sp1

Congrats. I am curious. Is this an AOS following a K1 Visa/Wedding Interview? You mention you front loaded the application. For the AOS I-485 they dont ask for photos etc. Just the Wedding Certificate. Can you elaborate? We are a same sex couple too

David

Sorry for the confusion....I front loaded the initial K1 visa package. And at least in my case, the interviewer had thoroughly reviewed everything prior to the interview.

We didn't have a large amount of evidence, we had the medical insurance at my work together, a joint bank account, family plan cell phone account, and we showed the adoption papers of a dog we got from a shelter. (and a lot of photos of us with our dog, going here and there)

Just show what you have.

Congrats! We had our interview yesterday and were also approved. But we were approved on scene...but i still haven't seen the website update

I am sorry, I have only posted a couple of times, but I will fill out my timeline soon (hopefully today)

Anyway, we had our interview yesterday.

First let me say, we had no fraud factors. We are similar in age, my spouse had never been in the US before she began to visit me, she had never overstayed any visas,etc.

We had an early morning appointment (750am). We arrived at 0730, went through security, and sat down in a room full of empty chairs.

Promptly at 0800 we were called to the back. We went into an office with our interviewer. I had a giant stack of documents.

Our interviewer was pretty stern, but at the same time not rude.

We were sworn in.

The interviewer began to ask questions of my russian spouse, but was quickly underwhelmed by my spouse's english, and asked if we needed a translator. I said "she doesn't need one, and anyway we don't have one". Because my spouse is fine with english. But maybe the cadence of the interviewer wasn't good for her. Anyway, quickly the interviewer became frustrated again, and picked up the phone to order a translator.

They kept the interviewer on the phone too long so the interview resumed.

After that it went pretty smoothly. The packet questions were asked, (have you ever been arrested? been a prostitute? etc.) They were asked in the sequence from the aos packet. Then each one was checked off in red pen "no".

The interviewer asked a few questions of my spouse. Why were you married before? Why did that marriage fail?

Then she asked me how we met. She asked me to pronounce the airport in Moscow where i flew...

I found the questions to be "tricky", but only if you are not telling the truth. Had i not been to moscow, which has 4 major airports, I could have chosen the wrong one, nevermind how to pronounce it.

Then we were asked about what evidence we had. I showed our bank account, cell phone family plan with records and bills, our medical insurance on my employers plan and a pet adoption record with our joint names.

I began to show photos, but The interviewer quickly said "i have already seen those! dont show me the ones you already sent!" so, I started showing some new ones, which were taken and kept, to be placed with our file.

Finally, the interviewer said "okay--I am approving your case." and then she stamped our file, with a big stamp.

I was relieved and excited of course, but i was weary that i had heard wrong So the interviewer repeated ..."you are approved, you are now a lawful permanent resident"

YES!

The process was about 35 minutes or so.

As for my thoughts,

I front loaded a lot of evidence, and i feel it did help. I saw many people say it doesn't, but the fact that our interviewer said "don't show me those photos that you already sent" indicates that our file was already viewed and sort of an opinion is formed at bit beforehand. Also, the file that was on the desk was about 4-5 inches thick!!

Good luck everyone!

Hello everyone,

Just letting TSC filers know that I was approved today. December 30, 2014 filer.

this means January filers you are on deck!!

Omg what a long process. It was 6 1/2 months.

Good Luck everyone.

OOps sorry a typo. I was a December 30, 2013 filer. Texas Service Center.

I guess i will write to my representatives also. I mean seriously! there should not be such a discrepancy as to which center handles to paper work. It is so frustrating!

Ugh! It is so frustrating i had to finally register here.

My date is also 12/27. what is the deal with Texas?? It is over 5 months. So i called customer service. She said the computer wont even allow her to input my request for contact, because they are still working on November cases. Well this is frustrating because every where i go online to check for the time frame is all reporting 5 months!

and what is unfair is when some people get 30 day approvals. Dont get me wrong, I am happy for them, but I think someone getting 30 days, and some one waiting 8 months, means something is wrong with the system!!!