Disheartening Boston Cititzenship Interview

[VenusAngel 0]

My interview didn't go so well and I left the Boston JFK Building frazzled and upset. I felt my interviewer was sarcastic and rude. I forgot his name ...I want to say his last name was Mendez or Rodriguez. He sat by a cubicle facing the window close to the door where you enter.

He asked where and how I met my husband. I gave him the answer. He asked what I did for a living. I named my employer, which is fairly recognizable. He dismissively said he never heard of it. Then he asked why I live and work here in Boston when my employer is headquartered elsewhere in the state. I explained I was a satellite office. He suspiciously asked why they needed a satellite office in Boston. I said things happen in Boston that are relevant to other parts of the state. He took issue with this and seemed suspicious.

We went into the 6 questions pretty quickly:

1) What's the ocean on the west coast?

2) What happened on 9/11?

3) What do the thirteen stripes represent?

4) What is the rule of law?

5) How old do citizens have to be to vote for the president?

I forgot what the sixth question was. I answered them correctly. He didn't ask me to read a phrase, he just handed me a pen and asked me to write "There are one hundred senators."

He asked what my husband does for a living. I said he's a student. He asked for my tax forms. I handed them to him and he questioned why I didn't file jointly with my husband. I said it's because he is a dependent of his family. He asked how old he was and why I wasn't supporting him. Again, I said he receives money from his family. While asking me these questions he was curt, suspicious, and judgmental.

He commented that I leave the country a lot. I said that is true, I visit my family about 5-11 times a year on holiday weekends (They live across the border in Canada, so it's not far away). He asked if I had left since filing. I said yes, I had left Labor Day Weekend, Thanksgiving and Christmas. He told me to write it down on a paper. I asked if I could see what the last departure in 2012 I had written down was. He seemed annoyed. After I asked again, he handed me the application and I saw that I had already written that I had left Labor Day Weekend, so I wrote down that I left during Thanksgiving and Christmas. He questioned why I didn't write down that I had left Labor Day Weekend. I explained to him that I had already written that down on the application. He seemed annoyed, distrustful and suspicious again.

He started asking me other questions. Do you support communism? No. Have you ever been arrested/detained? No. Are you a spy? No. He scoffed and said "Not yet?" -- which I felt was inappropriate. I slightly balked and felt uncomfortable when he asked if I would bear arms and fight for the country. Me, bear arms? I hesitated somewhat incredulous, but I said yes.

He ended the interview and said I travel out of the country too much and it will have to be reviewed. I was flabbergasted. I said I only leave maybe once a month or once every other month for 2-3 days at a time. He said that I wasn't allowed to leave more that half a year at a time. I said I've never been gone that long, that my days out of the country would _definitely_ not amount to that. He looked at me like I was wrong and asked "Definitely?" "Yes, definitely," I said.

He asked me to leave and said I would get an answer in a couple of weeks.

I was frazzled. I had papers scattered around me. I began collecting them and he asked me to hurry up and leave.

Altogether, I felt like I was being interrogated like a criminal. He made me feel like it was a crime to visit my family (at most) once a month on weekends. He was rude, sarcastic and altogether unpleasant. I hope no one else has an experience like I did!

[lala_xoxo 2]

wow, that seems quite unprofessional. I'm sorry about your experience. I am sure everything will work out fine at the end.

[kari81 18]

Did you file based on three or five year of permanent residency? The fact that you didn't file your taxes together was the problem. Now the officers are very suspicious about that because they think you just got married to get your green card. I had almost the same problem and it took three years and different state to be able to get my citizenship even though I had a child with my ex-wife and paying child support. I suggest you wait and hopefully they give the benefit of doubts and approve you. My bet is that they will send you a letter doubting your marriage. Anyway good luck

wow, that seems quite unprofessional. I'm sorry about your experience. I am sure everything will work out fine at the end.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Did you file based on three or five year of permanent residency? The fact that you didn't file your taxes together was the problem. Now the officers are very suspicious about that because they think you just got married to get your green card. I had almost the same problem and it took three years and different state to be able to get my citizenship even though I had a child with my ex-wife and paying child support. I suggest you wait and hopefully they give the benefit of doubts and approve you. My bet is that they will send you a letter doubting your marriage. Anyway good luck

I was going to say it is probably because your husband is married and is still supported by his parents and claimed on their taxes. That is really unusual in America. I know when I got married for the first time at 20, my mother stopped claiming me and it cost her a pretty penny too.

I hope everything goes ok, though.

[NickD 202]

Mendez or Rodriguez may have been good for my wife and stepdaughter with Hispanic heritage, but wife's was a Black woman, and stepdaughter's was Asian, both with reputations for not liking Hispanics. And both given a very difficult time at their interviews, my senator straightened that out in a hurry due to extensive delays. Can't say for sure if the differences in nationalities makes a difference, but sure suspect.

