As the title says my wife just received a notice of an upcoming I-751 interview. It is on May 20th at the Milwaukee office. We filed the I-751 package back in February of 2019. It is my understanding that if you provide conclusive evidence of a "bona fide" marriage the interview is usually waived. That makes me a little worried that they might see something that looks like a red flag to them. On the other hand I have read that some cases are selected at random for interviews so maybe that is what happened here. In the I-751 package I sent them a birth certificate for the child we have together, A joint lease agreement, joint bank account documentation showing both of our paychecks deposited to the same account among many other things. I literally sent them a mountain of paperwork. That is why I can't understand why we are being required to have an interview other than maybe we were selected at random. Anyways we have to play the hand we are dealt here so instead of complaining I am writing this post to get some advice on how to handle the interview (though if someone has some insight into this it would be interesting to know). I have many questions here so please answer whatever you can.
First of all the issue I am probably most worried about is my tax returns. Perhaps this created a red flag with our case. We got married in 2016 in the Philippines and my wife didn't get here until 2017. I mistakenly filed my 2016 tax return as single. From 2017 on we have filed joint tax returns. I provided them with our 2017-2019 tax returns. Is it possible they want our 2016 tax returns and how do I explain the situation if they do?
The next issue is my 14 year old step son's case. We have not received a notice about his case since his biometrics appointment. Will his case be automatically approved after my wife's case is approved or do we need to take further action for his case?
The next thing is documentation we need for the interview. I am trying to get that all together today as I have some spare time today and the wife and kids are gone for the day Should we bring all the stuff that was sent with the I-751 package in addition to new evidence? Here is the list of stuff I plan on bringing assuming I need to include everything sent in the I-751 package. Please tell me if I need to add anything:
-Son's birth certificate
-Statements from joint bank accounts showing direct deposits to same account
-Joint personal loan and car loan documentation as well as joint credit card documentation
-Joint lease agreement
-Pictures. This might be a slight issue as I am the type of person who doesn't like to have my picture taken so we don't have a huge amount of pictures together (usually I am the one taking pictures of my wife and kids).
-Joint car insurance documentation
-401k and death benefit beneficiary documentation
-Joint health insurance documentation
-2017 to current joint tax returns
-Any other documents the interview notice listed (green card, ect)
The next issue is the interview its self. Assuming the worst case scenario and they want to interrogate us what type of questions should we be ready for and how should we answer them? I know that is kind of a broad question. I would like to believe the interview will be fairly brief considering the evidence we have but I like to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. So I would like some insight into both what we can reasonably expect and what we should be ready for if they believe we have sufficient documentation and what we should be ready for in the worst case scenario.
The other thing that I don't think should be an issue but I would like to make sure is my wife recently got a speeding ticket for going over 25 miles over the speed limit. We are hiring an attorney and fighting it in court because she swears she wasn't going that fast but if they find out about this could it cause any issues? I am more concerned though about how this could affect her naturalization should we be unsuccessful fighting it in court. In Wisconsin this is only a citation and not a criminal offense but I am concerned this might not look good when she applies for naturalization. Anyone have any insight into this?
Anyways that is all the questions I have for now though I'm sure I'll think of more. Anyways please answer whatever you can and thank you in advance.