hard.
Well the whole process went smooth, and we received interview letter in august for october 23. We arrived at the USCIS office about 15 minutes early. I can say ive never been as NERVOUS as that in my entire life. Not even for Job interviews. We waited for over an hour before we were called in. Our interviewer was this short African American male probably in his late 30 - 40s. While other couples were being called in, we tried to observe the interviewers, and they looked pretty nice so my wife was calm. Well we were called in about an hr later, we were sworn in an all that normal stuff. The interviewer started flipping through pages of our files, and said we will have to re-schedule this case. Am like wow,'i asked why and he said there's not enough time blah blah blah this is not the norm. He asked my wife where he lived and she said california he asked me the same question and i said mississipppi. He then said well how can we be married and not live together i explain the job situation to him, but he didnt seem to buy it. He stepped out for a minute, came back in and told me to follow him. He escorted me outside and told me to wait. He was with my wife alone for about 15-25 minutes. I was so nervouse for her, because i put all the documents together, but i did label the files. Apparently he quizzed her about if we had a checking acct together she said yes, showed him the statements, she even had her checkbook in her purse so she showed it to him with both of our names on it. Eventually, he took her out and brought me back in. he asked me if i wanted to withdraw the case and i said know. He asked me if my wife and i had lived together, i told him no and explained the whole JOB situation to him. He flat out told me look "this looks like a fraud" and this would be a very long case. I smiled and laughed and said well it is what it is. I told him "it would have been easy for my wife and i to come prepared with stories that werent true, but we decided to come and tell them the truth yes our story is wierd, but we didnt have anythng to hide so i didnt see any need to say otherwise". After all that, he seemed to calm down and dropped his very aggressive nature. He started talking calmly and i asked him well, you deal with these cases all the time what would you suggest he said its always good to live together for a while before filing, i agreed and said okay. I told him what our plans were for leaving together and he said that was good. One thing i observed in all this, he kept asking me regular interview questions..so i kept wondering in mymind, if this was a fraud, or if he thought it was, why would he even still proceed. Through all thses, with God's grace i kept my calm and just smiled. At this point he was more calm. A lady interviewer then came into the room to drop hime $5..lol..i guess for their lunch..she cracked a joke and we all laughed. Another guy also came into the room then he called the guy and said; this is our fraud officer and he then pointed to me and said this was the couple i was telling you about. Apparently when he stepped out of the room initially, he went to consult with the fraud officer. The fraud officer asked me what was going on and i told them the same exact thing. This is the story of our lives, it is wierd, but the truth. He looked at me,and we all had a good conversation. the lady interviewer who had come into the room kept looking and smiling at me, and i could tell she believed me. Our interviewer then told me well. they would contact me if they needed anything else. I gave him some more documents, and that was it. he didnt even get to see our photo album. He escorted me out, i met my wife in the waiting room, looked like she had tears in her eyes, i had a big smile on emy face(..lol..unbelievable)...she said my smile made her feel better..lol..we left and she was very sad that we didnt get an answer. In my mind, i felt we still had a chance because i know God was on our side and the conversationw e had at th end. On friday i logged on to check our case status, no updates, I-485 still wasnt on line. On saturday morning, i logged on again and lo and behold I-485 was online with status of "CARD PRODUCTION ORDERED". i was shocked and happy. happy that we were approved, shocked that with everything we went through we were approved.
I Learnt a big lesson; i mean we didnt have a lot of documents, but the only docuuments he kept were bank statemnet, we also have a credit line together, insurance papers emails and phone records. that was all. It was just favor from God. sometimes, all your documents dont count. Just stick to the truth and as long as you dont have anything to hide, you will be fine with God on your side. This wa smy experience. i hope it helps somebody....
One more thing, my observation was that from the beginning, he tried to intimidate us so that he could feel comfortable. Dont be rattled even when it looks like the interview is headed in the wrong direction!!!
he did calm down after a while though...lol