Approved after 2 months - Thanks VJ and its members

[dumb_elephant 0]

Just thought I would add another thing about my submission (which might be highly irrelevant, but who knows).

I color coded everything with paperclips. That is, red for my wife's stuff, blue for mine, and green for joint stuff. Probably had nothing to do with the quick turnaround - even though I like to think so

[NinjaLadyBug 23]

Thanks for your post. I'll be interview in Newark if all goes well.. How long have you and your wife been married and what did you send in as innitial evidence with your AOS packet?

[dumb_elephant 0]

Thanks for your post. I'll be interview in Newark if all goes well.. How long have you and your wife been married and what did you send in as innitial evidence with your AOS packet?

We got married in May this year and I filed at the end of August. However, we have been together since April 2008 - we met while attending graduate school in New York.

Our evidence in the AOS pacakge that we sent to the Chicago lockbox was:

• Marriage Certificate (photocopy) - kind of obvious.
  
• Rental Lease (our last one and our current one), which have both our names on them.
  
• Statement from joint bank account (both our names on that as well) - wanted them to see that we had consistent activity and just did not have an account opened just because.
  
• Two letter sized papers with a total of six photos - one from our ceremony, one with us and my family in Sweden, one with us and her family on Thanksgiving, and then a couple from our travels. Lucky for us, both of us decided to have our hair shorter back in 2009 (i.e. shoulder length on her, buzz cut for me) so it was clear we had been together through different stages as our hair got longer. My wife also wrote a short explanation below each photo, e.g. us in Sweden with {my name}'s family 2009, etc.
  

Hope that helps.

[mrrb30 0]

Thanks for the detailed interview description dumb_elephant.

Seems pretty straight forward and your situation is very similar to my own so it makes me feel confident for the future

All the best.

[dumb_elephant 0]

Thanks for the detailed interview description dumb_elephant.

Seems pretty straight forward and your situation is very similar to my own so it makes me feel confident for the future

All the best.

Feel confident. I do not think any interviewer/approver wants to fail people, so if you have a solid case there should, hopefully, be no problems.

[hopfulsoul 0]

Thanks everyone for the all the congrats!

As promised, here is my experience with the interview process:

On a rainy and cold Thursday we had an appointment in Newark, NJ at 2.30pm. We arrived 35 minutes early, went through the metal detectors, and were directed to the 13th floor - which when I know think about it, is nothing for the superstitious. On the 13th floor we were greeted by a security guard who on a happiness scale between 1 and 10 would be a minus 1. However, somehow in her misery she managed to tell us to go through the door and up to the window were a receptionist asked us for our appointment letter and IDs. She quickly looked them over and asked us to have a seat among the other anxiously waiting couples. Around 2.25pm I heard my name called over the speakers. We were let in by the interviewer and she took us to her office in the back. She told us to raise our right hand and asked "Do you swear to tell the truth..?"; which we obviously answered "yes" to. The whole interview after that was very quick, like 10 minutes - she was very friendly and said everything was easy as the paperwork was so neatly put together (Thanks VJ). I figure I will make a short list of the questions she asked:

1. Can I see your passport? When was the last time your entered the US (whilst looking at my I-94). After I answered correctly, she ripped it out.

2. How did you meet?

3. When and where did you get married? Was it a small/large ceremony? How many people were there? Do you have photo of the ceremony? - we did and she asked us to identify the people in the photo (which was the justice of peace, us, and my wife's parents). She also asked if she could keep the original, as they like to have an original photo on file. I had sent them this photo plus 6 additional photos of us in New York, Sweden, Miami, Costa Rica, and Hawaii printed on regular printer paper in my original application.

4. Do you have evidence supporting your marriage in addition to the original marriage license (lease, car insurance, joint bank account, etc). We had brought our current and last lease which have both our names on them. We also brought a joint bank statement (which had our last address on them and we had to explain that we have not updated our address with our bank yet since we moved in August aka I forgot).

5. You are adjusting from a J-1 - what did you do while on your J-1? Do you have your I-20 - which I did.

6. She asked me a couple of the screening questions, that is, are you a communist, nazi, terrorist, etc? Most of the questions she did not ask, however, I saw her just checking them off assuming I am not here to overthrow the government.

That was pretty much it in terms of questions. She did mention that she checked my wife's salary (don't know how - maybe tax return?), so we never had to show her the tax returns, letter for employer, pay stubs or W-2s we brought. She also mentioned that my medical looked great and I was up to date on vaccinations. Other items we did not have to show, which we brought, were: original birth certificate (both mine and my wife's), my wife's passport, photos (except for the ceremony one), and NOAs. Also, I should mention, neither of us wear a wedding ring (we are having a bigger ceremony next year, when we will exchange rings in front of both our families and friends).

The interviewer told us she would recommend that I get a green card and that I will receive it within 30 days, probably less. Success! As I walked out through the waiting room I could not help feel a bit bad for the people in there who do not know about this community and probably waste thousands of dollars on lawyers..

Please let me know if you have any further questions. I believe my case was so quick because everything was in order and I finished both my undergraduate and graduate studies here. That is, I have been here since 2002 on two F-1s, a J-1, and two OPTs.

Congratulations! i have a question for you. I'm here on a F1 visa but i'm currently in the process of filing for AOS, do i need to include my i-20 in the initial package or just bring it to the interview? thanks in anticipation.

[dumb_elephant 0]

Congratulations! i have a question for you. I'm here on a F1 visa but i'm currently in the process of filing for AOS, do i need to include my i-20 in the initial package or just bring it to the interview? thanks in anticipation.

Well, I did send with a copy. I felt it seemed important. The interviewer also asked for it during the interview - so I had it both in the application and I brought the original.

[106206 15]

Sounds great my experience was the same, thanks to all the help we got on VisaJourney.com

[Constantine1234 1]

hi! did the interviewer stamped something on your passport? coz the stamp didnt do something on my passport. he just hand me a letter saying that i am approved. he didn't even explain to me about the conditional thingy.

[dumb_elephant 0]

hi! did the interviewer stamped something on your passport? coz the stamp didnt do something on my passport. he just hand me a letter saying that i am approved. he didn't even explain to me about the conditional thingy.

No. The interviewer said that they do not stamp passports anymore. She also stressed the importance of removing the conditions three months before the 2 year mark. Sorry your interviewer wasn't as detailed - maybe he had to go to the bathroom?

[Constantine1234 1]

lol..maybe..so they don't stamp the passport anymore..i see. so the letter is fine? is it really 30 days before you will get your green card?

[Maranda 3]

Congratulations, elephant!

Pleased to hear it was a quick and easy interview process. Thank you for sharing your detailed experience!

[dumb_elephant 0]

lol..maybe..so they don't stamp the passport anymore..i see. so the letter is fine? is it really 30 days before you will get your green card?

I took them a week to send it.

[special4ever 0]

Congratulations!