AOS from VWP Approval :D

[lirnos 7]

Hey all! My hubby and I had my AOS interview this morning and I thought I'd share my experience because I know when I was in the process I didn't find a tonne of recent info on peoples' interview experiences!

We were approved! Wahooo

The interview was quick and easy - the interviewer was friendly but to the point - he was clearly opening up our application for the first time and basically went through it all and asked me for my full name and DOB, current address, date of entry into the US, mum's name, dad's name, and if this was the first marriage for my husband and I (which it is).

Then he asked me every question in that huge list of q's in the I-485, 'do you intend to engaged in acts of terrorism', 'have you ever been arrested for a crime' etc etc (I'm remembering the q's from the top of my head, but you know the ones?). Then he asked if we met before I entered the US on VWP, which we did. I said "we met in New York in 2015" - I was studying in NYC then, and my husband was there on vacation. He didn't ask any further into this or how or relationship progressed etc.

He then asked us if we had any evidence of shared accounts etc. I gave him a big stack, and he basically said I won't take any originals, so he just took copies of our shared auto insurance, vet bills for our dog, shared cell phone bill (family plan), shared costco account, and a page with photocopies photos (it was 5 different photobooth photos we've taken over the past 2 years but I photocopied them coz I obviously want to keep the oriiginals hehe). I actually printed a whole stack of about 60 photos, but he didn't even look at those (nor did he look at some of our other evidence, like letters addressed to us). 

Then he started telling us about how conditional approval works, and was printing out the approval notice while saying that we should keep collecting evidence and instructed us that in about 2 years we need to file form I-751. And that was it! He photocopied our passports and we were all done in about 15 mins!

It was super breezy, nothing to stress about at all. What I was most worried about was adjusting from VWP, but from my experience today I realised that they don't press you on intent. So as long as you're honest throughout the application process, don't worry like crazy about the intent stuff. The purpose of this interview is to assess that you are in a real relationship and real marriage. So my biggest piece of advice for everyone is to collect whatever information you can to clearly show that you are in a marriage, and otherwise just be yourselves. Oh and for anyone interested, we didn't frontload our initial application with evidence of bona fide marriage. We didn't use a lawyer (it's totally possible to do on your own by the way, just read the instructions verrrryyyyy closely like I did, and there's a tonne of info on this site!!  ) but had some advice from a few lawyers, all of whom said that while frontloading is fine, you can also just save all evidence for the interview.

 

So there you go!! Wishing everyone well in their journeys. Visa stuff is SO STRESSFUL, but as long as you read everything thoroughly and submit everything in an orderly way etc. it'll all be just fine!!  

[blk 87]

11 minutes ago, lirnos said:

Hey all! My hubby and I had my AOS interview this morning and I thought I'd share my experience because I know when I was in the process I didn't find a tonne of recent info on peoples' interview experiences!

We were approved! Wahooo

The interview was quick and easy - the interviewer was friendly but to the point - he was clearly opening up our application for the first time and basically went through it all and asked me for my full name and DOB, current address, date of entry into the US, mum's name, dad's name, and if this was the first marriage for my husband and I (which it is).

Then he asked me every question in that huge list of q's in the I-485, 'do you intend to engaged in acts of terrorism', 'have you ever been arrested for a crime' etc etc (I'm remembering the q's from the top of my head, but you know the ones?). Then he asked if we met before I entered the US on VWP, which we did. I said "we met in New York in 2015" - I was studying in NYC then, and my husband was there on vacation. He didn't ask any further into this or how or relationship progressed etc.

He then asked us if we had any evidence of shared accounts etc. I gave him a big stack, and he basically said I won't take any originals, so he just took copies of our shared auto insurance, vet bills for our dog, shared cell phone bill (family plan), shared costco account, and a page with photocopies photos (it was 5 different photobooth photos we've taken over the past 2 years but I photocopied them coz I obviously want to keep the oriiginals hehe). I actually printed a whole stack of about 60 photos, but he didn't even look at those (nor did he look at some of our other evidence, like letters addressed to us). 

Then he started telling us about how conditional approval works, and was printing out the approval notice while saying that we should keep collecting evidence and instructed us that in about 2 years we need to file form I-751. And that was it! He photocopied our passports and we were all done in about 15 mins!

It was super breezy, nothing to stress about at all. What I was most worried about was adjusting from VWP, but from my experience today I realised that they don't press you on intent. So as long as you're honest throughout the application process, don't worry like crazy about the intent stuff. The purpose of this interview is to assess that you are in a real relationship and real marriage. So my biggest piece of advice for everyone is to collect whatever information you can to clearly show that you are in a marriage, and otherwise just be yourselves. Oh and for anyone interested, we didn't frontload our initial application with evidence of bona fide marriage. We didn't use a lawyer (it's totally possible to do on your own by the way, just read the instructions verrrryyyyy closely like I did, and there's a tonne of info on this site!!  ) but had some advice from a few lawyers, all of whom said that while frontloading is fine, you can also just save all evidence for the interview.

 

So there you go!! Wishing everyone well in their journeys. Visa stuff is SO STRESSFUL, but as long as you read everything thoroughly and submit everything in an orderly way etc. it'll all be just fine!!  

 

Hi

Congrats to you both, your interview sounds much like ours was. We were in & out quickly lol, also nothing was mentioned about intent.

Now here I am going through my citizenship process & it seems like only yesterday that I was having my AOS interview.

 

Brian   

[martin bk 19]

Thanks for this, I came over for a holiday (10days) on the VWP and my husband convinced me to stay the 90 days - currently 260 days in to the CR1 process and still waiting for the NOA2 from

Nebraska. 

The husband is trying to convince me that we should go the AOS route since I'm here, but I'm worried since I came here on the VWP that it's going to go horribly wrong. 

Your review has given me more information, still have 10 days to decide if I'm going back to the U.K. Or posting the forms. 

[lirnos 7]

7 hours ago, martin bk said:

Thanks for this, I came over for a holiday (10days) on the VWP and my husband convinced me to stay the 90 days - currently 260 days in to the CR1 process and still waiting for the NOA2 from

Nebraska. 

The husband is trying to convince me that we should go the AOS route since I'm here, but I'm worried since I came here on the VWP that it's going to go horribly wrong. 

Your review has given me more information, still have 10 days to decide if I'm going back to the U.K. Or posting the forms. 

Hey Martin!

I don't have any expertise at all about what the implication would be if you're already in that process - why don't you give an immigration attorney a call for a quick chat. I called a couple of attorneys who were happy to chat for a bit and give me some free advice.

Good luck!!