Horrible marriage interview.

[hawkeyez 45]

You never know what you are going to run into with these border bullies. I was once bringing my Chinese girl friend accross the US/Canada border and was told that she can not enter because we have enough of those kind of people here and we don't want any more. I took his name and contacted the head border authority and scheduled a meeting with him to find out why this happened. Result was an apoligy and his business card. If this should ever happen again present the card. It has happened again and the bullies get their eyes opened when they see the card.

[USA-ALG 63]

Oh my dears! This is definitely our worse nightmare! We are going to have our AOS interview on Sept. 24th, 2012. We are very nervous. We've assembled 3 inches worth of information in our binder - using the checklist in our i797c NOA.

What kind of questions SHOULD an interview officer be asking? What kind of tirade should we be expecting? We feel that we are armed with photos, documents, joint accounts (not much on property), and etc... is that even enough?

USA-ALG

p.s. May peace be with you and your spouse... and by the way, WELCOME TO AMERICA!!!!

[Justine+David 218]

That is the whole point. The interview isn't supposed to coddle potential frausters, it is meant to find them.

But you can still treat people with respect. These are human beings, deserving no less respect just because they come from a different country.

And these officers who yell at these people are sadistic. Because who would want to go day in and day out and yell at people? If you hack it, you must like it (why else would you do it as even the low life credit collector callers have one of the highest turnover rates and say they would rather go on welfare than be at that kind of a soul-sucking job). And we DO NOT need people who take pleasure in yelling at other people in such a position of power. I think it is extraordinarily shameful and really hurtful to the US image.

I myself was accused of being naive at a border...a US customs guy asked why I kept going to England. I said because of English fiance and we were going for his green card. "Well, you know he's just going to marry you for the green card and then run away as soon as he gets it." You are allowed to have your opinion, but you are not allowed to state it when you hold such a position of power in a public manner while REPRESENTING the US government. Shameful, shameful. What if I told every parent in my hospital I wanted that they were idiotic and I wouldn't be surprised if their kid grows up as a dead beat?

I've read some IO blogs and there are many ways to deal with people you suspect of fraud and treat them with dignity (because you don't know if they are fraud or not). I would think a thorough questioning is more revealing than yelling at people (because who admits that they are in it for fraud just because someone yelled at them?)

edit: OP, time to get your Senator or House Rep involved??

Edited September 11, 2012 by Justine+David

[JayNarl 3]

Our lawyer said to not contact media, politicians, etc. She said that the media would cause DHS to put a hold on everything for a long time as everyone in DHS would have to throughly go through our case to cover their "butts." The ironic thing is our lawyer was as upset as us. She had a picture of us and our friends (who are couples too), taken at a superbowl party. Turns out we came a little later so we never met who is now our lawyer because she was at the party too. When they developed the film they gave her a picture of them and us sitting on the couch together cuddling. Just a side note, the picture has been hanging on her wall the whole time! So she knows 200% from our friends and the picture that we have been married and living together. Most of our friends and neighbors were in shock by the accusations DHS made. Some of our friends and family said, we know you are romantic, to romantic sometimes, kissing right in front of everyone. One friend even said that when we were at a birthday party I couldn't keep my eyes off my wife. She is very beautiful though and easy on the eyes if you men understand what I mean. We fell in love and I knew she was the one. I never was married before and either was she. I turn 30 next month and she is 35. I mean we are not a 17 or 18 year old couple who ran to the alter. We both have been through plenty of relationships and we knew this was right.

t

Edited September 11, 2012 by JayNarl

[JayNarl 3]

Our lawyer and friends immediately started a massive signing of affidavit to support our marriage. Someone asked earlier why over 30 affidavits? Because all these people who know us , know us as married and in love.

This is what my wife and I took with us to the interview the following list of Proof of marriage. She did not look over these but this may help someone who does not have much proof of their marriage

-Car auto services ( Both Midas and Advance auto bills) The guys at our Midas know us because our cars have been having some problems the past few months. Midas would give you a computerized bill. Advance auto saves your name based on transactions and they give you a regular bill but you can ask them to add your name to the account.

-We had a bad experience with an airline earlier this year and when I complained we were awarded tickets for our family ( Wife son and myself ) to go where ever they flew. They had all our names on this itinerary.

-My son just started middle school and we have met his teachers and volunteer there. We got his enrollment information copied as I signed most of his enrollment forms.

_We visit national parks and join their mailing list for passes and shows

_We used our Lowe's card and requested a copy of our account

_We also used our Staples account and our Home Depot accounts.

