November 2009 family based filers, post here

[Naas]

congrats immig_geek and dreamcatcher.
I had my interview on the second. Everything went well, the officer only asked general questions. name, birthday, last date of entering the US. He said that he was missing my original birth certificate ( which i sent) so i gave him another copy. He then said that he was a bit confused with the tax returns. But he just didn't know that my father is self-emplooyed. He then said that it was ok and that now it makes sense. So he said he will approve me but that a file was missing. I didnt ask him what it was.. but i wish i did. He said it wasnt a problem but that he needs to put the file together and that I would receive my GC 7-10 days after that.. I just hope it doesn't take long... Oh, and he took the I-9 and asked me if i use my ead for id purposes. I said yes and he said that he wouldn't take it so that i can keep on using it as id until my GC comes. But he gave me an envelope saying that when I receive the GC, I should return the EAD. Wishing and praying that I will soon get an update.

 

[GCfromSpouse]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this forum. Had my GC interview today, and was approved Posting my interview experience for everyone's benefit.

Interview in NYC. Applying for Green Card on basis of marriage to USC. Married in November 2009.

Appointment at 9 am, called by 9:45 am. Very pleasant interviewer. First took Oath of Truth, and then sat down.

- Asked for my (GC beneficiary) original passport, SSN card, EAD, driver's license, birth certificate. Looked at originals, kept copies. Same thing for spouse (USC), plus naturalization certificate and letter from employer documenting position and salary.

- Asked for pictures documenting history of relationship. Gave her 10-15 pictures in chronological order (had taken along wedding and other albums as well). Was very interested to see older pictures, and and asked us to name people in the pictures.

- Asked us to describe history of how we met, and how we came to be married. Showed her a lot of documents including common degree (met in grad school), tickets to see each other during long distance relationship phase, lease at common apartment building, etc. Asked for wedding album and was very interested in knowing about the actual ceremony, reception, etc, including questions such as where/who was present. We didn't have any relatives present since we don't have any in the United States, so this section went on for a little long.

- Asked for proof of living together - lease, bills, bank statements, credit cards, etc.

- Asked for proof of relationship - showed marriage certificate, letters from company for life insurance and pension beneficiary, copies of health insurance cards with both our names, etc.

- Standard questions from I-485, plus ever paid state benefits, have previous marriages, children, etc.

- Kept copies of a lot of documents, including SSN, EAD, bank statements, degrees, marriage certificate. Also kept about 10 pictures. Had an older EAD card, and kept that as well.

- Ended with what do you plan to do next as a couple - children, property ownership, etc.? Are you stable at your jobs? Do your parents want to emigrate or visit?

Approved, and GC will be mailed in 2-3 weeks. Asked if we could get a passport stamp for me so we could travel without green card, but replied that USCIS preferred that people go through the regular process, unless they have extenuating reasons to travel sooner. Overall, pleasant experience with polite interviewer, but very thorough interview for about 30 minutes or so.

11/21/09 Mailed Package
11/23/09 Received at Chicago Lockbox
12/01/09 Checks cashed
12/06/09 Received FP notice
12/08/09 Fingerprint (Walk-in - actual date for 12/24 when we were traveling)
02/05/10 EAD card received
02/10/10 Interview notice for 03/10/2010
03/10/10 Interview - Approved
Waiting for Green Card!

 

[dhlunar]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this forum. Had my GC interview today, and was approved Posting my interview experience for everyone's benefit.

Interview in NYC. Applying for Green Card on basis of marriage to USC. Married in November 2009.

Appointment at 9 am, called by 9:45 am. Very pleasant interviewer. First took Oath of Truth, and then sat down.

- Asked for my (GC beneficiary) original passport, SSN card, EAD, driver's license, birth certificate. Looked at originals, kept copies. Same thing for spouse (USC), plus naturalization certificate and letter from employer documenting position and salary.

- Asked for pictures documenting history of relationship. Gave her 10-15 pictures in chronological order (had taken along wedding and other albums as well). Was very interested to see older pictures, and and asked us to name people in the pictures.

- Asked us to describe history of how we met, and how we came to be married. Showed her a lot of documents including common degree (met in grad school), tickets to see each other during long distance relationship phase, lease at common apartment building, etc. Asked for wedding album and was very interested in knowing about the actual ceremony, reception, etc, including questions such as where/who was present. We didn't have any relatives present since we don't have any in the United States, so this section went on for a little long.

