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goodpoint

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  1. Like
    goodpoint got a reaction from landr in Wife and I had GC Interview this morning - just sharing our experience   
    I agree. I had planned to "not speak unless spoken to" based on the reviews of other people. I was surprised that the officer's questions were not directed at a specific one of us. My wife pretty much didn't say anything at all except to confirm what was written on our application.
  2. Like
    goodpoint got a reaction from CoTL in Wife and I had GC Interview this morning - just sharing our experience   
    **I do not have any questions -- just sharing my experience in the hope that someone will find it useful.**
    I (USC) and my wife (Romanian) met about 2 years ago, married in Romania about 1.5 years ago, traveled to the USA and decided to stay permanently about 7 months ago.
    We filed for AOS based on marriage in April 2014; forms 130 and 485.
    We received our interview appointment in mid October (for today -- mid November).
    We arrived in the San Bernardino USCIS office 1 hour early. I wore a suit and my wife wore a nice dress. We were called into an office together after about an hour and a half (30min after apt time).
    We were asked to raise our right hand and were sworn to tell the truth.
    The officer asked my wife to verify all of her contact information and checked her original birth certificate and marriage certificate. Then she asked my wife all of the Yes/No questions on the I-485 like "have you ever been a gang member" and so forth (all "no" answers) even though she already had those answers in writing.
    I was asked my name and DOB.
    Then the officer said "tell me how you two came to be together" which wasn't directed toward a particular one of us. I jumped in to answer because I knew my wife was so stressed she was about to have a heart attack. I made an effort to speak confidently and in a concise manner. I stated the following: The date and cicumstances of how we met, the date we had our first date, date of our engagement, date of our wedding, date we last entered the USA.
    I had prepared a detailed file showing how I was earning money and supporting my wife (I was her sponsor) but I was never asked to prove anything like that. The officer simply asked "so, you have been the one supporting your wife this whole time, right?" I answered "yes" and that was all that was discussed about finances.
    The officer then asked me to provide her with any documentation I had showing we had a "real" marriage. I had originals and copies but she just wanted the copies and didn't much look at the originals. I spoke somewhat quickly in an effort to explain each item before being cut off (I wasn't). I provided her with all of the following items:
    - Joint tax return
    - joint credit card
    - joint bank account
    - tags from flowers I had sent to her when we first started courting.
    - B-day and anniversary cards to us from family (2)
    - joint lease
    - jointly owned car registration
    - joint car insurance
    - disneyland annual passes
    - cell phone bill with both names on it
    - reservations for birthday activity (email)
    - Used concert tickets with names on them
    - Pictures: I cherry-picked about 30 of our best pictures that showed us doing various things over a long time (family dinners, birthdays, disneyland, etc.); I had nice color sheets made at WalMart with 8 pictures printed per 8x10" page and provided those instead of black and white copies. The officer asked me to explain what was going on in some of the pictures (I had written captions in magic marker).
    Having reviewed everything above, the officer said she would be right back and walked out of the room. She returned with a "Congratulations you are a permanent resident" letter and told us we were approved and to expect the card in the mail within 90 days. We couldn't have been happier and were very surprised at how easy it was.
    Basically, I would say that if you prepare well and arrive organized (and really are married) the interview is very low stress and very easy. We were done in about 20 minutes. We had stressed about the interview but there really was no reason for it.
    Hope this helps someone -- I read a ton of descriptions like this on VisaJourney that helped me a lot. Thanks to everyone else who shared and gave me advice along the way!
  3. Like
    goodpoint got a reaction from landr in Wife and I had GC Interview this morning - just sharing our experience   
    **I do not have any questions -- just sharing my experience in the hope that someone will find it useful.**
    I (USC) and my wife (Romanian) met about 2 years ago, married in Romania about 1.5 years ago, traveled to the USA and decided to stay permanently about 7 months ago.
    We filed for AOS based on marriage in April 2014; forms 130 and 485.
    We received our interview appointment in mid October (for today -- mid November).
    We arrived in the San Bernardino USCIS office 1 hour early. I wore a suit and my wife wore a nice dress. We were called into an office together after about an hour and a half (30min after apt time).
    We were asked to raise our right hand and were sworn to tell the truth.
    The officer asked my wife to verify all of her contact information and checked her original birth certificate and marriage certificate. Then she asked my wife all of the Yes/No questions on the I-485 like "have you ever been a gang member" and so forth (all "no" answers) even though she already had those answers in writing.
    I was asked my name and DOB.
    Then the officer said "tell me how you two came to be together" which wasn't directed toward a particular one of us. I jumped in to answer because I knew my wife was so stressed she was about to have a heart attack. I made an effort to speak confidently and in a concise manner. I stated the following: The date and cicumstances of how we met, the date we had our first date, date of our engagement, date of our wedding, date we last entered the USA.
    I had prepared a detailed file showing how I was earning money and supporting my wife (I was her sponsor) but I was never asked to prove anything like that. The officer simply asked "so, you have been the one supporting your wife this whole time, right?" I answered "yes" and that was all that was discussed about finances.
