Silmaril

Hi,
 
we had our interview and the experience was very good. We arrived 30min earlier and went through the security pretty fast. The security was very nice. I read other opinions about the security staff but they were very nice and kind. I had similar experience doing the bio. 
The interview was straightforward. Oath and then questions out of the I-485 like everybody else. The officer was really nice and it was actually a good conversation. We got approved 1 hour after the interview and are now waiting for the card to arrive. 
 
I wish you all the best experience and luck for your interview.   

Hey guys!
 
We had our interview in SJ office today. I already got my status change to "New Card Is Being Produced" 4 hours later, but the actual experience was quite confusing. 
 
We arrived 1 hour in advance which was just enough since there was quite a line at security check. Our officer was a woman, very emotionally detached which made it hard for us to get any clue if she was happy with all the paperwork and answers or not. I normally wouldn't sweat about it since it's their job but she was paying a lot of attention to things like why my mom changed my surname when I was 8 after my parents' divorce and why my birth certificate had my mom's surname instead of my biological dad's one. It made me feel nervous later because she didn't ask any marriage-related questions and also didn't take an updated Affidavit of Support with my husband's new job info. So the focus was basically on my life before moving here which seemed a bit weird to me after reading the "common" interview reviews. But in the end she did take papers with our "proof" and I handed her a few pictures as well even though she didn't ask for them at all. 
 
Anyway, after the interview I felt like I somehow failed. I guess because I was prepared to nail questions about our relationship, not about how Russian surname-change bureaucracy works  But at least I didn't have to hang in limbo mode for too long afterwards.
 
P. S. I filed on July 31, 2019 and had my biometrics on September 6. 

Answering my own questions after the interview.
 
San Jose Office:
Question 1: Officer accepted the scanned form of my birth certificate. Technically a slightly blurry print as it was a photo that one of my friend's took with their phone and sent it over.
Question 2: I smoothly said that my wife was pregnant and that it made her more nervous. I also answered the officer's questions if we had any children. I said "No, but we'll be having one soon."
 
Questions the officer asked. Total interview was 10~15 minutes. Officer approved us right on the spot, but we realized after we left that she never mentioned any process for ROC, but that really didn't matter for us as we were happy enough.
How did you meet?
How many times did you meet?
What is your current address?
What visa did you enter the United States with?
What is your social security number? (Officer asked as she noticed that the beneficiary had one)
To Sponsor: Do you have a birth or naturalization certificate?
Did you ever use any other names beside your current name?
Do you have children?
Do you have any extra documents of proof of relationship not included in the file that you want to hand over? 
 

Hi,
 
we filed in August and have our Interview next week Friday. It is a marriage based AOS. Can someone share if you had similar experiences and what questions were asked? My EAD arrived today (1 week before GC) kind of useless. Hoped to have it earlier but better late than nothing. 

We filed in March 2019 and were interviewed in January 2020, about when our lawyer originally predicted.  
 
In some ways not surprised an August filing could and did get a January interview. The process is still mostly paper work driven. So if each case worker gets a pile of cases to work on each time, then some piles will get emptied before others.  

Congrats on your scheduled interview!  You should receive a Notice of Action within a week from that update.
 
I applied for an extension of my EAD/AP because the processing time for San Francisco is quite long.  The interview/approval/GC arrived before the EAD/AP had any movement past the notice that they were going to use my previous biometrics. The CIS officer said during my interview that since she is approving my AOS, the EAD/AP won't arrive anymore.  No complaints here.

Just went to my interview today.
 
The officer wasn’t the nicest person in the world, but he wasn’t rude. He seemed to care about my J1 visa and my trips to the US than anything else.
 
He said my case will be held for review as he wants to confirm some things regarding the application.

We left feeling pretty confident and hope for a positive response soon.
 
Will update you guys once I hear anything else.
 
Good Luck! 

Hello
 
for us it was about a week. There were several online status updates past the “card is produced” stage. One of the updates, about a day after the “card was mailed”, had a USPS tracking number. It was delivered via priority mail so it was relatively fast (by USCIS standards).
good luck!

Got the same update at the same time as you! Arrives this week! 

Same update as you but mine was on the 4th ( card was mailed to me) and nothing since then. Please keep us updated.  

Thanks, that's good to know. Do you recall what those updates are named?
For us the progression was:
New card being produced
Case was approved (which I assume means the physical card was checked and approved, since one would think the case has to be approved before the card is produced!)
Card was mailed
 
Doing a search, I see one other state "card was delivered by the post office", which can show a tracking number. But I'm guessing that happens only after USPS informs them of delivery completion?

