RoC Interview

[Brogeo 1]

Hi everyone. I've been lurking these forums since back in the AoS days (incredibly helpful), but finally have a reason to sign up and post.

I'm the USC husband, my wife is the permanent resident looking to remove her conditions. We successfully adjusted her status (from F-1 student) to LPR two years ago, and this April submitted our I-751 packet. Got NOA on April 7, went to biometrics on May 12, and everything seemed fine.

Then, yesterday (July 23) she received a letter (dated June 27) stating that her case has been relocated to our district office (San Jose, CA) for adjudication. They say the local office will contact us with an appointment time.

I have a few questions about this:

1. How long will it take them to contact us with an appointment time? Is this local office dependent? Anyone have any experience with timing at San Jose?
   
2. Once they do contact us, how far in the future is the appointment likely to be? I ask because we're about to make overseas travel plans for late October (one of my wife's cousins is getting married) and I don't want to miss the appointment, but don't want to miss the wedding either.
   
3. And, of course, the most important question: what's the likely reason we're being interviewed? I actually thought our packet was pretty good. We submitted:
   
   • Yearly leases on our apartment from June 2008 - June 2009, and June 2009 - June 2010
     
   • A letter from our landlord attesting that we still reside together in our apartment since the lease became a month-to-month agreement in June 2010
     
   • A copy of a University of California Retirement Savings Program statement from June 2009 showing wife's address at our apartment
     
   • A copy of a Macy's credit card statement of December 2009 showing wife's address at our apartment.
     
   • A copy of a credit card statement of February 2011 from USE Credit Union showing wife's address at our apartment
     
   • A copy of the statement from our joint bank account (checking and savings) at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. from January 2011
     
   • Transcripts of tax returns filed jointly for 2008, 2009, and 2010, issued by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
     
   • A copy of the Beneficiary Designation form from The Hartford showing wife as primary beneficiary of life insurance policy for me
     
   • A copy of a letter from Blue Shield of California stating that from the December 12, 2008 until January 1, 2011 (when she became covered under her own policy) wife was covered by my health insurance policy
     
   • Copies of our joint credit card statement from Virgin America Visa from December 2009 and March 2011
     
   • Copy of policy from USAA showing joint coverage on auto insurance
     
   • Travel document from Virgin America regarding our joint trip to New York to visit friends in May 2009
     
   • Travel document from Orbitz regarding our joint trip to Jordan and Egypt to visit family in December 2009 and January 2010
     
   • Travel document from Virgin America regarding our joint trip to Boston, MA to visit friends in October 2010
     
   • Travel document from Virgin America regarding our joint trip to Cancun, Mexico for a friend's wedding in March 2011
     
   • Copies of wedding invitations addressed to us both
     
   • Copies of holiday cards and other correspondence addressed to us both
     
   • Labelled photos from our honeymoon in Vail, Colorado, our trips to New York, Jordan, Egypt, Boston and Mexico showing us with family and friends as well as family photos
     
   • Affidavit from friend 1 attesting to his knowledge of our relationship
     
   • Affidavit from friend 2 attesting to her knowledge of our relationship
     

We don't have any children or own any property yet, but I thought we'd covered all the other bases pretty well. Anyone have any experience with the San Jose office and RoC interviews? I'm actually kind of hoping they just do a real Stokes interview on us, because we'll be fine. But my wife is freaking out that this isn't going 'normally'.

Thanks!

[canadian_wife 1,823]

Did you receive an RFE before the apointment letter?

It may just be random, it sounds like there is nothing to worry about

Good luck

[Brogeo 1]

Did you receive an RFE before the apointment letter?

It may just be random, it sounds like there is nothing to worry about

Good luck

Nope, no RFE. Which is actually good, because I don't know what else I would have submitted. We kind of threw the kitchen sink at them the first time.

[Drogs 24]

I think you are just the name taken out of the hat, CSC has sent quite a few RFE out lately, maybe trying to slow the work pace so VSC can catch up.

You sent in a very comprehensive package by the sound of it, just walk in confident, hold hands and be man and wife, take whatever they ask for, answer the questions and walk out approved.

[Anh map 2,098]

There are a certain number of cases that get called for an interview. You may be one of those cases. No red flags, just percentages. If the appointment letter comes and you will be away at that time, follow the instructions on the notice to reschedule.

[Brogeo 1]

Thanks for your support - I thought it was likely that it was random as well, but its nice to hear others chime in.

Anyone who's been interviewed know how long it takes for the interview to get scheduled?

[shawndoc 0]

I'm going through the same process with the Santa Ana office. The letter was dated June 14th, but didn't arrive until July 1st. Still no contact from the local office. Another person I know (at yet another local service center) has been waiting nearly 3 months with no word from the local office.

