peb

I got the same email this morning....I am happy as well.

I filed back in Jan 08. And after several inquries and calls ...finally.

Congrats to you also

Why don't you just make an infopass appointment at your local office to get the stamp? ---They were also being slow with the cards

There is a stamp with the usual pen writing in it but i still get pulled into the room. Just last week i went To Canada and was too embarass when the lady at the border took forever with my passport...i was with 6 other people....she question me about my green card and why i didnt have one and why it was taking so long.

Jan of 08 to July of 09 is a long time. I see people getting approved and getting their GC in 6 months and the same service center.

Forgot to mention that I was sent a note in the mail from local USCIS OFFICE with a number on it to call Vermont service center. I called the number only to find out its an out of service number...WTH.

SO I CALLED THE LOCAL OFFICE AND ASK THEM WHY SEND ME A NUMBER THAT DOES NOT WORK....AND I WAS TOLD THAT IT WAS AN ERROR...NO ONE WAS SUPPOSE TO SEND ME A NUMBER TO CALL USCIS VERMONT OFFICE BECAUSE THERE IS NO NUMBER FOR THEM. ARE THESE PEOPLE CRAZY?

Why don't you just make an infopass appointment at your local office to get the stamp? ---They were also being slow with the cards

There is a stamp with the usual pen writing in it but i still get pulled into the room. Just last week i went To Canada and was too embarass when the lady at the border took forever with my passport...i was with 6 other people....she question me about my green card and why i didnt have one and why it was taking so long.

Jan of 08 to July of 09 is a long time. I see people getting approved and getting their GC in 6 months and the same service center.

I filed I751 IN JAN 2008 .UP TO THIS DAY I HAVENT RECEIVE MY CARD. I got approved at interview on May 5th 2009. NO NOTICE IN THE MAIL TO SAY I AM APPROVED, NO NOTICE TO SAY CARD ORDERED. I called the 1800 number and was told that no update in system on my case but they will put a ticket in and i can call back in 30 to 60 days.#######

I want to change jobs and cannot because i have no green card...they took the expired one at the interview..when i travel i get the side eye look with the hand written ####### in my passport that i am approved for I751.....I AM THEN DRAGGED INTO A ROOM WHERE I HAVE TO WAIT AT LEAST 20-30MINS FOR CLEARANCE. GOSH WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END.

Sometimes the questions asked will be based on documents submitted. For eg...We were asked about different address on Tax returns, we were also asked to explain why we do not have account together......we were asked about our previous addresses and when did we move to new address, we were asked for recent pictures of us together, why we dont have kids etc.

Other questions that they may ask is about his family, your family, where you went on vacation, where did you meet etc.

I got RFE then interview and approved at interview yesterday as well. There is hope.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I had the stamp in my passport and was still pulled into a room two weeks ago when i returned from vacation. I was pissed because it was 12midnight and i just wanted to get home....It was the first time it happen to me...I always use the 1yr ext letter and never had that problem before... I guess they just have to verify that it is legit...and i cannot blame them.

I actually have 2 questions regarding filing to remove status:

1. My green card expires 8/6/09 (approved 8/6/07) and by my calculations I am eligible to file to remove the conditions starting May 8, 2009. Is that correct or am I too early?

2. I am putting my paperwork together but I now realize that I only have evidence of marriage and living together starting mid 2008. For 2007 we lived in a family home hence no lease information. All our banking is done online and I am not able to retrieve older bank statements from 2007. I have the tax return transcripts from 2007 and 2008 (filed jointly) and bank statements for 2008-now. We started proceedings to buy our house in July 2008 but the final sale did not come through until Jan 09 so all the paperwork related to the house (deed, mortgage, bills) is dated Jan 2009 - now.

The question is this:

What other evidence can I show for 2007?

If I am not able to show proof from 2007 and early 2008, will that raise suspicions?

DaFlava

If it raise suspicions then they will call you in for interview and all you have to do is explain the situation. get a letter from family home ower stating that u lived with them in 2007. if you received any mail at that address then put that in your package.

From what I understand the interview is a good thing. You have an end date in sight, many do not. We just sit and wait, sit and wait. No information, no incling as to when it will all be over. They have to adjudicate on your case within so many days (not sure the number) of the interview.

Would give an arm and a leg for an interview!!!!

No you wouldn't. They usually get very nasty at those interviews and ask very private, embarassing questions and to top it off, they never give you a definitive answer. You'll have to wait for a while before they mail you an approval or a denial.

Interview experience are not only one sided. I've heard of good and bad. I would count my interview experience as bad but I still got the approval right away 2 years ago. Well... how bad it was concerns private matters, so can't post it here.

