Marriage Based Green Card Interview Experience - Denver, CO Field Office

[Edward and Jaycel 1,949]

Interview Account

 

Sorry for the delay on this but Jaycel and I went out to celebrate getting past this part of the process last night  

 

 

Our interview was scheduled for 11:05am yesterday (July 23rd). There is covered, on-site parking for anyone going to this office. (Very fancy LOL)  We walked into the building at 10:25am and went through security which is pretty much the same as TSA security with belt and shoes and all belongings going in the bin to be scanned and you walk through a metal detector. All in all we were through security in about 3 minutes. No line to get in the building at all. After security, you go to the reception window to the left while still on the first floor to check in. The receptionist will scan the barcodes on your interview notice to check you in and then direct you to go back behind the security station to the elevator and go to the 2nd floor waiting room. There are 3 doors (A, B & C) that we saw officers coming out into the waiting room on the 2nd floor to escort applicants out and call people in for their interview. We got to the waiting room right about 10:35. There were about 30 people waiting in there to include what we assume were applicants, petitioners and some who were obviously attorneys. Our officer called us at about 11:20am and she came out of the elevator to get us and took us up to the 3rd floor. She greeted us with a warm genuine smile and said, "Good morning Jaycel & Ed I'm happy to meet you!" She immediately put us at ease and joked with us that we're special because we were going to the "Management Floor" where her office is. She was kind, professional and you could tell that she was very experienced. I would even go so far as to venture a guess that she even may have been a supervisor? I don't know if they do interviews themselves ever? Maybe since everyone is getting interviews now (which she confirmed with us is absolutely the new policy) the supervisors are chipping in? If she wasn't a supervisor, I would definitely say she was one of the more senior officers at this FO. We got to her office and she asked us to remain standing so that she could swear us in. After that she asked me for my Driver License and asked Jaycel for her passport that she entered the US on, any other passports that she had (which she doesn't), her EAD card, her SS Card and her Driver License. Once we handed her our IDs, I noticed her take our licenses and put them side by side and compare the addresses to verify they were the same. She then did Jaycel’s biometrics (fingerprints of each index finger and photo). She mentioned that sometimes she would be typing while we were answering questions and not to feel like there was anything wrong, she was just recording our answers for the record. She also mentioned how slow their system is so that could cause some delays. She saw that I had taken out the sealed envelope from the civil surgeon and asked what it was I had to give her. I told her that we had the vaccine assessment part of the I-693 done by a civil surgeon because Jaycel was missing the polio vaccine from her overseas medical she had done for the K-1 visa. She said, “Thank you for getting that done!” She then said, “Ok, I love a good love story so tell me yours!” We asked her who she wanted to answer so Jaycel, who loves to tell our story, started. She listened very intently, asked some questions along the way to both of us and was typing at the same time. She then asked the following questions:

 

Has either of you been married before?

Do either of you have any children anywhere in the world?

To me (the USC) are your parents still alive? Do you have siblings?

To Jaycel - Have you met any of his siblings?

Confirmed our wedding date and asked where we had our ceremony and who attended

Did you have a celebration afterwards? Where was it? (Turns out she knows the exact place we had our celebratory dinner, as she had eaten there a few times)

To Jaycel - Where do you live? Who lives there with you? Asked questions about our dog, in friendly way as you could tell she is a dog person

Then she asked about 20 of the Yes/No questions from the I-485

 

She then said she was thankful for all of the uploaded evidence as it made her job easier. She asked if we had anything else to give her that we hadn’t already uploaded. She had the sealed medical and we gave her some proof that we were each other’s emergency contacts at our jobs, me as beneficiary on Jaycel’s insurance at her new job, a printout of our Amazon Family page with us both listed and some mail Jaycel had received in her name at our house.

 

She then printed off the paper shown below - She said basically that’s just our proof that we attended the interview and that her plan was that afternoon to upload what we brought her and would approve our case.

 

Hope this helps anyone awaiting an interview and feel free to reach out if you have any questions! 

 

 

 

 

[OldUser 9,970]

Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

I was always told by lawyers not to give long stories at the interview. I was never asked such question by adjudicator. Any open ended long answers can lead to more questioning and searching for inconsistencies to accuse one of fraud.

 

I was asked questions such as "How did you meet"? And my answer was short: "We met through a common friend". That seemed enough. A smiling and friendly adjudicator can be a mask they wear. Generally, adjudicator is not a friend.

