Hello everyone,
I had my interview today and got approved. Needless to say, I am a happy man.
I would like to take a moment to share with you my expirence and boy, what an expirence it was.
First rewind to Thus.21st a day before the interview. I was still unable to locate the DO in Houston thru google earth, mapquest, AOL etc. Searching these websites only showed a grass field. Not good, I thought. So, in the spirit of its always better to play it safe, I drove to the address indicated on the letter to make sure I knew exactly where it was and what roads to take.
I was able to find it with "relative" ease.
Now, for the big day Fri 22. I was a bit nervous, not because I have something to hide, but that I had been looking forward to this day for quite a while, now it was finally here.
I leave in the south western suburbs of Houston TX, so in order to make it there on time, I left 1 hour 45mins early. I had several choice of routes to take but I made a huge huge mistake. I took the freeway I seldom use and unbeknownst to be, booom, traffic and contrcution. I was not pleased.
We sat and waited, and waited, and waited. I was a miserable wreck. I couldnt believe this was happening. The construction and traffic was far worst that I had anticipated.
By the time I had made it to the interview, we were 15min LATE. It was sheduled for 1:30 but we didnt arrive till 1:45. Not good, I thought. My wife was a bit more calm then I was. I thought they would tell us we are going to get re scheduled.
7 minutes later, we were called by the IO (a lady) and immidiately she says "your interview was scheduled for 1:30.Why are u late?" I counterd by saying we got stuck in traffic and to please accept our apologies. She was pretty harsh with her tone. I was thinking to myself this is not good.
She let us into her office, swore us in, motioned for us to take out seats. She then asked for my name, asked my wife her name, and wanted to see our ID's. She then asked for my passport, EAD and SSN card.
By now, her tone was a bit more friendly as she asked all the usuall question, are you a terrorist, been arrested before, you know, that kinda stuff.
She then asked to see my childs birth certificate, which of course, I had. She asked then to keep any evidence we had, and we provided the mortgage statement and tax statements. After glancing over our wedding pics, she then took a sheet of paper from the front of the folder and said
"congratulations, you application has been approved." What a relief. It looks like the approval letter was already typed up and written before the interview. Is that normal? Can someone shed light on that? It even had the DO field manager's signature. I have been reading where people are being told they would here something in a few weeks, so that is why I askd. She didnt even look at 95 percent of my evidence. I was very well prepared with everthing imaginable. I did not want to take any chance.
We thanked her as she escorted us out. My wife even struckup a conversation with her about her baby (the IO mention she recently had a baby when she asked for our childs BC). The interview lasted exact 8 minutes. I time it from start to finish.
Except for the begining, it was pretty painless. Word of advice, do not be late, if you can help it. I am very happy this is finally over. I urge those in the process to remain firm. This has got started thinking of ditching business school when I finish my undergrad and instead do law, more like immigration law. Seriously.
So, I have exactly 2 months from today before I take a trip back to my homeland. I am sooo excited. I will remain on this for to assist in anyway I can. God Bless guys.
I had my interview today and got approved. Needless to say, I am a happy man.
I would like to take a moment to share with you my expirence and boy, what an expirence it was. First rewind to Thus.21st a day before the interview. I was still unable to locate the DO in Houston thru google earth, mapquest, AOL etc. Searching these websites only showed a grass field. Not good, I thought. So, in the spirit of its always better to play it safe, I drove to the address indicated on the letter to make sure I knew exactly where it was and what roads to take.
I was able to find it with "relative" ease.
Now, for the big day Fri 22. I was a bit nervous, not because I have something to hide, but that I had been looking forward to this day for quite a while, now it was finally here.
I leave in the south western suburbs of Houston TX, so in order to make it there on time, I left 1 hour 45mins early. I had several choice of routes to take but I made a huge huge mistake. I took the freeway I seldom use and unbeknownst to be, booom, traffic and contrcution. I was not pleased.
We sat and waited, and waited, and waited. I was a miserable wreck. I couldnt believe this was happening. The construction and traffic was far worst that I had anticipated.
By the time I had made it to the interview, we were 15min LATE. It was sheduled for 1:30 but we didnt arrive till 1:45. Not good, I thought. My wife was a bit more calm then I was. I thought they would tell us we are going to get re scheduled.
7 minutes later, we were called by the IO (a lady) and immidiately she says "your interview was scheduled for 1:30.Why are u late?" I counterd by saying we got stuck in traffic and to please accept our apologies. She was pretty harsh with her tone. I was thinking to myself this is not good.
She let us into her office, swore us in, motioned for us to take out seats. She then asked for my name, asked my wife her name, and wanted to see our ID's. She then asked for my passport, EAD and SSN card.
By now, her tone was a bit more friendly as she asked all the usuall question, are you a terrorist, been arrested before, you know, that kinda stuff.
She then asked to see my childs birth certificate, which of course, I had. She asked then to keep any evidence we had, and we provided the mortgage statement and tax statements. After glancing over our wedding pics, she then took a sheet of paper from the front of the folder and said
"congratulations, you application has been approved." What a relief. It looks like the approval letter was already typed up and written before the interview. Is that normal? Can someone shed light on that? It even had the DO field manager's signature. I have been reading where people are being told they would here something in a few weeks, so that is why I askd. She didnt even look at 95 percent of my evidence. I was very well prepared with everthing imaginable. I did not want to take any chance.
We thanked her as she escorted us out. My wife even struckup a conversation with her about her baby (the IO mention she recently had a baby when she asked for our childs BC). The interview lasted exact 8 minutes. I time it from start to finish.
Except for the begining, it was pretty painless. Word of advice, do not be late, if you can help it. I am very happy this is finally over. I urge those in the process to remain firm. This has got started thinking of ditching business school when I finish my undergrad and instead do law, more like immigration law. Seriously.
So, I have exactly 2 months from today before I take a trip back to my homeland. I am sooo excited. I will remain on this for to assist in anyway I can. God Bless guys.