Bizzare AOS interview

[Luckygoat 2]

My wife and I just got back from our interview. We arrived at 10:00am for a 10:30am appointment but didnt get called until 11:30am. We had a very strange interview that lasted only about 15mins, ill try to sum it and not do too much writing.

We were greeted by a white guy that seem pretty pleasant and was invited into his office. We swore and was seated. He started off my asking 3 questions: What is our addresss, how we met and if her mom knew we were married. We confirmed our address, and stated that we met through her best friend and that her mom knew we were married.

So after that he asked if we brought any documents with us and we handed him a stack of documents. He had a sheet and started ticking off everything we had. He asked if we had affidavits from her family, which was the only thing we didnt have. We explained to him that we didnt know that that was a requirment but we brought photos with her family. He took a look at those and ask a few questions about her family. He seemed pleased continued to look through the things we brought and notice that we had transcipts from the same school and said, "Oh you both go to USF, thats where u met right"? And we both said no, we met throught her best friend Lucy, who also goes to that school. I thought it was very strange that we had already told him that at the begining and watched him wrote down we met through a friend, yet he still tried to imply that we met somewhere else. He continued to do this a few others times....he would say "Your address is 1234 right"? which wasnt our address instead of just asking what is your address? Obviously this was his tactic and he was trying to confuse us and catch us in a lie but we had nothing to lie about and was quick in correcting him.

So after he realize that that wasnt working he ask us what would my wife mother say if he called her and ask her what was her daugther marital status and we said she would say shes married. So he said well give me her # let me call her. My wife replied I dont know my moms # out of my head but its in my phone I can go get it out of the car. So the interview starts going all out saying that is unbelieveable that she doesnt know her own mothers # and how everyone know their mothers #. For the next 5mins he was basically asking my wife to verify questions about her moms age, date of birth and address which she answered all. He threw his pen on the desk and started to crazy asking who doesnt know their moms #. (at the point I am just laughing in my head because he looked so scripted, it was almost like watchin a bad actor. you can tell he is a nice guy but was trying to act hard but really wasnt intimidating us at all). This was when I stepped in and was liek dude, my wife and her mom doesnt have a close relationship, we don't call her that often that she would know her # out of her head and besides who remembers #'s, we store #'s in our phones we don't remember #'s out of our head. I went onto explain that my wife grew up with her grandmother and she is closer with her grandmother, we even offered to give him her grandmother # which we knew out of our head.

So after this episode he goes, "Very good, very good". Everything looks good but I will need 2 affidavit from your mom and grandmother. I will approve your I-485 now and approve your I-130 when you send the affidavit in. He gave us a letter that state that we have 30 days to send in the material and when every we send it in that I can come back and have my passport stamped.

So my questions are:

Can we be denied if my in-laws decide they dont want to get invole? Im sure we wadnt have a problem gettin these but like I said my wife and her mom relationship is up & down so what if she doesnt want to do it? Can we get other family members or friends to make an affidavit? To me this is crazy because we had tons of other documents (lease, insurance, bills etc) that he even tried to hand us back and I had to tell him no you keep those for your files. How in the world can he tell us what type of documents to bring in, moreso how can he choose who must write a affidavit for us?

[VanessaTony 3,567]

First, what does the request for information say exactly? Did you say much about her and her mothers relationship? He should have written that down...

I would get grandmother to do it, and other family members too if you can. Also some friends just to "overload".

I would ask her mother but if she says no then I would perhaps considering doing an affidavit myself, AND have the grandmothers affidavit attest that she raised her grand-daughter and that the mother has little to nothing to do with her daughter.

In your affidavit (if MIL won't do it) I would write to explain the situation and that as of the age of X that her mother has very little to do with your lives.

You're right that he can't really say WHO can fill in the affidavits. How does he know if your mother is in jail, or abused you when you were little, or is in hospital or something like that. It's a ridiculous request to SPECIFY but yes he can't specify that affidavits be included.

** moved from "Adjustment of Status (Green Card) from Family Based Visas" to "Adjustment of Status from Work, Student, & Tourist Visas" as you are adjusting from a F1 visa and the prior forum is for K1, K2, K3 & K4**

Also, Please update your timeline so others can benefit from your experience and your profile to reflect that you are now AOS (pending). The timeline function is up the top called "immigration timelines". To update your profile click on your control panel and on the left is the function called "edit profile information". Then scroll down to Immigration status where it currently says "Other" and changed to "AOS (pending)".