_My job has a discount card that gives us 10% off purchases, I had them mail her e a spousal discount card. We used these

_ Our credit cards

_Our medical prescriptions discount cards

_Over 500 pictures including our family at our marriage and when we visited PA and NYC on trips to visit the grandparents.

_My social security case file that has me listed my wife.and the meetings we have had with them, They are quite familiar with us as a married couple .Our names were there in bold letters

_Work w4 that stated status as married

_Letters from friends inviting us to events

_Family wedding showers and baby showers invitation cards

_Tickets from recent trips and tolls from different states where we visited the outdoor attractions

Our folder was huge!!! She did not even look at this. We have our lives so properly documented that we are still in shock as to how this woman treated us. I hope I am able to help some couples out there with this.

[Liam and Kara 6]

I am sorry you had such a bad experience.

I can only imagine this reason for the hard time(although not for the rudness) was that your wife, had OVERSTAYED her previous visa and then turned up married to yourself, I am not saying

she married you to avoid being deported, but, that is how the officer could have seen the whole situation and resulted in such a stressful interview.

I am sure you are in love and have close family and friends within your group and do have a bonified marriage but again, these officers see this kind of thing red flagged to them on a daily basis and can become cynical over time.

It is their job to weed out illegals trying to yank the system(so to speak).

Good luck in your follow up interview, please let us know how it goes.

[DandT14 272]

Jaynarl, What did you include with your application as evidence? I see the list of things you brought that the IO didn't look at. But what did she see?

[JayNarl 3]

I am sorry you had such a bad experience.

I can only imagine this reason for the hard time(although not for the rudness) was that your wife, had OVERSTAYED her previous visa and then turned up married to yourself, I am not saying

she married you to avoid being deported, but, that is how the officer could have seen the whole situation and resulted in such a stressful interview.

I am sure you are in love and have close family and friends within your group and do have a bonified marriage but again, these officers see this kind of thing red flagged to them on a daily basis and can become cynical over time.

It is their job to weed out illegals trying to yank the system(so to speak).

Good luck in your follow up interview, please let us know how it goes.

I understand your perspective but the elements to satisfy a marriage by DHS code was clear and evident as our lawyer stated. No where in the INS code does it state that a marriage has to meet some criteria of longevity, however, it does say they will look at the length of a marriage to determine if it might be a fraud aka sham wedding. This is just one thing they will look at, but they too will look at all other aspects such as pictures with family, paperwork, commingling. I assure you as I am a certified paralegal I did study all aspects of possible reasons why the lady may have seen it as a fraud. Regardless, from the beginning she had a malicious attitude towards me being white (I pretty much fit the definition of Caucasian. I have blue eyes, and blondish brown hair (gets blonder in summer or high sun light). My wife is dark-skinned. Did you read the dialogue that was posted between us and the immigration officer? If she had looked at our file which is her job, it was obvious that I was white and she was black. So why did the immigration officer get nasty with me when there was only her and I and ask me "who I am rudely!"? The paperwork we filed clearly showed our races, so why would the immigration officer ask this question? Unless she either A) never looked over our paperwork, (B) didn't realize we filed a married petition and only two of us were there (both have to be there). So either she was racist and discriminatory, or she was incompetent in her job.

To the other person who asked. She looked at a picture of my wife's friend and my wife and kept going who is this, who is this, why does your friend have on a wedding ring when you said she is not married. When in fact the friend didn't have on a wedding ring. It was my wife with a ring and her friend with no ring. I told my wife after the interview what is lady on drugs or something or crazy?!?

[asdfg 18]

This is very odd and sounds so shocking

I was upset with our officer because he created an issue out of nothing (he changed my answer to "YES" where they ask about arrests and charges because I had minor traffic tickets, with NO ARRESTS/DWI/DUI/CRIME EVER. This resulted in RFE and over 60 days of delay in case adjudicating).

Other than that our interview was straightforward, with all the relevant questions pointedly and repeatedly asked, no more no less.

Now I read about your interview and I think "WOW!" how could this be?!

If I were you I would storm our of the room, demand immediate attention of supervisor and bring the full force of any judiciary, administrative even media recourse I could.

But you better be 100% guilt-proof. Remember, justice is a two edged sword. If assumptions of USCIS have any valid grounds they will bury you. You can be under surveillance 24/7 for years and they can accumulate enough of actual evidence to prosecute you if you are found guilty.

I always stand for fair and unbiased application of law.

So, if in your gut you are absolutely, totally 100% confident and know the truth is with you then go full throttle and I would say 99.99% you will prevail, granite walls won't stop you when you know you are not guilty of what you are being accused.

