Question about the AOS interview with no stamp

S

soul77

New Member
Hi, I had my I-485 interview today and I am a US Citizen petitioning for my wife who overtstayed her B-2 visa. I think my wife and I did fine and we submitted a good amount of evidence of our marriage including:

* a verification letter from our bank for a joint bank account (although the interviewer said she preferred a bank statement because it showed recent transactions, etc.)
* photos of our small wedding and a vacation to my parent's home in another state along with other random photos of our time together
* a medical bill in my wife's name, with our address on it along with a copy of the cashed check that I used to pay for her bill
* joint tax returns
* a rental agreement with both our names on it dating back to January of this year.

I think we answered most of the questions the interviewer asked us quite well with confidence and in a natural tone. There was one question which the interviewer asked about how long we had known each other and I said about a year and a half but then she asked us later a similar question but with a date this time: "So you two started dating 1 year and a half ago, so when was that in 2004?" We said no and she said "So in 2005?" and we said: "No, it was in March of last year so it was actually about a year and 3 months ago."

Well, we are both somewhat young, I am 26 and my wife is only 21. We met on March 1, 2006 and we were married by August 19, 2006. So we courted for a little over 5 months before we got married. It is a real marriage but I'm worried the interviewer might be suspicious because we have only been together for a little over a year and we got married after only 5 months. The interviewer asked us about how I proposed and I told her the story (I said it was about 3-4 months into our relationship), but in the middle of telling the story I said "Well, its kind of silly but then I placed the ring in her hand and asked her to marry me while we were dancing." Now thats the truth, but I'm worried it might have sounded fake just because I said "its kind of silly." The interviewer had a stern face throughout the story. Though she did smile when I told her I met my wife's parents via MSN video chat (they live in Peru).

After the interview was over, the interviewer told us she would take all the documents and review them and make a decision about our case within a week. She said she was satisfied with the document evidence we provided and that she didn't think we needed to submit anything else but she admitted that sometimes she forgets to ask for a document and if this happens she will request it later but for now it seemed to her that she had everything she needed.

Well, she didn't stamp my wife's passport, nor did she mention anything about approval. She only told us she would review all the material and make a decision based on the evidence we submitted within a week. She told us we will receive a letter from her after that.

So my question is: what does this usually mean? Also does anyone get their passport stamped nowadays? Does: "I'll review the documents and make a decision within a week" usually mean that we should be expecting a "stokes" (second) interview? Or are there often cases where there is no passport stamp, no missing documents, and still the approval comes afterwards? After all, the interviewer did not tell us we needed a second interview, nor did she tell us we were not approved. Can anyone shed light on this for me? Also, if worst case scenario there is a stokes interview, about how long after the first interview will we have the stokes interview? My wife and I are just very nervous right now after the interview experience. Thanks in advance for any responses!
 
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I had same thing happened to me and I received a rejection letter for my wife's GC. We had to file a i-290 petition and we are still waiting after 2 month!
 
Doesn't seem many people cared about this post, but I wanted to update it anyway in case there are others out there who are or might some day be in the same boat as my wife and I.

First, I'm FINALLY happy to report that my wife is a permanent resident! We filed in February 2007 and had our interview in June 2007. At which point, as you may have read in my original post, our officer (her name is Amber Vasek) told us she would have a decision within a week. A week later we got nothing. A month later, nothing. A year later, still nothing. Two years later, absolutely nothing. Finally two years and a month and a half later, my wife FINALLY gets the acceptance letter.

This whole experience has been awful. When we first had our interview, we were excited about getting the results a week after the interview as officer Vasek promised. However, we never, ever received anything from her...ever! We went to infopass nearly 2 dozen times during the last two years. We called USCIS and put in a service request 4 times. Each time, we received the same generic letter. The 90 days always came and went without any word from officer Vasek or USCIS. Each letter was worded the exact same way with the exact same amount of time. Everyone who deals with USCIS should take note that the letters are plain lies to keep you quiet for an extra 90 days.