[juliava 80]

Wow. I guess the IO wanted to play the bad guy. We did have affidavits from my husband's parents and 2 more from our friends, but really our IO didn't even go over them upon receipt, but he seemed pleased having them. But I've never been told that these affidavits are necessary to pass the AOS interview. I would advise you to submit whatever that piece of paper requests and if you can't get what's needed, try to offer a reasonable explanation for it or have someone else explaining. If mother refuses to give you the affidavit, maybe grandma can explain why...I wish you goodluck and keep us posted!!

[Luckygoat 2]

Thanks for the repsonse. There are 2 boxes ticked.

1. One says that I need 3 people to make statments confirming our relationship and the statements has to be notarized.

2. It says that I need affidavits from my wife mom and grandmother and they have to be notarized.

He said that the box says 3 but we only need 2. We will still send in 3 because it this point i really believe he is just looking for a reason to deny us. Her mom, grandmom and brother said they will write one.

My question is, should we have 5 in total or just that 2 of 3 has to be mom and grandmom? I am confused what he is asking for.

[MacTO 6]

Because it's a personal issue between your wife and your mother-in-law, I don't know if your mother-in-law would decline or not. But, I think that you also should get involved in it. If you have never done it, writing an affidavit is a very personal thing. Somebody may or may not care to do it for you. And in your case, that's what you guys need, so you guys must obtain it from your wife's mother and grandmother. Like Vanessa&Tony suggested, go overboard. Get more from her friends who are aware of your relationship and marriage. The AOS instructions read that you must provide at least 2 when you decide to provide affidavit as evidence.

Prior to the interview, I decided to gather affidavit as evidence. It wasn't a requirement, of course, but I wanted to collect any and every piece of evidence that I could find. So, I asked my mother-in-law, who couldn't attend our civil ceremony because we live far away from each other, and my wife's co-worker/friend, who was a witness along with his wife at our wedding to prepare affidavits. After exchanging several phone calls and sending her several affidavit samples I found on VJ leading up to our last phone call, my mother-in-law and I spent about another 4 hours to complete it. Because she didn't have a computer at home, only at work, I typed up everything that she wanted to say, and forwarded it to her by email, and she then printed it off and took it to the nearest bank on her lunch break and got it notarized it. After a few more chuckling episodes, she was able to mail it to me in time.

Once again, it is a personal thing. So, you or/and your wife have to make it work. The object is to obtain what you need. Good luck.

Cheers.

[Luckygoat 2]

Because it's a personal issue between your wife and your mother-in-law, I don't know if your mother-in-law would decline or not. But, I think that you also should get involved in it. If you have never done it, writing an affidavit is a very personal thing. Somebody may or may not care to do it for you. And in your case, that's what you guys need, so you guys must obtain it from your wife's mother and grandmother. Like Vanessa&Tony suggested, go overboard. Get more from her friends who are aware of your relationship and marriage. The AOS instructions read that you must provide at least 2 when you decide to provide affidavit as evidence.

Prior to the interview, I decided to gather affidavit as evidence. It wasn't a requirement, of course, but I wanted to collect any and every piece of evidence that I could find. So, I asked my mother-in-law, who couldn't attend our civil ceremony because we live far away from each other, and my wife's co-worker/friend, who was a witness along with his wife at our wedding to prepare affidavits. After exchanging several phone calls and sending her several affidavit samples I found on VJ leading up to our last phone call, my mother-in-law and I spent about another 4 hours to complete it. Because she didn't have a computer at home, only at work, I typed up everything that she wanted to say, and forwarded it to her by email, and she then printed it off and took it to the nearest bank on her lunch break and got it notarized it. After a few more chuckling episodes, she was able to mail it to me in time.

Once again, it is a personal thing. So, you or/and your wife have to make it work. The object is to obtain what you need. Good luck.

Cheers.

Like I said we got her mom, grandmom and brother to agree to do 3. So im not worried anymore but I questions is how can we be denied for something that is not a requirement? How can u deny someone for not having affidavits when they brought tons of other supporting documents. I just feel we were targeted because we are different races. I am sure if my wife was black we wadnt have this issue. I read people interviews on here and sometimes the interviewer dont even ask for anything, yet we are preassured for not bringing 1 things.

