Successful in Garden City, New York!!!

arprofe · June 7, 2006

Hello everyone. What a day. It has not stopped raining here in NYC. It is miserable and cold but having an approved AOS process means all of the world to us.

Here is a quick summary of what went on at Garden City.

Our appointment was for 2 PM so we arrived at 12:00pm. We live about 1 hour from Garden City in Eastern Long Island so I did not want to take any risks. Anyway, We had to wait until 2:10 PM for them to call us upstairs to another waiting room. My recommendation to all of you going to Garden City is not to show up so early because it does not help!! The wait was so stressful! We sat close to the entrance because that's were the lady who calls out the names makes the calls. They don't use any microphones.

Then we were taken upstairs to wait for our interview and we were called in around 2:20 pm. We had a great immigration officer. Very classy and polite who asked my wife if she wanted to have the interview in Spanish or English. We were prepared for both. My wife chose Spanish.

He sat us in his office and told us that he would be asking questions to each of us and only that person could answer.

He asked the following questions to my wife:

1. Tell me your address

2. Have you been married before?

3. Do you have any children?

4. He asked me if I was married before and how many kids I had?

5. He asked me who the kids lived with.

6. He then asked my wife to tell him how we met and to tell him a bit about our story.

7. He asked my wife the standard questions about "have you been deported before?" "do you use drugs?" etc

He asked me for the proof of relationship asking for the following paperwork which he kept:

1. A new affidavit (make sure you have one updated and notarized)

2. Bank statements where both our names appear

3. Our apartment lease

4. Our 2005 Tax returns

5. My company's letter

6. Paperwork showing medical and retirement benefits with both our names

I offered other documentation such as pay stubs, etc but he did not want anything else. He asked us for 2 pictures, one from our wedding and one recent picture (both pictures should be facing the camera). He did not even look at our albums but honestly, take as many papers you think should be taken even if it looks to be too much but it is better to have extra and not to missed anything.

He then said, you are approved!! He asked my wife if she was planning to travel soon and we said yes and he then tried to stamp our passport but it was after 3 pm so those officials who do it were gone!! By the way, for those of you who think this is rare, everyone who wanted the passport stamped was getting it done. At least he tried and we thought that was a great gesture because he even walked outside his office to find someone to do it for us. Anyway, he said you will receive the GC in about 2 weeks so just don't go anywhere for now and then he stood up and said

Welcome to the United States.

He explained to us the removal of conditional GC in about 1 1/2 year and explained to us that in about 2 1/2 months my wife can become a citizen.

He walked us out and just like that it was over! It took no more than 25 minutes.

Thank you all for all your feedback, and best wishes to all of you.

arprofe