my interview experience

[bourne25 0]

hi everyone

sorry folks but it took me a while before i made up my mind about wether to post my experience or not, because it wasnt really what me and my wife expected it to be.

well my interview was scheduled for thursday sept 4th at 7 am in GARDEN CITY, NY. we arrived at 6:30, and the line already started to fill. at 6:50 a security officer came out asking everyone to be ready to take off their belts, and empty their pockets as soon as we reach the metal detector. then after that we entered a big waiting room on our left, where a woman was collecting appointment letters. she asked us if we had an attorney, we said yes. she said stand in line then. people without attorney she would ask them to go have a seat next to the entrance. once in line we waited to be called by a lady in the window, once there she asked if the lawyer was present, we replied not yet he is on his way. so she told us that we had maximum until 8am to wether have the interview with his presence or not. so we had a seat, and in 5 more minutes our lawyer showed up. he then took the interview letter to the same lady in the window where she stamped it with the time and the waiting game started.

10 minutes later, another lady came calling my name along with six other people and she took us upstairs to the second floor where another waiting room was. every 10 min or so an officer would come out and call the applicants name and ask him to follow him or her to the office.

my turn came after more than an hour of waiting time, we both started to feel tired since we had a sleepless night. some couples were sleeping on each other shoulders,lol.

so we followed the officer to his office, all offices were small sized and all doors were open, so basically you could hear almost everything that is happening in the office next to you. anyway he swore us in then asked us to have a seat. and now the best part begins.

first he asked for our ID'S, my wife naturalization certificate, and her passport. he took my I-94 and stapled it with my file. then started asking questions directly to my wife:

- how did you meet you husband? she answered then he started making the story sound kind of ridiculous, as if it wasnt true. he pressed for more details and my wife replied by summarizing our first meeting. he made a face then moved on.

-how long you've been living at your current address?

-are you employed now? my wife is not at the moment, we have a co-sponsor

-what's the co-sponsor relationship to you?

then the problems started, my wife worked in 2006 in NY and filed her tax return in VA on exactly APRIL 15TH (tax deadline). the reason was that she was visiting a friend of hers in VA for a couple of weeks and because she is the procastinator type ended up doing it there so she can avoid any penalties. the officer made a huge deal of it, asking my wife who did it?? how come it was done like this? and so on. although my wife simply told him the truth and explained that it was a simple tax preparer who told her that it wasnt any problem to file from VA.

at this point he move to me, he asked me what was her last job??

- where she worked before this last job?? which basically happened before our relationship even started.

- then in what year she worked for comapany X?? it was 2005, again way before i knew her.

now here is what pissed me off, since my wife had three previous jobs, one in NY, one in NJ, and one in CT. but kind of close to the city. the officer asks me, how would i explain the fact that my wife has been HANGING AROUND the tri-state area for the last few years????? how in the world can i explain the action of someone at a time when i didnt even know who he was!!!!. i told him what do you mean by that?? he said the biographic info indicates that, and i told him well how can i explain that. and he moved on

then he asked for joint documents which my lawyer handed him, and our album. something really interesting, he was flipping the pages of our evidence and the album at a tremendous speed, as if he was just doing it without interest and simply to show that he took the time to look at it. at this point he asked my wife to select two pictures for the file, which she did. the started asking me the YES and NO questions. he handed back the certificates and held on to my passport, he stood up and told us that he will be back in a minute.

as soon as he stepped out, my lawyer adviced us that he went to schedule us for a SECOOOOND INTERVIEW, meaning STOKESSS INTERVIEW.

he came back and that was exactly what happened, he told us i need you guys to come back on NOV 4th for a second interview, this time regarding the adjudication of the I-130.

asked us if we had any questions, we were both me and my wife stunned but didn't have any questions. then he walked us out and wished us a nice day!!!.

it was definitely a nice day afterwards, both me and my lawyer reached the same conclusion before we even started discussing how the interview went. this officer had his mind made up already before he even started interviewing us, and he was simply looking for a reason to do so. none of the questions asked tested the bona fide of our marriage, none. i was mad, disappointed. although my wife was comforting me and being optimistic. we both felt like it was intended for us to be scheduled for a stokes interview. and the worst is that you simply see yourself helpless in front of the power of USCIS.

anyway we are going to do our best for the stokes, and hopefully it will be fine.

[vanee 13]

I'm sorry to read about your experience.

From reading here, it does sound like they've usually made up their minds before the interview and are just looking for ways to back up that opinion. I hope your second interview goes better.

[olafgypsy 0]

Yuck, that sounds horrendous. It definitely seems like the USCIS officers expect you to have quizzed each other and memorized weird facts about one another before the interview. Not really sure what that proves, but forewarned is forearmed, I guess.

[vanee 13]

"Forewarned" is a key word.

I think I would've been stunned too when asked if we had any questions after that interview. But since we've been forewarned that this could happen, these questions come to mind:

- Could you please look at the evidence we brought while we're here?

- Could you tell us why we need a second interview when you haven't looked at all the evidence that we brought?

- Could we please speak to your supervisor to explain that you didn't attempt to establish whether or not we have a valid relationship but instead asked irrelevant questions to try to support the conclusion you'd reached before you met us?

I'm not saying that it would be a good idea to ask them, but as I said, these questions come to mind for me.

[Eric-Pris 1,607]

IMO... he saw that you were from Morocco, and knew what he was going to do even before he started.

[Heliosphan 1]

^

I agree with kid brooklyn, there really would have been no answer you could even give him that would have prevented that. Those questions are really weird, I'm looking at my relationship and I couldn't even tell you where my wife worked 2 years ago (and we we've been together for 3 years).

Just prepare for the next one as best as you could.

[bourne25 0]

thank you everyone for your support

and i couldnt agree more with you KID BROOKLYN. i am aware of the fact that since you are an arab they try to put any obstacle in front of you so you will give up. but i tried to dismiss it in my mind, unfortunately it happened to me as well.

i hope things go well next time.

[Neonred 3,665]

How much did it cost you to have your lawyer there, and did you get your money's worth?

Glad I didn't bother with a lawyer....

[KC♥MP 0]

Sorry to hear on what happened on your interview. I hope you'll be given a fair interviewer next time and will not be judgemental because of your race. Good luck!!!

[vanee 13]

More questions that could be asked if something like that happens again:

- What questions do you typically ask in green card interviews that you didn't ask us?

- What questions did you ask us that you don't routinely ask?

- Why was our interview different?

[Heliosphan 1]

More questions that could be asked if something like that happens again:

- What questions do you typically ask in green card interviews that you didn't ask us?

- What questions did you ask us that you don't routinely ask?

- Why was our interview different?

that would be playing with fire to ask an IO that. But good question for the lawyer.

I mean really, aside from paperwork how necessary are they even in these cases? Even with one present they still got this treatment.

[Eric-Pris 1,607]

Bourne,

Your lawyer was inside the room with you, right? What was he doing while this harassment was taking place? Isn't your lawyer supposed to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen?

You were treated unfairly, and sounds like your lawyer didn't say a word.

[sweetpiano 0]

According to the Field Adjudicator's Manual, section 15.4:

"An alien, or attorney with a properly executed Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Representative (Form G-28), may request a personal review and/or copy of the record of proceedings, including any written record of an interview conducted before a USCIS officer. The requesting party may file a Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Request (Form G-639) with USCIS to gain access to other record material."

The Field Adjudicator's Manual makes for interesting reading, by the way.

[slapointe 0]

Really sorry about what happened with your interview. I hope your second interview is with a human being...

[ellla 0]

So sorry...

I was actually wondering if the second interview would be with the same IO?