Cornflake

It went very smoothly.
 
We had approximately 30 sheets/pages of photos for the officer to look at. Each page had 2 to 3 photos on it. They were arranged in chronological order and each was labeled with when it was taken and who was in it. We had photos from  when we were dating... taken in Beijing.... then in Myrtle Beach,  in New York City with different relatives/friends... In Guilin, China visiting her sister.... Then, photos from when she arrived (last October), our wedding and the dinner afterwards (in November), Thanksgiving with relatives, Christmas with relatives... We went on a trip to Louisville to visit a friend of hers (more photos)... Visited my oldest son and his roommates in another city... Photos at approximately 6 or 8 different state parks (on a variety of dates)... (Each had something distinguishable in the background so it was obvious that the photo was taken at that park/location). We even had a cruise planned (it was canceled because of covid).  I had our boarding passes (that I printed out before it was canceled) to show him...
 
He looked at every photo and made a few comments and/or asked a few questions about how we liked different places....
 
For paperwork I had my tax transcripts and W-4s from 2019. I had proof that she is on my health/dental/optical insurance plan from work and that she was the beneficiary of my group life insurance from work... Joint checking account statements for each month this year...
 
He went through the application and verbally re-asked her approximately 1/2 of the questions in it (to confirm her answers). He had her sign it.
 
After he saw all the photos and all of the other documents he congratulated us and the green card arrived in approximately 10 days.

Finally got my interview date for Nov 12th! Hopefully everyone gets theirs soon 🤞
For K1 filers, are you guys getting another medical physical here? I'm checking online resources there's mixed advice. Some say it's better to be safe and get another one just in case.

Got our notice in the mail today. We were notified of our interview being scheduled on Sept. 28th via the case tracker and the NOA today says a Nov. 3rd interview date at 8am. It seems like early mornings are a good sign so hoping that holds true!
 
I'll update here following the interview. 

I get that.  But her visa was denied because they do not believe that your marriage is legit.  To overcome this, you may have to make compromises in order to spend more time together in person.  Time spent together in person is critical.  No lawyer can wave a magic wand to get you a visa.  
 
It will not be cheap, or fast.

Also pleased to report we got our interview scheduled update today, for NYC.

Texas, Houston office. Originally were scheduled for March 27th, 2020, but due COVID-19 they canceled my interview. Last Friday scheduled for interview again. Waiting for notice to be emailed.

I received the green card. It took 9 days after the  interview.

I had my interview on 23rd Sept at 12:05pm and it went like a breeze. Got there at 1130am and was let in, went through airport type security check even had to remove shoes, then went up to 7th floor to a room where the person at the window asked for the interview letter and gave us a token number and asked us to go to another room and wait for our number to be called, we went to the other room (people were social distancing) and were expecting to wait for 1-2 hours but our number was called and the IO thanked us for coming early for our interview and took us to her office where she asked us to sit (she told my USC wife to sit on the middle chair and told me to sit on the aisle chair) then she made both of us take an oath. She was very nice and told us if she asks any embarassing questions its just part of the process even though she didnt ask any such questions she asked where we met how we met and when we met each others family how is our relation with each others family, asking for wedding pictures and askes us to point out people in a couple of wedding pictures and kept a couple. She didnt want any other documents but we asked her again and she kept our joint bank account statements and joint tax return. She said since I got my medical done in 8 months prior to submitting my aos application I would need to do it again but I took out the I693 instructions page to show her that as long as you submit your file within a year of medical its fine so I would suggest everyone to take the instructions page or get a new medical done to avoid any delays. At the end she said she is going to approve us shortly after we leave and we should have our green card in 2 weeks. She escorted us out then and before we even reached home our case status updated to new card is being produced followed by multiple case updates and I got my GC on Sept 30. All in all a very good experience thanks to our very nice IO and ofcourse all of you who have been with us in every step of this journey. All done for 1 year and 9 months. 

Received the letter today. Interview is on Nov 4th.

Just got our interview letter, ours will be October 21st!

Finally and thanks to God , my interview notice arrived today , my appointment is on October 7th 🙏

My status finally updated to "interview was scheduled" yesterday! 
 
Just last week I called the USCIS to ask about my case: my first interview was scheduled in April and canceled because of COVID. I got the cancelation in March and I have been patiently waiting since. I wonder if my call made them actually find my case and reschedule 😅
 
I hope by the time I get the letter with the date everything is still functional and they do not cancel again 😎

Hi, guys! I'm kinda newbie here. I also filed my AoS packet on mid January. I'm curious if there is anyone who got the interview schedule in Los Angeles field office. I think I've seen a couple of cases on December filer forum but not on here yet  It would be very much appreciated if you guys can share some info  Thanks!

I received my green card on September 11th, about two and a half weeks after our interview. They send it via priority mail so you can track its progress after it's been shipped.