But be very careful if there is any reason that may have aroused suspicion of USCIS. There is nothing that will prevent USCIS from finding out and penalizing you if their assumptions are correct.

Get a good lawyer and good luck.

Edited September 11, 2012 by asdfg

[Liam and Kara 6]

The whole race issue in my opinion is nonsense, as for the description I could careless what color you were, Black, White, green, yellow, navy blue....the fact is whether you want to see it this way or not is that the officer saw the fact that there was an overstay red flagged to them within your file and that you were then recently married which is where the problem is coming up.

again, i do not for one moment suggest you were not right to complain about the officer interviewing you but the race card does not work for me on this occassion.

I am only giving you my opinion on what you have explained as someone who has completed the process, I wish you and your wife all the luck in the world for your next interview, but honestly, I would not be going into the new interview with playing the race card.

good luck.

[del-2-5-2014 1,339]

Wow, this is so bad. My interviewing officer was far from friendly, but he was professional and polite at least...

I did memorize all of my USC husband's family members' name though. It was difficult to remember because some maiden names and middle names are in Chinese and are very long. Regardless, I did memorize them just in case.

Right.

When you have someone sponsoring you then one should know as much about them as possible.

[asdfg 18]

The whole race issue in my opinion is nonsense, as for the description I could careless what color you were, Black, White, green, yellow, navy blue....the fact is whether you want to see it this way or not is that the officer saw the fact that there was an overstay red flagged to them within your file and that you were then recently married which is where the problem is coming up.

again, i do not for one moment suggest you were not right to complain about the officer interviewing you but the race card does not work for me on this occassion.

I am only giving you my opinion on what you have explained as someone who has completed the process, I wish you and your wife all the luck in the world for your next interview, but honestly, I would not be going into the new interview with playing the race card.

good luck.

Many people who are relatives of USC AOS after overstay and the non-immigrant status is not even being asked about, because it is not material to the outcome of AOS application.

As to marriage, it is a red flag when entered during removal proceeding, other than that there is nothing in INA or guidelines that says "anyone who married recently and is an overstay should be red flagged".

In fact, overwhelming majority of overstays who married USC will file AOS immediately after marriage, according to your interpretation they all should be treated the way OP describes.

The real question is whether the OP is guilty or not guilty of an accusation.

If guilty then too bad for the OP, I have no doubt USCIS will bury them in courtroom with the evidence of their wrongdoing and judge will impose very harsh penalties.

But, if this is a truly legitimate , innocent couple and the IO treated them the way OP describes without any valid reason whatsoever then I don't know about OP but any normal person would be extremely indignant and upset and yearning for justice in court or via administrative route.

Anything relevant can be brought up. If it's race then one should not exclude the subject on the fear of being accused of playing a race card. If someone mistreats one because of their race or perceived appearance then dam.n sure they could bring it up anywhere , up to Supreme Court. Who said racial mistreatment is OK now-days?

But to make up the issue, including a race related, when it in fact played no role in the process would backfire on OP.

This is the LAW. All sides are EQUALLY subject to it and it applies to ALL, not just one or another side.

Any abuse of power is an equivalent of a breach of law.

It is even worse than a common crime because one abusing entrusted power is supposed to be a role model and is the one who sets the standard for the rest to look up and follow.

But we do not know OP case to make any accurate judgement, we leave it to higher officials and courts to determine if need be.

All we can say to OP is to retain an attorney and proceed based on facts of the case.

If truly not guilty of accusation then feel free to take recourse by any administrative, judicial and even media means.

If there is any degree of accuracy in USCIS assumption then be very careful as you might end up a lot sorrier than if you were just denied.

Good luck.

[Cesar & Cata 35]

She just took advantage, most likely noticed your unwillingness to defend yourselves. I would have flipped, I am very sorry for you but this is a great experience for others to read and learn from, always know your rights and responsabilities, both are equally important.

No one should ever waive, trample or ignore your rights, that is what being an American is all about!!

[mymarriagejourney 113]

She just took advantage, most likely noticed your unwillingness to defend yourselves. I would have flipped, I am very sorry for you but this is a great experience for others to read and learn from, always know your rights and responsabilities, both are equally important.

No one should ever waive, trample or ignore your rights, that is what being an American is all about!!

I told my husband this story and he said the same thing that you did. He said that he would not feel intimidated or frightened, but would rather feel indignant and defensive. (I worry about his sensitivity to the idea of anyone doubting our relationship, as I fear he'll be overly offended by the IO's routine questions, but in this case, I think it would be justified.)

[ceadsearc 516]

Actually, unless it has been recently changed, the field adjudicators manual does list short courtship as a red flag.