New York City AOS timeline & Interviews

[Germamerican 0]

Hello everyone...

we have followed this forum for almost 5 months now in anticipation for good news from other NYers. I finally decided to join and post, as I hope it will help with the "dreadful waiting period" All I would like to do is book tickets for husband and I to fly to Germany... but I guess I just have to wait until we know the interview date for sure...

Anyway, our local office is the Holtsville NY ( a sub-office of the NYC office). I just spoke to an extremely nice officer over the phone who said that the Holtsville office is currently working on cases filed on July 21st of 2011 so I am assuming that we will get our interview invite in a month or so.

Here is our timeline:

priority date 8/25/2011

checks cashed 8/30/2011

NOA received for all forms 9/7/2011

BIO invite: 9/8/2011 for 9/30/2011

early walk in: 9/12/2011

EAD and adv parole apporved: 10/24/2011

WAITING

[Kristal 0]

Hi Where do u live that they are sending u to Holtsville? I'm in Richmond Hill queens

[Germamerican 0]

Hi Where do u live that they are sending u to Holtsville? I'm in Richmond Hill queens

Hi Crystal, we live on Long Island New York, suffolk county.

I really can't believe this but I literally just received our interview invite... It is scheduled for 5 weeks from today.

Wow, as many others have said, time to get all documents and pictures together

[Kristal 0]

wow thats great, also got an email about the interview date yesterday.

[Up and Away 10]

Hi Crystal, we live on Long Island New York, suffolk county.

I really can't believe this but I literally just received our interview invite... It is scheduled for 5 weeks from today.

Wow, as many others have said, time to get all documents and pictures together

Congrats! Good luck! Seems like pretty good timing for NY!

wow thats great, also got an email about the interview date yesterday.

What has been your timeline? Congrats!

[EmmillJ 1]

Great to see that the NYers are moving along! Congrats!!

I've been putting our interview file together and I have a tendency to over prepare. We've known each other and have been together for such a long time that I have a lot of photos, but we do not have joint insurance, no lease (we live on a floor in his father's house), and had a small wedding ceremony followed by a party. We have a cable bill and some con ed bills from back when the electricity was separate (the whole house is wired onto one bill now). I was concerned about the lack of photos with each others' parents but we never thought to take pictures together..I guess it's not too late? My DH vetoed bringing our wedding photo poster with all our friends' signatures on it, saying that it was over the top and looked like we were putting too much effort into it.

What are you guys bringing to your interviews?

[Up and Away 10]

Great to see that the NYers are moving along! Congrats!!

I've been putting our interview file together and I have a tendency to over prepare. We've known each other and have been together for such a long time that I have a lot of photos, but we do not have joint insurance, no lease (we live on a floor in his father's house), and had a small wedding ceremony followed by a party. We have a cable bill and some con ed bills from back when the electricity was separate (the whole house is wired onto one bill now). I was concerned about the lack of photos with each others' parents but we never thought to take pictures together..I guess it's not too late? My DH vetoed bringing our wedding photo poster with all our friends' signatures on it, saying that it was over the top and looked like we were putting too much effort into it.

What are you guys bringing to your interviews?

Oh my gosh, I would totally bring that poster! But I understand --my dh would probably veto it too, he doesn't read VisaJourney so he thinks the interview will be a breeze just because we are legit and have nothing to hide. I wish!

Personally for us we did not even have a wedding party, just both sets of parents and ourselves at City Hall. So we will definitely bring those pictures. In fact we will have to rely mostly on pictures because we don't have insurance so the only joint finance we have are Netflix and our lease and a joint savings account. We are going on a honeymoon and will include travel documents from that. I'm not sure we would bring emails from when we first started dating --probably not... too embarrassing!

[Germamerican 0]

What are you guys bringing to your interviews?

Well, we have tons of pictures from dating time, engagement and marriage life. However, we had been friends 3 years prior to dating and we don't really have pictures from then, just tons of stories like how we met, how we got together over the years etc.

Ok, so here is what we are bringing:

EVERYTHING we handed in with our application, such as passports, birthcertificates, tax returns, etc... all the forms etc.

Additional documents we are bringing to the interview:

Joint tax return for 2011

Joint car insurance papers/card

Joint health insurance plan/cards

Joint ownership of car (that we use together), his work truck is just in his name, but I never drive it anyway

common lease with both names on it(since we are renting in a house, all bills are included in rent)

Joint cellular phone plan

Tons of pictures including our trip to Germany last year to meet my family

Wedding invitations, thank you notes and a "sign in " book from our wedding, were all guests left a note, plus all the cards we got, etc

Bills

Cards we got, like christmas (two cards,ha ha)

Ok, so here is the thing: we do NOT have a joint bank account. My husband has extremely bad credit and is in a bad situation financially from the past. waaaay before our dating. We agreed, or actually he does not want me to start off with bad credit as well. In fact, I have no credit at all right now. Since I just graduated, I am currently not working, just studying for a personal trainer exam. As for our finances, he does not have a bank account at all. He cashes his checks and pays everything off cash. He gives me weekly cash I go food shopping etc. I am the typical housewife and we are trying to have a baby Anyway... I know that a joint account is important, but at this point we do not have it until his situation is fixed. I only have like $1500 in it.

Do you think we have enough???

[Germamerican 0]

"I only have like $1500 in it. "

I just wanted to clear something. I have a savings/checkings account that I got when I came here almost five years ago as a F1 international student. This is how my parents helped me with tuition etc. In that account are roughly $1500 in it. It is in my name.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Germamerican

[EmmillJ 1]

Do you think we have enough???

Yes! You and Up and Away both sound like you are in pretty good shape

[EmmillJ 1]

Also vetoed: Gchat transcripts, old emails, and presents that we gave to each other back in high school

[kcoyclay1 98]

"I only have like $1500 in it. "

I just wanted to clear something. I have a savings/checkings account that I got when I came here almost five years ago as a F1 international student. This is how my parents helped me with tuition etc. In that account are roughly $1500 in it. It is in my name.

They are not really intersted in how much you have in your account unless it is being used as assets for sponsorship. They want to see that you have joint accounts and if you just opened it for interview purpose or you had it over a period of time. Unless, of course, you just got married, opened it, and is filing soon after. All the best.

[Germamerican 0]

They are not really intersted in how much you have in your account unless it is being used as assets for sponsorship. They want to see that you have joint accounts and if you just opened it for interview purpose or you had it over a period of time. Unless, of course, you just got married, opened it, and is filing soon after. All the best.

Hi thanks for getting back to me. Sorry if I ask to clarify your answer ... I didn't quite get it right, so we should not open an account "just" for the interview? WE did not plan in doing so, until all his debt and taxes are paid off (otherwise they would freeze our account anyway -I have been told by bank). He does not have his own account. My account is in my name only (if I added him, the collecting agencies would empty ever penny). We are paying off his debt through an installment plan, so these are our (in my opinion very plausible reasons) for not having a joint bank account YET !!!

Yes! You and Up and Away both sound like you are in pretty good shape

Good to hear that thanks

[Germamerican 0]

EmillJ.... how was your interview ???

[EmmillJ 1]

EmillJ.... how was your interview ???

It went...wellish? I'm posting a complete review now!