Hi! I used a lot of vj information to filed for aos and I wanted to share with you my experience and my aos package.
 
I'm from Argentina and I came to America in November with a J1 visa (summer work travel program), after dating my husband for a year, we got married on May 7th. According to my visa, I had to go back home before June 30th and even though I married a US citizen and I knew if I overstayed it was going to be waived, I was still so worried that I filed for AoS asap (June 19th).
A few things I'm going to say before I talk about my application is that I think 50% was pure luck, it was filing at the right time and date. The other 50% making sure nothing in my application could make the officer doubt and ask for more information or evidence. I made sure everything was disclosed and explained, it must have been either a pain in the ### or a blessing for whoever that took my case cause it was 400 pages long lol. Also the fact that my office was Reno helped a lot, I went twice for biometrics and interview and there was no one, the parking lot was empty, so they're pretty low on cases there. I didn't get help from a lawyer 'cause I considered my case was simple, it wasn't worth the money, we were on lockdown so I didn't have much else to do but getting obsessed with sending the perfect application, visiting hundreds of VJs topics and watching youtube videos. 
 
Another thing, specifically for I130 is that I was scared because my husband and I are in our early 20s, we got married a year after meeting each other, 7 months out of those 12 we were in a long distance relationship, he still lived with his parents, we both had part time jobs, we don't own anything, so we had to prove our love by telling them our story. How meant to be we are, how we clicked instantly, how we talked 3 hours a day every day, how I told him he could come to visit me and the next day he went to get his passport and bought flight tickets to see me, how we can't imagine being away from each other, that we did it for 7 months and we don't want to do it ever again, how we have plans for the future, etc. Our bonafide evidence was full of stories and we attached them with tickets, passes, reservations, photos, invitations. By the time of the interview we did gather a lot of primary evidence and the officer that interviewed us was more than pleased.
 
 
 
This was my package main cover letter
 
 
I had to explain a few things when I filed:
1. During a road trip all my forms of identification were stolen, so I lost my passport with my visa stamp and my country ids. Thankfully, I was able to get an emergency passport and sent that in the package with an explanation of what happened and secondary proof that I was here legally such as letters from my sponsors, employers, job reviews and flight tickets.
 
2. I was given an extension of my visa because of the pandemic, so I sent a letter from my sponsor that explains the extension and extra information on why I was given this extension (the borders of my country were closed and all my flights were canceled)
 
3. My husband was a dependent of him mom for 2017 tax returns so we wrote a letter that his mom signed.
 
4. I944 was intense haha, we couldn't get IRS transcripts before sending the application because at that time IRS offices were closed, so we sent the biggest WE TRIED letter, where we stated that we received no answer from IRS so we were going to send 1040s and W2s.
 
5. We didn't have a credit score or report because none of us has credit cars, loans, car, leases, anything. We're still pretty young and we haven't thought all that out yet (we should soon). So we explained that, we sent transunion letter saying we didn't have any of that, screenshots of the experian website saying they couldn't find me and I tried to get a credit card online and I didn't qualified.
 
6. For Education, I did an evaluation of my college transcripts with a NACES authorized agency (IEE), also I graduated from college but I came to America before i could sign my diploma so I don't have my diploma with me and that's the way I can prove I graduated, what I sent to prove I graduated was a certified letter by my college that stated that I did in fact finish college. The evaluation agency wrote that my degree was incomplete because they didn't accept the certified letter but I sent everything in my I944, cause why not.
 
7.I didn't send proof I know how to speak Spanish because that's my native language and in my transcripts from school we don't call Spanish classes that, we call them Language classes. I wrote a letter swearing I know Spanish and that's it.
 
When I filed I was afraid that my husband's tax return were going to look bad, because in 2019 he made a little over the percentage he had to make to sponsor me, in 2018 he made half of that percentage and in 2017 he was a minor and was a dependent of his mom. Still I sent all that information because if I disclosed it first it means I'm ahead of any questions they can ask us. That's just my mindset, I know a lot of people believe it's better to just put the last tax return information and that's fine. Also when we filed, my husband was unemployed and so was I (pandemic related), so we sent his last pay stubs and that's all. (He did have a part time job but that didn't make enough to support me at that time and he didn't file for unemployment)
 
Another thing is that (PLEASE DONT DO IT) I worked in the past unauthorized, this was way before I met my husband and I didn't think of the consequences, I had no idea at some point it could come back to bite me. So, I disclosed it, I said from what date to what date and in I485 I said yes to working unauthorized and violating the terms of conditions of my nonimmigrant status.
 
 
So this was my timeline
 
 
and here's what I sent the June 2020 filers group and hour after the interview:
 
 
 
And that's it. Right now, I have a job offer and I'm waiting for my green card to arrive. I'm excited about the winter, being with my husband without having to think of visas, uscis, forms, is great. I did get only the conditional green card, so in 2 years I'll have to do this again hahah.
 
