Our I-751 Interview Experience

[xiao mei 2]

Prior to our interview I scoured for others experiences with their I-751 interviews and I found very little so I thought I should share my experience with all those nervously awaiting theirs.

A little background:

I'm a US Citizen, I met my husband in '06 fall semester, my freshman year of college, he was a senior and graduated that following spring. We were just friends, he was actually getting married Feb '07 (she was not a USC and ran out on him 5 months later). We kept in touch and after he filed for divorce we started dating and got married August of '08 and filed about 3 months later. We did file with an attorney. My dad and step-mom thought they were capable of filing themselves and she was deported (shes a citizen now). We had our I-130 interview in March '09. It took about an hour of grilling about my family, his family, why he divorced, etc. The one thing I remember the officer saying to us that in our case 98% or the time its fraud but he believes we fall into the 2%. I'm African-American and my husband is Chinese and 10 years my senior. We filed the I-751 in Feb of this year ('11)and received the date for our interview. I wasn't really surprised given our circumstances.

We included:

*lease agreements

*joint bank account

*joint credit card

*health insurance

*car insurance

*life insurance

*cell phone bills

*itinerary from our trip to china

*car titles with both of our names

*utility bills

*joint tax returns

*pictures

We our appointment was scheduled for 9am. We arrived at the office at about 7:30 and went over interview questions until about 8:30 and then went inside and gave out interview notice to the man behind the glass. Our attorney arrived at about 8:45. At about 10:30 we were wondering what was going on because everyone that arrived after us had already been called in for their interview. Our attorney went to the window to ask what was going on, apparently the guy behind the glass never assigned our case to anyone and claimed that we never gave him the paperwork even though he found it sitting right on his desk. The head adjudicator was notified and our named was called for the interview about 15 minutes later. Lo and behold its the head adjudicator doing our interview and its a Stokes interview at that. She asked my husband to follower her and I was asked to stay in the waiting room. I tried my best not to fidget and look nervous and kept telling myself there was nothing to be afraid of. I waited about 30 minutes and then my husband came out smiled and said it was my turn. I went to her office and and the attorney was there waiting. She wasn't mean or hostile, but she also didn't seem too friendly either. She swore me and and proceeded with the interview. I'll write as many questions as I can remember:

1. What is name?

2. What is your birthday?

3. What is your social security number?

4. What is your spouses birthday?

5. What is your spouses name? I messed up and first and gave the name he goes by in America but quickly corrected myself

3. What are your addresses in the last 5 years and when did you begin and end the lease?

5. Where are you living now?

6. Who lives with you?

7. How many bedrooms do you have?

8. What is the spare room used for?

9. Where is the light switch in your room?

10. What size are the beds in your house?

11. Where is the light in your room?

12. What type of flooring do you have in your house?

13. What are your parents names?

14. What are your spouses parents names?

15. How many siblings do you have and what are their names?

16. How many siblings does your spouse have and what are their names?

17. When was the last time you had visitors or the last time you went to visit someone together?

18. Do you have insurance, what types, and what is the monthly bill?

19. What utilities do you have and what are their monthly bills?

20. Who is your cell phone provider?

21. Is your spouse on your health insurance and if not, why not?

22. How many times have you been married?

23. How many times has your spouse been married?

24. How many children do you have?

25. Where have your worked the past 5 years, and what city?

26. Where has your spouse worked the past 5 years, and what city?

27. What wall of your bedroom is your bed against?

Those are all of the questions I can remember. After she was finished she said thank you but did not invite my husband back in. She said will review our file and we should receive a decision in 2-3 months. The lawyer asked what else she had to review and she said she only had our T-File (temporary file) and she still had to request that the full file be sent to her office. She then took our Licenses and my husbands old green card and made copies (he had left them behind when he went out to call me in)and she showed us the way out.

We spoke with our lawyer afterwards and he said that all of our questions matched except our rental history. We stayed with my sister for a months and a half wile we looked for a new place (our old landlord was a slumlord and would fix our front door) and my husband forgot to mention it, but the our lawyer said it really shouldn't be a big deal since it was such a short time.

We're now awaiting the decision. I'm a paranoid worry wart the max so I'm stressing out and will continue to stress out until this is finally over with. My husband keeps laughing at my because I swear someone is listening in to my cell phone because I keep getting beeps sporadically throughout my calls.

Oh well I'll keep updated on our status

[xiao mei 2]

Sorry for all the typos, I just got off of work and I'm exhausted.

[LADYDARE 28]

Wow...thanks for sharing. I wish you all the best.

[jlogajan 0]

Heh, it's 2011. But otherwise good post.

[xiao mei 2]

Heh, it's 2011. But otherwise good post.

We just had our i-751 interview this year. We filed around the same time as you

Wow...thanks for sharing. I wish you all the best.

thank you

[deidre 13]

wow wow wow!! what flooring do you have? where is the light switch? dang! she really testing ya'll... or should I say "making sure" that everything is legit. i also read before that they even ask questions like "what color is your spouse's toothbrush?" and "what did you eat for dinner last night". but now they getting real technical....like what wall is the bed against!

but congrats to you and hubby for getting thru it! im sure you will be approved!

[Darnell 8,478]

stokes interviews suck, always.

I thinkn was stupid they only had the T-file, as they had months to go to get the big file there - incompetence, IMO.

