Wife and I had GC Interview this morning - just sharing our experience

[goodpoint 6]

**I do not have any questions -- just sharing my experience in the hope that someone will find it useful.**

I (USC) and my wife (Romanian) met about 2 years ago, married in Romania about 1.5 years ago, traveled to the USA and decided to stay permanently about 7 months ago.

We filed for AOS based on marriage in April 2014; forms 130 and 485.

We received our interview appointment in mid October (for today -- mid November).

We arrived in the San Bernardino USCIS office 1 hour early. I wore a suit and my wife wore a nice dress. We were called into an office together after about an hour and a half (30min after apt time).

We were asked to raise our right hand and were sworn to tell the truth.

The officer asked my wife to verify all of her contact information and checked her original birth certificate and marriage certificate. Then she asked my wife all of the Yes/No questions on the I-485 like "have you ever been a gang member" and so forth (all "no" answers) even though she already had those answers in writing.

I was asked my name and DOB.

Then the officer said "tell me how you two came to be together" which wasn't directed toward a particular one of us. I jumped in to answer because I knew my wife was so stressed she was about to have a heart attack. I made an effort to speak confidently and in a concise manner. I stated the following: The date and cicumstances of how we met, the date we had our first date, date of our engagement, date of our wedding, date we last entered the USA.

I had prepared a detailed file showing how I was earning money and supporting my wife (I was her sponsor) but I was never asked to prove anything like that. The officer simply asked "so, you have been the one supporting your wife this whole time, right?" I answered "yes" and that was all that was discussed about finances.

The officer then asked me to provide her with any documentation I had showing we had a "real" marriage. I had originals and copies but she just wanted the copies and didn't much look at the originals. I spoke somewhat quickly in an effort to explain each item before being cut off (I wasn't). I provided her with all of the following items:

- Joint tax return

- joint credit card

- joint bank account

- tags from flowers I had sent to her when we first started courting.

- B-day and anniversary cards to us from family (2)

- joint lease

- jointly owned car registration

- joint car insurance

- disneyland annual passes

- cell phone bill with both names on it

- reservations for birthday activity (email)

- Used concert tickets with names on them

- Pictures: I cherry-picked about 30 of our best pictures that showed us doing various things over a long time (family dinners, birthdays, disneyland, etc.); I had nice color sheets made at WalMart with 8 pictures printed per 8x10" page and provided those instead of black and white copies. The officer asked me to explain what was going on in some of the pictures (I had written captions in magic marker).

Having reviewed everything above, the officer said she would be right back and walked out of the room. She returned with a "Congratulations you are a permanent resident" letter and told us we were approved and to expect the card in the mail within 90 days. We couldn't have been happier and were very surprised at how easy it was.

Basically, I would say that if you prepare well and arrive organized (and really are married) the interview is very low stress and very easy. We were done in about 20 minutes. We had stressed about the interview but there really was no reason for it.

Hope this helps someone -- I read a ton of descriptions like this on VisaJourney that helped me a lot. Thanks to everyone else who shared and gave me advice along the way!

[KASH2011 382]

Thanks for sharing! Congrats.

[Pitaya 2,577]

~Moved from WST-based AOS to WST-based AOS Progress Forum~

[UnaMexicana 153]

How did you come into the US? Did she have a tourist visa?

[goodpoint 6]

She did have a B2 tourist visa. We entered the US on what was basically a honeymoon and were convinced by my relatives to stay in the US. Relatives offered me a good interim job and the basics to re-setup my American life (furniture, pots and pans, etc.).

I was prepared to have to defend our lack of intent to stay in America but there were absolutely zero questions about it at the interview. I got the feeling that they only cared if our marriage was real or not and nothing else mattered to them.

[landr 126]

Thanks for the review. I'll be interviewing (adjusting from a K-1 visa) at San Bernadino unless I get an interview waiver letter, so this is very useful. Very interesting that the interviewer was okay with you answering most of the questions, even though it was your wife who was adjusting her status.

[goodpoint 6]

I agree. I had planned to "not speak unless spoken to" based on the reviews of other people. I was surprised that the officer's questions were not directed at a specific one of us. My wife pretty much didn't say anything at all except to confirm what was written on our application.

[lola0221 1]

Thanks for sharing and congratulations!

[anbuol 0]

Congratulations