Nether of their IO's were well versed in the English language, how was yours? You certainly didn't break any of the travel rules, many Canadians made hundreds of trips without problems.

While I have met several IO's and apologetic field office managers, never met a supervisor, the three people solely responsible for your destiny. Still doesn't seem right to me holding several governmental certifications where I met a board, not just one individual.

Did you get any indication about your oath ceremony? I think not, but if you don't hear anything in the next 120 days or even close, time to contact your senators office. Should find that helpful, after all, they are after your vote in the next election. I sent mine a small campaign contribution, talk about being helpful. Just a fraction of the cost of hiring an immigration attorney and far more effective. Even invited my wife and me to a campaign dinner, can tell you, our senators know how to eat very well.

Could travel freely to Canada since the beginning of time, we have many divisions up there. But since Bush made an executive decision, really a first class pain in the a$$ to go up there, even far worse coming back. If Obama reverses that, he can, with just one terrorist coming in, that would end his career.

[Wilerao59 10]

I do not think that officer's action/behavior was wrong because- (1) one can not expect every officer to be kind, professional, humble and to be the one we prefer him/her to be. Keep it remember that each person is different and his/her modus operandi differs too. So can't and shouldn't blame the officer if he was different than "typical' officers that we hear on here by others who have gone to their interview; (2) OP did make so many statements to the officer which would have made anyone to be suspicious on the OP's marriage, and do not forget that OP must have received green card or must have filed her citizenship application based on marrying to a US citizen. So obviously, officer has all the right to grill her and suspect her if something does seem fishy. I'm not an officer not an attorney, but given OP's statements I myself doubt on OP's marriage. For example- there is nothing wrong to file a tax return separately despite of being happily married but parties can not expect everything to be in their nest. In OP's case, they haven't filed tax returned together as jointly because her husband is claimed as a dependent on her parents' returns. Tax returns are very important documents when it comes to immigration, but in OP's situation- they want to keep everything in their favor. They want her husband to be kept claimed as a dependent on his parents' tax returns and they also expect immigration to not be suspicious on their situation?? They want to expect everything in their favor.

Further, officer rightly asked why OP is not supporting her husband because a marriage means living and taking care of each other. Moreover, it makes situation more suspicious that her husband is a student and is being taken care of by his parents while wife loves traveling too often to Canada. Even though Canada is right off the bat, but it does cost money. She could have spent that money for her husband than letting him taking cared by his parents.

Whenever someone filed for a citizenship, he/she is asking immigration to review the entire immigration journey of them. So whatever questions officer asked were right and under the guidelines. Just because OP didn't get her case approved right off the bat or officer asked so many questions about her marriage and got suspicious doesn't mean officer was bad or unprofessional. He was just doing his job what he gets paid for. I would have done the same given the statements made by the OP. Now officer will ask supervisory review on OP's case. They would scrutinize her travels outside the US and might also her marriage situations. They MAY ask some other documents to get convinced of the bonafide of her marriage and eventually would approve her application. I had a very tough black lady officer when I was interviewed many years back. She gave the run of my application and was trying to put the words in my mouth to accept something which was not true. She even sat on my application for 3 months and called a few times to make me admit which wasn't true but finally she had no choice just to approve it. Officer knew that I would file the motion to reconsider my application if she would deny my case and then my case be reviewed by another officer. And she also knew that I could have taken the matter to courts. However, I do know that many officers don't care of your options; rather they purposely deny you but most supervisors don't act like this.

I think OP should just wait and do not assume anything at this time. In the end, everything will be just fine.

[mozplay 28]

I do not think that officer's action/behavior was wrong because- (1) one can not expect every officer to be kind, professional, humble and to be the one we prefer him/her to be. Keep it remember that each person is different and his/her modus operandi differs too. So can't and shouldn't blame the officer if he was different than "typical' officers that we hear on here by others who have gone to their interview; (2) OP did make so many statements to the officer which would have made anyone to be suspicious on the OP's marriage, and do not forget that OP must have received green card or must have filed her citizenship application based on marrying to a US citizen. So obviously, officer has all the right to grill her and suspect her if something does seem fishy. I'm not an officer not an attorney, but given OP's statements I myself doubt on OP's marriage. For example- there is nothing wrong to file a tax return separately despite of being happily married but parties can not expect everything to be in their nest. In OP's case, they haven't filed tax returned together as jointly because her husband is claimed as a dependent on her parents' returns. Tax returns are very important documents when it comes to immigration, but in OP's situation- they want to keep everything in their favor. They want her husband to be kept claimed as a dependent on his parents' tax returns and they also expect immigration to not be suspicious on their situation?? They want to expect everything in their favor.

