jesskhan

My husband has just received his interview appt., is it important that I , the spouse, be there with him during this interview? I am concerned that I may not be able to get off work in order to attend the interview with him, but I feel that I should be there with him. Also... wondering if the spouses are ever interviewed , since this is marriage based immigration/naturalization??? The interrogation we endured for the greencard is not something I am looking forward to repeating, but just want to know if that is unheard of or? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

My husband went thru Islamabad as well , and he was on AP for over 300 days I think ( this was several yrs ago). He thinks that it is a good sign that they kept your passport , as they did not keep his passport after his interview and then he was on AP FOREVER. They kept asking for more info , altho we had provided them with all required info in the beginning. On one of his trips to take the requested info they DID keep his passport and his K-3 visa was issued shortly after. Good luck--I know how frustrating this time is.

We can finally be taken off this list --- greencard arrived in the mail today!! Yippeee! If no mistakes had been made by USCIS , then we should have had the card on Oct 27. Due to their incompetence ( typing error on our address) we had to wait another month, but after an infopass appointment 2 weeks ago we finally have it in hand . That means it was only about 3 mos for the fbi check here , not too bad. Hope that they are on a roll and more will be approved soon. Good luck to all.

Jess

ALHUMDOLILLAH!!!! Greencard finally came in the mail today !! Our journey that started in April 2004 is finally over as of today. We couldn't be happier. We want to thank everyone on here, this site has been incredibly helpful throughout this whole process. We wish everyone a speedy end to their journey.

Jess and Abdul

Thanks to all for the advice. I believe we will be making an infopass appt in hopes of getting this cleared up as soon as possible .

Our case was approved on Oct 6 and we received the welcome notice on Oct 12, but we immediately noticed it had an incorrect address on it . However, our postman was able to deliver it , they did get the name and city correct. The rest of the address was mainly a bunch of semi colons and commas. We talked to the postman , told him we were expecting an important piece of mail from immigration and he told us not to worry , as long as the name was correct he would deliver it. He said there was no need to go to PO to explain , he would deliver it . We made the mistake of taking his advice , although not sure if it would have helped to go to PO or not . I did call the 1-800 # immediately as well and they told me they would make a report of the mistake and someone would call me within 30 days and then gave me a referral #. Sooooo..... yesterday my husband gets 10 emails saying that the greencard was returned on Oct. 27 as it was "undeliverable". I again called the 1-800 # and was given another referral # and told they will contact me within 30 days. We are both really upset and are imagining months and months more of waiting. Is calling this number the only recourse we have?? Is there anything else we can do ?? Any ideas would really be appreciated. Thanks.

Jess

We just received 5 emails from USCIS saying that a welcome letter has been mailed !!!! Yipppeeeeeeee ---visa journey is almost over. 10 year greencard should arrive shortly after . Still not holding our breath until we get it in our hands.......

Sorry if this has already been covered, but I am wondering if anyone waiting for namechecks to be completed was given a phone number in order to inquire about status. At the interview we were told that there was nothing we could do except wait , it would take between 2 weeks and 2 years! Thanks in advance .

Jess

Can we be added to the list?

We our interview on Aug 3rd. Received a verbal approval but pending the FBI namecheck. Biometrics were done on May 8, 2006. My husband is Pakistani. The interviewing officer said that the namechecks begin as soon as you file , not when your biometrics are taken. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for why they take so long for some and not for others. My husband had every kind of check in the world done before they would give him his K-3 visa, took 10 months for those checks , now here we are again.

Our appt. was for 1:45 pm on Aug. 3rd ( just now posting cause we went on vacation the day after interview ) and I suppose it was fairly successful although no GC in hand yet , we were verbally approved pending FBI namecheck.

