Interview experience in Garden City
Guys, I hope everybody on this thread who are dealing with Garden City and members of this forum in general benefit from reading my interview experience today at Garden City. I will write the salient points of my interview today:
1. RD March 2002 I485 EB3
2. Received 2nd FP notice and interview letter one month back. Did that 2nd FP.
3. Interview was today. Took my lawyer with me as it was an AC21 case as I changed employers AFTER 180 days of being with the petitioning employer. Almost same job description, different title, different state, pay is now higher than my LC pay.
4. I strongly suggest taking a lawyer if you have an AC21 case or any other non-straightforward case. My lawyer was simply superb with all this.
5. Interview at 930AM, plenty of free parking.
6. Office asked me to take the oath, index fingerprint and signature.
7. Officer was extremely polite, professional, very courteous, friendly and not-to-mention very thorough with her work. Knew exactly what she was doing.
8. Garden City in general handles fewer cases and hence they tend to be more thorough as they have more time than federal plaza. They take their time and ensure that they double check everything and verify everything.
9. Officer asked me for my passport, looked at my expired H1B visa and I-94, asked me the genral questions on current address and if I had commited any crimes etc etc.
10. Asked for EVL. COmpared that very very carefully and thoroughly with that on my labor cert approval. She did not care at all about the title, only the job description and ensured that the salary was equal or higher than that on my labor cert.
11. She asked me to recite what I did at work and compared that to what was written. Title does not matter, she confirmed that for me. She also asked me the meaning of some of the technical terms in my job description.
12. She asked when I quit my petitioning employer and ensured by looking at my RD that I was there 180 days. She asked when I started my current job.
13. SHe asked for company annual report to ensure that it was a big company that could pay my wage.
14. SHe asked how many employees the company had.
15. SHe asked for my past 3 years tax returns with W2 for all of them.
16. She asked for my current EAD card.
That's all. After this, she said my card will be mailed to me once my security check clears which apparently will be on 26th Aug. She was content with all the documents as it satisfies AC21 law. She did not ask for paychecks, birth certificate, or anything else but what I mentioned abobe. My medical check is also 2years old and she did not bother with that either as per the law, it is valid until adjudication.
Only issue is my wife has not recd her interview or 2nd FP notice yet so have to go through all this again once she gets her interview call! So, the saga has not ended yet. Anyway, hope this helps you all and let me know if there are any specific questions. All in all, interview was starightforward and garden city is very polite and proffesional although very thorough.