Caballero

I had my interview on Thursday at the Seattle department of homeland security offices and was approved. As a regular reader but infrequent contributor I'd like to give a huge thanks to everyone on this forum for sharing their stories and giving good advice. The things I learnt on here were key to our success.

I'll give a quick overview of my own visa journey to provide advice and encouragment to others:

* Arrived in Sep '04 on J-1 visa.

* Got married Jun '05.

* Filed for AOS and EAD at end of Sep '05, with an immigration lawyer.

* Biometrics appointment in Seattle just before christmas '05. Had to wait 3 hours before getting fingerprints taken. Staff were very polite and pleasant.

* EAD recieved between christmas and new years.

* Interview Feb '06, immigration lawyer was present. Arrived a half hour early and was seen very promptly. Interviewer asked a couple of questions about when and how we met and how big our wedding was (our families flying in to attend was a big plus.) Interviewer spent a long time looking through all of our pictures, asking when and where each one was taken. We gave her evidence of our relationship - our apartment lease, joint bank account statements, car and insurance papers, jointly filed taxes. She asked the standard 'Are you a member of a terrorist organisation?' questions and that was it. We were out of the building within half an hour of arriving.

I was there last week for my interview. If you're driving there from Seattle you can take the viaduct south, and then take the marginal way exit to head onto highway 99 south. The exit can be confusing as there are lots of merges and exits to go through to get onto the right road. From there the international boulevard exit is just a couple of miles on. I'd recommend doing a practise run first.

The bus is very easy - the 174 stops right outside.

Parking lot is a flat fee of $5 no matter how long you stay there.

Hope this helps.