We arrived about 30 min early and met with our lawyer about 15 min before the interview just to go over a few questions that she thought they might ask us. She and my husband took our interview appt letter to the front desk and a packet of documents that she had told us to gather together to give to them to look over before they called us for the interview. I believe that this helped our interviewer to be speedy. Although we brought two huge folders with everything we had saved since Jan 2004 and a large photo album, we included the most important evidence in this envelope, which included :

Interview appt letter paperclipped to outside of envelope

photocopies of the following:

--Change of address form AR-11

--5 Pages of pictures photocopied , wedding photos , me with his friends and family , him with my friends and family

--Wedding announcement

--Letter from bank stating we shared a joint checking account with them

--Debit cards

--Joint credit cards

--Deed with both of our names

--Joint health insurance

--Car insurance in my name , listing him as a household resident ( he does not have a drivers license yet)

--Notarized affidavit from my mother stating she owned the house we lived in and we were living there together rent free until my husband was able to work and that she would support him financially until he was able to do so.

--2005 Tax returns for me and my mother , who was cosponsor

Our lawyer had done several interviews at the Louisville office and told us that one of the interviewers was a real witch , the other two were ok , and the old guy was the one we wanted , cause she said he was the nicest of all the interviewers. We waited nervously to see which one would call us . When the elderly man opened the door she gave us a thumbs up behind his back ( which helped to calm my nerves a bit) and he called my name. My lawyer and I went into his office and he briefly thumbed through the papers we had provided and asked questions while looking through them.

What is your address?

He then flipped to the pictures I had included , looked at the wedding picture with us and my husband's family and then asked,IO: I guess you were married in Pakistan ? A: Yes. IO: Who attended your wedding? A: All of my husbands immediate family attended except for one of his sisters who was unable to be there.

( Still looking at pictures, had a couple with me and my husband visiting my best friend in hospital who had just had a new baby , pics of both of us holding the baby) IO: Looks like someone had a baby. A: That was not our baby , that is my best friends baby. IO: Looks brand new. A: It is , she had just had it , we visited her in the hospital right after it was born.

( Our lawyer had told us to be sure to include these pics in the packet we made for him , because she said if this was a fraudulant marriage you would not take him to the hospital right after someone had a baby and sure enough he commented on them.)

IO: What is your address. A: I told our current address. IO: Have you all taken any trips together? A: We took a long weekend trip to the Smoky Mtns with my family in April, and we have rented a beach house in FL and are leaving tomorrow for that trip. My lawyer piped up and said, " she did go to Pakistan twice , but I do not know if you would consider Pak in June and July a vacation". I agreed with her. IO: When did you get married? A: We were married in Jan of 2004, on my first trip to Pakistan. IO: What was the date ? A: 25th of January.

He looked at a deed I had had transferred into both of our names about 2 days before the interview ...IO: You own property together? A: We own a couple of acres near my father's house.

IO: Your not working now? A: No, but I will be starting school in the fall semester. IO: So you just sit around the house? A: No , I do not just sit around the house, I do all the housework while my husband has been in school , and I also take care of my father. IO: What is wrong with your father? A: He had a nervous breakdown after my mother divorced him and severe depression, I do most everything for him. IQ: How old is your father? A: He is 63. IO: What does he do ? A: He does not have what you would call a real job, he is an artist, although he used to work as a social worker. IO: When was the last time you visited your father? A: ( I had to think about this one , was not expecting this question, but luckily remembered , was just hoping my husband woudl remember) Let's see, we went to my mothers last weekend because it was her birthday, and we went to my father's house the day before , which was last Friday.

He glanced at our marriage announcement, IO: what is this ? A: That is our marriage announcement. IO: You might want to keep this. I told him I had ordered tons of them , and he could keep it in our records if he wanted, he put it in the file.

All during asking my questions he was writing in red ink on the papers in front of him . He then called my husband in the room with us and kind of jokingly told us no hand holding or anything. He then started questioning my husband.