I did sign up for Informed Delivery. It didn't show up in informed delivery until the day it arrived. It was expected to arrive on Monday, but arrived early on Saturday. Although I believe the USCIS website did show a tracking number once the status changed to Card was mailed to me

Had my interview today. I live closer to San Francisco, and my biometrics were done there, but for some reason the interview was scheduled to be further away in San Jose, and to be a few days before our 2 year anniversary. I know they move cases around to speed up processing, but that's certainly suspicious.
 
Interviewer was really grumpy with my wife and I for only having passports, and not a Real ID, saying that it's common knowledge that everyone goes to the DMV to get one, despite the fact that neither my wife nor I drive, nor have really even heard that much about Real IDs before at all. Then she wasn't happy that we only brought a copy of the marriage certificate and not the original - tbf that's my fault for not checking that, but honestly I have no idea what they want to bring to the interview. I printed out a lot of sheets filling a thick folder, but she hardly asked to see any of it... what's the point of that big checklist on the letter when they don't actually use it?
 
Questions were pretty simple, just asked about how we met, how long we were together before getting married, little bit about our parents, and then just going over the forms (confirm address, confirm phone numbers, all the "have you ever been arrested" etc. questions). At the end she said that she needs to go over everything and then maybe we'll get approved, or she'll call us.
 
Hopefully we'll get an update of approval on Monday so we won't have to go through all this again for removal of conditions.

My interview was done on 1/29/20. It went on for quite a while longer than we expected - roughly 35 minutes - as the officer showed a great interest in learning about us -  our relationship, our infant child and our jobs etc. She was wonderful and thoroughly professional person. We didn't get approved on the spot, and we were a bit dejected, thinking that we might get an RFE or something. Spent an entire day nervously, as the status that evening changed to "interview completed, and the case must be reviewed." Fortunately, 24 hours later, the status changed to "approved' for both I-485 and I-130. The entire process - from submission of the application to the approval - took a total 4 months and 14 days. Waiting now for the [2-year conditional] green card to arrive.  
 
My best wishes to each of you waiting for the process to end successfully.          

Congratulations, and best of luck with the interview!
 
It's very interesting to note that both rhe earlier poster who filed in March and yourself have January interviews.
Mysterious are the ways of USCIS, hopefully a sign that processing is becoming more efficient.

Got interview today at SJ field office in Santa Clara. The interview was okay although the officer was quite intimidating. I can tell if you don't speak English or you're the one who visit once and propose and have not much joint assets or from low income for fear of receiving public assistance, they might target you and grill you more to challenge if your relationship is legit. 
 
I just checked the card is being produced and I believe I should get the card within 2 weeks. My future employer is waiting for me to have my GC in hand and I'm sure they will be happy if I can show them I don't need employer's sponsorship and my green card is approved.

I want it for 2 reasons: I don’t want my estranged stalker family getting into my personal business, and I also don’t want my personal business ending up in the never ending data mining machine. If you don’t know a lot about this, research it a bit, it’s huge. I’ve spent the last year getting my information off the internet and out of the hands of data brokers, I have no interest in going back in. These companies digitally mine public records and it gets bought and sold and published on the internet. This is nothing more than a personal privacy issue for me. I’m only hiding it from most of my family and google.
 
That being said, if USCIS asks me that question, I’ll explain it the same way. I have yet to find a single story of anyone having a problem with a K1 marriage with a confidential license & marriage. The paperwork is all certified by the court, it just doesn’t enter public record. It can still be retrieved by me or my spouse and with a court order. Sure they may question us a bit more, but it is a bonafide marriage. 

Had my husband's interview in Santa Clara office on 1/24/2020. It was a pretty smooth process. We arrived about 45 minutes before our scheduled time (9:30 AM) and were called right on time. The wait was very minimal. We were in the interview room for appx. 30 minutes. 
The official was super nice.
1. We have traveled out of the country since my husband received his AP/EAD so he asked us for an updated 1-94. 
2. I got a new job since submitting my affidavit of support, so I provided him an updated form and new pay stubs/employment info.
3. He asked how we met, when we got engaged/married, what type of wedding (civil and religious) 
4. asked my husband for my DOB 
5. Asked for proof of joint accounts, assets, photos. We gave him our wedding photos and honeymoon, as well as bank statements, phone bill, and medical insurance. 
 
