the_mrs

We were fortunate to have a male interviewer, he didn't even look at half the stuff we brought!

Meaning then that female interviewers are more thorough?

YES! I was told this by so many people, including 2 immigration lawyers and a coupe people we met at INS who had to come back a second time with more paperwork. They are so quick to deny if you are missing even a little info.

We got our approval letter! Yayyyy! We had our interview February 20, 2009, at 10am. We arrived about 30 min early and we were so nervous we couldn't even think. One reason why we were nervous is because my husband and I actually don't share anything, meaning bills, with the exception of a phone bill and he is on my taxes, other than that, we do not share anything. We figured this would be an issue. Another reason why we were so nervous is because we didn't know what to expect. Our immigration lawyer helped us prepare and told us what to take and what kind of things we would have to know. She's great! The interview only lasted about 15 minutes and he approved us! We are so happy this is all over until 2011!

Thanks for letting me share...

Wow! That sounds great! Congratulations!

Thank you!!!!

Also, I know that it says that I files a K-1 on my profile, but we ended up filing the AOS. I don't know how to change that! My husband was in the states for 6 months already by the time we got married and hadn't returned home, not even once for a visit. (he's been here now 1 year and 3 months)

Thank you so much!

Excellent!

Always helpful to hear another couple having success. Best wishes for the rest of you journey ...

It is isn't it??? I love to hear success stories! I have heard wayyyy too many horror stories!

Best wishes to you too and I hope everything goes smoothly for you guys!

Congratulations! So what things did you take and what things did you need to know?! My interview is right around the corner!

We were fortunate to have a male interviewer, he didn't even look at half the stuff we brought!

Most important though, he told us this himself, you have better chances of passing your interview if:

You have joint assets, bank accounts, bills, filed jointly on taxes, evidence of correspondence, such as emails, letters, even a phone bill will be great!

Also, you want to bring photos. It looks good if you have photos with each others family and friends.

He asked my husband the most basic of questions, like where do we live, what's his birth date, who did I write down as my emergency contact at work....nothing crazy. They also want to know the last time you visited the states, why you want to live in the states, if either of you are working, take your spouses 3 years of taxes, that is also a must!

I hope all of this helped.

Let me know if I can be of anymore help. I'm sure there is more, but this is all I can remember right now LOL

We got our approval letter! Yayyyy! We had our interview February 20, 2009, at 10am. We arrived about 30 min early and we were so nervous we couldn't even think. One reason why we were nervous is because my husband and I actually don't share anything, meaning bills, with the exception of a phone bill and he is on my taxes, other than that, we do not share anything. We figured this would be an issue. Another reason why we were so nervous is because we didn't know what to expect. Our immigration lawyer helped us prepare and told us what to take and what kind of things we would have to know. She's great! The interview only lasted about 15 minutes and he approved us! We are so happy this is all over until 2011!

Thanks for letting me share...

Glad things are working out for you. Here's what's happening with other October filers on this spreadsheet.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pze...X2bQoUgSQKgZsDw

Thank you so much!!!

Ok so It's been quite awhile since I've been on VJ, but I decided to log in and see how everyone was doing in their journeys and also post an update.

OK so as of now, my husband has already received his work card and we got his SSN. We have an appt. for our interview Feb. 20th and we are so excited.

We have been so blessed that all of this has gone by so fast for us. Thank god. We actually didn't file anything until October, we received the work card in December and we got the SSN in December as well.

I was fortunate enough to have the help of a wonderful woman who I have know for about 8 years, I used to date her son for 3 years when I was in HS. Anyway, she recommended that we file for AOS, not the K1 because my husband had already been in the states for awhile, overstayed his visa actually, but she knows the tricks and secrets in the whole "immigration business" so she said he would be fine as long as we got married and went ahead with the process. We got married in July and finally went ahead with the process in October. She only charged us $500, she walked us through the entire process, printed out all the paper work for us to fill out, typed everything for us, did my husband's first set of finger prints, she sent everything in, It was such a crazy month I don't even remember all what went on. She even constantly checked on his status for us to keep us updated. She has worked in immigration for about 20 years so I knew she knew what she was doing. Next step is to go to her house so she can prepare us for the interview. She was actually really surprised that they sent my husband his work card and his appt. for the interview at the same time, we received both in the same day. But we are extremely happy and so is she. She must have pulled some strings because honestly, I have heard nothing but horrible things about this process and how long and grueling it is. My mother's friend has a daughter who married a man from the UK and they called me to get my help. I referred them to the woman that helped me and they loved her! They had already hired and paid someone else a lot of money to assist them, but she was no help to them at all. They are just about done with everything and almost complete with their process and they started in November. So they were very blessed as well.

I just want to say good luck to you all and I really help that this process goes by very quickly for you as well.

God Bless and best wishes to you and your families.

Thank you for letting me share.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

-Brandi

***ANY UPDATES FOR THE OCTOBER FILERS???***

PLEASE SHARE!!!

THANKS!

Oh, I forgot to mention that of course we completed all of the medical and everything, that process was done in October and was sent in with all of our other paper work so they received everything at the same time.