We contacted several of our representatives in our state after we waited without a word from USCIS for over a year. That, unfortunately, did us no good since all they can do is put in a congressional inquiry and after several of those, we noticed that even our congressmen were lied to. That is, they each received the exact same letter claiming that the case was with another department (supposedly DHS) and could not be ruled on until they got it back from that department. Each letter was identical and each claimed it was a security issue.

Finally, after nearly two years of waiting and paying to renew my wife's employment authorization document multiple times at nearly $340 a year, we decided to get a lawyer to see about a writ of mandamus. Well, the lawyer advised us not to do it because it was not very likely to work with an I-485 case. It was far more successful in N-400 (Citizenship) cases. Instead, the lawyer contacted our field office and our officer directly and demanded a REAL status update rather than those fake generic letters filled with lies they are accustomed to sending. To our great surprise USCIS finally responded with a real, personal letter. We found our that the case had never been in another department as USCIS had claimed! It was a complete and utter bald-faced lie! How is it legal for them to lie to my representative and me? It's truly infuriating!

Anyway, in addition to finding out that the lies were simply delay tactics, we also received a list with 13 different items we needed to send to USCIS before they could finally rule on our case. Here are some of the highlights of the list:

1) All copies of W-2s and taxes for both my wife and I from 2008 and 2009.
2) A notarized signed affidavit from my employer detailing his knowledge of my marriage to my wife, including a list of my emergency contacts. Luckily my employer is a very good person and didn't hesitate to do as they asked but imagine if my employer lived in another state or was on vacation or was too busy to go to a notary after work as a favor for me?
3) Two notarized letters, one from each of my parents stating in as much detail as possible their knowledge of our marriage.
4) A copy of each page of all our bank accounts (including any blank pages) for the last year.
5) A copy of our rental agreement, our previous rental agreement, and the last rental agreement I had before we even met. Yes, you read that right, they asked me for a copy of the rental agreement I signed years ago before I even met my wife. Lucky for me I'm a pack rat and had it but that's absolutely ludicrous to ask for that.

I'll leave out the rest of the ridiculous list. I'm surprised they didn't ask me for a notarized letter explaining why my wife and I didn't have children yet! Here is the kicker: they sat on our case and lied to us and our representatives in congress for well over two years AFTER the interview but as soon as our lawyer contacted them directly, they replied except they did not give us a lot of time to gather all the documents they requested. No, no, that would be too fair. No, instead they gave us 7 days to get my wife re-fingerprinted and only 3 weeks to gather all of the documents: three weeks! They sit on this and lie to us for over two years and then they give us arbitrary deadlines of 7 days and 3 weeks or they drop our case. Like I said before, we had everything and our employers and my parents were more than happy to help so we turned everything in within two weeks but I still feel their arbitrary short deadlines are wholly unfair and ridiculous.

In any case, finally, after this whole ordeal, we received the welcome notice last week and the green card is on it's way. I wanted to share my experience for a couple of reasons. First, I know there must be many other couples out there in similar situations and I wanted to let you all know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if that tunnel is unjustly long. Second, to voice the fact that USCIS and Officer Amber Vasek are blatant liars! This system must change, this cannot be the right way to do things. Our lives have been on hold for two years because of their willful negligence. My wife has not been able to get in-state residency for school due to her status prior to the approval of the I-485 so we could not afford to send her to school and we want to wait until she is done with school to have kids so we had to wait until this got resolved before we could move on with our plans. It cannot be that the only way to get USCIS's attention is through lawyers and it cannot be/should not be legal for them to send letter stating complete falsehoods to me (a US Citizen) and my congressional representatives.

Good luck to you all and God blless!
 
Congrats soul77.

I have experienced their incompetence firsthand. They sat on our application for nearly 4 years (2002 to 2004) with same sh** letters.We never even had interview. Infopass, Congressional inquiries, Ombudsman worked (not sure what worked at the end). We spent money for EAD over EAD, travel permits over travel permits. Finally they move and guess what ? They date our application (on receipts) as submitted in 2004.

Anyways, I am glad I am citizen finally.

Would like to know what "permanent resident since" would they give your wife. I sure hope its from 2007.
 
Congrats mate..hope you can breathe a bit easy now :) Both you and your wife have a blast now and go for a second Honeymoon :)
 
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