Our interview experience today Add to Watch List Options

[Devkpaik]

Hey guys,

My wife had her Adjustment of status interview today in Seattle and it went quite well. Only problem is that we weren't able to be approved today because some moron didn't have our entire packet there.
I'm not exactly sure how they could have messed up so bad, but they were missing a few documents that they should have had.
The lady who interviewed us was very nice and was apologetic about them misplacing our documents but also assured us that they are probably somewhere in the building but that the person who put together the packet must not have included them.

Other than that, interview went very well.
We showed up about 35 minutes early as our interview was at 2:00 PM. We were both called in to the interview at around 2:05.
We went and sat in some lady's office and she just asked us some general questions and we had to verify the answers to make sure they were correct.
Then she asked us "So tell me how you guys met". She was very energetic and friendly.
She then asked us what our 10 favorite pictures were and we pointed them out. She saw we went to Disneyland and asked my wife how she liked Disneyland. She also saw a picture of my wife and I standing in the snow, and she said "How did you like the snow? Was that your first time seeing
snow?!"

Then after that she was like "okay everything looks good. Unfortunately I can't approve you yet because we're missing some documents on our part."
I then asked her "Okay what are the documents that are missing because I'd like to start getting backups ready in case you guys can't find them". Then she said "Well, they're actually documents that you wouldn't be able to get, such as papers from the embassy regarding the initial K-1 visa, etc.

In terms of the proof of our bonafide marriage, I had a huge stack of stuff that I got together and she just glanced through them and then focused mainly on our pictures and asked us about some of them and made personal compliments on most of them as well.
She didn't really keep much of our stuff except she did keep some emails that were sent from family/friends, etc. to my wife.

Anyways, that's it for now! She said if she needs anything else from us she'll be in touch but that she doesn't think she'll need anything from us because all the stuff that's missing is due to an error on their part. We were told that we should hear from them within three weeks.
Has anyone heard of this happening before?

After that, I asked her "So when you have all the needed paperwork then we'll get the approval?" And she said "Yes, definitely. Well barring some unforseen horrible disaster or something crazy, yes".

All in all, it was easy but I'm just disappointed that we weren't approved because of some person who somehow didn't provide our interviewer with some of our papers.

[Devkpaik]

Has anyone heard of THEM (USCIS) not being prepared for your interview? It's quite ridiculous, but oh well.

[trillium13]

Has anyone heard of THEM (USCIS) not being prepared for your interview? It's quite ridiculous, but oh well.

I've heard it said that they misplace stuff all the time. At least it didn't count against you, and they admitted the error.

Glad things went well! We will be waiting for more good news from you soon.

[Devkpaik]

Has anyone heard of THEM (USCIS) not being prepared for your interview? It's quite ridiculous, but oh well.

I've heard it said that they misplace stuff all the time. At least it didn't count against you, and they admitted the error.

Glad things went well! We will be waiting for more good news from you soon.

Hey trillium13,

Thanks for the response. Well I assume it didn't count against us, as it shouldn't have because the interviewer said the mistake was on their part and not ours. Basically it was information that they SHOULD have because we submitted it with the initial AOS package. The interviewer also said that some of the papers were needed from the embassy or something? No idea. She also said that she was thinking that the info that was missing might be somewhere in another department or something because she knows that we submitted it initially or our AOS package never would have been approved and we would never have had an interview date set up.
Do you guys think that we'd have to go in again when they find the papers, or do they just contact us when they find the papers and then approve us?

Thanks!!

[Jamaican JNR]

Hey guys,

My wife had her Adjustment of status interview today in Seattle and it went quite well. Only problem is that we weren't able to be approved today because some moron didn't have our entire packet there.
I'm not exactly sure how they could have messed up so bad, but they were missing a few documents that they should have had.
The lady who interviewed us was very nice and was apologetic about them misplacing our documents but also assured us that they are probably somewhere in the building but that the person who put together the packet must not have included them.

Other than that, interview went very well.
We showed up about 35 minutes early as our interview was at 2:00 PM. We were both called in to the interview at around 2:05.
We went and sat in some lady's office and she just asked us some general questions and we had to verify the answers to make sure they were correct.
Then she asked us "So tell me how you guys met". She was very energetic and friendly.
She then asked us what our 10 favorite pictures were and we pointed them out. She saw we went to Disneyland and asked my wife how she liked Disneyland. She also saw a picture of my wife and I standing in the snow, and she said "How did you like the snow? Was that your first time seeing
snow?!"

Then after that she was like "okay everything looks good. Unfortunately I can't approve you yet because we're missing some documents on our part."
I then asked her "Okay what are the documents that are missing because I'd like to start getting backups ready in case you guys can't find them". Then she said "Well, they're actually documents that you wouldn't be able to get, such as papers from the embassy regarding the initial K-1 visa, etc.

In terms of the proof of our bonafide marriage, I had a huge stack of stuff that I got together and she just glanced through them and then focused mainly on our pictures and asked us about some of them and made personal compliments on most of them as well.
She didn't really keep much of our stuff except she did keep some emails that were sent from family/friends, etc. to my wife.

Anyways, that's it for now! She said if she needs anything else from us she'll be in touch but that she doesn't think she'll need anything from us because all the stuff that's missing is due to an error on their part. We were told that we should hear from them within three weeks.
Has anyone heard of this happening before?

After that, I asked her "So when you have all the needed paperwork then we'll get the approval?" And she said "Yes, definitely. Well barring some unforseen horrible disaster or something crazy, yes".

All in all, it was easy but I'm just disappointed that we weren't approved because of some person who somehow didn't provide our interviewer with some of our papers.

[trillium13]

If your interview went as well as it sounds then I sincerely doubt you'd need to go back. Hopefully they will find all of the paperwork they need in short order and they won't need anything else from you. It sounds like you guys did your part to submit all the necessary items.

[Devkpaik]

If your interview went as well as it sounds then I sincerely doubt you'd need to go back. Hopefully they will find all of the paperwork they need in short order and they won't need anything else from you. It sounds like you guys did your part to submit all the necessary items.

Thx Trillium. The really weird thing was that the interviewer barely took ANYTHING from us. The only proof of bonafide relationship stuff she took was an email from my Aunt talking about an upcoming birthday party my family was planning for my wife and some other relatives (our family still has family birthdays for everyone in the family. We just group together about three months worth of birthdays into one party).
Also she took an email from my mother inviting the family to thanksgiving dinner (email was also sent to my wife's email address and mine).
Also, she didn't take my pay stubs, my I-864 or my co-sponsors. I don't even know if she looked at these things.

[trillium13]

I think it all depends on the interviewer, and how suspicious your case may or may not be to start with. Sounds like you guys have an obviously bona fide marriage with no red flags or anything else to make them suspicious, all very straightforward. We brought a ton of stuff with us and our interviewer didn't keep anything. The only thing he looked at that we didn't submit originally was our photo albums. It was all very happy and calm and smooth. Good thing, because we were wrecks.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. Don't let too much time pass by though without getting some sort of answers. Sometimes things get dragged out or forgotten because of what seems like a simple hold up. They told you 3 weeks, if it goes longer, make an infopass.

I imagine you'll have a positive case update soon though.

[Devkpaik]

I think it all depends on the interviewer, and how suspicious your case may or may not be to start with. Sounds like you guys have an obviously bona fide marriage with no red flags or anything else to make them suspicious, all very straightforward. We brought a ton of stuff with us and our interviewer didn't keep anything. The only thing he looked at that we didn't submit originally was our photo albums. It was all very happy and calm and smooth. Good thing, because we were wrecks.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. Don't let too much time pass by though without getting some sort of answers. Sometimes things get dragged out or forgotten because of what seems like a simple hold up. They told you 3 weeks, if it goes longer, make an infopass.

I imagine you'll have a positive case update soon though.

Trillium,

I know what you mean about being a wreck pre-interview. I was stressing about it and my wife wasn't even worried haha! She said "why worry? We have a real marriage and we really love eachother, so worry about what?" I wasn't worried about that, I was just worried about how an interviewer with absolutely no idea of who we are or how much we really do love eachother would perceive our relationship.

That's wonderful to hear you guys were approved by the way, congrats!!!

We also brought a ton of stuff. A week or so ago I was worried we wouldn't have enough stuff but then the more I looked around the house and stuff I realized we had a BUNCH of stuff. We brought in a stack of paper about five inches thick and the interviewer didn't even look at it. She only glanced through the technical stuff such as tax returns, etc. When I say she glanced at it, she literally spent about 1 second glancing at each page. Then she asked for the proof of bonafide marriage stuff, which she glanced at about as quickly as the technical papers. She then asked if she could keep the emails from family addressed to my wife, and I said of course. Oh yea she also looked at some birthday cards my family had given my wife. I typed out on a blank paper a caption explaining who the card was from, etc. and then I glued the card to the paper. The IO looked at it and said "I think that's so cute how you have the card glued to the paper! You guys are so organized!!
Then she really concentrated on photo album and that was all. Funny thing was, I wanted her to look at everything and ask questions because I spent so much freakin' time on it hahaha!!

Oh yea one more thing. I will def. take your advice and keep them to their word of updating us in two-three weeks. Thank you so much for the advice/info. It's truly appreciated by both my wife and I.

[trillium13]

You're very welcome. Keep us posted. I'm sure all will be fine, but I know how much that waiting in limbo sucks!!

[thongd4me]

Do we see some pencil-pusher getting a salary cut?

Naa, just kidding.