afroboi

We got approved today. Exactly 4 weeks after interview.

Hey guys.

I and my wife had an interview with USCIS (Seattle Office) conducted by Officer Sonia Hobart. The interview went great. She was extremely professional and respectful to both of us throughout the interview. We went through my I-485 and my wife's petition I-130, to make sure everything is correct.

We've been dating since 2008. We married on her birthday 2014.

Back to the interview. In our possession we had our marriage certificate, phone records (texts and call log) since it was mostly long distance relationship prior to getting married, email exchanges dating back from 09, car title with both our names, joint lease, work emergency contact, travel itinerarys (both of our visits to each other and trips we made together, including hotel stays with both of our names on it), tons of photos together, and with both of our families.

After going through the application, her first question was, "As a married couple, how do you convince a stranger that you're married?" Which I found funny and confusing at the same time, as in the sense that, in real life all we have to do is tell them we are married, but I know. That doesn't work with USCIS. We started digging through our documents. She took the ones that she needed.

She then asked to see pictures from our wedding. We provided her a few and she asked who were in attendance. It was a very simple court wedding as we can't afford a big ceremony. I'm only 22, no job (just got my social security # couple of months ago). She's 23, graduated college this summer. Her whole family lives overseas. She use to live with a family friend while she was attending high school but they treated her so bad they're not in speaking terms anymore. The only family she has over here is her cousin and her boyfriend and they were both in attendance.

I met both of her parents for the first time when they came from Africa for her graduation last summer. I had the privilege to spend some quality time with them during their short stay. Although, her mom ended up staying here in the US.

The officer's concern was, why did the parents came for her graduation and not for "wedding". I had to correct the officer that this was indeed marriage ceremony, not a wedding. There was no way we could have afforded to pay for their trip to come for both. Considering the fact, they didn't even have their visas at the time. I was unemployed and living with my mom. She was still going to school, living in student housing with 3 other roommates, meaning if they would've came, we would have to pay for their hotel. We were not going to change our marriage date for their convenience. Our birthdays are only few days apart (6days to be exact) and it was extremely important that, we are able to celebrate both our anniversary and birthdays together. We thought it would be a great idea to invite them for her graduation instead. That way we can just celebrate as one big family.

She then asked about my family. My mother is in the US going through her own immigration battle. She lost her mother (my only grandparent left) exactly 11 days before we got married. That, together with her denial letter from uscis with grounds of inadmissibility (meaning she can't even travel back to attend her own mother's funeral) was depressing beyond words. It was an extremely difficult time for my family. There was no way she could attend our marriage ceremony considering it was being held 2,000 miles away from where she lives.

She then decided to separate us. She interviewed me first (the beneficiary) and then my wife (the petitioner). She asked about our proposal, my wife's travel history e.t.c. She escorted me out and asked my first the same questions. Both lasted about 5mins. Our answers matched 100%. From what I read from different forums, it looks like most couples are brought back in the office together afterwards but that wasn't the case for us. She just told my wife she was unable to make a decision at the time and to wait for the decision in the mail and handed her a white piece of paper. It's reads "Your case is being held for review. At this time, USCIS does not require any further information or document from you. Should further information or document be required, you will receive a notice in the mail. We may also schedule you for another interview, you will receive a notice in the mail. Otherwise, a final decision will be mailed to you once your case is complete."

I need help. What should I expect from this. It's been 2weeks and I haven't heard anything.

Hey guys.

I and my wife had an interview with USCIS (Seattle Office) conducted by Officer Sonia Hobart. The interview went great. She was extremely professional and respectful to both of us throughout the interview. We went through my I-485 and my wife's petition I-130, to make sure everything is correct.

We've been dating since 2008. We married on her birthday 2014.

Back to the interview. In our possession we had our marriage certificate, phone records (texts and call log) since it was mostly long distance relationship prior to getting married, email exchanges dating back from 09, car title with both our names, joint lease, work emergency contact, travel itinerarys (both of our visits to each other and trips we made together, including hotel stays with both of our names on it), tons of photos together, and with both of our families.

After going through the application, her first question was, "As a married couple, how do you convince a stranger that you're married?" Which I found funny and confusing at the same time, as in the sense that, in real life all we have to do is tell them we are married, but I know. That doesn't work with USCIS. We started digging through our documents. She took the ones that she needed.

She then asked to see pictures from our wedding. We provided her a few and she asked who were in attendance. It was a very simple court wedding as we can't afford a big ceremony. I'm only 22, no job (just got my social security # couple of months ago). She's 23, graduated college this summer. Her whole family lives overseas. She use to live with a family friend while she was attending high school but they treated her so bad they're not in speaking terms anymore. The only family she has over here is her cousin and her boyfriend and they were both in attendance.