&  that was it. He notified us that we would receive a decision in the mail within 5 weeks. 
 
Can someone give me the website to check the status to see if anything has changed? Thanks! 
 

There IS a public charge rule. It's why sponsors have to file affidavits of support and make 150% of the poverty line for their household size. What do you think that's for? Fun?
 
The proposed new rule is designed to make that qualification nearly impossible to PROVE—a lawyer I spoke to recently described it as requiring "a financial colonoscopy" and a far more extensive investigation than the existing documentation. And thus more difficult to overcome. It is a targeted act of discrimination to cut family-based immigration, which the bigoted administration otherwise has less leverage over than other forms of immigration. I'm a US citizen, by the way, and I am not affected by this rule. 
 
Apart from all of that, by the way, I don't believe there should be a public charge rule at all. If immigrants pay taxes, they should be able to access public services. Our public services are such a disaster that I can't imagine anyone willfully relying on them if they didn't have to. The idea that people immigrating are pernicious freeloaders is preposterous. Do you think everyone besides you is trying to spend loads of money and time immigrating just to cheat and live the cushy life of SNAP benefits and Medicaid? 
 
Try to access common sense, generosity and compassion simultaneously. It would change your life. 

Thank you!  that is very good information!
 
I’m glad you had a good experience and that you got approved on the spot!  

Congrats on your approval. We were there last week and my husband got approval when we got home too. The tracking number says the card will be delivered tomorrow :-)
 
The day before our interview, our lawyer warned us about parking because the lot was full and people had to park on the side streets.  This freaked us out so we got there much earlier, but hung around in the parking lot.  For us, parking wasn't bad. But people's experiences may vary!

Good luck on your interview!  My F-1 family based AOS interview was last Friday, Jan 17th in the San Jose office.  Typically, I would've been assigned to San Francisco but because they are easing the backlog, they are sending cases to other CIS offices.  The SJ office is nice, clean and looks like it was recently remodeled. Parking was not difficult at all.  Lots of spaces to park!  The moment you enter the front door, even the security guards are very helpful and friendly.  They probably know that most folks that are there are experiencing some nerves so they do their best to lighten the mood.  The CIS officer that interviewed me was very friendly but very thorough.  They typically do not indicate the status of your case at the end of your interview but because my lawyer did an excellent job putting my application together, she said, "Wow, your application is complete and very well put together. I wish all cases were like this. All supporting documents are in order.  I am submitting your case for approval today."  My jaw dropped to the floor because this is not typical.  They don't really give approval on the spot.  By the time I got home, my case update said "New Card Is Being Produced".  I am extremely grateful and I am now only 5 years away from applying for US citizenship.  
 
Helpful Tip: As soon as you clear security, you need to get a number from the Line 1 desk before sitting in the waiting room. Do not be late.  Check in 30 minutes before your appointment.  The desk clerk said that if anyone checks in 5 minutes before their appointment, they cannot accept them.  (Yikes!)  Keep us posted on your interview experience and case!

I am an attorney, and I get offended by your comment,  "Lawyers are con artists". I am on visa journey for 14 years answering questions without charging anyone. 

My status changed today to ""Interview was Scheduled". I don't know where yet but I assume it's going to be SJ since we moved to Mountain View from SF in October and filed the change of address. Here's my timeline:
 
July 31: Filed for AOS (SF field office)
August 15: NOA1
September 6: Biometrics
October 9: Ready to be Scheduled 
November 1: Updated "Ready to be Scheduled" after filing change of address (SJ field office)
November 29: Got my EAD + AP card
January 16: Interview was Scheduled 
 
They definitely speeded things up! I wasn't expecting anything around this time. 

Thanks @Silmaril
From my time observing and researching this, there definitely has been a speed-up, but as everyone here knows SF and a few other metro areas are still suffering from a big disparity in processing times vs other USCIS districts.
 
The last year or so, my best guess was a gradual speed-up due to (in no particular order):
1. Fewer people applying in general, and to SF Bay Area offices
2. Diversion of cases (by address/zip?) to nearby offices
3. Easing the (12/2018?) requirement to interview RoC/751 cases by default
4. Increasing usage of outright rejection notices due to "frivolous" filings (justification given by USCIS)

The biggest beneficiaries are probably cases that are diverted to SJ/SAC, but even the SF filers have seen processing times reduce by 4-6 weeks from the peak. Hope this trend continues.