April 2013 Filers

[discoverusa 258]

That is awesome! Happy for you.

[CiaoBella23 0]

WOOHOO! That is such excellent news! Can't wait to read your interview report

That's too funny! I take it they had no issue with cellphones in the building then.

No, they didn't allow phones into the building. But I saw the email update as soon as I got back to the car, and saw the time stamp!!

[discoverusa 258]

Ugghhh...it feels like we are getting nowhere....

We have a similar timeline. I hope something will happen soon.

[CiaoBella23 0]

So-- now that ive had a few hours to mentally process the days events!!!

Our interview was for 12:35. We got there at 11:20, parked, and went inside. We went through airport-style screening, taking off our shoes, belt, jewelry, etc, then were instructed up to the interview lobby, where we checked in with the guard and left our letter in a black box to be checked in. And then. we waited

The office was quite a bit behind, so imagine our surprise as we got called in around 1 o'clock with a couple that had an appointment time of over an hour earlier than us. Our IO was a kind Mexican/American man, who smiled a lot from the very beginning, and put us right at ease! He took us back to his office, swore us in before we sat down, then asked for all our passports, birth certificates, and licenses (my husband has 4 from all the countries he's lived and worked in in the past year and a half; he wanted all of them!) Then he asked us-- Tell me about how you two fell in love!

We went back and forth recounting the story, pulling out pictures as we did. We had an entire duffel-sized bag of evidence-- the more the better, in my opinion. The IO laughed and joked with us as we told him our story. He wrote down everything we said, and asked for us to repeat all dates. He then asked for photos-- we handed him 5 scrapbooks from our relationship and an entire photo album of photos he could take. He went through every photo and every page of the scrapbooks very thoroughly! This surprised me.

Next he asked for evidence of joint ownership-- we gave him bank statements, credit cards (he actually made a few copies OF our credit cards!), all my pay stubs from the last few months since we filed, updated tax return, plane tickets, wedding cards, honeymoon info, wedding invitations, etc etc etc. his desk was full of scattered papers and documents. He started typing into his computer, and was silent for a few minutes. Then he flipped through my husband's passport page by page, analyzing every page, analyzing the Esta. More typing. He turned back to us and asked us the i-485 "no" questions, plus a few other questions that threw us a little bit off.

After all that, the IO said that based off what he had seen today, he was going to approve us!! And asked us to wait while he printed out our congratulations letter and instructions on how to renew the green card in 2 years. We were just leaving as the IO asked us to come back, and asked us my husband's date of birth. We told him, and he printed us a few other documents that he said will make it easier for us to do the citizenship process in a few years. Then he shook our hands, and escorted us out!!

WHAT A RELIEF to be done with this entire process!!!! My husband is ecstatic to finally be able to get back to work!!!!!

Oh, and as we walked out and went back to the car, where we had left our phones we saw that 10 minutes after we had walked into the building, we had gotten the approval notice for the EAD. Ironic

YAHOO!!!!!

[tashired 18]

Approved on the spot!!!!!!!!!!!! Details to follow :D

Yaaay, congrats bon journo bon journo ha ha only Italian I know. Very Gd. Today is a gd. day!!!

[discoverusa 258]

Thanks for sharing. How long did the whole interview last?

[CiaoBella23 0]

Thanks for sharing. How long did the whole interview last?

45 minutes beginning to end

Yaaay, congrats bon journo bon journo ha ha only Italian I know. Very Gd. Today is a gd. day!!!

Haha good start!! Thanks I do say I must agree!

[discoverusa 258]

45 minutes beginning to end

Haha good start!! Thanks I do say I must agree!

Thanks, you must feel like a ton of weight got off your shoulders.

[tony&lace 2]

Approved on the spot!!!!!!!!!!!! Details to follow :D

Congrats!!!! Now enjoy ur two yr break from uscis

[Caramel Swirl 54]

Approved on the spot!!!!!!!!!!!! Details to follow

Bring out the champagne everyone.....congrats guys!!!!!!!