 

I think, in your case, you had a nice person new to USCIS, that's why they need others to review their work before decision can be made.

 

Keep us posted!

Edited Thursday at 05:20 PM by OldUser

[.yana 622]

Our Denver FO IO was complete opposite: zero emotions on his face, not friendly, no greeting beyond the formal 'hello', didn't even look like he was listening to any of our answers, started the interview by grilling my husband about why he's there with me... 

 

Glad your experience was much more pleasant!

 

8 minutes ago, OldUser said:

I was always told by lawyers not to give long stories at the interview. I was never asked such question by adjudicator. Any open ended long answers can lead to more questioning and searching for inconsistencies to accuse one of fraud.

My husband has exam anxiety, and when asked about how we met, he started from so far away that about 5 minutes into my husband's rambling IO had to rush him to the point when we actually met  😅 I was mortified.

[Edward and Jaycel 1,949]

Update: It's official!  

 

 

[TedsGirl 233]

12 minutes ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

Update: It's official!  

 

 

Congratulations 🎊 I knew y’all would get an approval quickly!!!

[Edward and Jaycel 1,949]

3 hours ago, TedsGirl said:

Congratulations 🎊 I knew y’all would get an approval quickly!!!

Thank you!!

 

[tinubiyi 25]

2 hours ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

Thank you!!

 

Congratulations 🎊 

[Edward and Jaycel 1,949]

3 minutes ago, tinubiyi said:

Congratulations 🎊 

 

Thank you!  

[Vegas i-751 80]

Congratulations! This really brought back memories for me. I remember being so frustrated with my lawyer for being late especially since I hate being even two seconds late to anything! My AOS interview felt pretty anticlimactic at the time as I felt I prepared so much but yet they asked the bare minimum. It was actually my N-400 interview in Las Vegas where things felt more personal as they paid attention, shared a few laughs, and the whole thing was more lighthearted.That moment of being approved at your stage is unforgettable. Wishing you all the best as you move forward on this journey!

[Edward and Jaycel 1,949]

10 hours ago, Vegas i-751 said:

 

Congratulations! This really brought back memories for me. I remember being so frustrated with my lawyer for being late especially since I hate being even two seconds late to anything! My AOS interview felt pretty anticlimactic at the time as I felt I prepared so much but yet they asked the bare minimum. It was actually my N-400 interview in Las Vegas where things felt more personal as they paid attention, shared a few laughs, and the whole thing was more lighthearted.That moment of being approved at your stage is unforgettable. Wishing you all the best as you move forward on this journey!

 

Oh I was raised by a Navy officer and I have lived my life by the creed , "If you're on time, you're 15 minutes late." LOL Yeah we had 2 big filers full of documents plus a photo album as well. However, based on a conversation I had with a Field Office ISO and reading other people's accounts of their interviews, we had been doing monthly "Unsolicited Evidence" uploads of marital bona fides to the portal and then one big upload of pictures and our story prior to the interview. Our ISO said that doing those helped her get to know us when she reviewed our case a couple of days before the interview and she knew she only needed to ask a few basic questions.

[Edward and Jaycel 1,949]

21 hours ago, OldUser said:

I think, in your case, you had a nice person new to USCIS, that's why they need others to review their work before decision can be made.

 

No she was definitely a very experienced officer at least and maybe even a supervisor... She said she was approving our case that afternoon. And she did. She told us that there is a lag of 24 hours between what they do in their system and what we see in the portal. So we got our official approval yesterday at 12:30pm which would put her approving it about 40 minutes after we left her office.

[SL2024 300]

8 minutes ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

 

No she was definitely a very experienced officer at least and maybe even a supervisor... She said she was approving our case that afternoon. And she did. She told us that there is a lag of 24 hours between what they do in their system and what we see in the portal. So we got our official approval yesterday at 12:30pm which would put her approving it about 40 minutes after we left her office.

 

This is what I was told by the ISO for my AOS interview as well in terms of the 24 hours between what they do on their system and receiving the notification on the portal. 40 minutes is quick though - mine was about an hour and a half

[maryaaaa 136]

On 7/24/2025 at 11:42 AM, Edward and Jaycel said:

Update: It's official!  

 

 

[Edward and Jaycel 1,949]

10 hours ago, maryaaaa said:

Thank you!!! 😁