Advice sought on AOS upcoming interview (unique case?) - Thanks!

[Teseo 0]

Hi!

Thank you for taking a look--I appreciate your interest and time.

My goal here is to find out whether my case is unique/special enough to warrant extra measures (attorney, more documents, etc) to prove the Bona Fide nature of my marriage to the IO in our upcoming AOS interview. I am aware that the posts here do not constitute legal advice but it can't hurt to ask for opinions, advice or similar experience accounts.

Let me, briefly, sketch out the history of my marriage to a USC citizen:

My spouse and I married each other twice. The first time it was in 1998--we were both students at the university (she was 20 and I was 22 - I was born in Spain, my wife in Montana). We had two children, now our daughter is 10 years old and our son is 8. At the time we applied for AOS but we divorced before the process was completed because we delayed the paperwork several times due to moving to a different state, etc. I immediately left the country (did not over-stay, ever) and sent a letter to the, at the time, INS asking for the process of AOS to be canceled.

Two months later I returned to the USA with a student visa so that I could finish my studies and be close to my children, which I saw every week several days. My wife married a USC and that lasted for about two more years. We rebuilt our relationship cordially and eventually she divorced the USC citizen. In that time I was legally in the country as an F-1 student, finishing my undergraduate careers and then my masters.

in the Summer of 2006, after another year of courtship and re-connecting with each other intimately, we decided to get married again (this time with the seriousness of two mature adults). There were no wedding invitations, flair or big ceremonies the second time--we knew each other, our respective families and friends, very well. It was a quiet escapade just the two of us, with a witness, to the court.

At the time we were living in different states, even though we regularly saw each other. We planned to move to Spain and at the end of 2006 I left to Spain to prepare their eventual arrival. While I was working in Spain, we also applied for a k3 visa--just in case the Spain-Plan didn't turn out, economically. We saw each other several times in the past three years: in Spain, once, we had a consular interview to approve the k3 process and I also came to the US to visit on various occasions. I received the K3 visa at the beginning of 2008--just a few days after our interview in Madrid, Spain.

The plans to move to Spain went down the drain when the real-estate bubble popped after the 2008 Summer. My job there depended on that, and readily available options didn't provide the income necessary to move a family of 3 from the US to Spain (children school, bigger house, etc.). So, we decided to spend the next several years in the US instead. I arrived in April, 2009, after taking care of the business loose ends and government-related paperwork in Spain.

We sent the AOS application, alongside the EAD application, to USCIS at the end of May. I had the Biometrics appointment in Seattle at the end of June and have just received now the EAD. They have also given us an interview date: end of August. This is a far cry from the speed at which things moved back in the day, I have to admit! However, this also has its downsides.

Upon arriving to the US, I stayed in NJ with my Mother--who lives here as dependent of an H1-B worker and was just undergoing major surgery. I helped her until I brought my children over to stay in NJ with her for part of the Summer. My wife, a teacher, has all Summer off and was trying to sell one of her houses in the meantime. I still have not permanently moved to Seattle, nor have updated my driver's license (current one is from NJ), bank account, etc.

We are both fiercely independent and share no bank account, mortgage, insurance, home-bills or credit card. We are just that way. So many years of having known each other, and loved each other, while sometimes living at a distance and other times together has made us comfortable in being so independent in the things other married couples usually share.

Even so, it seems that the usual AOS interview relies on joint bank accounts, bills, mortgages, etc, to prove the Bona Fide nature of the marriage. With so little time in between my arrival, the issuance of the EAD, and the AOS interview, we haven't had much time to set up these "artificial" proofs of a true relationship--we are not even sure we want to do so just for the interview's sake, since that could also be interpreted as trying to portray something we are not!

With that background in mind, I'd like to ask you:

Have you seen similar cases outlined here in VJ?

Do you think that my history with my wife and our children, after knowing and being around each other for 13 years, would be enough for an IO to overlook trivial matters such as bank account statements, etc?

Do IO officers take into account the little time span between an applicant's arrival to the US and the AOS interview date?

Would the IO scrutinize us further considering that the GC granted would not be "conditional" given that the marriage is more than 2 years old?

Should we try to come up with joint bills, bank accounts, insurances, etc, even though that would not reflect the nature of our relationship, of how we organize our daily lives together?

Should we consider hiring an attorney given the special circumstances of this case?

Should the attorney be present at the interview? And, would that, in a sense, imply to the IO that we are not "confident" about the interview's investigative nature?

That was a lot to go through. If you made it all the way, thank you very much for your attention--I am impressed. Also, thank you in advance to anyone who may be able to pitch in.

Warm regards,

Teseo

(07/24/09)

[TBoneTX 49,581]

Holy mackerel, si man!

This is complex enough that I would hasten to consult an attorney. I highly recommend the (very reasonably priced) e-mail consultation available from http://www.fosterquan.com -- the largest immigration-law firm in Houston. These people helped me greatly on other matters -- they know their stuff, and I would trust them again without question. I got far more than what I thought I would get from them.

Copy & paste your message above to them (removing references to VJ), and I believe that they will have enough information to begin advising you, or to advise you definitively. Please let us know here what the answers are, because your situation is complex and very interesting.

Edited July 24, 2009 by TBoneTX

[Thai family 0]

1) What evidence did they ask you to bring to the interview in your appointment letter?

2) What about including notarized letters from family and friends as to the bonafides of your relationship?

