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| Milwaukee WI |  Review on September 9, 2018: |
Wisconsinbly
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
We are a same-sex lesbian couple.
I, the foreign spouse, arrived in the U.S. in October 2016. But we filed the AOS in December 2017 (1 year and 2 months after my arrival). It was not brought up during the interview.
Originally, our interview for scheduled for June of 2017. But my wife was out of state due to work at the time and we could not attend. We called USCIS, and a lady told us it was possible to reschedule, and that she'd make a note about it, but that we are still advised to send a letter to our local USCIS office about needing to reschedule. Which we did. About 3 weeks after the call, we got a letter in the mail telling us our interview date will be rescheduled. Two months after that, we got a new date, August 29th.
We had our interview scheduled for 9:30. We arrived at about 9:15, parking was fairly easy that day (it's a quarter for 30 minutes of parking on that same street). Otherwise, there's a big parking area about 2 blocks away. We went through security (no food or drinks are allowed; phones on silent), went to the second floor and checked in at a window (showed the interview notice and our IDs). Then the lady told us to wait where everybody else was waiting and listen for someone to call my name from door 5. We didn't find the door 5, but everybody else was sitting next to door 1, so we sat down there. About 5-7 minutes later the door opened and a man called my name. He held the door open for my wife and I, and then led us to his office.
At the office, he asked us to raise our right hand and swear to tell the truth. Then we sat down, the officer turned on a small camera to record me, and started looking at our file that was on the desk (I knew it was ours because my passport style picture was on top of it).
He read that we are from an area in Wisconsin that just experienced a lot of storms and subsequently flooding, so my wife and the officer made a small talk about that and the areas that were affected.
He asked for our IDs. I gave my work authorization card and my Russian passport. He looked at the entry stamps in the back of my passport and noted that Russians are very neat at stamping. Lol Then he gave us the IDs back.
He asked my wife some biographical questions about her: date and place of birth, place of work and her title, our address, date and place of our marriage. Learning that my wife changed her job after we had submitted the application, he asked what her job title and duties are, took a letter of employment and some pay stubs. I also had a new Affidavit of Support form prepared with the new job info and asked if he'd like that, but he said he didn't need it. Then he asked me the same biographical questions about me. As he was asking, he kept looking at the answers on the form I-485 that we had submitted, and he would check off the things he asked. He also asked me my mother's and father's first name, and if we had any children. We joked that our cat is our child. Then, he asked me those "yes or no" questions. I was denied a tourist visa to the u.s. once (before my wife and I even knew each other), so he asked why I was denied. After the officer asked if I was involved in any terrorist business and I said no, my wife asked him if anyone had ever said yes to those questions. Lol And they had a small talk about that.
After that, he said that I will get my green card in about a month. He told us it would be a 2 year card, so we'd need to file for removal of conditions, and he asked if we knew about that.
I was in such disbelief that we were already done with the interview, I asked him if he'd like to see any pictures. He agreed and looked at the photo album I had made. He only asked two questions about the pictures, and gave the album back to me.
Just to be sure, I asked if we were approved. Lol He said yes. Then I apologized for making him look at our pictures. Lol
I think the whole interview took about 15-20 minutes, but it felt like it was less than that. We were out at 9:45 or so. I don't believe the officer asked us any questions outside of what had been already submitted by us in the petition.
My wife and I both thought the officer looked like he was having a bad day when he was holding the door open for us on the way in. But as we sat down and my wife and him chatted about the flooding and stuff, he seemed like a nice enough guy. I didn't feel like I was being interrogated or anything. He just seemed to be verifying information like a nurse at the doctor's office does. But at the same time I felt he was very thorough.
I got my conditional permanent residency card in the mail 8 days after the interview.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #24584