Approved in San Francisco!

[americangirl 0]

My husband was approved for his green card today at the DO in San Francisco! I'm so happy!

Here's the rundown, in case anyone is interested how we do it here in S.F.

We brought a good bit of evidence - photos, our apartment lease, cards (to each other, and engagement/marriage cards from family), phone records from our cell phone family plan (with our calls to each other highlighted) and joint bank account statements. (And of course the documents like birth certificates, marriage license, passports etc.) It wasn't a whole lot, but apparently it was enough.

Our appointment was at 10 a.m. and we got there around 9:30. At 9:45 we were called in! It was a miracle. Our interviewer wasn't terribly nice, but he sort of warmed up during the interview, and overall I got the impression that he wasn't MEAN, just very odd.

He started with some easy questions for my husband about his own background, and went through the list of things like do you plan to commit espionage. Then he asked us how we met. It's kind of a long story and I was afraid that in telling it I sounded too rehearsed. But it was fine, I guess! We did admit to the guy that it sounded sort of contrived (it involves a full lunar eclipse and some other crazy events) and he found that amusing.

He then asked to see our photos. He made us go through all of them, and there were over 40! He stopped at a few to ask where they were taken and who was in them. And he took a few of them and set them aside - it seemed pretty random, the ones he took out. I'm not sure why he chose those.

There were a couple more easy questions about our background (where we went to college, when we graduated, etc.). Then he gave us a letter about removing the conditional residency, told us when we should expect the card in the mail, and stamped my husband's passport (he asked if we were traveling soon, and we said we might). Then he went off to Xerox the photos he'd put aside, and came back and gave us the originals. And then we were done! All in all the thing took about 20 minutes - we were done around 10:05, only five minutes after our appointment was scheduled to begin.

It was a very scary, but exciting experience. I have to say, the interview was not at all what I expected - most of the time it felt more like random chit-chat than an interview. The interviewer asked my husband about a problem with his computer (since my husband told him he was in computers), and talked about movies and Robin Williams. It was a little bizarre. But it wasn't too bad and we're very, very relieved that it's over!

Oh, and I also asked if I could have our joint sponsor removed from our file, since I earn more than enough to top the poverty line now (I didn't last year, as a student). He said that was perfectly fine and gave me the joint sponsor's papers back.

Good luck to everyone with interviews coming up!!!

Edited August 10, 2006 by americangirl

[iceyspots 0]

congrats on your approval

[bamdame 0]

Another congrats

[happyinlove08 0]

Congrats

[Carola 0]

Congratulations and thank you for sharing

[lisa71 0]

the odd guy that interviewed you, was his name Waldo? We see him about every 2/3 weeks in the SF office right now.

[litlemo-nosleep 0]

Congrats on getting your green card

[Craig2006 0]

Congrats

[ingjohanna 0]

[Jonesie 1]

Congrats! Looked for you yesterday. Me and hubby had on black and brown...we got approved as well

[giraffemd 0]

yay san fran

[Leasel7 1]

Congratulations!

[newoption 1]

Congratulations!!

[Nikita2Charles 32]

Congrats from the south bay

[sheila526 2]

Congratulations