October 2011 AOS Filers!

[iammrslab 0]

Success!!!!!!!

We waited about an hour before the interview started but the interview itself only lasted around 15 minutes!

Very easy and quick! Looking forward to getting the actual greencard. I will write more about it later!

wow! congratulations!

how did the interview went?

[EV11 18]

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Yagisama and Jess&Tim on their successful interviews! Also congrats to David&Katie on receiving your green card - I can't wait for that feeling!

As for me the job hunt is going pretty well - I went for an interview yesterday and got offered the job on the spot! I also have an interview today for a job I reaaaaally want - so good thoughts people!

To all those still without EAD cards I'm sorry that you're going through this - it sucks! I shall keep my fingers very tightly crossed for you. Not that you'll need it, as I'm sure they're right around the corner

Hope everyone is having a great day!

[jingo 38]

And so ends another week with no news from USCIS!

Its been a week and a half since my service request. Not even a peep from them yet.

Why do they hate me?

[tokyobelle 2]

i think an infopass appointment will give you more answers. then if nothing else, at this point maybe involve the congressman? i know it's terrible, but if it were me i would probably do that. my husband and i were fighting about that too since he's more laid back and he tells me it's okay if i don't find a job yet...but of course there's a lot more you can do if you have a job.

[jingo 38]

Well I'm going to run out of money very soon... its really not supposed to take this long is it?

What would an infopass achieve? Wouldn't they just tell me to keep waiting, like they do on the phone?

[MochiKamo 93]

Here is a quick overview of how the interview went. This applies to the downtown Los Angeles office (300 N Los Angeles Street) though I can imagine it'd be similar in other places.

Our interview was at 8am. We got there at 7:30am. There was already a huge line formed outside. I then remembered that the time of the appointment means very little since everyone there had an 8am appointment. We waited there for probably about 45 minutes.

Once we got in, we went through the metal detectors and then up to the 8th floor. We put the appointment notice in a box in front of the window. The lady there asked us whether we had a lawyer. We said no and waited to be called.

One hour later, we got called in. The immigration officer called us in. At the time I wasn't sure if she would be interviewing us or not. But honestly, the first thought I had was that if she was in fact the interviewer, I would be very relieved.

As expected, we started the interview with an oath. She asked for our passports, the EAD card, our California ID/License cards.Then she went over the I-485. Name, place of birth, etc and then all the "no" parts of the I-485.

For preparation of the interview, we had gone over the example questions listed on this site. And even though many posts here had explained that their interview questions were very simple and basic, we went ahead and reviewed a bunch of useless facts "what is the shade of our carpet," "what day is the trash picked up." what side of the closet is my and her clothes," etc.

All of that was useless.

Now the only bit of advice I can give, and it may seem like common sense, is to know all the data that you included in all the forms. We had some minor issues here. We were so mired with the aforementioned useless trivia, that we got stumped on some questions.

- What was the date of her first visit to the US. I immediately thought of the K1 related POE date. Then she realized that it was when she visited Hawaii for the first time. She had also visited the US several other times. So we were then trying to calculate the date of the first Hawaii trip. "Early 90s" was our best answer. This info was in one of the forms (G-325A maybe).

- What was the date of her last entry in the US. I though about the K1 related POE date again! Of course we had just come back from Tokyo 3 days before using the advance parole!

- She asked her SS number. We had to look it up. She told us that the number is something that she should memorize.

Anyhow, the moral here is to not worry about the color of the drapes, etc and know all the information that is contained in the forms. Seems obvious, but we focused too much on the silly trivia questions.

Once that was over, she asked for pictures. I told her I'd show her my favorite picture. It was a picture of our wedding ceremony that included both our families. She was really surprised that her parents and brother( and best friend's family) visited California for our wedding. We had a bunch of other photos and she chose 5 or 6 of them to keep in our file.

Now, I'm going to try to not break my arm patting myself in the back, but she was also very surprised that I visited Japan 11 times in the last three years.

She then asked for joint bank information, medical/insurance beneficiary information, birth certificate and updated Japanese registrar containing our marriage information. She also asked what my job is and where I work. She left to make photocopies of our IDs and some other stuff.

She came back, took the EAD, and the I-94 (parole version, a remembrance of the blight of advance parole) that I was happy to never see again.

She gave us a paper detailing that if need to go out of the country before we got the green card, we should make an infopass appointment in order to get the I-551 stamp. I had already asked about this in our infopass appointment last month so it wasn't a surprise. She also told us about the removal of conditions.

Then we thanked her. She asked if I had to go back to work, I said yes and we left the interview and went to celebrate by eating a pancake breakfast!

Summary: Know the details of what you put in the forms (325A, 485,etc) and don't worry about the color of your toothbrushes. The latter may be relevant for the removal of conditions interview, but it sure isn't for this interview.

[GnBnL 50]

Yagisama, thank you for the interview details! what about AP? can you tell us how that went?