[Nartaki 7]

I think you were targeted due to the perception of different backgrounds and the IOs are trained to probe deeper into such marriages. I am not familiar with your case, but there could be something else in your application that caused the IO to become curious. Remember, one of the first questions he asked was "if her mom knew we were married".

In anycase, obtain the affidavits and send them ASAP. I am sure you will be approved then.

[Luckygoat 2]

I think you were targeted due to the perception of different backgrounds and the IOs are trained to probe deeper into such marriages. I am not familiar with your case, but there could be something else in your application that caused the IO to become curious. Remember, one of the first questions he asked was "if her mom knew we were married".

In anycase, obtain the affidavits and send them ASAP. I am sure you will be approved then.

There is no other reason why we would have a redflag because I never overstayed, I never worked illegally, im not from a high migration country. I still had a long time left on my student visa so its not like I there was anything to trigger him. Im black and my wife a white so I guess that automatically just made us a target, he couldnt find anything so decided focus on phone numbers which I will never understand.

[MacTO 6]

There is no other reason why we would have a redflag because I never overstayed, I never worked illegally, im not from a high migration country. I still had a long time left on my student visa so its not like I there was anything to trigger him. Im black and my wife a white so I guess that automatically just made us a target, he couldnt find anything so decided focus on phone numbers which I will never understand.

In my humble opinion, I don't think you were targeted because you are other than white. If that was the case, all the spouses who were married to specifically white USCs would have been denied and this VJ would've been plummeted with all the complaints and such bad experiences. From my interview experience, and, for the record, my experience does not attest to all the previous examples, I got an impression that my IO wanted to see something genuine in my USC wife. When my IO asked me very simple questions, including, to my surprise, my parents' names, he was fully engaged in a conversation with my USC wife.

And, there's a thread where a lot of people have chipped in their thoughts, which is about the intent issue. When a foreigner comes to the U.S. and marries a USC, the USCIS wants to know if their marriage is bona fide and legit. In other words, you (not you) had an intent of obtaining a GC upon marriage without a good faith, you could be denied. But, then again, the conclusion on that thread is that it doesn't matter if you are married to a USC. No intent matters, unless you have background check problems, when these IOs can spot what is real and what is not. And obviously, that's not the case here. And even you overstayed or stayed illegally, or worked illegally, those don't apply once you marry a USC. Like a lot of VJers said over and over again, you automatically are forgiven.

So, once again, I don't think you were targeted because you are other than white in race, or other reasons you might want to speculate. Like you said that your in-laws have agreed to prepare affidavits for you, then you should be fine. That's what your IO asked for, isn't it, after all?

Cheers.

[Luckygoat 2]

In my humble opinion, I don't think you were targeted because you are other than white. If that was the case, all the spouses who were married to specifically white USCs would have been denied and this VJ would've been plummeted with all the complaints and such bad experiences. From my interview experience, and, for the record, my experience does not attest to all the previous examples, I got an impression that my IO wanted to see something genuine in my USC wife. When my IO asked me very simple questions, including, to my surprise, my parents' names, he was fully engaged in a conversation with my USC wife.

And, there's a thread where a lot of people have chipped in their thoughts, which is about the intent issue. When a foreigner comes to the U.S. and marries a USC, the USCIS wants to know if their marriage is bona fide and legit. In other words, you (not you) had an intent of obtaining a GC upon marriage without a good faith, you could be denied. But, then again, the conclusion on that thread is that it doesn't matter if you are married to a USC. No intent matters, unless you have background check problems, when these IOs can spot what is real and what is not. And obviously, that's not the case here. And even you overstayed or stayed illegally, or worked illegally, those don't apply once you marry a USC. Like a lot of VJers said over and over again, you automatically are forgiven.

So, once again, I don't think you were targeted because you are other than white in race, or other reasons you might want to speculate. Like you said that your in-laws have agreed to prepare affidavits for you, then you should be fine. That's what your IO asked for, isn't it, after all?

Cheers.

