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| Albany NY |  Review on February 8, 2013: |
jane78
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
This was a good experience. First of all a warning, DON'T bring any cell phones or other electronic items in to your appointment. They will make you turn around at the door and leave them in your car. The security staff said they have a phone in the office that you can use if you need to make a call. They were friendly and courteous to my husband and me, and to others coming in for various appointments. We were told to wait in the seating area for our name to be called. Some people were given numbers (I think people coming in for biometrics) but it seemed that anyone coming in for an AOS interview was told to wait for their name. We arrived at about 10:00AM for our 10:15AM appointment. We were called at probably 10:25AM.
Our officer was a tall African American man. He was friendly but not over the top about it if that makes sense. We were first "sworn in." He then asked for my spouse's ID and my passport and he took the I-94 (white card stapled to my H1-B visa page) out of my passport. He asked me if I had applied for an EAD. I said yes and then he asked me to give it to him. I explained that I had applied for it but had not actually received it yet (our interview was only two months after our application was submitted!) so he took a note of that.
He then asked us to explain briefly how we met. I started and then my husband took over and then we sort of went back and forth together. We probably gave him more information than he needed about the first few months of our relationship, but we made it clear that we've been together for over 4 years and living together for the past 3 years and that seemed to make a good impression on him.
He then went through each form in order: I-130, medical report, affidavit of support, and I-485. For the I-130 he confirmed things like spelling of names, date of birth, place of birth, etc. He asked for evidence of our marriage. I provided some things, like a lease and joint bank account statement, that we'd already included in the application that we mailed in, but I had also brought in some photos from a family celebration in December that hadn't occurred yet when we mailed in the application--these were photos showing us with each others' family members and a cake that said "Congratulations My Name + Spouse's Name" as the party was partly a celebration of our marriage (our actual wedding ceremony a month before was a private civil service). He took xeroxes of those photos. I think those photos also made a good impression as they clearly showed our marriage being acknowledged by both families. I also gave him a xerox of our shared credit cards--we both have business credit cards which have the name of my USC spouse's business on it and we also have a personal credit card on which I am the secondary card holder. That info also seemed to work for the officer. Interestingly, he did not ask to see either of our birth certificates or the marriage certificate.
Then he looked through my medical exam and my spouse's affidavit of support. He did not ask any questions or ask for any extra evidence in relation to either of those documents. I had brought along some more recent pay checks from my husband but he did not ask for anything.
When he looked through my I-485 he asked me my last date of entry into the US (which was written on my I-94) and he looked at the H1-B visa page in my passport. One of the stamps on the page opposite my visa was a little hard to read so he asked me if I could work out what year it was. Luckily I was able to figure out that it was for my entry into the U.S. a few days after I first got the visa in 2010. He asked me for evidence showing that I am still working at the employer who sponsored me for my H1-B. I had a copy of my current annual employment contract and gave it to him. That satisfied him but in hindsight I think I should have brought in some recent pay checks as well. So if you are AOSing from a work visa through marriage to a USC keep in mind that you will likely be asked to prove your current employment status. He then went through my list of organizations and asked whether I was a member of any political organizations or military organizations and I said no. He then asked me some (but not all) of the questions (about arrests, terrorism, military training etc.) that are at the end of the I-485 form and I answered no to all of them.
Finally he said we were approved (yay!). He told me that if I do receive my EAD in the future I should return it to the USCIS or shred it and definitely not to hold onto it because it will say I have temporary status while the green card says permanent status so I want to be using the one that shows my accurate, up to date, permanent status. They also don't want it to get stolen and for someone to end up trying to use it fraudulently. He also explained that the green card would be a two year conditional green card because we only just recently got married and explained the process for removal of conditions. He said removal of conditions is usually straightforward and can be processed by mail and it would be unlikely that we would need another interview for it. He reminded us to change our address with the USCIS if we move as they will send the reminder notice to the last address they have on file for us.
That was it! The whole process took no more than 30 minutes I would guess (forgot to look at my watch on the way out as I was so full of adrenaline and excited for it to be over and to be approved). Obviously this was not a "Stokes" interview which was my biggest fear (not that I felt we had any "red flags" but you never know what might happen).
Good luck to all those reading this in advance of your interview at Albany. Just remember to bring all your documentation because it's better to have it and not be asked for it than to be missing something when asked. As I mentioned above, with my H1-B status I had thought to bring my annual work contracts for the last couple of years with me but if I had been missing the most recent one it could have been really bad and it would be easy to forget such a thing if you were more focused on proving the legitimacy of the marriage and not your own current work status.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #11436