Interview Nightmare

[chefboyardee 0]

My husband went to his interview today. He was asked for his green card , driver's license, passport, etc to have them photocopied. The officer asked for more proofs of cohabitation after the interview. She wanted recent proofs. My husband had brought tax transcripts, but it wasn't enough. So my husband went to get a statement from the bank, insurance cards, and came back. When he handed the statement, etc he was asked again for the green card. He couldn't find it anywhere. The officer says that she returned it to him after photocopying it. He had the other documents, but no green card. He doesn't know what happened to it. She didn't make a decision yet, and now we don't know how to proceed. Should he apply for another greencard? It costs money and time. They will reopen the office on Tuesday. Should he wait till Tuesday and go there to see if they found his green card? We are so upset about this. Now we are in total limbo. Please give us some idea on how to fix this strange mess.

Thank you

[nwctzn 55]

My husband went to his interview today. He was asked for his green card , driver's license, passport, etc to have them photocopied. The officer asked for more proofs of cohabitation after the interview. She wanted recent proofs. My husband had brought tax transcripts, but it wasn't enough. So my husband went to get a statement from the bank, insurance cards, and came back. When he handed the statement, etc he was asked again for the green card. He couldn't find it anywhere. The officer says that she returned it to him after photocopying it. He had the other documents, but no green card. He doesn't know what happened to it. She didn't make a decision yet, and now we don't know how to proceed. Should he apply for another greencard? It costs money and time. They will reopen the office on Tuesday. Should he wait till Tuesday and go there to see if they found his green card? We are so upset about this. Now we are in total limbo. Please give us some idea on how to fix this strange mess.

Thank you

I would wait until Tuesday and follow up with them. Do you have a photocopy of the greencard? That might be really helpful. Hopefully they will either find your greencard or acknowledge that they lost it during the copying process. Best of luck and please keep us posted.

[chefboyardee 0]

Thank you for your kind reply.

Fortunately we have a couple of copies of the green card. Many things upset me about this interview. On the interview letter it only stated to bring my naturalization certificate and my divorce decree from my first husband. I advised my husband to take copies of the tax transcripts, but i didn't think they would ask for anything else. we have plenty of proof of living together, but we didn't know that we needed it for the interview.

After the officer told him to bring more proof, he came home and took with him what he could find. Because we were not prepared for this, one of the documents he brought was the title of our house, that she still has. it was the only copy we have. I hope we can get it back. He didn't receive any paper informing him what the status of the application is. Is it on hold, denied, or what? we don't know. we went back together later after i came back from work, but we were not allowed in because the office was closed.

SO my advice to anybody who is going to the interview is to bring as much proof as you have of living together, even if they don't ask for it on the interview letter. And the other advice is to make sure you get back all the documents you bring.

We still can't believe what happened to us. We thought this would be the easiest step in the 5 years since we started the road from K1 to green card to citizenship, and now we feel lost trying to figure out what to do.

i feel very sad for my husband now because he was looking forward to today with so much excitment and anticipation and it turned out to be a total disaster.

[mimhnhut 0]

SO my advice to anybody who is going to the interview is to bring as much proof as you have of living together, even if they don't ask for it on the interview letter.

I think your husband did not read carefully the N-659 ( Naturalization Interview Document Check list), which was sent by USCIS with the interview letter. USCIS wrote on it: If you are applying on basis of marriage to a US citizen, You must bring:

A. Your Permanent Resident Card

B. A government issued photo ID

.........

D. An original IRS (Form 1722) listing tax information for the past three years, or copies of the income tax form you filed for the three past years; AND

E. Proof of marital union as well as proof of residence;

Edited October 7, 2011 by mimhnhut

[NickD 203]

Wonder who wrote this from "Download Document Checklist, Current Fees, Naturalization Eligibility Worksheet (1KB PDF)" and if the IO's even read this.

"If you are applying for naturalization on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen, send the following 4 items:

1. Evidence that your spouse has been a U.S. citizen for the last 3 years:

a. Birth certificate (if your spouse never lost citizenship since birth); or

b. Certificate of Naturalization; or

c. Certificate of Citizenship; or

d. The inside of the front cover and signature page of your spouse’s current U.S. passport; or

e. Form FS-240, Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America; and

2. Your current marriage certificate; and

3. Proof of termination of all prior marriages of your spouse (divorce decree(s), annulment(s), or death certificate(s)); and

4. Documents referring to you and your spouse:

a. Tax returns, bank accounts, leases, mortgages, or birth certificates of children; or

b. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-certified copies of the income tax forms that you both filed for the past 3 years; or

c. An IRS tax return transcript for the last 3 years.