SO....I had my interview this morning. All went well. I was prepared for the worst experience but got the best experience ever. Hubby and I arrived early and were ready to answer questions such as "when was the last time you had sexxxxxx" but instead we got regular standard questions like have u ever gotton mad, argue with each other? my hubby said yes, we have disagreements at times like many married couples. Then she ask have u ever leave her or be seperated from her at any time...and he said yes I walk outside the apt to cool down but return after 10mins. Then she asked about why we file seperate retuns and why we have different address on our documents. We explained to her that my hubby has a big tax liability thats why we file seperate returns and as for the address he explain that he had that address box before we got togethere and continue to keep it because 1. mail box at apt is too small 2. He does not want to lose client contacts, creditors, or debtors when we move from 1 apt to another. SHE SAID OK GOOD ANS FOR ME. YOU ARE APPROVED. SHE STAMPED MY PASSPORT AND TOLD ME THEY WILL MAIL MY CARD IN 2 MONTHS...SHE ALSO TOLD ME TO WAIT FOR GC BEFORE I FILE FOR CITIZENSHIP.

She was extremely polite and nice.

my second apointment in brooklyn bio center was a disappointment because everyone there had attitude...even the darn guard...Folks have to give you attitude just to take your finger print....I pity them

Look on this interview as the opportunity to show in person that you do have a valid and loving marriage. They will be paying attention to how the two of you interact and react together. Make sure you know the practical daily things about each other - the basics like parents names, siblings names, where he works, what he does, etc. It is a little bit concerning that he continues to use his Box office address after marriage and that is probably one of the other red flags that they have in addition to the financial situation, however if he is prepared to explain his decision reasonably then it should be alright. He might want to change that address, though, to the same address that you both share. My husband got a separate Box office number when he realized his ex was going through and censoring his mail or returning it to sender if she didn't want him to have something (hehehe you can see why they divorced!) but when we got married he closed down that box office account and had everything changed to our home address.

\TRUE....I THINK ITS THE PRIVATE BOX THAT IS RAISING A FLAG. OH i forgot to mention that they want me to redo the biometrics as well. I guess after a yr the bio expires. interview is at 10am in manhattan and bio is at 2pm in brooklyn on the same day. So thoughtful of them to save me a day off.......I will keep fingers cross that the wait for interview is not like my info pass 4 hr wait

I just got hit by a VSC RFE last week (after aplying for I-751 11 months ago)...So what are my chance of getting an interview request now? Anyone had a simular experience?

I would say there is a slim chance after submitting the documents that they requested.I feel your pain i really do.They could have asked for the RFE 7 months into your wait not almost at the brink of a year pending.I think it total rubbish what's going on.I pray that after you submit the documents that you case does not stay in limbo waiting Some people get approved in 2 months at CSC.Some people never have interviews, some people get approved on a waiver in 2 months. And it does not help noticing that Vermont moved on to November 2008 and you are still pending.I wish you all the best and pray hard i will pray for you.Its not even the issue of having an interview its feeling like you are being singled out and picked on by USCIS for something thats so simple.

yes it would be nice if they sent the RFE 7 months into the yr. I have to go for interview at 10am then go for biometrics at 2pm. Interview in manhattan and bio in brooklyn. I guess after a yr bio expired.

I understand your point but do not agree on the issue of filing tax together. I think filing tax together does not prove a happy marriage or a marriage. Also, married couples file seperately or together for different reasons. A friend of mine filed seperately because he gets a bigger refund vs filing together he gets less. In my case, my husband owes IRS over 50 thousand dollars..he owed the money before i met him and does not want his liability to become my liability.If we file together then i do not get a refund also if we file together i will be liable for his debt and IRS can put a lien on any asset that has my name on it. I love my husband but if his debt becomes my debt then we will both be homeless and assets are frozen then we will both be homeless lol. All i can do is explain that to them and take it from there. But i seriously dont think that was the main reason for the interview because in the AOS we explained it and the officer agreed that filing seperate returns makes sense.

Hello peb,

I have a similar situation compare to you. I hope you don't mind me suggesting something, as I am only trying to help. Do you live in a community property state? Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin. I live in Texas. We (hubby and me) filed married joint tax even he owes IRS money, but since we're living in community property state and his debt was occured before we are married, even before we start to know each other, we file "injured spouse allocation form" with the tax every year. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8379.pdf . That way even the status is married joint, but the liabilities are still separated by filing this form. I think may be it will be helpful to you that you can look into this form. Hope your interview goes well!

jasminelily

Thanks a lot. I live in NYC i will look into the community property thing.

Precisely - you did not have enough proof of co-mingled lives and so they want to interview you to make sure that your application is legit. The interview should be fairly easy as long as you have a legitimate relationship and can answer their questions. To me it doesn't make sense when people do not file taxes together - I will need to look at their tax situation to see why they can't - I was a tax professional for 20+ years and this argument to me is never correct especially when you know that this is a primary proof in this process; so an attempt to file taxes individually for a small financial gain (if it's really true) is not worth doing in my opinion. What does Married but filing separately mean - "Well we are married but are living separate lives!" Not worth it in my opinion. God Luck

I understand your point but do not agree on the issue of filing tax together. I think filing tax together does not prove a happy marriage or a marriage. Also, married couples file seperately or together for different reasons. A friend of mine filed seperately because he gets a bigger refund vs filing together he gets less. In my case, my husband owes IRS over 50 thousand dollars..he owed the money before i met him and does not want his liability to become my liability.If we file together then i do not get a refund also if we file together i will be liable for his debt and IRS can put a lien on any asset that has my name on it. I love my husband but if his debt becomes my debt then we will both be homeless and assets are frozen then we will both be homeless lol. All i can do is explain that to them and take it from there. But i seriously dont think that was the main reason for the interview because in the AOS we explained it and the officer agreed that filing seperate returns makes sense.

I got RFE and I think writing a statement is a big deal. I wrote a very long statement describing why we haven't provided as much evidence as probably most people did. I sent pretty much all the same evidence with that statement, and got approved 3 weeks later. Good luck.

I sent a detail letter as well with evidence as to why we cannot comingle assets and liabilites and still got letter for interview. I guess it depends on who review your file .

Hi, after 14+ months of waiting and after a RFE and sending updated tax transcrips etc. now they call both of us for an interview.

I just would like to know if any of you went to these interviews and what there like. What questions they ask, what did you bring? things like that.

Our interview is in Manhatten New York so I'm not too happy about paying $50.00 to park as it is. I don't know what else they want? Anyway any input will be insightful.

Regards,

Peter&Alyona

Our situation is identical LOL. my INTERVIEW IS MAY 5TH IN MANHATTAN. I get nervous easily so i dont know.

After receiving a RFE a 1 and half month ago I sent in additional documents that were requested...NOW THEY SENT ME letter to attend interview next week. This sucks.

we have no joint account, and file Married seperate returns..in addition his address on his returns are different from our apt address. He has a private mail box where he collect all his letters etc...he had this before we were married. i explained the different address as well as the reason why we have no joint account or cannot file returns together....(He has big tax liability and once filed for bankrupcy so we cannot comingle assets or liabilites. geeze i sent in the proof from irs what more do they want?

I sent in two lease, insurance, rent receipt, magazines, letters from friends, pictures, phone bill with both names on them....

what questions do they ask at interviews. I am in Manhattan nyc

Someone just posted his recent info pass experience. Click this link:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=182771

I had my infopass appointment in NYC, Got there at 9 for the 9:15AM appt.

Officer "why are you here"

me " to get an extension, my green card will expire march 15th and I just recieved a RFE".

Officer " ok , complete this form and take it upstairs"

9:15 my name was called and another officer asked for the form and my passport then told me to have a seat. I wrote my A# (U DEFINATELY NEED THAT FOR THEM TO LOOK UP YOUR CASE) I also explained that i need to travel In april and I travel for work of the country. She told me to have a seat and wait while she took the passport and form in the back office.

10am ...i am still waiting

11am i am still waiting

12noon .....i am turning red still waiting

1pm.....I finally asked the assistant at the front how long the procedure takes because i have been waiting a long time...she told me she does not know but for sure it will be more then 2hrs because they do background check....

2pm finally someone called my name and gave me the passport with a 1yr stamp.

I am so sad right now..I thought I would get a letter for an interview but instead they want me to send more evidence. The truth is I dont have a lot of evidence to send them. My husband and I cannot comingle our finances because he has a huge tax liability plus before we got married he bankrupted. Therefore our tax returns are filed Married filing Seperate , we do not have an account together and the lease is in my name because his credit was too bad when we applied.

What I send before: Old lease showing both our names, pictures of us together through out the relationship marriage, bills with his name showing our old address,letters from friends and family, 3 yrs tax return (married filing seperate).

What I will send this week: new lease with his name listed as a tenant, Rent invoice with his name and my name, cable bill with his name on it, my life insurance with him as benificiary. A copy of credit card issued under my account to him. Evidence of his huge tax liability and letter explaining why we cannot co-mingle fincances.

I cannot have kids so if they ask i also have proof of letters and bills from fertility doctors too.

What else can i add to the list?