In other news, jingo, sorry for the lack of news. what the hell is their deal anyway??? I wish they had a better system...I understand how they do it and understand that every case is different, but don't you think they could organize it better so the SIMPLE goes in this pile, COMPLICATED goes in that one. Oh, and here's a novel idea..how about doing people's files by the DATE THEY SUBMIT THEM! geez. This is meant to sound more comical than angry haha!

I'm also still waiting on them as its been over two weeks since my approval and NOTHING in the mail! I'm getting really fed up too as its really screwing with my plans. Makes me hopeless that GC will arrive before the end of the month. God I hate USCIS.

Anyway, congrats to those that finally got their GC's and EAD/AP or interview dates!

[MochiKamo 93]

I'll try to write about the AP later tonight.

Right now I wanted to stay positive, since compared to CBP, USCIS are saints.

[GnBnL 50]

I'll try to write about the AP later tonight.

Right now I wanted to stay positive, since compared to CBP, USCIS are saints.

fully agree on that one. I don't even know the story yet, but yeah...they power trip big time. I mean, I got threatened and yelled at for 2 hours in a dirty, dark, interrogation room where I used those antibacterial wipes to wipe my tears because they didn't have anything else in the room (stung like crazy!) and I am just a short little blonde girl from Canada...can't imagine how they treat others!

[jingo 38]

And in other news, FINALLY got my EAD approval email last night. I was not expecting it on a friday night at all, especially before a long weekend. Anyway here's hoping I can finally be a real person soon and everything will start to mend itself!

[GnBnL 50]

And in other news, FINALLY got my EAD approval email last night. I was not expecting it on a friday night at all, especially before a long weekend. Anyway here's hoping I can finally be a real person soon and everything will start to mend itself!

horray!!!! congrats jingo!!! you must feel so relieved. so happy for you. HOpe your card doesn't freakin take as long as mine is taking. Good to know that USCIS didn't blow up or something tho. I think that complete's EAD's for OCt group right?

[paojack 41]

And in other news, FINALLY got my EAD approval email last night. I was not expecting it on a friday night at all, especially before a long weekend. Anyway here's hoping I can finally be a real person soon and everything will start to mend itself!

congrats!!!!!! that's awesome news!!!

[Max1gk 68]

And in other news, FINALLY got my EAD approval email last night. I was not expecting it on a friday night at all, especially before a long weekend. Anyway here's hoping I can finally be a real person soon and everything will start to mend itself!

[/q]

FINALLY! NOW THAT'S GOOD NEWS!

[Fifth Echelon 6]

I'll try to write about the AP later tonight.

Right now I wanted to stay positive, since compared to CBP, USCIS are saints.

fully agree on that one. I don't even know the story yet, but yeah...they power trip big time. I mean, I got threatened and yelled at for 2 hours in a dirty, dark, interrogation room where I used those antibacterial wipes to wipe my tears because they didn't have anything else in the room (stung like crazy!) and I am just a short little blonde girl from Canada...can't imagine how they treat others!

I would love to hear about your AP experiences. I'm a November filer and will be using AP to travel to Dubai with the s/o in the first week of February. I've been through secondary a couple of times, once on F-1 and once on an H-1B visa, and both of those experiences were fairly smooth. The F-1 screening involved some fairly probing questions but the IO was professional and courteous at all times.

[GnBnL 50]

I would love to hear about your AP experiences. I'm a November filer and will be using AP to travel to Dubai with the s/o in the first week of February. I've been through secondary a couple of times, once on F-1 and once on an H-1B visa, and both of those experiences were fairly smooth. The F-1 screening involved some fairly probing questions but the IO was professional and courteous at all times.

I'm sorry but I was not referring to an AP experience! for me, it was a border denial and they were quite harsh with me because I DID lie to them as per advice of my lawyer. I will be using AP soon tho and I am a bit worried about how it will go as I've been really nervous crossing ever since the time I got denied. They kept me for about 2 hours, and left me alone in the room with no indication of when they were coming back. They threatened to arrest me and put me in jail and ban me for life. Not much in the room, just a desk, computer, and a few office supplies, and a table where they searched all my luggage and of course video cameras. They were very aggressive with me, and twisted my statement. took my photograph and fingerprints. but later on, the officer backed off and told me about K-1 and said he did it himself since his wife was foreign. I was very frightened, and cried the whole time. What I lied about was my boyfriend. They asked me who I was staying with, and I said my old roomate (that is technically true) and they asked for his name and phone number, and they called and asked how he knew me and he said "she's my fiance" which I actually wasn't officially...and that's when all hell broke lose. I got get escorted by two officers to my flight home which I thought was rather excessive...but whatever. I tried to visit with no proof of ties, 4 suitcases, and a one way ticket= red flag city! but I honestly wasn't planning on staying in the US. I was planning to go for 6 months as allowed. instead, they just sent me back and I didn't try again until almost a year later. I joined VJ the day after it happened!