Really Anxious
Member
5 yrs 3 months saga ended. Interviewed at Newark on 01/15/2002 for AC21 based case. Approved and stamped for both primary and spouse.
My wife and I reached Newark at around 8:45. The interview was at 9:40. There was a short line outside the building. Got in at 9:00. Security checked, then went to 3 rd floor and dropped interview letter around 9:10. We did not take the lawyer. My wife is the primary and I was the derivative. She had changed jobs after RFE using AC21 so we did not trust the old desi company retained lawyer anyway. Her manager at the new company, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, had given her a very nice employment verification letter stating that she was a very valued employee working in an extremely important project. The job description mentioned was 80% similar to the LCA job description. The job title was totally different: old - \'Software Engineer\', new - \'Senior Technology Officer\'. The salary was 20% more and we got the letter notarized too. We carried two bagfuls of documents and their copies with us to the interview. We were dressed extremely formally, I was wearing a black suit with tie on a white shirt, and my wife wore a black skirt-suit with white blouse. We put on lots of perfume. I guess all this helps to convey a sense of seriousness and purpose.
A male officer at the window called our names at approximately 10:30. When we walked up to the window he apologized for not being able to pronounce the names properly. We said it was fine. He called us inside and asked if I was the lawyer, I said that I was the spouse. He asked if we would have a lawyer at all for the interview - we said no. He then asked my wife to sign on a sheet and then proceeded to fingerprint her - assuring her that "it won\'t hurt at all!" From the beginning, he was very pleasant, cordial and reassuring. Then he made me sign and fingerprinted me, while fingerprinting I was looking at him and he said, "don\'t look at me - look at your wife!"
He led us to his office, administered oath and asked us to sit down. Requested us to hand over passports and medicals, which we did. Then he interviewed my wife first:
First he inspected her passport and took out the old I 94 and put it in (I guess) my wife\'s file. Then he opened her medicals and put that in the file too.
Q. Do you still work for ...?
A. No. I have recently changed jobs.
Q. Do you do similar work?
A. Yes (hands over new employment letter)
Officer reads letter.
Then he checks birth and marriage certificates that are on his file, verifies dates verbally.
(Tip: If you have a birth certificate that shows the registration date as much later to actual birth date, then it is safer to have affidavits from parents too.)
Asks for copy of 2000 tax returns and 2000 W2. All the while he keeps on arranging papers in his file and stapling them.
After this he checks something on his computer. Then starts stamping some papers. Then he opens my wife\'s passport to a fresh page and puts the approval stamp there, puts today\'s date and expiry date (one year from today), writes down her A # and some other stuff and hands it over to her. She is approved!
(Before stamping the passport, while he was stapling my wife\'s photographs to the fingerprint sheet which will be sent to create the actual card, she said that she did not look good in the pictures that were sent with I-485 application and since that picture would be put in the card she would appreciate if he would accept new pictures (of course INS style) that she has taken recently. He smiled, unstapled the old pictures, took the new ones from her, and stapled them to the sheet.)
Now it\'s my turn. He turns to me and says that this is a benefit that I am getting from my wife, so unless she assures him that I have been a good husband all along, he will not approve my case! She immediately tells him that I have NOT! We all start laughing. I say that she has always been a good wife th
My wife and I reached Newark at around 8:45. The interview was at 9:40. There was a short line outside the building. Got in at 9:00. Security checked, then went to 3 rd floor and dropped interview letter around 9:10. We did not take the lawyer. My wife is the primary and I was the derivative. She had changed jobs after RFE using AC21 so we did not trust the old desi company retained lawyer anyway. Her manager at the new company, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, had given her a very nice employment verification letter stating that she was a very valued employee working in an extremely important project. The job description mentioned was 80% similar to the LCA job description. The job title was totally different: old - \'Software Engineer\', new - \'Senior Technology Officer\'. The salary was 20% more and we got the letter notarized too. We carried two bagfuls of documents and their copies with us to the interview. We were dressed extremely formally, I was wearing a black suit with tie on a white shirt, and my wife wore a black skirt-suit with white blouse. We put on lots of perfume. I guess all this helps to convey a sense of seriousness and purpose.
A male officer at the window called our names at approximately 10:30. When we walked up to the window he apologized for not being able to pronounce the names properly. We said it was fine. He called us inside and asked if I was the lawyer, I said that I was the spouse. He asked if we would have a lawyer at all for the interview - we said no. He then asked my wife to sign on a sheet and then proceeded to fingerprint her - assuring her that "it won\'t hurt at all!" From the beginning, he was very pleasant, cordial and reassuring. Then he made me sign and fingerprinted me, while fingerprinting I was looking at him and he said, "don\'t look at me - look at your wife!"
He led us to his office, administered oath and asked us to sit down. Requested us to hand over passports and medicals, which we did. Then he interviewed my wife first:
First he inspected her passport and took out the old I 94 and put it in (I guess) my wife\'s file. Then he opened her medicals and put that in the file too.
Q. Do you still work for ...?
A. No. I have recently changed jobs.
Q. Do you do similar work?
A. Yes (hands over new employment letter)
Officer reads letter.
Then he checks birth and marriage certificates that are on his file, verifies dates verbally.
(Tip: If you have a birth certificate that shows the registration date as much later to actual birth date, then it is safer to have affidavits from parents too.)
Asks for copy of 2000 tax returns and 2000 W2. All the while he keeps on arranging papers in his file and stapling them.
After this he checks something on his computer. Then starts stamping some papers. Then he opens my wife\'s passport to a fresh page and puts the approval stamp there, puts today\'s date and expiry date (one year from today), writes down her A # and some other stuff and hands it over to her. She is approved!
(Before stamping the passport, while he was stapling my wife\'s photographs to the fingerprint sheet which will be sent to create the actual card, she said that she did not look good in the pictures that were sent with I-485 application and since that picture would be put in the card she would appreciate if he would accept new pictures (of course INS style) that she has taken recently. He smiled, unstapled the old pictures, took the new ones from her, and stapled them to the sheet.)
Now it\'s my turn. He turns to me and says that this is a benefit that I am getting from my wife, so unless she assures him that I have been a good husband all along, he will not approve my case! She immediately tells him that I have NOT! We all start laughing. I say that she has always been a good wife th