AOS Interview in Charlotte - Success!

[slaughterj 0]

We had the AOS interview for my wife who came to the U.S. on a K-1 visa, and she was granted conditional legal permanent resident status! (Only here about 1 year since arrival/marriage.)

Here's some info from the interview, in case it is helpful to others (note, this is generally in order of occurrence, but relying on memory and the interviewer jumped around quick a bit, so probably not 100% exact):

We arrived about an hour early, having to drive 2.5 hours to get there, and wanted to have extra time in case of traffic delays. We checked in, and went to a waiting room. A number of people were being called, and I saw the same interviewers come back a couple of times, so it was apparent that interviews were running 20-30 minutes or so.

Our interviewer called us just a few minutes early from the scheduled appointment time, and we went back to his cubicle. I believe he was Korean, and he didn't have the best English, which was interesting.

The first thing he asked for was our IDs, to compare addresses to confirm joint residency. The next thing he asked for was the vaccination supplement form, which my fiance needed for a record of one additional immunization.

After that, he jumped around quite a bit, asking for some documents for proof of marriage, asking questions about the relationship (e.g., when/how we met), asking the list of questions about terrorism and communism, asking for passports, and typing information into the computer.

We provided a copy of our credit cards with the same account number, health insurance cards with the same account number, life insurance with my wife as beneficiary, auto insurance policy with both of us listed, and a letter from my employer saying wife is my claimed spouse, is my emergency contact, and is on my health insurance through work. We also provided a copy of our power of attorneys, which he looked at briefly but returned. We also provided photos of the wedding (us with family, and us alone) and other events (trips together, etc.), which he also returned. He asked for any other evidence of relationship, specifically asking for joint bank accounts, utility bills, etc. We have separate bank accounts, so nothing to provide (though he asked about this a couple times, and when he did, I reminded him of the joint credit card as at least *something*), and I have been in the house I bought, so no reason to add my wife to the utility bills, so nothing there either.

He also asked about her employment, gave some details, and said she was contract worker. He asked for an employment letter for her, but we noted again that she was a contractor, not employee, so nothing to provide. He asked about the translation for the birth certificate, probably just curious because Japan doesn't have a birth certificate for an individual, but is more a family roll.

He also asked for, and we provided, updated materials for the affidavit of support. I provided a copy of the last 2 months of paystubs and my 1040 income tax form from last year (filed 2005, for 2004, because we hadn't included it in the early 2005 submission of the affidavit of support with the I485/AOS form because that tax form wasn't ready at the time of submission). He also seemed to ask for my latest W2, but I didn't have it and said I hadn't yet filed for 2005 taxes yet, but it was unclear what he wanted due to his English, and he seemed fine with my response. Later he asked again for my 1040 income tax form from last year, but I reminded him I already gave it to him, and he found it momentarily thereafter. I did not bring a new affidavit of support (just a copy of the one I submitted a year ago), and was not asked for one.

He then went on to type a fair amount into the computer, printed off a form, cut it in half, and handed it over to read carefully - it was the notification of conditional permanent legal resident status, and what needed to be done to remove this (or get deported!). It was a bit anticlimatic almost. He then removed the I94 from her passport, asked for her EAD (no longer necessary), but did not ask for her AP documents, and stamped her visa, saying EAD and AP no longer necessary and the Green Card would come in a few weeks.

He said that was it, we were done, and my wife decided to ask if he had ever caught any fake relationships?! He said "oh yeah, many!" and we talked about that for a minute or so where he mentioned having a sense about relationships after seeing so many people, and he said something like "but not you, right?" We asked a couple of other small questions (confirming no need for EAD/AP, etc.), and then left.

In summary, the most important things seemed to be:

1. IDs with the same address (likely essential, except in odd cases, e.g., a military person who is from ABC state but is stationed in XYZ state who still has their ABC state ID and address, while the spouse has only arrived in XYZ state and so would have an ID from there).

2. Medical documents in order (again, likely essential, simply a must).

3. Joint bank accounts (we didn't have, but I think they consider it pretty significant - we did have the joint credit card and other things, plus were legit and sincere, so that all probably resolved the concern over lacking this).

4. Wedding pictures with both sides of family in it (really shows are together, because if two people are going to fake it, they probably aren't involving both sides of the family).

5. Support documentation

6. Actual relationship! (Must pass the smell test )

Hope this helps! And remember, just from memory, so I may have forgotten something, so don't take it as gospel!

[Babsi 0]

CONGRATS!!

[Kez/JWolf 6]

wow good interview.......

Congratulations

Kezzie

[sean2000 0]

Hi Slaughterj,

My wife had the interview with the same guy... Except ours was a K3 and yours a K1, which should not make much difference. However, he did not look at my wife's passport or mine... He did not ask for Affidavid of Support or tax returns. He said that our case is still pending and we will let you know soon.

[karenros 0]

Yeah i remember seeing him on Fri when we had been for our interview, but didnt interview us, Anyways Congrats

[one_coolchiq 0]

Congrats guys

[Live By Faith 0]

congrats guys, that was an excellent post with a lot of details in it...

Amar

[beback 0]

[size=7]CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!![/size]

Edited February 9, 2006 by mylove

[SanDan 0]

That's great! Congratulations

[virginian 0]

Congratulations

[maya62 7]

Congratulations!!

Thank you for your detailed report! We are not going through Charlotte, but it is still helpful to hear how the whole thing goes. Best wishes, and enjoy your break from USCIS!

Maya

[JayJay 4]

Thanks, that was really good! It's interesting because we are preparing for our AOS interview ourselves, and I am trying to find as much as possible to show Ben, so that he knows what to expect!

Also, your situation is pretty much similar to our - we don't have and won't be getting a joint account, since we want to keep ourselves financially exclusive and build up really good credit over a period of time that way.

We won't therefore be having a credit card either, but WILL be on joint insurance policies, have ID's at the same address, junk mail at same address etc. Don't have photos of both the family sides in the wedding because well, it was spur of the moment and nobody from England could come But we do have some wedding photos, to show we both made a good effort and got dressed up

Am getting photos from Walgreens today actually - they do a "upload your photos onto our site and we'll print 20 for free!" deal from the Walgreens site - if you pick 'em up, they're totally free...so I just got 20 free pics for my little photo album I'm making

Anyway congrats again!

[RichardS 0]

Great news!

[den_y2005 0]

congrats

[K3matter 0]

Wow....great new.

Goodluck for future ahead