Nervous about my Interview looking for some tips/advice! _ HELP!

A

avio

Registered Users (C)
So I finally got the letter for my interview which is scheduled on the 17th of Oct. I'm nervous about a few things after reading a lot of things online and few FAQ articles...


1. My wife (sponsor) and I (applicant) didn't exchange rings as it's not something we do in our culture/religion. I read this is taken as a negative point at the interview... I don't want to make up stuff to make the interview look legit, our marriage is legit and thats all I think that should matter right? Or should I arrange for rings for us? wedding bands?

2. I only have 2 pieces of evidence showing that we live together, current town home lease and a joint bank account. Is this enough? The utility bills and everything else is under her name because when we started living together, she was the one with the social security # and since I didn't have a social # I couldn't get anything in my name. Is this enough evidence? We have a joint cell phone family plan, but that doesn't show names and such.

Also her taxes were filed as single, not married for the time we were married, because when we tried to file as married couple they would ask for my social security #, and I didn't have one so the tax filing people said she should file as single for the time being until I obtained my social #. If I explain it to them, would this be okay?

3. My wife's last name is still her maiden name, she doesn't want to change it to my last name for feminist reasons lol is this going to be a problem? Should I tell the interviewer that her last name is still her maiden name?

4. I have our wedding pictures/movie with the entire family. I got married in court as well because of problems with marriage licenses from different county. Should I tell them we had to get married twice, once with family, and once in front of a judge because I accidentally got the marriage license from the county we lived in but I needed one from the county where I got married, but when I got the one from the county in which I got married, I had to get a new marriage certificate made by getting married in front of a judge.

5. Last but not least, we don't plan on having kids until after 30, should we just tell them that we don't plan on kids until after 30 or just say no to kids?
 
When did you get married? If you got married in 2011, your spouse's tax return which was due in April this year should have stated single because that return is based on marital status in 2010. So unless she married you in 2010 or before, filing as single was the correct choice for the latest tax return, even if you were married at the time of filing the return.

4. I have our wedding pictures/movie with the entire family. I got married in court as well because of problems with marriage licenses from different county. Should I tell them we had to get married twice, once with family, and once in front of a judge because I accidentally got the marriage license from the county we lived in but I needed one from the county where I got married, but when I got the one from the county in which I got married, I had to get a new marriage certificate made by getting married in front of a judge.
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You said there was a problem with legal formalities/documents of the first marriage ... did you get a marriage certificate (not just the license) from that one? If yes, did they revoke it? If not, who told you there was a problem with it, and do you have any documents confirming the invalidation/revocation of the first certificate? Which marriage certificate did you send with the green card paperwork, the first or the second one? Or is it that you didn't get a certificate at all from the first marriage, you only got a marriage license for the first and the one and only certificate was from the new marriage?
 
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You said there was a problem with legal formalities/documents of the first marriage ... did you get a marriage certificate (not just the license) from that one? If yes, did they revoke it? If not, who told you there was a problem with it, and do you have any documents confirming the invalidation/revocation of the first certificate? Which marriage certificate did you send with the green card paperwork, the first or the second one? Or is it that you didn't get a certificate at all from the first marriage, you only got a marriage license for the first and the one and only certificate was from the new marriage?
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The first time we got married was with family, I obtained the marriage license from the county A where we live, but got married in county B, so when applying for the marriage certificate they sent a letter saying you cannot get a license in county A and get married in county B... so we never got a marriage certificate from the first time. We have pictures of the whole family wedding and video as well.

When we obtained a marriage certificate from county B because we got married in county B, they said we either need to perform the whole ceremony again or get married in front of a court judge, so we got married in court in county B and obtained our marriage certificate from county B successfully.

So marriage certificate was only obtained once at the court marriage, thats the one we sent in with all the applications.

I didn't get married twice to 2 different girls, I got married twice to the same girl lol

When did you get married? If you got married in 2011, your spouse's tax return which was due in April this year should have stated single because that return is based on marital status in 2010. So unless she married you in 2010 or before, filing as single was the correct choice for the latest tax return, even if you were married at the time of filing the return.
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I got married in nov 2009 the first time (the whole ceremony with family), obtained a official marriage certificate from judge in feb 2010 due to the county mishap... applied for my green card in June 2011. Her taxes filed were 2009 and 2010, she will be filling 2011 taxes as married.

We tried to file as a married couple but they wouldn't do it without a SSN, so it was impossible to file as married without SSN for me.
 