IO: Your address? A: He repeated our current address. IO: When were you married? A: On January 25, 2004. IO: Who attended your marriage? A: All of my family and a few friends. IO: How much is the rent of your house? A: My mother in law bought our house and is letting us live there rent free until I am able to work and support us. IO: Have you all taken any trips together? A: Yes , we went to the Smoky Mtns with her family. IO: When did you last visit your father in law? A: About a week ago because it was my moms birthday last weekend and we visited Dad first and took him his new license plate. IO officer then asked my husband all the normal have you ever been a terrorist , been involved in prostitution , do u plan to overthrow the United States Govt questions, to which my husband replied NO to all.

He wrote in blue ink next to the red ink during the time my husband was answering his questions.

He then said , I can not approve this at this time because it is pending FBI namecheck. My lawyer said ," but otherwise it is approved?" He told her ," yes it is approved otherwise, if nothing changes in the meantime". I guess he meant as long as we did not get a divorce or as long as the namecheck is clear.He did not ask for anything else that we had brought with us, he seemed completely satisfied with what he had in front of him. He took the I-94 out of my husbands passport but let him keep his work permit , so he is able to work in the meantime. Then he sat around and chatted with us for about 10 minutes about where he was from in Ky and how things in Ky have changed over the yrs. He had to be about 100 yrs old , said he left his hometown in 1943. He was fairly nice during the interview although he did give me a couple of looks like he did not really believe what I was saying , but afterwards he was real chatty and friendly.

All in all it was a pleasant experience considering how nervous I was beforehand. I am just so thankful it is over with and no more preparing and saving every shred of evidence. I know this is a lengthy post, but I hope that some people will find it helpful. It really helped me to be able to read detailed interview experiences of others before our interview. Now I am off to the FBI namecheck group. You would think they have checked him out enough already --we had approximately 10 months of namecheck stuff before he was able to get his K-3 and come here , but at least I know what to expect now. I am prepared for a long wait.

Good luck to all with upcoming interviews!

Jess

My husband had the same problem when he came here on his K-3, and we found out when he did his medical. We did the chest xray right away to find out if there was any damage to his lungs or any sign in his lungs , and he was fine , chest xray was clear. He was also vaccinated as a child , and at first we thought that might be why his tb test was positive, but there is always the chance that he could have been exposed at some other time. So .. he went ahead and took the treatment , but it was 4 months , not 9. I think the drug he had to take was called Rifampin, although not sure if that is correct. My lawyer advised him not to take it , she said that she had all kinds of clients that were vaccinated as children and therefore had positive tb skin tests and most of them did not take the medicine. However the meds were free here at the health dept and we thought it best to be safe rather than sorry later. As long as your healthy, not a smoker or heavy drinker, I do not think that you should any problems with the meds. I would go ahead and get the chest xray done , that will give you more of an idea of what ur dealing with and what treatment is really needed. Good luck with whatever u decide to do .

I am beginning to be a little more than nervous as our upcoming interview date approaches. I have a few questions that I hope someone here can answer for me. I have noticed that most people here seem to be able to get the utilities turned on in both spouses names, but when I asked the utility companies about this , they would not let me put any of the utilities in both of our names. They acted as if they never do this , and especially would not for someone who does not have a social security card or any identity( my husband). Have any of you run into this problem ? The only real proof we have is our joint checking account which we just opened a few weeks ago.This account does not have a large amt. of money in it , as my mother has been supporting us since he has been here. Neither of us has been working , he has not received his EAD , and I have been a student ,( my mother has cosponsored him and has sufficient income ) , so no proof on that front , other than her sponsorship info. I was thinking of getting friends and family to write letters for us ---do these need to be notarized ? I have phone records from the time we were apart showing many calls from my side, but he has no record of any of the calls he made to me during that same 2 yrs. We have saved all the letters we sent before he received K-3 visa and we have alot of pictures. We do not have a lease , my parents bought the house we are living in , and are letting us stay here rent free until we get on our feet. This will also be mentioned in their letters....but still worried that we do not have any concrete proof of living together and sharing a life together. If anyone has any ideas of things we might be able to do to establish more proof as a couple , please please share them. I am starting to panic. Our interview is Aug 3!! Thanks in advance for your help.

