Garden City approval

tomica52 · July 13, 2006

Hi everyone,

We had our interview in Garden City today. Our appointment was for 8:30, we got there around 8:15. Following some posts we left our cell phones in our car, but there were many people inside with cell phones, so I guess Garden City allows them. We checked in on the first floor and waited for about hour an a half. We were very calm, so we spent that time working on a crossword (didn’t finish it at the end). Our name was called around 9:45 at which point they took us upstairs to the second floor, and then more waiting. As other people pointed out you should sit in the back close to the door so that you can hear when they call your name. (It was actually funny to hear the guy that was calling names butcher about 3 names before calling our, or look down at the paper wondering how the pronounce them).

When we got upstairs, yes you guess it, more waiting. This time only about half an hour. A very nice lady called us in, and we went to a separate office. She asked us for our IDs, and we both gave her our passports. She swore us in, and asked me the standard list of questions (“Are you a terrorist” etc.). Then she asked us where and how we met, my wife answered that question, and then asked to see some photos. We brought about 40 of them, she pointed out our photo from Barbados, and asked what vacations we went on together. After looking through them she decided to keep one photo (my wife complained about that because she said she did not look good in it, but the lady just smiled and said she won’t publish it, and will just put it at the end of our file). She asked to see my AP, and asked about my last trip out of the country (back home to visit the family). She also asked if we met each others families. She didn’t ask for anew affidavit of support, but did ask for 2005 tax return. Then she asked if we had a joint bank account, and asked for a statement, we gave her a bank statement, credit card statement, car insurance, and I was about to pull out more stuff when she said enough. She said that she had enough evidence to approve our case, and that she could stamp my passport if we wanted to wait, we considered it, but the wait was 2 hours, and since we had lunch reservation at Nobu we decided not to wait. She said that I should get my card in the mail in a few weeks, and she put some info in my passport (it says approved pending CR6, which I assume is a background check…).

All in all a great experience. It was much simpler that we expected. The lady that conducted the interview was so nice, and made us feel comfortable. We brought all this evidence that we did not need, but we are glad we brought is, so bring more than you need (and don’t forget to bring copies of everything).

I would like to thank everyone on this forum for helping us through the process, we really couldn’t have done it without you.

Alex and Emily