Approved Today - Mount Laurel, NJ

[Pupsik 4]

So we had worries about a bunch of red flags and were so freaked out going into the interview. If you want to read about our worries leading up to the interview you can follow along here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/324148-big-red-flag/page__p__4839304#entry4839304

Our worries:

- Overstay of 1.5 years on a J1 visa

- prior marriage of the beneficiary that only lasted 2 months

- we were married 2 months after the divorce was finalized

- there was also illegal work without authorization

- our marriage was small and no family was present

The Interview

we arrived about 30 minutes early and tried to calm our nerves. every time they opened the door and called another name the room fell silent. I guess everyone feels pretty anxious in there. Right before us a young couple was called and as they walked to the door the IO asked to speak with the husband first. we both looked at each other in fear that we were going to be separated as well. I kept telling her we are ok, we are ok...

We were called in shortly after. our IO was a middle aged black woman and she was cordial and professional.

We were sworn in and she asked for our IDs, birth certificates, her original entry documents, divorce documents and our marriage certificate. the IO looked these over and was stamping away in our file. the whole time i was starting small talk with the IO about how she must see lots of difficult last names. My mother has a long italian maiden name and I asked if she could pronounce that. She took Dina's I-94 from her passport and stapled it into our file.

After she returned these documents to us, she asked Dina about the first mariage and why it was so short. Dina explained the issues they had very briefly, and the IO asked if he was a US citizen and Dina answered no. That was all that was asked about the prior marriage.

The IO then asked all the Yes/No questions. after they were done i said, "Id hate to see the people that answer "yes" to those questions." the IO said they usually know ahead of time and she wouldn't want to deal with them either. She said she would give the case to the dept. that deals with those people.

The rest of the interview went mostly like a conversation. She asked to see proof of our marriage. we supplied: joint bank account statement, shared visa card, shared express card, water and electric bills, joint car insurance, email from my company about adding her to my health insurance. she stopped us after this and said that is enough.

She asked to see our photos and she went through our album twice, cover to cover. along the way she asked where certain pictures were from and who was in them. We chatted about how to cook turkeys, Woodstock music festival, occupy wall street and camping. We had about 200 pictures in the album from different places with different people and each had a story. she asked me a lot about my family as she went through the album. why i dont speak with my father, why wasn't my mother at thanksgiving, and about my brothers (I have quite a dysfunctional family and we rarely talk or see each other).

She started looking through the pictures again and we were about to offer her our other wedding album and she said she was looking for a picture to keep with the file. We were worried that the wedding album would bring about other questions since the pictures showed how small the ceremony was and that there was no family present. so we NEVER showed any images from our wedding. only candid pictures with friends.

After she took a picture she took Dina's passport and a big red stamp. She said the stamp was just as good as the conditional card we would receive in about 5-10 days. I was so excited. I dont think Dina knew what was going on until i grabbed her hand and whispered "we got it!" She kept the EAD and said "we just gave this to you and now we are taking it back"

That was pretty much it. She asked if we had questions and I just asked that the stamp is good for travel since we want to go to Russia in December. She said yes and that the card should come quickly.

The whole experience is not as worrisome if you are a legit couple and you know your stuff.

- Be organized

- Have proof of your ongoing relationship

- Have pictures with different people in different places

- Have faith...You will do fine.

Thanks Again VJ!

[jameugiekaxavilon 25]

Congratulations!!

[ValerieA 350]

Congratulations!

[jkelly07 120]

congratulations, thanks for sharing the interview.

[TheFantastics09 19]

Congratulations!

[Maria TH 20]

Congrats!

[misswiss 6]

thanks for sharing it's givng me hope and congratulations!!

[Misha & Ira 113]

[Larry86 2]

Congratulations!

[daryl&lada 8]

Congratulations!!!

[vickybranson 1]

Congratulations !!!!

[Enigma11561 336]

Ahhh another Ruskie in New Jersey. Best of luck to you from a former northern New Jerseyen.

[trillium13 84]

Congratulations! I read your story-glad it all worked out well for you!