Horrible interview experience

[Ruark 4]

This was at the San Antonio USCIS center.

 

I took my mother in law, from Russia, to her citizenship interview yesterday. It was a nightmare. She is 80 years old, no education, a very frail, meek, gentle old lady, who has struggled for 2 years trying to learn enough English to pass the interview.  We practiced daily, and she reached the point where she can do the civics questions, speaking and writing tests almost perfectly.  But still, she can BARELY use English.  Good grief, she's 80 years old, remember.

 

We watched the "sample interviews" online, where it showed these warm, smiling officers greeting them, asking them to raise their hands, "please remain standing," etc. and she was prepared for that at well. We actually play-acted these situations in the living room.

 

None of this happened.  The officer stepped into the waiting area and called out her number.  She walked over and smiled at the officer, who was stone-faced, cold as ice.  The officer waved at her to come, without saying a word, and walked back to her office.  There, she just pointed at a chair, gesturing for my MIL to sit.  She didn't greet her, introduce herself, nothing.  No "please remain standing," no oath, etc. Then she sat behind the desk, grabbed a piece of paper and started throwing questions at my MIL, never looking up at her, just looking down at the paper and mumbling the questions at a high speed. Of course, my MIL had NO idea what she was saying.  One time my MIL asked her, with a smile, "can you repeat, please," and she looked angry. My MIL was too intimidated to try that again. 

 

Then she tried the civics questions. She asked a couple of questions and didn't even give my MIL time to answer them. A couple of times she did answer, but the officer claimed "I couldn't understand what she was saying." Of course, my MIL speaks with a heavy Russian accent, but she is by NO means understandable!  She gave my MIL the writing test, and she did fine, she passed that.  The officer didn't even GIVE her the reading-aloud test, which surprised me, as my MIL reads PERFECTLY, better that some native English speakers. I asked the officer why she didn't give the reading test, and she smirked, "I couldn't, she didn't even know what I wanted her to do" which was total bullcrap. For heaven's sakes, just put the sentences in front of her and say "read these"! 

 

When they were finished, the officer stood up, walked to the office door and opened it, and rudely motioned for my MIL to leave.  No comments, no smile, no nothing.  She just barked "2nd interview" and stood there by the door.  The entire thing was less than 10 minutes. 

 

My MIL was despondent, not just at failing the test she was CAPABLE of scoring perfectly, but at the rudeness of the officer.  We talked to a friend whose parents had been through it, and she said, "oh, they're all like that, just rude and ugly, this is all normal...." and she advised taking an attorney to the next interview.  So we are going tomorrow for a preliminary visit with a good attorney ($$$).  Meanwhile, my MIL was crushed.  As of 10 pm last night she was still crying.  Have you ever seen an 80 year old lady crying herself to sleep?  It's not pretty.

 

My wife, of course, was livid that this could treat her mother like that and walk away scott free.  We plan to write a complaint to the supervisor, but will consult the attorney first, before doing anything. 

 

Thoughts, comments and advice are welcome.

 

Thanks.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Ryan H
Reason for edit: to remove alternate spelling of profanity.

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

Wow! Really sorry to hear this happened to your MIL. I replied in your other thread when you were preparing for the interview. Unfortunately, what we were saying in the other thread applied here, i.e. your experience will be highly dependent on the specific IO assigned to the case. Sucks that you have to shell out for an attorney but it's probably a good idea. Seems like a person has the right to understand what an IO is asking or saying to them. At a minimum, a request to have the whole process explained before starting should be honored. As I mentioned, my wife was able to ask her IO for a repeat on one of the civics questions.

 

Maybe look into a disability exception before you go again. https://www.uscis.gov/n-648

Edited September 6, 2018 by Russ&Caro

[TNJ17 1,329]

That all sounds pretty normal to me to be completely honest. It sucks that your mother in law is old and can’t understand the language. Learning the language is something she should have done when she first moved here. It’s quite impossible for an 80 yr old person to learn basic communication skills in a foreign language in such a short amount of time let alone enough for naturalization. 

[WandY 430]

13 minutes ago, TNJ17 said:

 Learning the language is something she should have done when she first moved here. It’s quite impossible for an 80 yr old person to learn basic communication skills in a foreign language in such a short amount of time let alone enough for naturalization. 

Absolutely! I have seen the language issue many times. The bad day for MIL offers a lesson to others: Learn English when you decide to make America your home. It just makes life easier. My wife is a school district translator. It amazes me how many Vietnamese have lived/worked here for many years, but can't speak, read, or write English. Many of the young Vietnamese students suffer (in many ways) because the parents refuse to learn English.

[Ruark 4]

I appreciate the responses so far.  For what it's worth, she DID learn English enough to pass the tests with flying colors.  She passed the writing fine.  She can read as well as a native reader, but didn't get the reading test because the officer assumed she didn't know what she was supposed to do.  We just went through the 100 civics questions again and she got 94 of them correct.  We play-acted the interview process here at home several times.  She was all set.  The problem was the officer being so rude and short with her, looking angry, talking too fast while not even looking at her, etc. 