[xiao mei 2]

stokes interviews suck, always.

I thinkn was stupid they only had the T-file, as they had months to go to get the big file there - incompetence, IMO.

That's exactly what our lawyer said. He was a little miffed that its going to take so long to get a decision. I've heard of people getting an approval notice 2 weeks after their interview but I guess that won't be the case for us

[Oana31 0]

I'm sure you'll be just fine! Good luck to ya!

What local office was your interview at ?

[sasaqlain 24]

I wish you both the best of luck! And Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[OBX 51]

Excellent, detailed post; thank you for sharing. Wishing you all the best, I'm sure your approval will follow.

[bigdog 376]

Prior to our interview I scoured for others experiences with their I-751 interviews and I found very little so I thought I should share my experience with all those nervously awaiting theirs.

A little background:

I'm a US Citizen, I met my husband in '06 fall semester, my freshman year of college, he was a senior and graduated that following spring. We were just friends, he was actually getting married Feb '07 (she was not a USC and ran out on him 5 months later). We kept in touch and after he filed for divorce we started dating and got married August of '08 and filed about 3 months later. We did file with an attorney. My dad and step-mom thought they were capable of filing themselves and she was deported (shes a citizen now). We had our I-130 interview in March '09. It took about an hour of grilling about my family, his family, why he divorced, etc. The one thing I remember the officer saying to us that in our case 98% or the time its fraud but he believes we fall into the 2%. I'm African-American and my husband is Chinese and 10 years my senior. We filed the I-751 in Feb of this year ('11)and received the date for our interview. I wasn't really surprised given our circumstances.

We included:

*lease agreements

*joint bank account

*joint credit card

*health insurance

*car insurance

*life insurance

*cell phone bills

*itinerary from our trip to china

*car titles with both of our names

*utility bills

*joint tax returns

*pictures

We our appointment was scheduled for 9am. We arrived at the office at about 7:30 and went over interview questions until about 8:30 and then went inside and gave out interview notice to the man behind the glass. Our attorney arrived at about 8:45. At about 10:30 we were wondering what was going on because everyone that arrived after us had already been called in for their interview. Our attorney went to the window to ask what was going on, apparently the guy behind the glass never assigned our case to anyone and claimed that we never gave him the paperwork even though he found it sitting right on his desk. The head adjudicator was notified and our named was called for the interview about 15 minutes later. Lo and behold its the head adjudicator doing our interview and its a Stokes interview at that. She asked my husband to follower her and I was asked to stay in the waiting room. I tried my best not to fidget and look nervous and kept telling myself there was nothing to be afraid of. I waited about 30 minutes and then my husband came out smiled and said it was my turn. I went to her office and and the attorney was there waiting. She wasn't mean or hostile, but she also didn't seem too friendly either. She swore me and and proceeded with the interview. I'll write as many questions as I can remember:

1. What is name?

2. What is your birthday?

3. What is your social security number?

4. What is your spouses birthday?

5. What is your spouses name? I messed up and first and gave the name he goes by in America but quickly corrected myself

3. What are your addresses in the last 5 years and when did you begin and end the lease?

5. Where are you living now?

6. Who lives with you?

7. How many bedrooms do you have?

8. What is the spare room used for?

9. Where is the light switch in your room?

10. What size are the beds in your house?

11. Where is the light in your room?

12. What type of flooring do you have in your house?

13. What are your parents names?

14. What are your spouses parents names?

15. How many siblings do you have and what are their names?

16. How many siblings does your spouse have and what are their names?

17. When was the last time you had visitors or the last time you went to visit someone together?

18. Do you have insurance, what types, and what is the monthly bill?

19. What utilities do you have and what are their monthly bills?

20. Who is your cell phone provider?

21. Is your spouse on your health insurance and if not, why not?

22. How many times have you been married?

23. How many times has your spouse been married?

24. How many children do you have?

25. Where have your worked the past 5 years, and what city?

26. Where has your spouse worked the past 5 years, and what city?

27. What wall of your bedroom is your bed against?

Those are all of the questions I can remember. After she was finished she said thank you but did not invite my husband back in. She said will review our file and we should receive a decision in 2-3 months. The lawyer asked what else she had to review and she said she only had our T-File (temporary file) and she still had to request that the full file be sent to her office. She then took our Licenses and my husbands old green card and made copies (he had left them behind when he went out to call me in)and she showed us the way out.

We spoke with our lawyer afterwards and he said that all of our questions matched except our rental history. We stayed with my sister for a months and a half wile we looked for a new place (our old landlord was a slumlord and would fix our front door) and my husband forgot to mention it, but the our lawyer said it really shouldn't be a big deal since it was such a short time.

We're now awaiting the decision. I'm a paranoid worry wart the max so I'm stressing out and will continue to stress out until this is finally over with. My husband keeps laughing at my because I swear someone is listening in to my cell phone because I keep getting beeps sporadically throughout my calls.

Oh well I'll keep updated on our status

Bad luck with the temporary file, at least your attorney was present, hand in there.

[~ameriptian~ 54]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us!

[xiao mei 2]

I can't remember exactly but it was in los angeles. Not downtown though

[xiao mei 2]

We're still waiting for the outcome. I wish we could check the status online but our receipt number doesn't seem to be working.