Form M-477 (Rev. 02/10/2011 N)

If you were married before, send:

Proof that all earlier marriages ended (divorce decree(s), annulment(s), or death certificates(s))."

Certainly a huge difference between the legal terms of AND and OR, seems like some IO's are reading OR like AND. Knew my wife was going to be nervous during her interview, purchased a folder type brief case from Officemax with those tabs for what is in each folder and typed out a list of our evidence. After her interview, in the waiting room, check everything very carefully before we left. Was a bit annoyed her IO kept my tax returns, but had all those scanned and in my computer. Not in one computer, but in three computers on my LAN, a hard drive can fail at anytime. Just had to print those out when I got home and file those. Her IO wanted to keep her original copy of her divorce papers, thank God, she had enough common sense to say NO, would cost a fortune to get a copy of those.

One reason why I wonder now if applying for the three year marriage is really worth it, feel the USCIS with some IO's really go way overboard on this issue, already been through that with the AOS and the I-751 stages.

Should be able to get a certified copy of your home deed from your register of deeds, but don't know what to say about your husbands green card. Sounds like your husband really got one heck of a careless IO. Another reason why I feel very strongly that with any other form of governmental certification, you meet with a board, not with just one character.

[Skouri 2]

I don't know what to say about this, in the checklist they make sound like it okay to send just a few evidence, but with your experience everybody need to be careful and they need to take whatever they have because you don't know who IO you might be facing. -- I recommend look around for your green card in any folder or wallet or purse that you took with you, and made sure that you go back to the office and follow-up with the IO .. Good Luck!

[NickD 203]

Its not about the fact you had to go through tens month with the AOS and grilled with all kinds of proof to get that conditional card. Or sending in tons of proof with sworn affidavits to get that ten year card. Or that you have a perfectly clean criminal record, speak near perfect English and can snap back the answers to any of the one hundred civic tests. Or have a valid marriage license and even your spouse with you, a verified US citizen and even a veteran of a foreign war that served honorably that will take an oath that you are in love and living together. Or even bringing in over a hundred relatives and friends that will swear they know you and that you are living as husband and wife. Or proof that you have paid all of your taxes together.

Its all about an immigrant applicant like one who never had any contact with the USCIS before, sitting before one IO with pieces of papers as the only proof of a valid marriage starting from complete scratch. Can only ask is how in the hell did they get that green card in the first place? Out of a Cracker Jack box? Already went through hell to get that, but its the same thing all over again. You already came clean after three FBI checks, but they don't make an issue out of proof of payments for a parking ticket, USCIS does, but if you don't pay that five buck fine, DMV will take away your license plates and drivers' license.

The whole process is ridiculous, but you have to go through it, and according to our experience, having your wife on a joint electric bill makes her a good US citizen? So help me, some of these IO's are smoking crack. Hers couldn't even pass an English test, would have loved to tested her on that.

[chefboyardee 0]

Thank you NickD for your reply. I agree with you 200%. It hurts me so much that my husband has been treated like a potential criminal all this time, and that playing the game right makes you a good person. This process is so redundant, that just the thought of replacing the green card and paying biometrics again makes me sick.

i know that we were sloppy this time, we didn't prepare the papers correctly for the interview because we thought we were finally done, that all that mattered at this point was to show that he could be a citizen because he knows English and he knows the answers to the civics questions and that he hasn't broken any laws. The rest, proving everything else, we thought it was done. They have a 5 inch tall file with all that.

My husband went to the police station and asked them to write a report. Different officers told him that they don't do that because the police has nothing to do with immigration issues. They told him to report the loss to the issuing agency. They said that they never would stop him to ask him for his green card. That is not their jurisdiction. But the law says something different, that it is a misdemeanor not to carry your green card with you at all times and that you can be sent to jail. I have heard or read somewhere that police has been given the authority to ask you for the green card. Go figure!

So my husband wrote a statement explaining the loss and had it notarized. Let's see what happens when he goes back with it.