VenusAngel, I'm very sorry to hear about your experience and hope that it gets sorted out soon. It is within the bounds of the IO to request further evidence, especially in the light of not filing joint returns which is apparently the holy grail of immigration. Hopefully you'll either get an oath update or a RFE soon and can move on to the next step - whichever it is. For now, at least you know that nothing has changed, and your permanent residency is still valid. That's the one saving grace of the citizenship process.

Wilerao .. sorry, but you are wrong. Yes, I can fully expect that EVERY USCIS officer and in fact EVERY PERSON should be kind, professional and humble. I refuse to expect or accept rudeness and crassness in anyone. I don't read where VenusAngel made "so many statements" which would lead anyone to believe her marriage to be false, and it is not up to you to define the terms of their marriage or relationship with family.

[VenusAngel 0]

I was hoping my experience would serve as an example of an interview that did not come with a kind, humble or pleasant immigration officer. While reading the experiences of so many others, I almost came to expect an IO with these kind of characteristics, and was thrown off when that was not the case.

Thank you for all your responses, they've been quite enlightening. I did not realize that a joint filing was so important. I know many couples who keep their finances separate and we count ourselves in that category. We share expenses but have separate bank accounts. I have a job and my husband chooses not to work as he receives a generous allowance from his family. I submitted tax forms as married filed separately as he was a dependent of his family, which was fine by me. We may reevaluate that decision if it turns out that this may effect my naturalization application.

But the immigration officer seemed more concerned with the number of days I've been out of the country. I may have left the country a half dozen times for 2-3 days at a time in 2010 and 2011. The frequency of my visits increased in 2012 when my sister had a baby. I felt a desire to visit more often and see my niece grow up. I couldn't have been gone more than 70 days in the past three years. That's far below the minimum residency requirement for citizenship.

In any event, I hope this inconvenience resolves itself in the coming weeks...

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Take heart in that have rules to follow. You haven't broken the rules by being out "so much" (I've spent 2 1/2 months out). You also haven't broken the rules by not filing tax jointly, obviously it wasn't a problem for ROC.

I find your relationship a little unconventional, but if everyone were the same the world would be boring.

[pigbelk 2]

Oh Come On!!! You can't be serious as to the way you were treated at the USCIS Office at Boston's JFK Building.. I'm sorry but I find it hard to believe that a person could or would risk losing their well paying extremely easy job for disrespecting, accussing, belittling, embarrassing, and harrassing a client whom they have no idea who they are. You must have or get this persons name as my wife will be going to the same office in the next few months for her interview which I will be attending with her and if indeed this rude arogant person exists and she gets him as the interviewer and he even attempts in the slightest way to mistreat her like you say he did you then I can assure you it will be the last human being he ever has contact with as I will be the last person he ever sees on GOD's green earth. And I promise you that. I keep my promises.

My interview didn't go so well and I left the Boston JFK Building frazzled and upset. I felt my interviewer was sarcastic and rude. I forgot his name ...I want to say his last name was Mendez or Rodriguez. He sat by a cubicle facing the window close to the door where you enter.

He asked where and how I met my husband. I gave him the answer. He asked what I did for a living. I named my employer, which is fairly recognizable. He dismissively said he never heard of it. Then he asked why I live and work here in Boston when my employer is headquartered elsewhere in the state. I explained I was a satellite office. He suspiciously asked why they needed a satellite office in Boston. I said things happen in Boston that are relevant to other parts of the state. He took issue with this and seemed suspicious.

We went into the 6 questions pretty quickly:

1) What's the ocean on the west coast?

2) What happened on 9/11?

3) What do the thirteen stripes represent?

4) What is the rule of law?

5) How old do citizens have to be to vote for the president?

I forgot what the sixth question was. I answered them correctly. He didn't ask me to read a phrase, he just handed me a pen and asked me to write "There are one hundred senators."

He asked what my husband does for a living. I said he's a student. He asked for my tax forms. I handed them to him and he questioned why I didn't file jointly with my husband. I said it's because he is a dependent of his family. He asked how old he was and why I wasn't supporting him. Again, I said he receives money from his family. While asking me these questions he was curt, suspicious, and judgmental.

He commented that I leave the country a lot. I said that is true, I visit my family about 5-11 times a year on holiday weekends (They live across the border in Canada, so it's not far away). He asked if I had left since filing. I said yes, I had left Labor Day Weekend, Thanksgiving and Christmas. He told me to write it down on a paper. I asked if I could see what the last departure in 2012 I had written down was. He seemed annoyed. After I asked again, he handed me the application and I saw that I had already written that I had left Labor Day Weekend, so I wrote down that I left during Thanksgiving and Christmas. He questioned why I didn't write down that I had left Labor Day Weekend. I explained to him that I had already written that down on the application. He seemed annoyed, distrustful and suspicious again.

