Interview

[CB82 0]

Hi everyone,

We had our interview today in Tampa. It went pretty well. The woman who interviewed us was very nice and she was also training someone too.

Heres what happened.

We arrived around 8.10am for our interview at 8.30am. We sat in the waiting room and were called right at 8.30am.

We were taken to her office. We then had to remain standing and raise our right hand and "swear to tell the truth...........". She asked to see my husbands (USC) drivers license and for my passport, I-94, social security card and if I had an EAD. So I gave her my stuff minus the EAD as I never applied for it. She then asked if I had a Florida drivers license and I gave her it too.

She confirmed that we still lived at the same address as on the I-485.

She confirmed when I last entered the US and on which visa.

She confirmed that this was my first marriage and my husbands second.

She then asked what evidence we had to prove we had a "real" marriage.

She asked if we had any photos that were different than the ones we had already submitted. She looked through our 3 photo albums while I got out the evidence.

While I got out the information she asked out loud and my husband replied:

-Where we met?

-Who asked who out?

-When was your first date?

-What did you do? (she laughed when he said how we spent the first hour stuck in I-4 traffic)

-When did we get married?

-Where did we get married (courthouse, church etc)?

-Who attended?

We then told her that we are having our main wedding in August where all our family and friends will be attending. She asked if we had a copy of the contract for it, which we did. We then got talking about how we are having an open bar and they laughed and said that will cost you. We talked about that for a few minutes and they couldn't get over how cheap it is.

She opened one of the photo albums and asked my husband who the person was that she pointed to. He told her it was my mother.

She said any evidence I had she would keep the originals unless we made copies. So we gave her a copy of our joint rental lease, joint bank account statements since we got married and our cable bill with both our names on it. She looked at the lease and then stampled all the evidence I gave her. She never even looked at anything else I gave her.

She then asked me the long list of 'no' questions (are you a prostitute? are you going to commit poligamy? etc)

She then went to my husbands tax returns. She said that his personal tax return didn't meet the poverty guidelines. We said how he is self employed and his income goes on his Business tax return but she said a business can't sponsor someone. We asked shouldn't someone have noticed this before and asked for a co-sponsor? She said I will approve you but you need a co-sponsor. So she explained what the co-sponsor has to fill out and the evidence to provide and asked if we had someone we could ask. For which we said no. We really don't have anyone we can ask who might be willing to be a joint sponsor as its a huge obligation and they have to give all their personal info. Most of our friends are self employed too. So we calling a few people tomorrow to plead with them.

She said she has approved my I-130 and we have 30 days to mail her the co-sponsor info. She said as soon as she receives the co-sponsor info she will approve my case and I should get my permanent residence card within 2 weeks after that. She gave us back our driver licenses, my social security card and my passport. She kept my I-94. The interview was only 15 minutes.

So I checked my email tonight and got the confirmation email:

Application Type: I130 , IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN

Current Status: Approval notice sent.

So I have a few questions about the co-sponsor. She said they have to fill out the I-864A but after reading through all the instructions I think they're supposed to fill out the I-864. Am I right? She also said they have to submit their most recent tax return, W2's, letter from employer and the last year of pay stubs. Do you really need the full past year's pay stubs? What all do you recommend?

P.S. Sorry for the length of this post.

Edited April 18, 2008 by CB82

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Hey bud!

Man she was tough! As you can read on our post on the october's filers thread, the guy that interviewed us was really nice and didn't ask for nearly anything.

Well, talking about the co-sponsor, when we submitted the AOS, we had just graduated from college and we didn't have enough money, so my wife didn't have enough and we ended up needing a co-sponsor. Today, the IO asked us for this year's income tax and said we didn't need the co-sponsor. Anyway, the co-sponsor filed the I-864, submitted his W-2 and 6 months of pay stubs and letter of employment.

Edited April 18, 2008 by GueraYTavo

[CB82 0]

Hey bud!

Man she was tough! As you can read on our post on the october's filers thread, the guy that interviewed us was really nice and didn't ask for nearly anything.

Well, talking about the co-sponsor, when we submitted the AOS, we had just graduated from college and we didn't have enough money, so my wife didn't have enough and we ended up needing a co-sponsor. Today, the IO asked us for this year's income tax and said we didn't need the co-sponsor. Anyway, the co-sponsor filed the I-864, submitted his W-2 and 6 months of pay stubs and letter of employment.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's awesome that you were approved.

Our interview wasn't too bad. The lady seemed the nicest of the interviewers who came out calling peoples names. I was actually expecting the interview to be worse. More questions!! We walked in with a whole load of evidence that people in the waiting room just looked at us. I like to be over-prepared. Didn't need most of it but hey. At least we know we'll be approved as soon as we sweet talk someone into co-sponsoring little ole me. Thanks for your advice about the joint sponsor. That sounds more appropriate. Keeping our fingers crossed that we find someone soon.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

You are welcome, I'm still in shock about how easy it was, he didn't ask us anything personal! not a single detail, to my wife? "are you getting the alergies?" haha she was sneezing. I walked in with 4 envelopes full of stuff and around 40 pics of us, just like you, a little bit over prepared.

Good luck and get that co-sponsor my friend

Cheers!

Edited April 18, 2008 by GueraYTavo

[CB82 0]

Tomorrow night we're going to my husband's aunts house to complete the I-864 together as she is our joint sponsor. We planned on doing it last week but she's been waiting for her employer to give her the letter that we needed. So she called to say she finally got it and now she has all the info we need. God bless her for doing this for us.

My one question is, the interviewer asked for the joint sponsor's info. Do you think we should also send in an updated I-864 for my husband? We had one with us at the interview but she never took it. Even though he's below the poverty line on his 1040 but since he's the petitioner, i'm not sure if we should send in an updated one with the joint sponsors info as you normally have to send everthing together when you originally file the AOS.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Tomorrow night we're going to my husband's aunts house to complete the I-864 together as she is our joint sponsor. We planned on doing it last week but she's been waiting for her employer to give her the letter that we needed. So she called to say she finally got it and now she has all the info we need. God bless her for doing this for us.

My one question is, the interviewer asked for the joint sponsor's info. Do you think we should also send in an updated I-864 for my husband? We had one with us at the interview but she never took it. Even though he's below the poverty line on his 1040 but since he's the petitioner, i'm not sure if we should send in an updated one with the joint sponsors info as you normally have to send everthing together when you originally file the AOS.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Back in Nov we received a RFE requesting wife's W-2's and I sent my wife's and my co-sponsor's to avoid any issue. Well, I guess you can send both clearly specifying on a letter the docs you are sending in the envelope, this will avoid any confussion.

[CB82 0]

Back in Nov we received a RFE requesting wife's W-2's and I sent my wife's and my co-sponsor's to avoid any issue. Well, I guess you can send both clearly specifying on a letter the docs you are sending in the envelope, this will avoid any confussion.

Thank you GueraYTavo. That's what I was thinking of doing to be on the safe side.