[Brogeo 1]

I'm going through the same process with the Santa Ana office. The letter was dated June 14th, but didn't arrive until July 1st. Still no contact from the local office. Another person I know (at yet another local service center) has been waiting nearly 3 months with no word from the local office.

Oh. Well in that case I won't hold my breath. Thanks!

[beemer8 0]

Hi ,

we are in the same situation as well, no RFE but called in for interview. Compared to your evidence, ours seems pretty thin. Good luck!

[jlogajan 0]

It took about 2.5 months after recieving the notification of interview until the letter scheduling our interview arrived. The interview is about two weeks in the future from the date of the letter.

I would guess interview delays depend on how busy the local office is. I would think a two week lead time would be typical between informing you and the actual date of the interview.

[Brogeo 1]

It took about 2.5 months after recieving the notification of interview until the letter scheduling our interview arrived. The interview is about two weeks in the future from the date of the letter.

I would guess interview delays depend on how busy the local office is. I would think a two week lead time would be typical between informing you and the actual date of the interview.

This concerns me a bit - we're going to be out of the country in late October / early November for about two and a half weeks (the aforementioned wedding for one of my wife's cousins, plus general family visiting). If the gap between notification and interview is really as little as two weeks, then it would be possible for us to miss the interview without ever hearing of it if the timing is right (our mail will be stopped and piling up at the post office while we're away).

Is there some way we can be pro-active about notifying our local office about this? Or just about scheduling the interview in general? The 2.5 month period, if somewhat standard, would be right in the danger zone of missing the interview.

[Brogeo 1]

Just in case anyone is following along, we got the letter today informing us of our interview date: September 15. So in our case it took a little over 2 weeks from the initial letter informing us of the case relocation until the interview letter. And the interview date was a little more than a month hence.

I'll post about the interview (and the results, if we know them) afterwards. Until then, I'll be busy scrapbooking all of our evidence.

[Brogeo 1]

So the interview was scheduled for today at 12:30 at the San Jose office. Here's what happened:

We arrived about 45 minutes early because the letter said to allow that much time for security screening, but that took all of about 3 minutes. We made our way upstairs to the AOS waiting room and dropped our appointment letter in the box. We were in the (large) waiting room for about 55 minutes, and during that time saw no other applicants or customers. It was a little creepy.

At about 12:45, the door opened and the officer called us in to his office. He introduced himself to us and quickly swore us in. He asked us both for identification and asked my wife for her conditional green card. He did not ask either one of us for a passport.

At this point, something unexpected happened. He informed us that he would be keeping the expired conditional green card. He put it in a clear plastic bag and stapled it into the file. He told us that if we wanted to travel before we received the unconditional card, we should make an infopass appointment and get the I-551 stamp, and travel with the NOA1 letter.

Then he started to go through our file. He asked us questions about our living situation, specifically concerning whether we had lived together for our entire marriage so far, and (curiously) if at any point during our marriage anyone else had ever lived with us. For us, easy answers - we've only ever lived in the one house and no one else has ever lived with us.

He asked my wife how she came to be in the United States (she came as an international student) and how her school/career path had eventually led her to meet me. He went through the I-751 we'd submitted and asked my wife, under oath, all of the questions like "Have you ever been in deportation proceedings?" and "Have you ever been arrested for any crime?". He looked through our pictures and inquired about our vacations.

Then, he asked us if we had any new information for the file. After learning during the AOS interview that this stuff is all about the file, we were ready for this. We had copies of the complete histories of everything we'd submitted samples of in the original packet. Bank statements, credit card statements, insurance claims, car lease statements, etc, etc. At one point he actually said "I can't tell you to stop giving me stuff, but I can tell you that there's enough here already to convince me." One thing he did emphasize at this stage though, is that building the file is important if you intend to file for citizenship on the basis of marriage (after 3 years, not 5). The same file will be referenced in that case, so its good to show continuing evidence of a valid marriage.

So we gave him a few more items and then he told us that our file would be submitted to another unit who would keep it for a day or so and then return it to him, at which time our petition would be approved (I get the feeling that this other unit is a bookkeeping unit to make sure that fees have been paid, forms signed, biometrics obtained, deportation proceedings not in effect, etc).

He asked us if we had any questions and we asked again about travel - my wife was a little nervous to leave without her green card. He reassured us that an infopass appointment and I-551 stamp were enough - I hope this is true.

So, all in all, no big deal. A lot of preparation and worrying for not much. Still, we're glad its finally over and looking forward to getting the 10-year card.

[Drogs 24]

Great News and Very Many Congratulations

I had to laugh at this...At one point he actually said "I can't tell you to stop giving me stuff, but I can tell you that there's enough here already to convince me."

Anyways, Enjoy your trip and again Congrats.

[sasaqlain 24]

Congratulations! Seems like you guys are approved.