Home Visit by Immigration Officers!!!!

[Blessed2011 3]

Hey All,

I wanted to share what happened to me today. A little bit about me, my husband & i had our interview September 21st, 2010. Since then we have never received a decision regarding my green card. We have done multiple inquiries with no success.

So this morning there was a big knock on the door. I opened the door & there were two guys, they told me they were from immigration & showed me their badges. They then asked me if they could come in which i let them in. Meanwhile i was half asleep as they had just woken me up, & was not thinking straight. I still had my tiny pj's on & didn't even remember that the whole time!!! So they asked to look around. They looked at our bedroom, then asked to look at our closet. My husband & i keep our clothes in separate closets since they are are tiny. We live in a two bedroom apartment just the two of us & since i have many clothes all our clothes cannot fit into one closet. I explained that to them but they still wanted to see both closets. They were fine with the explanation, & infact one of them joked that he has more clothes than his wife.

They then wanted to look at the bathroom. They said it looked good since they saw both of our stuff there. They then asked to see our wedding pictures which i showed them. After that they asked if they could sit down & ask me a couple of questions. They asked for my ID, then asked to see our current lease since the one for last year when we went for our interview had expired. They said they had a problem with the first lease since my husband's name was added with a pen instead of typing. I explained to them i had no control over that since it was the leasing office who did that, & they asked me the name of the manager who did that.

Then they started asking me about where i work, where my husband works-& ofcourse by now they had asked me where my husband was & unfortunately he was at work. They even asked what city his job was at, i wonder if they will go there. He works a very early shift 4am-12:30pm. They then asked me if we plan to have kids & i told them we were waiting for at least another 3 years or so.

Then they said that was it, & i asked them if i could ask them some questions which they said ok. I asked them why our case had been delayed like this, but they did not have a straight answer. I then asked them if they were satisfied with what they saw & they said yes. I asked them what would happen now, & they said they would give the report to their boss & then he would make a decision from there which could be anywhere between 2-3 months!!!! I was like what??? They said they are very busy so meanwhile my application will just be laying there just waiting for an approval!

Anyway, that is my story. If anyone has ever gone through this, please let me know how long it took to get an approval.

Thanks!

Jackie.

[ceadsearc 515]

Yikes, good luck! That sounds stressful!

The IOs might not have given you a direct answer as to why they were doing a home visit, but pretty much the ONLY reason they do home visits is if they are extremely suspicious about your marriage being fraudulent. Something at your interview or in your paperwork set off a HUGE red flag. Did you have a Stokes interview?

[Channah&Aaron 51]

; IMHO; there must be a good reason for your delay, since they didn't come by to visit you for a cup of coffee

You didn't ask what the reason was for stopping by, or is there anything you can think of WHY they came?

Edited September 20, 2011 by Channah&Aaron

[Blessed2011 3]

Thanks for your replies!

Yes it was quite stressful!!! No we did not have a stokes interview. We were interviewed together for less than 10 minutes & the IO said she was satisfied. Even had us sign the document that talks about removing conditions after 2 years & took my I-94. Then said should be receiving my GC in about a couple of weeks. I did ask them why they think it was fraud marriage. One of the reasons he gave me was that the lease we provided looked like it was made up! I showed him my copy & also showed him the updated lease, which he seemd satisfied. He really did ask a lot of questions about the lease asking what was the name of the manager at the apartment complex, why they did not type my husband's name when it was added. My husband is 3 years younger than me. You think our age difference would have caused this??? Only one of the guys was asking questions, the other was just snooping around!

[ceadsearc 515]

I doubt it's a matter of age difference, 3 years is not a big age difference at all, even at a young age. It's really hard to say given that none of us were at your interview. But since it seemed to go well and then was not approved and they mentioned the lease, I would question if, perhaps, when they reviewed the documents afterwards they found things that made them wonder. Did they ask you about your lease at the time?

Good luck, hopefully they will be satisfied with what they saw, though I would suspect there is a good chance they will show up at your husband's work and also likely call people who know you to ask some questions. Consulting a lawyer if you have not done so already is also probably a good idea as you want to be prepared when USCIS makes their next move.

[Harsh_77 716]

They very rarely do the house visit, they only do the house visit when they really really doubt the relation.

Handwritten addition to the lease can be one reason and there could be something else to that CO might have think that was not fitting in right.