Thanks for your response. I dont know where you were headed in your comment but it is a knew fact that long overstays followed by marriage, or working illegally or entrance to the U.S this week and marriage next week will all be redflags and trigger the interviewer to give the couple a harder time eventhough overstayin and working are forgiven. Like I mention, I do not fall in any of the categories so there was nothing to make the interviewer believe I had immigration intent. I have 2 more years left on my visa to complete my master and I had plans to go back to my country and go back to my high paying job with a pay increase because of new degree. I never thought in my dreams that I would stay here or become a resident. Our interviewer didnt seem like he was tryin to engage in coversation like others i've read. he was very programmed, trained, and booked right down to his facial expressions. lol he was a horrible actor. I strongly feel if my wife was black our interview would have been easier because we submitted a perfect package which he digged & digged to find flaws.

P.S I am the last person to use race as excuse of thing. I hate when blk ppl do it to make excuses but this is one time that I can say it did play a factor.

[Brian 246 1]

Thanks for your response. I dont know where you were headed in your comment but it is a knew fact that long overstays followed by marriage, or working illegally or entrance to the U.S this week and marriage next week will all be redflags and trigger the interviewer to give the couple a harder time eventhough overstayin and working are forgiven. Like I mention, I do not fall in any of the categories so there was nothing to make the interviewer believe I had immigration intent. I have 2 more years left on my visa to complete my master and I had plans to go back to my country and go back to my high paying job with a pay increase because of new degree. I never thought in my dreams that I would stay here or become a resident. Our interviewer didnt seem like he was tryin to engage in coversation like others i've read. he was very programmed, trained, and booked right down to his facial expressions. lol he was a horrible actor. I strongly feel if my wife was black our interview would have been easier because we submitted a perfect package which he digged & digged to find flaws.

P.S I am the last person to use race as excuse of thing. I hate when blk ppl do it to make excuses but this is one time that I can say it did play a factor.

Hey Lucky Goat,

The first thing you need to do is to update ur timeline. Others and yourself will need to make reference to it at some point of time. Also as you would have realize from looking at other peoples 'timelines' that it is highly unlikely for things to go wrong. If you were going to be denied the IO would have told you he have plans to deny your application. I dont think race have anything to do with it as well. From what your saying here once you get those letters from your Mother-in-law and Grandmother you should be safe and from what I've seen the RFE should be proceed quickly because your sending it directly to ur local office.

Edited May 7, 2010 by Brian 246

[sachinky 464]

Race has nothing to do with it. Nope, not one bit.

Something probably came up during the background checks with the mom that made him pursue that line of questioning.

Since you have the affidavits, just submit them.

Goodluck!

[mrs. wife! 3]

I'm sorry you had to go through this.

Let me ask you something.... you said your wife is not close to her mom and all that. Do you think it's possible that her mom was against the marriage and made a 'fraud claim' at the USCIS office? I don't mean to judge her or anything, it just seems weird that they were focused on her mom even though her grandma was the one who raised her....

[Luckygoat 2]

Hey Lucky Goat,

The first thing you need to do is to update ur timeline. Others and yourself will need to make reference to it at some point of time. Also as you would have realize from looking at other peoples 'timelines' that it is highly unlikely for things to go wrong. If you were going to be denied the IO would have told you he have plans to deny your application. I dont think race have anything to do with it as well. From what your saying here once you get those letters from your Mother-in-law and Grandmother you should be safe and from what I've seen the RFE should be proceed quickly because your sending it directly to ur local office.

Hey bro. thanks for the response. I do not know how to fo the timeline but i will try. Yea its def not a denial. I really dont want to come across like I am making a big deal out of this because I know all I have to do is send in the affidavit and im good. My wife was the one that had a hard time and I feel bad for her because I really dont know what her relationship with her mom have to do with proving our relationship. The time he spent quizzin my wife on her mom he could have used to find out more about our relationship. but at the end of the interview he told us that it wad only take a fee day becuz we live 15mins from the center.

[luckykat 1]

Hey bro. thanks for the response. I do not know how to fo the timeline but i will try. Yea its def not a denial. I really dont want to come across like I am making a big deal out of this because I know all I have to do is send in the affidavit and im good. My wife was the one that had a hard time and I feel bad for her because I really dont know what her relationship with her mom have to do with proving our relationship. The time he spent quizzin my wife on her mom he could have used to find out more about our relationship. but at the end of the interview he told us that it wad only take a fee day becuz we live 15mins from the center.

Hi luckygoat! Sorry to hear you have to go through this additional hassle. I didn't send in any affidavits at all and am now wondering if I should start asking people!

Um, by the way, you wouldn't happen to be drinking at the moment, would you? Just noticed your last post has a few more typos this time