Interview today in Newark

[jaaaaamas 0]

Gosh let me tell you how wonderful it is to be done with all this for 2 years. I can't wait until everyone on this site finally gets their break. We all deserve it!

We had our interview in Newark at 9:30. By the time we got inside the building and up to the 13th floor, it was about 9:20 or so. We handed in our interview letter at window 2 and sat down in the waiting room. There were so many people there. It was a lot more crowded than I had expected. It seemed like everyone other than us had lawyers with them.

At 9:50 my name was called over the intercom (being that Dean was the immigrant, I thought they would have called his name, but...). The officer who was to review our case led us in the back to her desk, a space which was quite messy! She was very young, but seemed very professional and firm in what she does for a living. I was a little intimidated at first. She made us raise our right hands and swore us in. Then we sat down and she started by asking Dean the usual: Are you a member of a terrorist organization? Do you belong to any communist parties? Are you a spy? Were you ever arrested or deported from the US before? That was all easy enough.

Then as she looked at her computer and clicked on things, she asked me questions first to see how much I knew about Dean. When I was done, she asked Dean the same exact questions about me. They were as follows:

How did we meet?

When did we meet?

What's Dean's birthdate?

What are Dean's parents names?

Where do his parents live?

Where were we married?

What day were we married?

Did we marry within 90 days of entry?

Where was Dean born?

Does Dean have any siblings, and if so what are their names?

Where do Dean's siblings live?

Did Dean have a job when I met him, and if so, what did he do?

Is Dean working right now, and if so, what does he do?

And then obviously, they reversed the questions for Dean about my own history. She also asked him to recite our home address. It was all very easy. She seemed to be pulling questions just by looking at some our forms on the computer and matching our responses with what we had written down on all the forms. Still, those were more questions than I had anticipated.

Next she asked for our medical supplement. She said it was very good we had gotten that done, because apparently files often get seperated and it sometimes results in them forcing people to get an all new medical done, which is expensive. Next she asked for any evidence we had. I didn't even hand her half of what we had. I just gave her our most recent joint checking and savings statements, a letter from my aunt stating we live with her, an Optimum Online bill, and I honestly think that was it. She took all of them and kept them for our file. I also showed her flight tickets, and as a word of advice for everyone embarking on their 10 year green card, she said make photo copies of all flight tickets you have and send them off when you apply for it. Apparently the more evidence like that you have, the more likely they are to approve you without another interview.

She asked to see photos. We handed her an album full of 200 of them. To my surprise she actually looked through most of them rather thoroughly, occassionally asking questions about where some were taken on our vacations and stuff. She asked to keep one of our photos (a photo of Dean and I in Spain eating ice cream along the Meditteranean Sea. She put holes in it and stuck it in her file. I was sad to see it go!) She said that the more pictures people have, the better, because it helps to show that we're out experiencing things together.

Then came our first hurdle that I thought would prove to be a big problem. She noted that I had an Affidavit of Support from my aunt, but that I never filled one out. Rather foolishly, I never knew I had to fill one out as well. She told us she could not approve us until I filled out the form and get it notarized. So she made us a deal and printed out the form for us and let us go out into the waiting room and fill it out while she took the next interview. When we were done she called us back in and watched me sign it and acted as her own notary. I gave her this year's taxes to go along with that.

After that...WE WERE APPROVED! And she gave the I-551 stamp in Dean's passport. But then...as we walked out of the office and out of the building in absolute relief and got into our car, we looked at the actual stamp and realized...SHE WROTE THE WRONG EXPIRATION DATE ON IT! She said it expired on February 14, 2007 instead of 2008. Dean was worried so he rushed back upstairs to ask about it, but they said once he gets his green card in the mail, that won't be a problem anymore.

So overall, it was a VERY thorough interview, but not scary. It's all common sense once you have the paperwork. She was friendly and informal between questions. She also informed us that generally having immigration lawyers is completely pointless, unless you just can't understand the forms you need to fill out. So that's interesting to know.

And that's my long tale. Thanks to everyone on VJ who made this possible!!! Were it not for you guys, Dean would probably still be assembling our petition packet. Thanks to you guys we have made it through the petition process, to America, gotten married, and received a 2 year green card all in the span of only 9 months. Remarkable.

Good luck to everyone still waiting!

[Jasman0717 9]

Congratulations

[Marie1123 0]

congratulations, sounded pretty painless. I thought Newark wasn't giving stamps anymore. Congrats again! How was parking down there?

[pax 0]

Congrats!

[jaaaaamas 0]

congratulations, sounded pretty painless. I thought Newark wasn't giving stamps anymore. Congrats again! How was parking down there?

I was very surprised to see her give us the stamp as well, seeing as so many people don't get them these days. But we got it, and I'm not complaining

The parking wasn't bad. The trick is to go on the street BEHIND the actual building. It's called Mulberry Street. There's lots of parking there. Several different lots that all show "Immigration courts and Federal Building Parking". It's like $8 to park there all day. Well worth it. The building is a minute's walk from there and is VERY tall. You can't miss it!

[eau_xplain 2]

Congratulations!

Dean was lucky that not only did he get a stamp but he got one that was valid for one year. I've heard of some who only got stamps valid for 6 months.

[raphael7546 0]

Congratulations !!!!!

Lily

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Congratulations!

[Peggy 1]

Congrats

[Marie1123 0]

Thanks Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamas, I know exactly where it is, I actually work downtown Newark. One last question, as far as taxes, did you just have a copy of your 1040?

[sanaay 0]

See all teh worrying and panick was for nothing.... congrats

[MaryandMian 1]

Congratulations,

Mary

[SanDan 0]

Congratulations Sounds like you guys had a good interview

[mwfaith1971 0]

congratulations.

matt

[RichardS 0]

Congrats to both of you!!!