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Your legal marriage began in 2010, so she needs to file an amended tax return as married for 2010 but not 2009. See http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc308.html

Your SSN is not required to file the return; if you can't get an SSN you can still get a TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) from the IRS and file with that. But now if you have the EAD you can get an actual SSN.

Don't enter the interview without the 2010 tax return amended to reflect her true marital status, and bring a copy of the amended return to the interview. The good news is that if she was the only one of you with income for 2010, amending the 2010 return will probably result in a refund because of how the tax brackets are set for married couples.
 
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avio said:
So I finally got the letter for my interview which is scheduled on the 17th of Oct. I'm nervous about a few things after reading a lot of things online and few FAQ articles...


1. My wife (sponsor) and I (applicant) didn't exchange rings as it's not something we do in our culture/religion. I read this is taken as a negative point at the interview... I don't want to make up stuff to make the interview look legit, our marriage is legit and thats all I think that should matter right? Or should I arrange for rings for us? wedding bands?

2. I only have 2 pieces of evidence showing that we live together, current town home lease and a joint bank account. Is this enough? The utility bills and everything else is under her name because when we started living together, she was the one with the social security # and since I didn't have a social # I couldn't get anything in my name. Is this enough evidence? We have a joint cell phone family plan, but that doesn't show names and such.

Also her taxes were filed as single, not married for the time we were married, because when we tried to file as married couple they would ask for my social security #, and I didn't have one so the tax filing people said she should file as single for the time being until I obtained my social #. If I explain it to them, would this be okay?

3. My wife's last name is still her maiden name, she doesn't want to change it to my last name for feminist reasons lol is this going to be a problem? Should I tell the interviewer that her last name is still her maiden name?

4. I have our wedding pictures/movie with the entire family. I got married in court as well because of problems with marriage licenses from different county. Should I tell them we had to get married twice, once with family, and once in front of a judge because I accidentally got the marriage license from the county we lived in but I needed one from the county where I got married, but when I got the one from the county in which I got married, I had to get a new marriage certificate made by getting married in front of a judge.

5. Last but not least, we don't plan on having kids until after 30, should we just tell them that we don't plan on kids until after 30 or just say no to kids?
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To answer some of your questions:

1. That shouldn't be a problem. Not all couples use rings. I don't think my parents have rings. If you are asked about rings, be honest.

2. I think that question was answered by someone else.

3. My wife (the immigrant) uses her maiden name. The IO didn't ask why she still uses her maiden name. In fact her GC and Drivers License has her maiden name.

4. We got married at the courthouse in front of the clerk of the court. We had photos from the wedding, and the officer didn't seem to question that. After my wife received her GC we traveled back to her country to have a big wedding there. My parents came to that also. The only issue with having two "wedding dates" is USCIS will recognize the one that was filed with the court.

5. The only question we where asked about kids was if we have any. We answered no. The officer drew a line through the question on the I-485 that said to list any children and wrote N/A.
 
Jackolantern said:
Your legal marriage began in 2010, so she needs to file an amended tax return as married for 2010 but not 2009. See http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc308.html

Your SSN is not required to file the return; if you can't get an SSN you can still get a TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) from the IRS and file with that. But now if you have the EAD you can get an actual SSN.

Don't enter the interview without the 2010 tax return amended to reflect her true marital status, and bring a copy of the amended return to the interview. The good news is that if she was the only one of you with income for 2010, amending the 2010 return will probably result in a refund because of how the tax brackets are set for married couples.
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It says on the website "Normal processing time for Forms 1040X is 8 to 12 weeks from the IRS receipt date." - we have less then 3 weeks until the interview. Should we go to the tax person who we used to file the 2010 taxes and have them file it, and then take the return they give us?

I got my SSN now after receiving my EAD.

Also do I need to file my taxes for 2010, I wasn't working. Which one of the following status would apply to us?

Married filing jointly?
Married filing separately?

