How important is your field office?

[jaske78 1]

How important are the field office for making the decision?

 

Have filed the 751 but they are so backlogged that I will have to file the N-400 before the 751 is finished processing.

 

Am concerned: as part of a same-sex couple, one of the places I could move has a field office in Montgomery, which has had a very very bad reputation for anti-gay legislation/attitudes OR we could spend a little bit more money and go to a place that is in a solid blue state, and be seen in San Bernardino (At the moment, I work online, so we are not totally chained to location, it just has to be affordable. Blue states are, in general, not.

 

If the decision is largely independent of the local culture, made at some central location either way, with the local instances just doing the formalities and ferreting out possible red flags for fraud, it does not matter. However, if the decision is really left up to the local office, I am uncomfortable with having somebody from Montgomery making a decision. 

[Idd1989 27]

If the marriage is legit, and there are no suspicions, any filed office will have to approve you. 

[viajero 14]

If you're not doing anything illegal you shouldn't be worry about your location!!

[jaske78 1]

45 minutes ago, Idd1989 said:

If the marriage is legit, and there are no suspicions, any filed office will have to approve you. 

It is legit. Absolutely.

 

However, you have no idea how often I have experienced people suddenly finding a reason to object. I won't even get into the horrors of the wedding: four bakeries that pulled out (one was "overloaded," two "religious reasons" and the last never returned calls), the venues suddenly found they had "double-booked." I was fired from my job right after I got married, citing "attitude problems" that had somehow never ever been mentioned to me in the five previous years of employment (And yes, it's legal in North Carolina, where I was living and working, to discriminate like that.) While many people were kind, many people also found small subclauses that "had to be consulted," before approving our mortgage, insurance, and other issues. ("All of our forms still say wife. can your...friend just sign under the woman's name?" "Your kind are not good for corporate morale.")

 

Look. as any citizen, it should not matter. As a straight person, you can walk in anywhere and have people smile at you and say "How nice." Gay couples do not have nearly the same tolerance level. For some people, the "ick" factor is written so clearly on their faces that it seems painful. For others, they effuse politeness and over-the-top friendliness, but I can never be sure what it means. The person with a Bible on the desk is a complete lottery for me: so far, about 50% veiled hostility, 10-15% genuine warmth, and the rest effusive pleasantry that I have often found to be surface-level only. I am really not comfortable with having people who have this kind of strong cultural opposition look at me and not treat me like any other citizen. That's why I am asking.

 

[bcb 4]

I understand why you're asking. Of course it shouldn't matter where you apply, but I don't think anyone here can assure you that it won't. I hope someone who applied as a same-sex spouse in Montgomery (or similar location) can weigh in.