I met both of her parents for the first time when they came from Africa for her graduation last summer. I had the privilege to spend some quality time with them during their short stay. Although, her mom ended up staying here in the US.

The officer's concern was, why did the parents came for her graduation and not for "wedding". I had to correct the officer that this was indeed marriage ceremony, not a wedding. There was no way we could have afforded to pay for their trip to come for both. Considering the fact, they didn't even have their visas at the time. I was unemployed and living with my mom. She was still going to school, living in student housing with 3 other roommates, meaning if they would've came, we would have to pay for their hotel. We were not going to change our marriage date for their convenience. Our birthdays are only few days apart (6days to be exact) and it was extremely important that, we are able to celebrate both our anniversary and birthdays together. We thought it would be a great idea to invite them for her graduation instead. That way we can just celebrate as one big family.

She then asked about my family. My mother is in the US going through her own immigration battle. She lost her mother (my only grandparent left) exactly 11 days before we got married. That, together with her denial letter from uscis with grounds of inadmissibility (meaning she can't even travel back to attend her own mother's funeral) was depressing beyond words. It was an extremely difficult time for my family. There was no way she could attend our marriage ceremony considering it was being held 2,000 miles away from where she lives.

She then decided to separate us. She interviewed me first (the beneficiary) and then my wife (the petitioner). She asked about our proposal, my wife's travel history e.t.c. She escorted me out and asked my first the same questions. Both lasted about 5mins. Our answers matched 100%. From what I read from different forums, it looks like most couples are brought back in the office together afterwards but that wasn't the case for us. She just told my wife she was unable to make a decision at the time and to wait for the decision in the mail and handed her a white piece of paper. It's reads "Your case is being held for review. At this time, USCIS does not require any further information or document from you. Should further information or document be required, you will receive a notice in the mail. We may also schedule you for another interview, you will receive a notice in the mail. Otherwise, a final decision will be mailed to you once your case is complete."

I need help. What should I expect from this?? It's been 2weeks and I haven't heard anything.

I just checked mine today and saw that my case was approved. It looks like you probably wouldn't be able to see your case status online until there's an update. Goodluck guys.

Okay I am going to tell you what I did today, and it worked!

When you call and get connected to customer service.. Tell them you have been calling all week and you were told yesterday that if it is still not working to call back and get them to transfer you to a tier 2 agent. (Even though I was never really told this). It worked, and I got connected to a tier 2 agent who was very helpful. But if you do get transferred to a tier 2 agent, there WILL be a wait, and it is often a long one (2-3 hours). SO make sure you have time to wait for that, and also you can schedule a call back where they will call you back when it is your turn, so that you do not have to sit and hold the phone. Plus, it is a good idea to go ahead and ask any questions you have about the case to the tier 2 agent because they are usually incredibly much more helpful than regular customer service. Plus, it is hard to get customer service to actually transfer you, so it is good to always ask any questions you have related to your case.

P.S. I had to call twice before I was connected to a customer service rep who would transfer me. The first guy said that he could not because their system was down, but yet I was able to call right back (within 5 min.) and was transferred with no issue.

Good luck!

What did they say? Are you able to see your status now?

Any updates guys?

What drives me crazy is that, the same day my 485 changed to Testing and interview was the same day it started showing this error message for my I-765. I desperately need my EAD so I can be able to help out my wife with expenses. I have no idea what's going on

new day has come, the problem didn't be solved yet

You probably wanna check again in like 7-8 hours. From what I see on the internet from people sharing their past experiences, there's a big chance that we will find out if there has been a decision made on our case by the end of the day. Fingers crossed!

I just called and spoke to one of their many highly misinformed representatives and her response?" Since u recently filed ( which was 50DAYS AGO), your file may not show on the website for 45 days"...maybe true except I've been able to check my case online for atleast 40days before this past weekend and then it started showing the error message. Just great.

Is anyone else who is on testing and interview (but with no interview scheduled) experiencing this? We were NOT expecting to receive an interview notice until December or maybe January based on NYC processing times. Is this a glitch? Again, we have no interview date.

We will schedule your interview and send you a notice. Please follow any instructions in the notice. If you do not receive your interview notice by November 5, 2014, please go to

www.uscis.gov/e-request

to request a copy of the notice.

The same here. It's only been a month and a half since I filed and now it changed to Testing & Intervieng. Have u received your EAD yet?

Can you guys please update me once you find out what's going on? I checked my EAD app for update Friday afternoon and it says:

At this time USCIS cannot provide you with information for your case. Please contact the NCSC 1 (800) 375-5283 for additional information.

Thursday evening my I-485 changed to Testing & Interviewing which was very unexpected because I only applied a month and a half ago (around the end of September)