No horror stories here

[kartersteve 0]

Hi I just want to relate my story so that others worrying about the I 751 interview may breathe a little easier.

I came to the USA in 1998 on a NAFTA visa after having it renewed for 3 years I met someone and was married (2001). I started to go thru the paperwork of staying here and before it was all put together we were divorced (2002)so I was without status and without NAFTA and not a lot of money so my lawyer suggested to just keep on working and when they ask you to leave just leave as I had entered the USA legally.

I was out of status from 2001 until 2009 , in the meantime I met someone (US Citizen) in 2005 and we were married in 2007 , but, we never filed until summer of 2008. My US wife was working ( school teacher ) at the time we filed and we were approved for the conditional green card in Jan 2009. That year because of teacher cutbacks my wife was getting laid off so we decided she should act on her lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer. She passed the lsats and applied to various schools here in Georgia , but, was not accepted , she then applied to a law school in her home state 800 miles away and was accepted . We are both over 40 and mature adults so this did not seem that bad to be apart for 3 years ( excluding holidays , vacation , and other visits ). The home we live in was in her name, all the utilities were in her name so we did not share any bills or credit cards etc.

In January 2011 I applied to have my conditional green card upgraded and we send in all the things we had (stack was over 6 inches) like affidavits,insurance bills , phone bills , income tax filings , wedding pictures, joint bank accounts , CELL PHONE BILLS ( we called each other at least 3 times a day ). I heard nothing until June 1 2011 and they sent a request for more evidence . We again got a stack over 4 inches high of evidence and sent that in . THE RED FLAG WAS NOT LIVING TOGETHER ...

The then sent us a interview notice here in Atlanta . As you can imagine we expected the worst case and read all the stories about separate interviews and probing questions etc. ( The irony of this is my wife works for a Immigration attorney now and he offered to fly to Atlanta to go to interview with us , but, we declined)

THE INTERVIEW

We arrived at the service center in Atlanta at 7:00 am our appointment was for 7:15 am , we got our ticket x3 and waited , they called x1 x2 x4 and all the way up to x8 but missed us (it was 9:00 am now) , panic was setting in LOL . My wife went down to the front desk and ask them why we were not called and they said if the hadn't called us we would not be called and they gave us another ticket x16 so we waited again. they called x12 and then a gentleman came out a called x3 our original ticket ( seems he actually was interested in us and had spent the time reading our file and getting to know us on paper) The gentleman was VERY VERY pleasant , but, went by the book . His first words were " Hi my name is ________ and I am here to help you folks get through this process this morning "

He ask me my birthday and phone numbers etc. but, did not ask my wife anything except how was she enjoying law school and when was she graduating . He ask what we brought and we handed him recent bank statements , income tax returns , and pictures which we showed him. We were waiting for the niceness to stop and then be separated , but that never came. He did not care we were not living together at the present or we had no joint bills etc.

We were honest with him all the way thru the interview and after about 15 minutes he said " I am going to recommend you for approval " He then said the paperwork would take about 15 minutes and would we please wait in the lobby. He then met us out there and had a signed paper from the Sevice Center director saying

" Decision "

"You have been approved"

your green card will be here in about 3 weeks

He then shook our hands and made some small talk and I went downstairs to get my passport stamped and we left.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you have a real marriage no mater how bizarre the circumstances if you are honest and truthful with the interviewer the correct decision will be made .

NEXT STEP FOR ME IS CITIZENSHIP ... we filled out the form when we got home

[carocaro 22]

Wonderful news...now you can stop stressing and box up some paper :-)

Caro