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| Seattle WA |  Review on June 29, 2010: |
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
Ok I would like to give my review for the Seattle office since this page has been very helpful to me during the process, and maybe it will be helpful to someone else going through the same process. This was for an AOS interview through marriage. A little background...I came to the country on J-1 (exempt from the 2 year) in 2000 for high school exchange program(senior year), my visa expired right after HS and about the same time got accepted to college. Did not leave the country with my new I-20 issued from the college since had been out of status for 2-3 months and was almost certain that they would not issue me an F-1 visa, so basically stayed out of status throughout college. To make things worse I got my passport stolen, but luckily I had made photocopies of the J-1 and I-94. Last year I got married with my college girlfriend and we applied for AOS.
Submitted I-485, G-325A, I-330 and about a month later a I-102 for my stolen I-94, just to clarify it we did not use a lawyer that is why the late I-102.
Got my fingerprints and a month after received my AOS interview letter. It was scheduled for 9:45am and we arrived around 9:20, went through security with a big pile of documents, pictures, bills, bank statements, car insurance, emails dating back in 2004-2005, old and new leases. Had to wait for almost 45 mins since they were running late, and finally my name was called. I was a bit nervous since I was out of status for so long, almost 10 years. We followed a really nice officer to her office, and before we sat down we head to swear in that we will say the truth. First thing she checked my wife's passport who is American by birth and my new passport. She wanted to see the photocopies of the old stolen passport with I-94 and J-1 which she kept even though I had submitted in the application. She didn't ask anything on what happened to the old passport or I-94, I just told her that I don't have it anymore and she seemed OK with just the copies. I even forgot to mention that I had filed later for I-102 which I did not receive on time for the interview, but I guess she was just happy with the copies.
We went to proceed on the I-485 routine questions: if I had committed any crimes, received any public assistance in US etc etc. Asked my wife what her middle name and address was and some other verifying questions from HER G-325A.
After that she asked us how we met and we went on with the story which I think she liked. She asked us who asked who out in the beginning. When did you move to Seattle, and why? We gave her the answer and showed her the lease from 2003 when we were living together. She asked us if we had any pictures which had brought a few, about 75 in a big album throughout the years. She would flip through the album and ask as where was this taken, or who are these people in the picture, she did ask us if she could keep a few, so she did take about 5-6 of them and stapled them to our file she had on her desk. After that we started talking about the school me and my wife went to since the officer knew where it was, and we were basically having a conversation about that for a while and about Midwest. At some point WE even asked her how long she had been in Seattle for and if she liked it, so it was a very laid back interview. I even offered her some more document, bills, bank statement but she didn't want them. She was SUPPER nice and very friendly, I guess we got lucky since the couple that got out of the interview right before we got in had a guy who was very tough on them. At the end of the interview she said that you will receive an official answer in the mail, I'm guessing her boss has to make the final decision on the report, but she did say that our file was complete and they did not need any additional documents from us. Even the earlier couple I had talked to earlier was told the same thing...I guess must be a new thing or something. I must say even though I did not get an answer on the day of the interview, I must say it was a very pleasant experience, at some point I told my wife that it was a lot easier and people were nicer than at the DMV  So to sum this up, if you have supporting documents, pictures, bank statements, just keep your head up and you will do fine
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #6283