2. I think that question was answered by someone else.
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No that wasn't answered by anyone :(
 
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I think your joint back account and the lease will be sufficient proof of your living together. As to your worry about the immigration officer questioning you about having kids, it is totally unnecessary. They would just ask whether you have any kids. Starting a family is not an issue of concern in this case.
 
jessicapotter said:
I think your joint back account and the lease will be sufficient proof of your living together. As to your worry about the immigration officer questioning you about having kids, it is totally unnecessary. They would just ask whether you have any kids. Starting a family is not an issue of concern in this case.
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Thank you jessica!
 
avio said:
It says on the website "Normal processing time for Forms 1040X is 8 to 12 weeks from the IRS receipt date." - we have less then 3 weeks until the interview. Should we go to the tax person who we used to file the 2010 taxes and have them file it, and then take the return they give us?
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Use a different person or do it yourself. They gave you wrong information by advising your spouse to file as single because of your lack of SSN. They should have known you can file with a TIN.

Bring a copy of the amended return, even though the IRS won't process it before the interview.


Also do I need to file my taxes for 2010, I wasn't working. Which one of the following status would apply to us?

Married filing jointly?
Married filing separately?
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File as married jointly (with zeroes wherever it asks for your income). When one spouse has zero income, married-jointly results in a lower tax bill than married-separately (with a few exceptions, such as when income is so low that the tax bill is zero in either case, or some other remote scenarios).
 
Jackolantern said:
Use a different person or do it yourself. They gave you wrong information by advising your spouse to file as single because of your lack of SSN. They should have known you can file with a TIN.

Bring a copy of the amended return, even though the IRS won't process it before the interview.



File as married jointly (with zeroes wherever it asks for your income). When one spouse has zero income, married-jointly results in a lower tax bill than married-separately (with a few exceptions, such as when income is so low that the tax bill is zero in either case, or some other remote scenarios).
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I didn't have a TIN/ITIN at the time either since I wasn't working or anything, I didn't think I needed one.

I will take the amended return, should I give it to them whether they ask for it or not? Or should I only give it to them if they ask for it?
 
MarineWife said:
@avio

Where are you located and could you tell us more about the interview? What questions they asked etc?
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Located in Chicago, IL.

The officer asked me (applicant) the following questions:

1. State your full name.
2. Where is your I-94.
3. What is your date of birth?
4. Where were you born?
5. Asked me about my IDs, passports, and birth certificates, marriage certificates.
6. Asked me a bunch of questions from I-485, all the criminal and assistant related questions. all NO answers.

The officer then asked my wife (sponsor) the following questions:

1. What is your full name?
2. What is your DOB?
3. When did you guys meet?
4. When did you get married?
5. How big was the wedding?
6. When did you start living together?
7. Can I see all the photos, and bank statements of your joint accounts, leases, etc.

We showed him our wedding album, cd of the video, album of our pictures together over the years, the joint account bank letter/statement, our house lease.

That was it... he took a few pictures, said I'll be right back I'm gonna make a few copies of these. Then He asked for copies of birth certificate and marriage certificate, and said you guys are done... your card should arrive within 3-4 weeks.
 
avio said:
Located in Chicago, IL.

The officer asked me (applicant) the following questions:

1. State your full name.
2. Where is your I-94.
3. What is your date of birth?
4. Where were you born?
5. Asked me about my IDs, passports, and birth certificates, marriage certificates.
6. Asked me a bunch of questions from I-485, all the criminal and assistant related questions. all NO answers.

The officer then asked my wife (sponsor) the following questions:

1. What is your full name?
2. What is your DOB?
3. When did you guys meet?
4. When did you get married?
5. How big was the wedding?
6. When did you start living together?
7. Can I see all the photos, and bank statements of your joint accounts, leases, etc.

We showed him our wedding album, cd of the video, album of our pictures together over the years, the joint account bank letter/statement, our house lease.

That was it... he took a few pictures, said I'll be right back I'm gonna make a few copies of these. Then He asked for copies of birth certificate and marriage certificate, and said you guys are done... your card should arrive within 3-4 weeks.
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Congrats Avio.......I hope mine goes as smoothly as yours and everyone else thus far
 
Congrats!! Happy that your interview went on well.. Good that you listed down your experience, it will definitely be of help to many!
 
A lot of thanks to Jackolantern, he helped me a lot throughout the entire process in various threads. Thank you!!!

I have one question, its been about a week now but my status online hasn't changed from "Testing and Interview" that it was on before... how long does it usually take to update ?
 
avio said:
A lot of thanks to Jackolantern, he helped me a lot throughout the entire process in various threads. Thank you!!!

I have one question, its been about a week now but my status online hasn't changed from "Testing and Interview" that it was on before... how long does it usually take to update ?
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You only got a verbal approval. So it could take days, weeks, or months for it to turn into an official approval with a case status update.
 
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