Horrible interview experience

[CEE53147 559]

4 hours 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. 

Now we know the real reason. If you can afford an attorney you can afford to provide for her.

 

She(you) can buy into Medicare.

[Chocobo 196]

I'm sorry she had to go thru that. ☹

[Diane and Chris 651]

4 hours ago, geowrian said:

^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.

 

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

Thank you for giving words of encouragement and actual helpful advice.  I cannot believe she was treated like this. I would like be to see these people with the negative comments go to Russia and pass the citizenship test there and speak fluent Russian at an interview. Not gonna happen. Good for her for trying so hard to become a citizen. It’s amazing how judgmental so many people are and these are ones who spouses are immigrants. 

[Daisy.Chain 317]

I'm sorry she went through that. Does she not qualify for the age/time with green card exemption?

 

I also found your post a little contradictory. You were strong on the emotional side of an 80-year old woman getting chewed up, but also admitted that she "BARELY speaks English". The applicant needs a working, understandable-to-the-common-person grasp of English. I've found USCIS officers to often be brusque. If she doesn't have this knowledge of English (as defined by USCIS, not by loved ones), she won't qualify.

 

I think she can retake the interview one more time, and then would have to reapply (and pay more $$$) for a third chance.

[TBoneTX 43,401]

One of the hardest things to remember when being abused or treated rudely is to say, "I need to speak with your supervisor right now, please.  Go get him or her -- I'll wait."

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Thread is moved from the US Citizenship main forum to the Case Progress subforum.

Edited September 7, 2018 by TBoneTX

[Villanelle 4,121]

9 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 ($$$).  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. 

 

Save your money. 

If you go the attny will be very sympathetic, tell you how they can help you, charge you a huge amount of money and not impact anything. As posted- they can not answer questions, you have nothing to file or write out and mail in, it wont make a difference if they are with you at 2nd interview or not.

More importantly- the medical disability clause does not seem to apply here. There are also age clauses which are in the instructions so I am going to assume she does not qualify for any of them either. So what exactly are you complaining about? She wasnt treated fairly? She was treated just like everyone else- as it should be. In this case unfortunately it was a rude and ugly officer. They can not give your MIL exra consideration in treatment because she is a cute old 80yr lady that did an awesome job immersing in this. 

Maybe you will get another officer for the next interview? hopefully someone can look into this and let you know. If its the same one you can try various things to get a new officer but it might not work and will delay the interview, or you can go and try again with a good attitude. Right when you go in try to make small talk. Maybe its met with icy silence- thats ok, make a light hearted comment about how last time it went so fast and you are hoping this time it will go slower- cause youve been practicing. If it still goes just as bad you can get an attny or congressman involved.

[Mr.Jose 64]

12 hours ago, Ruark said:

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.

It was her decision to immigrate to US, therefore, start learning English immediately, it’s a English speaking country.

 

Of course, always blame the officer when something doesn’t go your way, he’s there to do his job not to teach your mother english. And stop constantly pointing a finger at the officer, like he’s wrong and your mother in law is innocent.

 

People that immigrate, still keep speaking their language and don’t wanna learn English, yet they wanna be USC. 

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by Mr.Jose

[Mr.Jose 64]

11 hours 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. 

So abuse the system, use citizenship only for the purpose to get medicaid, NICE. 

[WaterLeaf 199]

I would like to add a little help.

 

If she uses a computer and/or a cell phone, please check out Duolingo.com for helping to learn English. Free, it does have some add-on cost that is quite avoidable for additional stuff that isn't language learning related - just media perks.

 

I learned Spanish from that to get through the basic stuff and practice to remember it does help a long way.

 

Wish you the best and do better on the next adventure!

[Mr.Jose 64]

11 hours ago, Umka36 said:

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.

Good point. Unfortunately, he wants to abuse the law, get citizenship for his mother in law and get medicaid at low cost or for free.

[Mr.Jose 64]

4 minutes ago, WaterLeaf said:

I would like to add a little help.

 

If she uses a computer and/or a cell phone, please check out Duolingo.com for helping to learn English. Free, it does have some add-on cost that is quite avoidable for additional stuff that isn't language learning related - just media perks.

 

I learned Spanish from that to get through the basic stuff and practice to remember it does help a long way.

 

Wish you the best and do better on the next adventure!

The whole point is they don’t wanna learn English, they want to drink coffee and listen to their foreign music.

 

They only learn English once they need something or to get benefits.

[Going through 5,668]

12 hours ago, Ruark said:

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"! 

One of the accommodations the IO did for you, was that you were allowed in the room with her during the interview.  Normally family members are not unless the applicant needs assistance in some way as claimed on the application.  She could have very well refused you entering the room, which was up to her discretion.

 

If she barely" speaks English, as you say, most likely she didn't pass the basic English requirement (which is not just based on the reading/writing portion but also her vocabulary throughout the interview.).  Luckily she will have a second opportunity to pass the interview, if the IO ends up denying her the first time around.

 

At the end of the interview, did the IO specifically say she was denying your mother---what did the paper say (the one she would have received at the end of the interview)?

[debbiedoo 2,339]

old people are where my cold heart warms up. they speak what they're thinking

 

anyways, my exes parents(from japan) never learned much English. They also did not seek citizenship.  Their children ran their business and they had no reason to learn.

 

If it were me, I would institute a 'No Russian language' policy in the home. No music, TV, conversation, nothing. EVERYTHING all in English, all the time. Pair that with rosetta stone or similar. Have friends / family come over and (try to-hopefully shes willing) make her engage with them and have conversations. Have different people practice the questions with her in different accents and speech patterns. Have phone conversations with her (even if just from the other room) and practice the questions on the phone, so she doesnt have the benefit of watching the facial reflections. keep the closed captioning on the TV so she can follow the written and verbal together.

[Boiler 43,676]

My Granny in her last few years could not remember the English for certain phrases, she had spoken English for nearly 90 years. When she went to school you could only speak English and she only learned to read and write in English.

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

I agree, that was an awful and frustrating experience. And if it had been my parents, or my husband's parents, I would be incredibly apt to form my own scathing review somewhere.

 

That being said - poor attitude aside, it actually doesn't sound surprising. To play devil's advocate here - the officers who conduct all these interviews are not there for customer service or retention. They don't have to be nice to you/applicants. They are supposed to, in fact, remain unbiased in appearance and communication, which typically results in the "cold/stone-faced" persona people have a problem with. Even when my husband went through his POE with his K1 visa, he commented on the officers behaving quite similarly to your description here. Not warm or friendly at all. But neither of us complained or found it to be odd, because they're there to do a job. And at the end of the day, the officer doesn't know the applicant from Adam - even sweet, fragile old ladies.

 

To be fair, just because you or your wife can understand her doesn't mean everyone can. You even said yourself she barely speaks English, which means most English speakers may have a hard time understanding her. Watching videos and only practicing the bare minimum for the interview probably wasn't sufficient. You really can't predict what they may ask or request of an applicant. It reminds me of a professor I had in college who gave us a practice test for a major exam, and a majority of the class only studied/memorized the questions on the practice test. Then he ended up using different questions on the final exam to see who actually studied the full content, and not just the bare minimum. A lot of people failed the final exam.