I-130 interview - we were approved on the spot!

[Rdz's 3]

I know that I was stressing out big time before our interview and searching everywhere for information about it, so I wanted to put our experience out there for the next couple that comes along. This is NOT the normal interview before getting your visa. We had this interview because my husband was in removal proceedings when we got married. It is sometimes called a Stokes interview.

We went with our lawyer and a professional translator (it turned out that the officer was bilingual but we weren't assured of that). All four of us went into the office and the officer interviewed us about all the information on our I-130 together. She asked what language we spoke around the house. At this point, we submitted some evidence: proof that he was my beneficiary in my Roth IRA, 403b, and life insurance; joint bank account statement; proof that he is my emergency contact at work; 2013 joint taxes (and we explained that he isn't on my other bank account because he doesn't have an ITIN yet); our matching credit cards that we pulled out of purse/wallet.

Then they separated us and asked the following questions. It ended up being more like a conversation, so some of these are approximate.

• How did we meet?
• How long had we dated?
• How did he propose?
• Where was the wedding and at what time?
• Who were the bridesmaids/groomsmen?
• Do we have any pets?
• What size bed do we have?
• How big is our house?
• Did anyone live with us at the house?
• Who is my doctor? (We were talking about our fertility treatments and I couldn't remember)
• When was the last time we saw my parents?
• What did we do to celebrate our anniversary?
• What gifts did we give each other?
• What did we eat when for our anniversary dinner? Did we cook or was it a restaurant?
• My siblings’ and parents’ names and his as well. Also, the name of my niece and his nephew.

The officer came and got me. She asked if we had any more evidence to submit. I had given her a binder full of pictures, printouts of Facebook and screenprints of texts. I asked if she wanted any of those. She took some of the wedding pics and some with all the family together. She really liked one that was from my cousin's wedding with all of my cousins, with their spouses and kids, from my mom's side of the family. There were about 50 people in it. She asked my husband about it too. I offered mail sent to both of us, but she didn't keep any. I had a TON of stuff. I think it was better to be over-prepared than under.

The official was really personable. She said our wedding turned out really well. Then she announced that we were approved and that our lawyer would get the notification in the mail within two weeks.

My husband said we have a king-size bed when it is a queen. That was our only discrepancy.

Overall, it was a LOT less stressful than I thought it was going to be. If you have a real marriage, and have taken a lot of pics and kept evidence of your past together and intertwined lives, you should be fine.

On to the next step for me...

[RobbieG 94]

Congratulations! Thanks also for sharing the experience with all of us. I for one, greatly appreciate it.

[Vanesitaa 5]

Congratulations! thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[alebrije 15]

Thanks for sharing!!! Congrats!!