3) I assume you have lots of pictures

4) What about including a concise version of your narrative - sort of like a time-line, brief explanation in plain English for the IO?

Just some suggestions. We haven't gotten as a far as the AOS interview.

-Thai Mom

[Teseo 0]

Update on the AOS interview:

First of all, thanks for the replies. I took some ideas out of them although decided not to bother with a lawyer.

We got the application approved at the interview without too much trouble--almost felt too little scrutiny after the amount of work put into compiling evidence we presented.

Here are my impressions on this uncommon case:

Interviews have a short time allocated to them. It is not possible to dig all too deep in the history of couples that have known each other for many years, specially if they have been married before to each other (as we have) and have children born out of the relationship (as we also have). Thus, the IO has already seen the submitted files and is only interested in focusing on the gray/blank areas in the time-line and nature of the relationship.

The IO didn't even want to see out pictures, nor any of the other evidence we brought (joint car insurance, one credit card, utility bills, emails, letters of support from friends and family, cell phone records, plane ticket information, and a few other mementos). He did look at the pictures when my wife shoved them onto his desk, though! (After all the trouble we went through, you ARE seeing this! )

Instead, he asked open-ended questions right after swearing us in:

"So, you have a HISTORY, eh?" "Tell me about that."

"What's up with NJ, you have both seen each other there often and married in NY but live in Washington state..."

"So, you know his family? Been to Spain before?..."

"Teseo, what do you plan to do now?"

And that was pretty much it for the "igniting" questions. After each, he would listen to us go back and forth and perhaps inquire just a little on details that seemed "odd" in the sense of not being common--mainly because my wife and I are not stereotypical in many ways.

After 12-15 minutes of talking he asked the "No" questions and that closed the interview successfully.

I theorize, after my short experience with IO work, that they switch to a different mode of analysis when dealing with complex cases that show a long history of relationship (and thus an abundance of evidence establishing relationship). They instead focus more on body language, facial expressions (often probing with certain questions that may seem out of place to observe a reaction), couple's communication and overall attitude and logic to the story being told to them through their open-ended questions.

Our case was special enough that not many people may find this information useful, but we wanted to share it nevertheless in case someone with as strange a situation comes these forums. My advice is to feel as relaxed as possible without letting pre-conceived notions dictate your behavior. Natural attitude goes a long way in these cases because that's the strongest evidence of comfort and love between persons. The IO is not going to bother with "documented legal" proof of shared living-space when you have 10+ years of relationship with your couple.

The process took place in Seattle. Three months and change between mailing the AOS package and the final interview--(05/09-08/09) I still can't easily believe it.

Best of luck to you all and thanks for the help!

Teseo

[sojen 0]

Update on the AOS interview:

First of all, thanks for the replies. I took some ideas out of them although decided not to bother with a lawyer.

We got the application approved at the interview without too much trouble--almost felt too little scrutiny after the amount of work put into compiling evidence we presented.

Here are my impressions on this uncommon case:

Interviews have a short time allocated to them. It is not possible to dig all too deep in the history of couples that have known each other for many years, specially if they have been married before to each other (as we have) and have children born out of the relationship (as we also have). Thus, the IO has already seen the submitted files and is only interested in focusing on the gray/blank areas in the time-line and nature of the relationship.

The IO didn't even want to see out pictures, nor any of the other evidence we brought (joint car insurance, one credit card, utility bills, emails, letters of support from friends and family, cell phone records, plane ticket information, and a few other mementos). He did look at the pictures when my wife shoved them onto his desk, though! (After all the trouble we went through, you ARE seeing this! )

Instead, he asked open-ended questions right after swearing us in:

"So, you have a HISTORY, eh?" "Tell me about that."

"What's up with NJ, you have both seen each other there often and married in NY but live in Washington state..."

"So, you know his family? Been to Spain before?..."

"Teseo, what do you plan to do now?"

And that was pretty much it for the "igniting" questions. After each, he would listen to us go back and forth and perhaps inquire just a little on details that seemed "odd" in the sense of not being common--mainly because my wife and I are not stereotypical in many ways.

After 12-15 minutes of talking he asked the "No" questions and that closed the interview successfully.

I theorize, after my short experience with IO work, that they switch to a different mode of analysis when dealing with complex cases that show a long history of relationship (and thus an abundance of evidence establishing relationship). They instead focus more on body language, facial expressions (often probing with certain questions that may seem out of place to observe a reaction), couple's communication and overall attitude and logic to the story being told to them through their open-ended questions.

Our case was special enough that not many people may find this information useful, but we wanted to share it nevertheless in case someone with as strange a situation comes these forums. My advice is to feel as relaxed as possible without letting pre-conceived notions dictate your behavior. Natural attitude goes a long way in these cases because that's the strongest evidence of comfort and love between persons. The IO is not going to bother with "documented legal" proof of shared living-space when you have 10+ years of relationship with your couple.

The process took place in Seattle. Three months and change between mailing the AOS package and the final interview--(05/09-08/09) I still can't easily believe it.

Best of luck to you all and thanks for the help!

Teseo

Congrats!!!

[TBoneTX 49,581]

Glad to hear that it worked out so well, si man. This kind of "anticlimax" is the best kind.

I personally would have never undertaken this without having consulted an attorney, and it would be imprudent for anyone here to presume that their identical or similar situation would work out as yours did. Regardless, your theories are thought-provoking, and thank you for coming back to tell us how it worked out, si man!