juand25

no matter how it gets there they will put it together. best of luck. Our case only took 3 months from the day we sent it. got approved 2 days ago

Dear all,
I currently do not have any health insurance here, which scares my family back home. I am to marry my USC husband in 3 weeks, and would like to know what the most affordable health insurance coverage would be for me. He already has his own plan through his work, but he said that adding me on his plan would cost too much (in a way, he is covered, I am not). So do I qualify for Obamacare or Marketplace? Which one is the cheapest when you reside in California?
Thanks so much in advance for enlightening me.
Mary

Hi guys,
Glad to see things have been moving along for some of us, and hopefully they will be moving along for everyone else still waiting!
Anton had the interview yesterday, in Boston, and I wanted to share the interview experience here. He got approved, btw, just to save the drama.
The best piece of advice that I can give is: study the questions! Also, don't be afraid to say "I don't remember" - from what I've read, most of us either don't remember something or may give different accounts on the same question. However, having some prep and knowing the type of questions you may be asked puts you in a better position to begin with. I have nothing but praise to whoever compiled this list:
>>> http://www.visajourney.com/content/exampleq#aos <<<
So, here is our experience:
The officer was sharp and professional-looking, though a bit on the stern side. Definitely not the kind of person you'd want to mess with. I got nervous a bit.
He first invited me in, which was good, as I had all the documents sorted. He asked me a lot of questions and got some papers from me, and later allowed me to stay for my husband's interview, on the condition that I would not interfere unless there was a need to help with translation. I've translated 2 words total, each time asking his permission to do so first.
Questions asked:
1) History of relationship:
Names, addresses, names of parents (I completely spaced out on my husband's step father name). Have I met them? Why not? (Hubby is from a closed city, which is next to Russian military base.. ). Where did we meet, what kind of chat room? (We both did our best to explain role-playing games to him; I don't think he fully got it, but our answers were similar enough). How many times did we meet? What did we do the first time we met?
2) Immigration-related: has he ever applied for a visa? When did he arrive to US? (I answered this one with exact date, hubby didn't remember)
3) Marriage: how many guests? Where was that? Did we go on a honeymoon? Which part of NYC did we stay in? (I said Manhattan, hubby said Brookline as this is where we mostly went for walks, but then he said "next to the Twin Towers memorial", so I think the officer understood) What was the hotel name? (I did not remember it and guessed Hyatt, Anton guessed Hilton, but we both said we don't remember it well).
4) Living together: what time do we leave the house? (I said I go at 7-8, because that's what I do most of the time, Anton said 6-9 cause sometimes I sleep in, and sometimes I have really early meetings). Where is laundry located (I said between bedroom and bathroom, in the hall, Anton said on the "3rd floor if you count the garage, 2nd living floor). Who does the laundry? What kind of toothpaste do we have? (I honestly said I don't remember, but I do know Anton doesn't brush, only rinses due to teeth problems, and Anton said the same thing). What do we do socially? What was the last movie that we saw? How did we celebrate last birthdays, what gifts did we give each other?
The officer also seemed to be taken aback by my statement that we did absolutely nothing for Christmas (despite me rationally explaining that we don't celebrate Christmas as my family is Jewish, he kept insisting it's such a big national holiday, and I was mentally like "so what dude told you I'm not Christian I stayed in and SLEPT IN I love my beauty sleep!!") or Valentine's day (we both agreed to ignore it, we exchange gifts and do romantic things when we feel like it, not because it's Febuary 14th). Oh, and Anton confused Christmas and New Years (the later we do celebrate) and said that we went to my parents' place and had dinner, which didn't help either.
The officer was also, I guess, puzzled by the fact that we both insisted that at my first visit we walked around and talked. Period. Well, excuse me, but have you been to Murmansk? Seriously a middle of nowhere city with not much to do, no concerts, or theater events, or anything - and we just like walks, like, actually, like walks. And talking. And each time I'm back in Russia it's a sight for sore eyes to just walk around and hear my native tongue spoken and read the shop's ads and all that. We did all the cultural stuff next time, in Moscow, where there actually are musicals, and amuzement parks and all that. But not in Murmansk, where I took a picture of 2 dudes with chainsaws(!) standing right outside of a supermarket(!) and they threatened to cut us to pieces if I don't delete it off my phone.... that was not the experience that I'd want to discuss with a USCIS office.
The officer took our photos and other "proofs" and said we would hear from USCIS in 2-3 weeks, probably, earlier, if he needs anything.
Needless to say, I was a sad little ball of nerves for the next 4 hours, thinking that we may need to do another interview, or be denied, or appeal, or be in AP for a year, like some people on this forum... you know, mentally preparing for the worst.
WHAM, 4 hours later I get an update saying "Your card is in production", and by the end of the day that change to "Your case was approved". YAY!
So, I guess even with a number of differences between our answers (I also said we did nothing on Anton's last birthday, and he said we went out for dinner on the weekend after.. technically both answers are correct, but logically they sound different) we did manage to convey our marriage is genuine, and so are our feelings.
Sorry for a long, long post, I needed this to start breathing again. Best of luck to everyone still waiting!

You are good. I have been here 20 years on overstay, lived with my boyf for 18 years and now that same sex marriage is legal we applied and we are schedule for our interview next month.