    The officer then asked me to provide her with any documentation I had showing we had a "real" marriage. I had originals and copies but she just wanted the copies and didn't much look at the originals. I spoke somewhat quickly in an effort to explain each item before being cut off (I wasn't). I provided her with all of the following items:
    - Joint tax return
    - joint credit card
    - joint bank account
    - tags from flowers I had sent to her when we first started courting.
    - B-day and anniversary cards to us from family (2)
    - joint lease
    - jointly owned car registration
    - joint car insurance
    - disneyland annual passes
    - cell phone bill with both names on it
    - reservations for birthday activity (email)
    - Used concert tickets with names on them
    - Pictures: I cherry-picked about 30 of our best pictures that showed us doing various things over a long time (family dinners, birthdays, disneyland, etc.); I had nice color sheets made at WalMart with 8 pictures printed per 8x10" page and provided those instead of black and white copies. The officer asked me to explain what was going on in some of the pictures (I had written captions in magic marker).
    Having reviewed everything above, the officer said she would be right back and walked out of the room. She returned with a "Congratulations you are a permanent resident" letter and told us we were approved and to expect the card in the mail within 90 days. We couldn't have been happier and were very surprised at how easy it was.
    Basically, I would say that if you prepare well and arrive organized (and really are married) the interview is very low stress and very easy. We were done in about 20 minutes. We had stressed about the interview but there really was no reason for it.
    Hope this helps someone -- I read a ton of descriptions like this on VisaJourney that helped me a lot. Thanks to everyone else who shared and gave me advice along the way!
  4. Like
    goodpoint got a reaction from Dohan in Wife and I had GC Interview this morning - just sharing our experience   
    **I do not have any questions -- just sharing my experience in the hope that someone will find it useful.**
    I (USC) and my wife (Romanian) met about 2 years ago, married in Romania about 1.5 years ago, traveled to the USA and decided to stay permanently about 7 months ago.
    We filed for AOS based on marriage in April 2014; forms 130 and 485.
    We received our interview appointment in mid October (for today -- mid November).
    We arrived in the San Bernardino USCIS office 1 hour early. I wore a suit and my wife wore a nice dress. We were called into an office together after about an hour and a half (30min after apt time).
    We were asked to raise our right hand and were sworn to tell the truth.
    The officer asked my wife to verify all of her contact information and checked her original birth certificate and marriage certificate. Then she asked my wife all of the Yes/No questions on the I-485 like "have you ever been a gang member" and so forth (all "no" answers) even though she already had those answers in writing.
    I was asked my name and DOB.
    Then the officer said "tell me how you two came to be together" which wasn't directed toward a particular one of us. I jumped in to answer because I knew my wife was so stressed she was about to have a heart attack. I made an effort to speak confidently and in a concise manner. I stated the following: The date and cicumstances of how we met, the date we had our first date, date of our engagement, date of our wedding, date we last entered the USA.
    I had prepared a detailed file showing how I was earning money and supporting my wife (I was her sponsor) but I was never asked to prove anything like that. The officer simply asked "so, you have been the one supporting your wife this whole time, right?" I answered "yes" and that was all that was discussed about finances.
    The officer then asked me to provide her with any documentation I had showing we had a "real" marriage. I had originals and copies but she just wanted the copies and didn't much look at the originals. I spoke somewhat quickly in an effort to explain each item before being cut off (I wasn't). I provided her with all of the following items:
    - Joint tax return
    - joint credit card
    - joint bank account
    - tags from flowers I had sent to her when we first started courting.
    - B-day and anniversary cards to us from family (2)
    - joint lease
    - jointly owned car registration
    - joint car insurance
    - disneyland annual passes
    - cell phone bill with both names on it
    - reservations for birthday activity (email)
    - Used concert tickets with names on them
    - Pictures: I cherry-picked about 30 of our best pictures that showed us doing various things over a long time (family dinners, birthdays, disneyland, etc.); I had nice color sheets made at WalMart with 8 pictures printed per 8x10" page and provided those instead of black and white copies. The officer asked me to explain what was going on in some of the pictures (I had written captions in magic marker).
    Having reviewed everything above, the officer said she would be right back and walked out of the room. She returned with a "Congratulations you are a permanent resident" letter and told us we were approved and to expect the card in the mail within 90 days. We couldn't have been happier and were very surprised at how easy it was.
    Basically, I would say that if you prepare well and arrive organized (and really are married) the interview is very low stress and very easy. We were done in about 20 minutes. We had stressed about the interview but there really was no reason for it.
    Hope this helps someone -- I read a ton of descriptions like this on VisaJourney that helped me a lot. Thanks to everyone else who shared and gave me advice along the way!
  5. Like
    goodpoint got a reaction from berber_wife in Is AOS from B1/2 reasonable in this case?   
    Ah understood. Thank you Harpa. I have read a ton of your posts over the past few days and I just want to say I really appreciate the time you take helping everyone out!
  6. Like
    goodpoint got a reaction from berber_wife in Is AOS from B1/2 reasonable in this case?   
    I was under the impression that you could AoS from a B Visa for any reason as long as you didnt enter the country with the INTENT to stay? Is that not accurate? I am selfishly asking because I am filing a AoS from a B2 for my wife who came to the US with me on vacation but we are simply staying because we got surprised with a great job offer. Are they going to send her out of the country to file forms (our worst nightmare)?
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