I hope this long post helps you, please let me know if you have any questions, this was my experience, probably had a few mistakes, it's not perfect, I was just very lucky this process went as smoothly as it did. Thank you thank you thank you VJ members for answering all my questions and giving me so much information!
 
 
 
 

So, continuing on that... I got a call back from tier 2, asked about biometrics, told him that ppl were able to schedule appts with tier 2 and he told me that they usually are able schedule when they got it canceled or they either need to reschedule again. He said he didn't have the authority of scheduling a appt out of nowhere, unless you are in those situations. He even talked to his supervisor about it and the last thing he did was to put a request to expedite the biometrics appt and he said to call again if the expedite does not work. At least he was nice and explained all of that.

Interview was today at 0930  (Baltimore Field Office) arrived at 0915 checked in by 0925 called into interview around 0940 was back in car heading home 1006.
Looked at both our government issued ID my DOD Military Retirement card and her DOD Dependent card. Looked at her Thai Passport and Visa Asked how we met and chatted about her having some issues passing the Lerners Permit test to drive and complimenter her on her English which is good since she feels her English is not good and I am the only one that understands her lol!!! They basically went line by line using the  I-485 verifying information and that she knew what was on the form made a couple minor adjustments like adding her SSN and updating her cell number Asked if we had any questions said she would be approving but was waiting on my wife's complete K-1 package before she could complete the adjudication Of note she didn't asked to see any additional evidence and she stated everything was in order and looked good and told my wife good luck on her retest for Learners Permit and that she will be fine and pass. She did say if we haven't seen any update on her card status by October we should call for a status update.

My wife and I just completed our AOS interview in Jacksonville today. I figured I would share our very positive experience with everyone here. 
 
We were originally scheduled to interview back in March, but that one was cancelled for COVID-19. 
 
Today's interview went great. Our goal was to be over-prepared with documentation, using the last 11 months constructively to build a strong case for my wife's AOS. Our interviewer came to the waiting room and led us back to her office about 25 minutes after our scheduled interview time. We sat down in her office, separated from her by a plexiglass shield, and took an oath to tell the truth. She conversationally asked us some questions about our story as a couple while she took notes of all our responses. Then she asked the list of yes/no questions from memory, which was actually kind of impressive. In spite of all our preparation, the IO didn't really require anything from us, aside from needing some documentation that showed our current address on it (we had moved twice since we submitted our package last October). 
 
From start to finish, the IO was friendly and professional. She identified herself as Officer Davis, and I believe we were incredibly lucky to have her as our IO. My wife was nervous going in to the interview, but Officer Davis put her mind at ease. At the end of the interview, our IO gave us the opportunity to ask her any questions, and then told us that if we wanted to give her anything else we had brought, we could. We gave her a stack of evidence to put in our file, but by that point, she already had enough evidence to make her decision. 
 
She told us we were approved! We watched her stamp our I-485 "APPROVED". Then she said to expect the green card in the mail, and explained the timeline for filing ROC. By the time we got home, the USCIS case tracker had already updated to "New Card Is Being Produced". 🍾
 

For those wondering, our interview was scheduled on 9-9 and we got the notice 10 days later in the mail. Interview date is 10-15.

Case status for i485 updated to "Interview has been Scheduled" as of today!

Anyone know where I can find a good resource for all the things we should gather. Going to be tough to get as much evidence as we can because of lockdowns, feels like nothing has happened in life!

Yes the letter did say they wanted it but at my interview a couple weeks ago I didn't even get asked to show our marriage certificate or half the documents on the list they tell you to bring along lol. 
 
I bought like 3 certified copies at the time because of situations like this when you don’t wanna give originals etc.  So if I was asked, that’s what I was going to show & would have been willing to give if they did want to keep it. I doubt they would though honestly! 🙂
 
 

So we just had our interview in Mt. Laurel, NJ.
 
Interview was on time and the officer was really nice. I'm surprised how easy everything was. She went over the I-485 with me and the yes/no questions and then went over the I-130 with my husband. She took 3 or 4 pictures and then asked how we met and if there was anything we would like to say about our relationship. She also asked for any new documents and said that she would approve it today or tomorrow. 15 minutes later I checked the website and it said ''New card is being produced''.
 

We Just got out of the interview in Buffalo, approved!! 
the interview was extremely fast, few questions, 5 minutes in total at max, they didn’t even want to see any of the papers we bring with us

Hey, my situation was very similar to yours.  Arrived in the states on a B2 Visa as a child. My overstay was at the 27 year mark when I applied for AOS for marrying USC (same-sex couple as well). The immigration officer never asked me any questions about my overstay.  All the questions were about our relationship. She didn't even ask anything about my work record or anything like that. Good luck!

Dear visaJourney, I don't think anyone else beats my record, but thanks for all the information and support i've received from this site.