He started asking me other questions. Do you support communism? No. Have you ever been arrested/detained? No. Are you a spy? No. He scoffed and said "Not yet?" -- which I felt was inappropriate. I slightly balked and felt uncomfortable when he asked if I would bear arms and fight for the country. Me, bear arms? I hesitated somewhat incredulous, but I said yes.

He ended the interview and said I travel out of the country too much and it will have to be reviewed. I was flabbergasted. I said I only leave maybe once a month or once every other month for 2-3 days at a time. He said that I wasn't allowed to leave more that half a year at a time. I said I've never been gone that long, that my days out of the country would _definitely_ not amount to that. He looked at me like I was wrong and asked "Definitely?" "Yes, definitely," I said.

He asked me to leave and said I would get an answer in a couple of weeks.

I was frazzled. I had papers scattered around me. I began collecting them and he asked me to hurry up and leave.

Altogether, I felt like I was being interrogated like a criminal. He made me feel like it was a crime to visit my family (at most) once a month on weekends. He was rude, sarcastic and altogether unpleasant. I hope no one else has an experience like I did!

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

While you may have felt interrogated by a Hispanic, I feel that the I.O. did his job. You didn't file taxes jointly, you work on a satellite above Earth, your hubby is under mommy's helm, and you travel to your home country any opportunity arises.

No, but seriously, the I.O. just did his job, and since you answered all the questions in a satisfactory manner, you'll get your approval in about a week or two, at the very latest. Find confidence in the fact that applicants who fraud the system have a really hard time passing such an interview, and that's the idea behind being subjected to interrogation.

[Nicoco 26]

Did you file based on three or five year of permanent residency? The fact that you didn't file your taxes together was the problem. Now the officers are very suspicious about that because they think you just got married to get your green card. I had almost the same problem and it took three years and different state to be able to get my citizenship even though I had a child with my ex-wife and paying child support. I suggest you wait and hopefully they give the benefit of doubts and approve you. My bet is that they will send you a letter doubting your marriage. Anyway good luck

Is filing married but separate a problem? I'm only 21 and my parents claimed me in 2011 because I was still living with them most of the time and they get a tax break for claiming me, plus my husband got here in Dec 2011.... and in my AOS interview, the interviewer acted the same way as the OP's interviewer for her citizenship. If it is, I have to make sure we file "jointly" this time...

[Sweetcheeksss 91]

"Oh Come On!!! You can't be serious as to the way you were treated at the USCIS Office at Boston's JFK Building.. I'm sorry but I find it hard to believe that a person could or would risk losing their well paying extremely easy job for disrespecting, accussing, belittling, embarrassing, and harrassing a client whom they have no idea who they are. You must have or get this persons name as my wife will be going to the same office in the next few months for her interview which I will be attending with her and if indeed this rude arogant person exists and she gets him as the interviewer and he even attempts in the slightest way to mistreat her like you say he did you then I can assure you it will be the last human being he ever has contact with as I will be the last person he ever sees on GOD's green earth. And I promise you that. I keep my promises."

Don't know if you're just being overly dramatic or not but threatening anyone, (even a veiled threat) and particularly government employees on a open forum isn't a very smart thing to do.

Just my opinion..

Edited January 29, 2013 by Sweetcheeksss

[mozplay 28]

Is filing married but separate a problem? I'm only 21 and my parents claimed me in 2011 because I was still living with them most of the time and they get a tax break for claiming me, plus my husband got here in Dec 2011.... and in my AOS interview, the interviewer acted the same way as the OP's interviewer for her citizenship. If it is, I have to make sure we file "jointly" this time...

Niingsong, you have some time before filing, but good for you for thinking ahead. Don't worry about the 2011 taxes, but try to file jointly for the next few years if you are planning on filing for citizenship. It's a lot easier if you do.

[kari81 18]

You really have to start filing jointly to avoid trouble during naturalization especially if your sposuse is going to apply for naturalization based on having been to a permanent residdent for three years and married to USC. You have to know that it is very rare for an USC to still live with his/her parents even after 18years. Unless you show that the other things you have jointly far outweigh not filing together. Also you have to know that even though your parents can claim you on their tax, you and your spouse can stil file jointly so filing seperate is not an excuse.

Is filing married but separate a problem? I'm only 21 and my parents claimed me in 2011 because I was still living with them most of the time and they get a tax break for claiming me, plus my husband got here in Dec 2011.... and in my AOS interview, the interviewer acted the same way as the OP's interviewer for her citizenship. If it is, I have to make sure we file "jointly" this time...