 

I'm not sure that a disability exception would be viable.  There is an exception for mental disability, but it's more for things like mental retardation. 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Ruark

[Boiler 43,619]

Begs the question why you put her through all this, I know somebody who has been here for 40 years as a LPR.

[Ruark 4]

Quote

Learn English when you decide to make America your home.

Easier said than done for an 80 year old woman who's only been here 5 years.  And most of those 5 years she's lived in a mobile home on our farm 60 miles from the city, where there was NO access to foreign language instruction (as if that would have helped).  I read on the USCIS web site that officers can consider external circumstances in their decisions, such as the person's age, access to instruction, etc.  But I don't know how they're supposed to be made aware of that sort of thing.  Nobody is able to talk to the officer beforehand, or anything like that.  Hopefully the attorney can help with this mess in some way. 

[Ben&Zian 4,397]

Watching the online video "examples" is like me trying to explain what the Army is like to someone and showing them recruiting videos. Everyone's experience will vary. Mine was different from the guy who joined as a cook but we both saw the same videos.

 

While you do state she speaks in a heavy accent, while you understand her, someone who isn't used to her voice or the accent may not right away. It can take time to become familiar with the tone and pronunciation of words. Took me a little to get used to my husband and I had known a lot of Filipinos before but each area of the Philippines has their own little uniqueness to it.

 

Also I believe if over say, 70 you can have a translator and bypass the English requirements.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Ben&Zian

[Ruark 4]

Quote

Begs the question why you put her through all this, I know somebody who has been here for 40 years as a LPR.

 

One reason is for her to be able to qualify for medicaid.  She has a LONG list of medical issues, but no health insurance.  You can't get health insurance for somebody who's 80 and has never paid into Medicare, etc. 

[AnnJacks 6]

If i would be you and my parents would be at their 80s, i would just forget about citizenship test. Was it too important to get a naturalization? Not my business, but really.. Why is it so necessary?  If i ever will bring my parents here it will be only when i know, i will 100% ready to fully support them. Financially. 

Edited September 6, 2018 by AnnJacks

[geowrian 22,336]

7 minutes ago, Ben&Zian said:

While you do state she speaks in a heavy accent, while you understand her, someone who isn't used to her voice or the accent may not right away. It can take time to become familiar with the tone and pronunciation of words. Took me a little to get used to my husband and I had known a lot of Filipinos before but each area of the Philippines has their own little uniqueness to it.

^This.

 

It took a few weeks for my college level engineering class to understand our Indian professor. We all had a very hard time during those couple first weeks. His English wasn't bad, but understanding him without learning the nuances of the accent was very difficult.

 

10 minutes ago, Ruark said:

One reason is for her to be able to qualify for medicaid.  She has a LONG list of medical issues, but no health insurance.  You can't get health insurance for somebody who's 80 and has never paid into Medicare, etc. 

If she's been an LPR for 5 years, she can use Medicaid anyway.

https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/outreach-and-enrollment/downloads/overview-of-eligibility-for-non-citizens-in-medicaid-and-chip.pdf

[Boiler 43,619]

Some States allow Medicaid from Day 1 for LPR's.

[Ruark 4]

9 minutes ago, geowrian said:

 

If she's been an LPR for 5 years, she can use Medicaid anyway.

https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/outreach-and-enrollment/downloads/overview-of-eligibility-for-non-citizens-in-medicaid-and-chip.pdf

To my understanding, that option doesn't apply if you have a sponsor who has filed an Affadavit of Support.   The Medicaid benefit for her is "means tested," which means my wife's income (her sponsor) is included as part of her financial resources, thus rendering her ineligible.

 

Regarding those comments about understanding somebody with a foreign accent, you are all certain correct.  But that's a different situation than asking the specific civics questions, where the answers are already known to the officer. E.g "who is the father of our country?"  She would say something like "Woshington," which would certainly be understandable.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Ruark

[Umka36 781]

26 minutes ago, Ruark said:

 

One reason is for her to be able to qualify for medicaid.  She has a LONG list of medical issues, but no health insurance.  You can't get health insurance for somebody who's 80 and has never paid into Medicare, etc. 

She should be able to purchase Medicare after being here 5 years. It's about $556/month. That's a steal for someone who is 80. Medicare is not free even for folks who pay into the system. My parents pay $134/month.

[Going through 5,668]

4 hours ago, Ruark said:

We talked to a friend whose parents had been through it, and she said, "oh, they're all like that, just rude and ugly, this is all normal...." and she advised taking an attorney to the next interview.  So we are going tomorrow for a preliminary visit with a good attorney ($$$). 

Just a note---having an attorney at the interview won't do much other than provide your MIL with moral support.  An attorney cannot answer any questions on her behalf or explain any questions to her.  They would have to basically sit there silently unless asked a direct question by the IO.