Ok so It's been quite awhile since I've been on VJ, but I decided to log in and see how everyone was doing in their journeys and also post an update.

OK so as of now, my husband has already received his work card and we got his SSN. We have an appt. for our interview Feb. 20th and we are so excited.

We have been so blessed that all of this has gone by so fast for us. Thank god. We actually didn't file anything until October, we received the work card in December and we got the SSN in December as well.

I was fortunate enough to have the help of a wonderful woman who I have know for about 8 years, I used to date her son for 3 years when I was in HS. Anyway, she recommended that we file for AOS, not the K1 because my husband had already been in the states for awhile, overstayed his visa actually, but she knows the tricks and secrets in the whole "immigration business" so she said he would be fine as long as we got married and went ahead with the process. We got married in July and finally went ahead with the process in October. She only charged us $500, she walked us through the entire process, printed out all the paper work for us to fill out, typed everything for us, did my husband's first set of finger prints, she sent everything in, It was such a crazy month I don't even remember all what went on. She even constantly checked on his status for us to keep us updated. She has worked in immigration for about 20 years so I knew she knew what she was doing. Next step is to go to her house so she can prepare us for the interview. She was actually really surprised that they sent my husband his work card and his appt. for the interview at the same time, we received both in the same day. But we are extremely happy and so is she. She must have pulled some strings because honestly, I have heard nothing but horrible things about this process and how long and grueling it is. My mother's friend has a daughter who married a man from the UK and they called me to get my help. I referred them to the woman that helped me and they loved her! They had already hired and paid someone else a lot of money to assist them, but she was no help to them at all. They are just about done with everything and almost complete with their process and they started in November. So they were very blessed as well.

I just want to say good luck to you all and I really help that this process goes by very quickly for you as well.

God Bless and best wishes to you and your families.

Thank you for letting me share.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

-Brandi

***ANY UPDATES FOR THE OCTOBER FILERS???***

PLEASE SHARE!!!

THANKS!

What is asked in Frankfurt will be very different than what is asked in London, Manila or Kiev.

I understand....

Thank you!

Look up at the top of this page under the photos of the people on the thin blue banner. There is a link called Reviews:Embassy/USCIS. Go there. Pick your country from the drop downs in the "Consulate reviews" box. You can find the embassy in Germany and people who have been to an interview there tell all about their experiences, questions asked, etc.

Thank you very much!

This helps a bunch!

God Bless...

Hello! My fiance and I have not began filing our paperwork yet, will do so in August, but we would still like to be as prepared as possible. I would like to know if anyone can tell me how long your interview process took and how many questions were asked? Also, could you give examples of questions that you were asked?

Thank you so much for your time!

Hello, and welcome to the forum! I'm not filing until October, so I know exactly how you're feeling. Hang in there - August will come much faster than you think, especially if you're starting to prepare now.

As for your questions - I may be incorrect about them, so someone feel free to bop me if I am, but.. I believe the fees for this process will come to a total of $1,465.00. The K-1 processing fee is $455, while the Adjustment of Status fee that comes a bit later is something like $1,010.

With regards to moving - If you're changing permanent addresses, I believe you have to notify USCIS. More information can be found here: https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=coa

Best of luck, darling! I hope your journey is swift and as painless as possible. <3

Yes...I bet you can relate to how really grueling this whole process is. Sometimes I think it's really unfair, but hey, what can we do.

WOW! Anything less than $2000 is far less than what I expected. That is amazing! I thought I was most definetly going to be paying at least $2500 for the entire process.

Thank you so much for your reply! Any little advice I can get really takes a load off my shoulders.

Best of luck to you and your love ones!\

P.S. you guys look beautiful together

I haven't even began the K-1 process! I am not filing until August if this year. I feel like I'm going crazy because this process is going to be harder and take longer than I would have ever thought. There are a few things I am still unsure of, such as the amount I would have to pay for this entire process, excluding the travel fees. Does anyone have experiences to share?? I've decided to start getting everything together early, things I would need for interviews and to file, that way I am prepared way ahead of time. I just hope this will all be over soon so my fiance and I can start our normal lives together.

Does anyone know if I would be able to move to another state during this process? I live in So Cal right now, but I want to move to Las Vegas.

Thank you!

Of course you can, all you have to do is once you file you need to file with USCIS a change of address form, or anytime you move throughout your process....

Great! I am happy to hear that! I am new to this so I wasn't sure if it would effect the process or not. Thank you so much for your reply.

I haven't even began the K-1 process! I am not filing until August if this year. I feel like I'm going crazy because this process is going to be harder and take longer than I would have ever thought. There are a few things I am still unsure of, such as the amount I would have to pay for this entire process, excluding the travel fees. Does anyone have experiences to share?? I've decided to start getting everything together early, things I would need for interviews and to file, that way I am prepared way ahead of time. I just hope this will all be over soon so my fiance and I can start our normal lives together.

Does anyone know if I would be able to move to another state during this process? I live in So Cal right now, but I want to move to Las Vegas.

Thank you!