Jess

CONGRATULATIONS Mary !!!! I just read that your husband's visa has been approved and I am so happy for you. I know you must be elated. Good luck at POE --hope that everything goes smoothly. I know how wonderful it is to be able to finally start your life together after such a long wait. Now comes the fun part of getting to know each other again and explaining all things American to him! Good luck and best wishes to you both.

Jess

quick question - how long are medical exams good for?

Omid,

Medical exams are good for one year. Right when I was beginning to worry about having to redo the medical cause it was close to expiring ( hubby was on AR forever) I called DOS to check on status and was told that all checks were completed and to call embassy . Called embassy and was told that they had been trying to reach us for days (which I believe was a lie cause my husband had not gotten ANY calls from them, nor had I ) and wanted to know if my husband could fly to US within the month to avoid redoing the medical?? Normally you have 90 days before you have to travel and have enough time to tie up loose ends but I said of course he can! They did make him redo all the police reports though before he could leave , which was a big pain in the butt cause they had done all this redistricting --Nankana Sahib became its own district --before it was district Sheikhupura --and he only had a few weeks to travel all over the country to get all this done. However, it was worth it to get that visa in hand finally. If anyone has a medical close to expiring I would call embassy and get senator/ congressmen's office to call and put pressure on them to bring it all to a close since they have had so much time to complete all checks etc. I know that is easier said than done though. Good luck !

Jess

Hi everyone!

I know it has been a long time , but I have not forgotten anyone , just been really busy since Abdul arrived here. It has been a big adjustment for both of us , but an enjoyable one. Been visiting family/friends , learning to cook Paki food ( and yes, I have finally mastered the chappati/rhoti !!!! ) and trying to settle in to our life together. We filed for AOS a couple of weeks ago and are still waiting for the notice of receipt. The hardest part about being here, for Abdul , is not being able to work, drive or have any independence, so I have been trying to entertain him as much as possible. He is going to start an english language program ( EELI) through the local college in June and I think that will help him make new friends and give him more confidence about his speaking abilities. I do not think he really needs to take the classes ( and when he called to ask about the program they told him it did not sound like he needed the classes lol) but it will give him something to do while waiting for EAD and at the least will boost his confidence about his abilities.

I know that many of you are STILL on AR and my prayers go out to all of you. Just remember that although it seems like you will never get the visa, you will eventually. I think that it took about 309 days of AR for us , and I know what hell it is to wait and wait and see no end in sight. I am not sure , but I think that having my senator's office contact the embassy on a monthly basis might have helped. My congressman would never even reply to my letters, so I guess it just depends on your state and how helpful your senators or congressmen are. I also called DOS on weekly basis , but that was not all that helpful either , as I would get conflicting info most of the time. Just hang in there and don't lose hope. IT WILL COME TO AN END!! Good luck to everyone still waiting on the visas. My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Wish us luck on a speedy AOS!

Jess

Hi everyone !!

I see there is alot of good news since I last checked.

CONGRATULATIONS Cindi!!!! Finally!

Shon, glad to hear that CRI is at the embassy now ....should not be too long now.

Mary , you're next!

Hope that all of you on AR do not have to wait for long. I know how difficult it is, but remember it can not last forever. I wish you all luck.

I am going to fly to Chicago tomorrow to meet Abdul. His flight arrives at 2:30pm , mine arrives at 2:05pm, I will be waiting for him. I am sooo excited!!! After so long on AR I still not can not believe this day is finally here. If anyone has any info about POE experiences in Chicago for Pakis , please share. I am nervous for him , hoping that they do not give him a hard time. Keep us in ur prayers.

Jess