- Asked for proof of living together - lease, bills, bank statements, credit cards, etc.

- Asked for proof of relationship - showed marriage certificate, letters from company for life insurance and pension beneficiary, copies of health insurance cards with both our names, etc.

- Standard questions from I-485, plus ever paid state benefits, have previous marriages, children, etc.

- Kept copies of a lot of documents, including SSN, EAD, bank statements, degrees, marriage certificate. Also kept about 10 pictures. Had an older EAD card, and kept that as well.

- Ended with what do you plan to do next as a couple - children, property ownership, etc.? Are you stable at your jobs? Do your parents want to emigrate or visit?

Approved, and GC will be mailed in 2-3 weeks. Asked if we could get a passport stamp for me so we could travel without green card, but replied that USCIS preferred that people go through the regular process, unless they have extenuating reasons to travel sooner. Overall, pleasant experience with polite interviewer, but very thorough interview for about 30 minutes or so.

11/21/09 Mailed Package
11/23/09 Received at Chicago Lockbox
12/01/09 Checks cashed
12/06/09 Received FP notice
12/08/09 Fingerprint (Walk-in - actual date for 12/24 when we were traveling)
02/05/10 EAD card received
02/10/10 Interview notice for 03/10/2010
03/10/10 Interview - Approved
Waiting for Green Card!

Glad to hear your interview experience went well. If your post interview timeline is the same as ours you should have your approval notice early next week and the GC in a week-and-a-half or two weeks.

 

[Phil1978]

Had my interview in the New York City DO yesterday. Only waited five or ten minutes after the appointment until we were shown in. Our interviewer was all business but not unpleasant. After giving us the oaths and taking our documents she let us know that the translation we had provided of my wife's birth certificate was not good enough and we would have to get a certified copy and bring it back. So unfortunately we knew right off the bat we wouldn't get a decision immediately. It also was annoying because our lawyer had specifically told us it was acceptable and we never received an RFE for a new one which we could easily have done in the past several months.

In any case, she then started asking us question separately for a good ten minutes. Only the person the question was asked to was allowed to respond. Of the questions I can remember (and my wife's were essentially the same) they were: what are her parents' names, how many siblings does she have and what are their names, where did she live when we met, how did we meet, where did she work, where does she go to school and when did she start, what is her phone number, what is her birthday. There were a few more. She then had to answer her questions.

Following that she looked through our wedding album and the other pictures we brought and kept three for the file. She also went through all the documents we had brought as proof of our relationship and kept almost all of them, including joint bank account, life insurance with her as beneficiary, joint credit card, receipts from our wedding reception, letter from my employer listing her as being on my health insurance plan, and our joint 2009 tax return.

After asking my wife the standard yes/no questions she gave us a form allowing us to get back in the building within the next two days after we got the new translation. We also go the standard sheet saying a decision will be made in 60 days. She did say that everything seemed to be in order, though. We got the certificate translated this morning and I handed it in this afternoon so just waiting for the decision! Hope it comes soon.

 

[dhlunar]

Had my interview in the New York City DO yesterday. Only waited five or ten minutes after the appointment until we were shown in. Our interviewer was all business but not unpleasant. After giving us the oaths and taking our documents she let us know that the translation we had provided of my wife's birth certificate was not good enough and we would have to get a certified copy and bring it back. So unfortunately we knew right off the bat we wouldn't get a decision immediately. It also was annoying because our lawyer had specifically told us it was acceptable and we never received an RFE for a new one which we could easily have done in the past several months.

In any case, she then started asking us question separately for a good ten minutes. Only the person the question was asked to was allowed to respond. Of the questions I can remember (and my wife's were essentially the same) they were: what are her parents' names, how many siblings does she have and what are their names, where did she live when we met, how did we meet, where did she work, where does she go to school and when did she start, what is her phone number, what is her birthday. There were a few more. She then had to answer her questions.

Following that she looked through our wedding album and the other pictures we brought and kept three for the file. She also went through all the documents we had brought as proof of our relationship and kept almost all of them, including joint bank account, life insurance with her as beneficiary, joint credit card, receipts from our wedding reception, letter from my employer listing her as being on my health insurance plan, and our joint 2009 tax return.