Good luck with your case and I guess you to 2-3 more months to wait out…

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

If you look at the OP's other topics you might get an understanding of why a home visit happened.

[Blessed2011 3]

I doubt it's a matter of age difference, 3 years is not a big age difference at all, even at a young age. It's really hard to say given that none of us were at your interview. But since it seemed to go well and then was not approved and they mentioned the lease, I would question if, perhaps, when they reviewed the documents afterwards they found things that made them wonder. Did they ask you about your lease at the time?

Good luck, hopefully they will be satisfied with what they saw, though I would suspect there is a good chance they will show up at your husband's work and also likely call people who know you to ask some questions. Consulting a lawyer if you have not done so already is also probably a good idea as you want to be prepared when USCIS makes their next move.

Thanks for your reply. We just do not know what the hold up is. No they did not mention the lease at the time of our interview. If they had doubts about the lease, why could they not call the apartment complex & verify??? We are praying too that they are satisfied with what they saw. My husband is already home & they did not show up at his place of work. They might have called though to verify if he was there, though he was not told anything by his employer. We had a lawyer but we haven't talked to them in a while. The last we talked to them is like 3 months ago when they made an inquiry for us. We have nothing to hide if they call both sides of the family/friends because they all know we are married & living together. I will let our lawyer know about the visit. Thanks!

[Blessed2011 3]

They very rarely do the house visit, they only do the house visit when they really really doubt the relation.

Handwritten addition to the lease can be one reason and there could be something else to that CO might have think that was not fitting in right.

Good luck with your case and I guess you to 2-3 more months to wait out…

Thanks for your reply. I guess they really did doubt our marriage. Hopefully they were satisfied with what they saw. One of the guys said the same thing, that it would take about 2-3 months to be approved. Praying they do it sooner though :-)

[Blessed2011 3]

If you look at the OP's other topics you might get an understanding of why a home visit happened.

Thanks for your comment, & yes, my husband & i have been through a lot & are still very much together. I thank God everyday that we are not the kind of people who run after being faced with problems. I come from a culture where divorce is rarely heard of & am glad because we have been able to work out our problems & become a better stronger couple. Nobody said marriage was going to be easy, its sure is a full time job & we've both learned that! Now back to USCIS, there is nothing in my previous posts that would warrant a home visit. My previous posts or post that you are referring to was written while venting. Are we the only couple with issues???? I don't think so! VJ is a place where one can come & vent their problems because most likely someone else has been through the same & can offer some assistance.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion though.

[Deema & Wayne 28]

I do believe that something seemed questionable to them and they waited this long to do a surprise visit to make sure that you two are really together. Hopefully after the visit, things will get sorted out and you'll get your green card. A year is a long time to wait wow.

[Blessed2011 3]

I do believe that something seemed questionable to them and they waited this long to do a surprise visit to make sure that you two are really together. Hopefully after the visit, things will get sorted out and you'll get your green card. A year is a long time to wait wow.

Thanks for your reply.Yes am sure there must have been something that was a red flag but just cannot think what it would be. My husband & i had thought our case was going to be straight forward so we have been really surprised. Am glad though the USCIS officers came because we have nothing to hide. Hopefully that is what its going to take to approve us. It will be one year tomorrow since we had our interview (9/21)! It sure is a long time to wait. We had already contacted everyone we could think of. It got to a point we weren't thinking about it as much as too much time had passed.

I have faith & trust in God that things will work out eventually & i can get my green card. Maybe tomorrow on our one year anniversary since the interview :-)

My husband & i had gotten to a point we did not think about it & had said we would wait it out until our two year wedding anniversary then we were going to start putting pressure on USCIS so i could get the 10 year green card instead. I always forget that we make our own plans but God has better plans for us.

Inshallah i get the green card soonest.

[Rufus2012 175]

What happens if you refuse to grant them entry unless they provide a warrant?

[RICARDO4EVA2 194]

What happens if you refuse to grant them entry unless they provide a warrant?

well.. then a decision could be made based on the information gathered on the case.

[TBoneTX 43,062]

What happens if you refuse to grant them entry unless they provide a warrant?

They must comply, at least until another couple of Supreme Court decisions completely eviscerate the Constitution.

Every U.S. citizen and intending legal immigrant needs to view this, and optimally review it every few months: