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Philadelphia PA USCIS Office Reviews
Average Rating: 4.1
/ 5
96 Review(s)
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| Philadelphia PA |  Review #5548 on January 14, 2010: |
RebeccaAndPhil
Rating: 
· 1 person found this review helpful
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Our interview was at the Philadelphia, PA office @ 8:30AM. We had stayed overnight at a hotel within walking distance the night before to ensure that we wouldn't hit traffic. We got up at 6AM this morning (neither of us are morning people so this was difficult lol) and started getting ready. We got to the office by 8AM and went through security (they move very fast but are generally nice). The office is on the third floor and once you go inside the waiting room you walk all the way across to get to the front desk. We handed our interview letter to the front desk, she took it, stamped it, and kept it. There were only a few other people there and most of them seemed to be for family petitions rather than marriage petitions. While we waited we did see one other couple who were called in before us. They were separated since I noticed the IO brought out the wife and called in the husband. While the wife was waiting behind us I asked her how it wwent. She said at first they were brought in together and since she was the USC, she was not grilled as much as her husband. After her husband came back out and they left we waited about 5 more minutes and then the same IO who had interviewed them came back and called us in. I just assumed he was going to separate us too but we both went back into his office and never got separated. He asked how we are doing and then dove right into the questions. He started with asking am I a USC? Was I born in the US? I said yes to both. Then he asked to see both of our birth certificates & passports and asked my husband what country he was from. He asked how we met and we said in a chat room. While he was looking through our forms (the ones we had mailed in--they put them in a file folder with hole punches at the top) he asked each of us if we have met the other' parents. Also he asked each of us to say their names. He asked to verify our address & phone numbers and if we have any kids?
Then he asked for pictures & evidence that we are married so we provided him with all of our evidence (we had join bank accounts, joint lease, joint cell phone plan, joint health insurance, joint car insurance, joint credit card). He seemed impressed with all the evidence and took copies of each to keep.
After all the questions he seemed to relax a bit and asked if we had any questions. I asked him (since I'm the beneficiary) if I'm allowed to change jobs and/or stop working when we have kids. He said "I don't really know but no one will check so you will be ok." He asked if we had been married for longer than 2 years and when we said no he said "You'll get a conditional GC in the mail within 1 month" so I said, "Does that mean we're approved?" and he said Yes! I asked if he was going to stamp my husband's passport and he said they were told they can't do that anymore. He didn't take the AP or EAD but said he would be entering the update into the computer by this afternoon or tomorrow.
In general, he was a nice guy (serious during the question asking but relaxed before and after) and it went really well!! I was so glad he looked at the documents I spent months preparing and he did mention "Thanks for being so prepared, it makes life easy."
If you have an interview at this office be prepared to go through security, don't bring in ANY electronics, and try to relax!! Everyone was courteous and each of the IOs have their own office where you will be interviewed in one. It's not as bad as you think- ours only lasted 10 minutes! 
| | | Philadelphia PA | Review #5129 on October 25, 2009: |
klik2chat
Rating:
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the interview was scheduled 22nd of October 2009 @ 9:20 am. so we have to jump off 21/2 hrs before the interview to give an allowance for any traffic issues. but the whole highway going to philly was closed due to fender bender. good that my hubby knew all the routes around nj/pa coz it's his routes in some of his jobs. so we used back roads and was able to be there 25minutes late than the schedule.get inspected and went up the 3rd floor, inform the window and gave the appt. notice and sit and wait for the call.more or less half an hour.
NOW, we're on and told us to raise our right hands and swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.
the IO was nice maybe she noticed that I'm a li'l nervous so she tried to make some jokes. BTW, i labeled all the necessary docs the night before and laid it on the table, so if asked to i just have to pull it out and hand it to her.
of course the first question, how did you met???
thanks for the internet for that.
our BC's, the MC, his divorce paper from previous marriage, my late hubby's DC. compared it to the submitted photocopies. I handed it to her in a second and she said, "you're so organized" ask about our job, she shared some of hers too. and that's it what we last heard is, i think you're my couple of the day! wait for the reply 30-60 days in the mail.
GUSS WHAT. . . when we opened our emails it was said there CARD ORDERED WAIT W/N 30 DAYS IN THE MAIL.
she said always keep the original docs with you. she said a couple before us arrive there w/o anything in their hands, they gave them all to their lawyer but didn't show up that day...
| | | Philadelphia PA | Review #3903 on February 4, 2009: |
vichygurl
Rating:
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Hello my September filers!
So I finally have my interview today! In my excitement I woke up 4am and started getting ready. My husband, mother in law and I started our journey on the way to the office around 6:30am. My appointment will be at 8am and just trying to get out the house early to avoid the morning rush. We arrived in the office at around 7:25am. Went through the security and everything. No digital camera allowed. Immediately ride the elevator going through the 3rd floor where the office is. There was already 2 couples( I believe so) ahead of us. Just gave my appointment letter and told me to sit down. It was 5 minutes to 8am when a woman called my name. My husband stood up and walked with me but the lady told him she wants to speak with me first. So I went inside the room brought with me my papers and bag. I sat down and told me to stand up first and made me swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.. Crazy me So after that she smilingly said ok you may sit down. That smile made me feel at ease.
She began by asking my passport and took out my I-94 in it. Then she went through my AOS papers (the I-485 form) and asked me one by one with everything I wrote there. Stated my name first,address,birthday,social security,my moms first name, my dads first name,my birthplace, and everything that I have wrote in the form. While I am answering those, she kept on marking a check in the form until we reached to those questions answerable by Yes or No. She asked for my husband's passport..I gave him 2 passport because the other one with stamp on it where he went visited me in the Philippines was kinda torn out because I accidentally washed it. I didn't checked his pocket that time and the passport was there.. silly me! So anyway, I explained it to her and she laughed. After that she asked for my husband's birth certificate. Asked about when did I arrived in the US, when was our wedding and asked some pictures on it. I gave her several pictures outside the album.. didn't put it in the album anymore since it doesn't fit. I have the native album where I put all the pictures I had during our first meeting. She asked each person in the wedding picture. Thought the officiator was my mother in law. She then said I will keep some of it. Asked for our marriage certificate. She then asked for proof of living together. I gave her our tax return document and the Joint billing statement of our lot rent. She seems satisfied of it.
The second part was a lil bit personal because she asked me about my husband's status. My husband is unemployed right now. Actually from the time I arrived here until now because he was laid off and since then he was just receiving unemployment benefit and till now no luck of finding a job. She told me so your financial sponsor is your mother in law and she appreciated a lot that she went with us as well. She was our co sponsor. Then she went back to the personal problem of my husband and she began explaining about the waiver if ever we both decided to part ways before the expiration of my green card. She told me about my choices and that I could be granted a 10 year green card if ever I chose to leave him. OK, it might be confusing to you guys, my husband has a lil problem that I can't tell here.. but I told the Immigration Officer that I love my husband mam despite of it. So she was like yeah I know I am just explaining to you your options if ever you decide to leave him because we don't know what will happen the next couple of months and that she said that you will receive you green card probably 2 to 3 weeks utmost. She also explain that you need to file the removal of conditions 90 days before your card expires. Again she explained about the waiver if ever I will need it. I find it ridiculous but I didn't say any word and just smiled at her thank her. Then this time she called my husband. Just asked him about his problem and if he is dealing with it. Since we both proved to her that he is dealing with his problem and she asked him the same questions she asked me and we have the same answer. So she end up saying... ok that's it! I don't see any problem here! Do you guys have questions? SO I said, well Mam I guess I just want to ask if I am approved? And she said YES! You will get your card in the mail soon. Good luck to both of you and she congratulated us! That's it! Whew! No sweat at all. Probably all in all it was just like 20 minutes.
When we were going out the building I saw lots of people in line. I am very glad that our schedule is first thing in the morning. Then we went back home and I had fun taking pictures on our way.
Thanks to all the people here who encourages me... beautiful years,Lucie and Damon,Nagishaw for your prayers, envy_me for that very awesome chart and you can now put "A" next to my interview date..and to everybody here! My September filers don't lose hope and you guys will soon have approvals!
Thank God Almighty for being with me and my husband throughout all these stressful process. I am very glad that I am a member of this site!
Now waiting for my actual green card!! SO happy!!!! kicking.gif kicking.gif kicking.gif kicking.gif
Thank you for reading and God bless us all!
| | | Philadelphia PA | Review #3596 on November 19, 2008: |
negico
Rating:
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our interview was scheduled at 7:30am. there were probably 4 or 5 other couples, but they called in people pretty quickly, so i assume that they have quite a few IOs at philadelphia office.
i was VERY nervous and had spent the past week preparing photos, documents and reading everything over. i brought everything i could possibly imagine although most of the supporting evidence were already submitted when i sent my application.
our IO was very nice and she wasn't intimidating in any way. she noticed that my husband was born in san francisco and was excited to see someone from the west (she was from los angeles). they also talked about football a little bit.
first, she asked as how long ago and how we met, so we told her that we met back in september 2004 and started dating november 2004. and we told her that we've been living together for almost 3 years. after she heard that, she didn't seem to care to ask too many questions or to took at too many documents. all she asked me was my name, my birthday, my address and the date/location of entry to the U.S. she asked my husband his name, address and his occupation.
she briefly looked at our marriage certificate and auto insurance ID cards (joint account).
she kept copies of our joint bank statements, copies of auto insurance ID cards (joint account), phone bill (in my husband's name - it's a family plan) and a copy of my health insurance card (under my husband's insurance plan). we brought the letter from his employer, but she didn't even ask for it, so we never had to show it to her.
she didn't even bother to look at any photos until i said "i didn't even get to show my pictures" (it took me many days to put together our wedding/honeymoon photo album and i was really excited to show it to a complete stranger ). she briefly went through our wedding album and said looks like we had a fun day at our wedding and noticed that we went to san francisco for our honeymoon. she didn't bother to look at our non-wedding photos.
and she told us we'll hear back from them within 4-6 weeks. the interview lasted maybe 10 minutes.
i went home and realized that she kept my I-94. i didn't know that this was a common thing (i guess they kept it since it was the only evidence of my legal entry to the U.S.). i got really nervous, but very kind VJers answered my question and that cleared my anxiety. some people told me their case status changed to "card production ordered" within a day or two and suggested that i check my status frequently.
around 8:30pm, i went to check my status and it changed to "card production ordered". i was VERY happy & relieved to see it. 
the interview itself was very easy and simple. i was fortunate to have an experienced IO that didn't feel the need to be intimidating.
| | | Philadelphia PA | Review #2024 on September 14, 2007: |
Leney
Rating:
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Hubby and son's interviews were today in Philly. We were there for 9am, the interviews were for 9:40am and 10:10am - They didn't take us until 10:03am but there were lots of late arrivals and lots of annoyed officers and lawyers waiting on clients. We were called back by a young officer named Mr. De Jesus. He asked us to tell us about ourselves, we asked him what he wanted to know - he asked how we met, asked about our son's biological mother. He asked about our jobs, and had a chat with our son about his black eye that he got in school (from a girl!) the officer told him a story about how he was beaten up by a girl when he was little and it made our son feel better about his black eye which I thought was really sweet! He asked to see all of our originals for birth certificates, marriage license, divorce decree, and custody papers. He asked about my hubby's name change (his mum remarried when he was 5) and he explained that and that was it - he didn't ask to see our joint property information, photos, tickets or anything like that. He wasn't interested in our tax stuff, he said he already had it. He told us we were approved and we'd get an email in 2 weeks and the green cards in 3 weeks. We told him that the London Embassy had taken both our original and copies of our custody papers and asked if we could get the original back - he went and copied it and return the original to us and kept the copy for himself - he was wonderful! He shook our hands and we thanked him profusely and that was it. It was so much better than I expected.
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