After asking my wife the standard yes/no questions she gave us a form allowing us to get back in the building within the next two days after we got the new translation. We also go the standard sheet saying a decision will be made in 60 days. She did say that everything seemed to be in order, though. We got the certificate translated this morning and I handed it in this afternoon so just waiting for the decision! Hope it comes soon.

Don't worry about the updates. We received our card production update at 11pm, so I hope if an update is done today that you will have an email tonight.

Did your English translation of the birth certificate say, "I hereby certify that I am competent to translate this document from (language of document) to English and that this translation is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and ability," then printed name, signature and date? When my wife got her birth certificate translated, I told the person translating it to write that on the translation. I got the wording from an how-to book on immigration. The translated document was accepted with no problems, but the only thing the IO had an issue was the original didn't say what date the birth was recorded. After discussing it the IO said she would check with her supervisor and came back to say everything was ok.

 

[Phil1978]

Don't worry about the updates. We received our card production update at 11pm, so I hope if an update is done today that you will have an email tonight.

Did your English translation of the birth certificate say, "I hereby certify that I am competent to translate this document from (language of document) to English and that this translation is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and ability," then printed name, signature and date? When my wife got her birth certificate translated, I told the person translating it to write that on the translation. I got the wording from an how-to book on immigration. The translated document was accepted with no problems, but the only thing the IO had an issue was the original didn't say what date the birth was recorded. After discussing it the IO said she would check with her supervisor and came back to say everything was ok.

Yes, that is what our translator had signed but the IO had a problem with the translation itself. It had translated all the important parts but there were still a few words and phrases that had nothing to do with her actual birth but appear on the certificate that were not translated. The new one translates every single word that appears. Didn't get the update last night but hoping for tonight or Monday...

 

[danromeo]

Interview today: GC Approved !

The officer was very nice and professional.

Time to move on with our lives now

Thanks everybody for this forum.

 

[apruscind]

Interview Details:

We waited in the room for about 40 minutes and then our turn to go to the interview. The interviewer was a lady officer and she was very very nice. I was their along with my wife(petitioner) and the beneficiary(my wife's Mom) and the interviewer asked us who the petitioner and who i was and after telling the story, she allowed me to follow them and once we are in...she asked us to show the beneficiaries's Passport, petitioner's photoid, SSN and my Photoid and SSN and she copied all of them and asked all of us to stand up to do Oath and then she started asking questions.

The officer first asked my wife to verify few things, address, signature on the form, ssn, etc and then asked my wife if the beneficiary knew English and my wife answered No and then she told my wife to be the translator and then she started asking questions few general questions that are on the form and once after all of them were answered, the officer asked the beneficiary to check the signature on the form......once this is done....she said she is approving the case but she said she had couple of issues....

One of the questions the officer asked to the beneficiary was to tell the address and since my MIL didnt answer that she said it is ok....

1) finger prints was not clear (we went couple of times for finger prints)...since fp was not clear she asked us to bring the police clearance certificate from the local police station(the city where we are living). I showed her the PCC that we got from the Indian Embassy but she said she needs one from the local police..
2) the medical report we submitted was incomplete(the doctor's office forgot to put a check box on one of the results) and she asked us to go back to the doctor and get it done.

She asked us to come back again on 04/01/2010 at 8:00 AM. She printed out a letter showing the appointment time and listing the things that we have to take with us on the next appointment date. I asked the officer if my wife(petitioner) needs to be present on the next interview date and she said not necessary but the beneficiary has to be there.....

We are in the process of getting these two things done....

 

[apruscind]

IT IS DONE Today (Approved). We went to the office by 7:40 AM and waiting for our turn and the lady who did interview last week called us at 8:20 AM and we went inside and did the Oath again by raising the right hand and submitted both the documents that she requested from last interview ( PCC from local police station since both times the FPs are not taken properly and the incomplete medical report by the doctor). After checking both the documents, in couple of minutes she said that she is APPROVING the AOS and said we should recevie GC in the mail between 5 - 7 weeks. She printed a Congratulations letter and asked to hold on to this letter till we receive the physical GC in the mail.

The whole interview process with this Officer is very cool and she is the best officer.