[goodbar 1]

Approved on the spot!!!!!!!!!!!! Details to follow :D

Congrats, i'm very glad it went well for you guys. I must admit your full report makes me even more worried than I was before only because I don't have half as much evidence as you stated you had. Lack of work and money sort of put us in this death spiral where we don't go out alot, and hence no pics out and about doing lovely married couple things :-(. Kinda why I wanted the ead so bad with a little time to spare before the interview. I can barely afford a binder to put the stuff I do have in it...:-(

[CiaoBella23 0]

Congrats, i'm very glad it went well for you guys. I must admit your full report makes me even more worried than I was before only because I don't have half as much evidence as you stated you had. Lack of work and money sort of put us in this death spiral where we don't go out alot, and hence no pics out and about doing lovely married couple things :-(. Kinda why I wanted the ead so bad with a little time to spare before the interview. I can barely afford a binder to put the stuff I do have in it...:-(

Just bring all the evidence you can possibly think of; and get creative. Honestly, I was super worried and anxious ever since we got the interview assigned to us; we don't own or lease or rent a house; we take care of a friend who is not doing well physically's house, and therefore have no documents to show proof of residence together. So we ordered a bunch of random catalogs online to both my and my husband's names at the same address, and used those.

We also don't have a car in our name, nor car insurance nor health/life insurance (no $$ since I just graduated school and my husband hasn't been out of work since the government collapsed in Italy 2 years ago), so we had to work around that issue as well.

We didn't have any credit cards together (I insist on only using debit) so .. we applied for a credit card together on Tuesday, got it approved, will probably just use it for groceries and small things we can pay off quickly, and will now cancel it within the free year trial period! again, getting creative.

If you can start taking photos of you two together, I would definitely suggest it. I was lucky in that my entire family are all photographers, so I have TONS of photos, from the day I met my husband 4 years ago to today. But a lot of the photos I brought today were ones of my husband and I in the last month or two, doing normal things! Us at Starbucks getting his first-ever frappuccino, us hiking around Mt. Hollywood, us taking walks around our neighborhood, my husband and I cooking in our kitchen. They seemed to please the IO, as he said he could grasp our day to day life that way!

My advice is just to get creative, and start rounding up everything you can possibly imagine-- if you don't have a particular piece of evidence, try thinking of something else you can add in instead. We literally had tons; which of course is not necessary, but you'll feel so much better knowing you have lots of proof that you're in a true relationship with your husband. And at a certain point as you pull out all that evidence; your IO is going to tell you, "Ok, I've seen enough!!! You're approved!" :)

[goodbar 1]

Just bring all the evidence you can possibly think of; and get creative. Honestly, I was super worried and anxious ever since we got the interview assigned to us; we don't own or lease or rent a house; we take care of a friend who is not doing well physically's house, and therefore have no documents to show proof of residence together. So we ordered a bunch of random catalogs online to both my and my husband's names at the same address, and used those.

We also don't have a car in our name, nor car insurance nor health/life insurance (no $$ since I just graduated school and my husband hasn't been out of work since the government collapsed in Italy 2 years ago), so we had to work around that issue as well.

We didn't have any credit cards together (I insist on only using debit) so .. we applied for a credit card together on Tuesday, got it approved, will probably just use it for groceries and small things we can pay off quickly, and will now cancel it within the free year trial period! again, getting creative.

If you can start taking photos of you two together, I would definitely suggest it. I was lucky in that my entire family are all photographers, so I have TONS of photos, from the day I met my husband 4 years ago to today. But a lot of the photos I brought today were ones of my husband and I in the last month or two, doing normal things! Us at Starbucks getting his first-ever frappuccino, us hiking around Mt. Hollywood, us taking walks around our neighborhood, my husband and I cooking in our kitchen. They seemed to please the IO, as he said he could grasp our day to day life that way!

My advice is just to get creative, and start rounding up everything you can possibly imagine-- if you don't have a particular piece of evidence, try thinking of something else you can add in instead. We literally had tons; which of course is not necessary, but you'll feel so much better knowing you have lots of proof that you're in a true relationship with your husband. And at a certain point as you pull out all that evidence; your IO is going to tell you, "Ok, I've seen enough!!! You're approved!"

Thanks very much for all your advice I feel a whole lot better now when I know ppl have been in my situation and fought through it. I also dont have a lease in any of our names we are staying with a family friend until we get our own place when finances pick up. Did the IO ask about why you dont have a lease ect together? Also if you dont mind I could certainly use the names of those sites where I can get magazines and stuff in our names. So far this is what I have. Joint tax return for 2012 tax year, I added her to my credit card as a user, photos from the wedding day ( maybe four or five of me, her and her daughter that drove in town), 1 photo of us with her brother watching the super bowl, the official foward mail notification from the post office to forward mail to our new address.

[CarlaDave 27]

Thanks very much for all your advice I feel a whole lot better now when I know ppl have been in my situation and fought through it. I also dont have a lease in any of our names we are staying with a family friend until we get our own place when finances pick up. Did the IO ask about why you dont have a lease ect together? Also if you dont mind I could certainly use the names of those sites where I can get magazines and stuff in our names. So far this is what I have. Joint tax return for 2012 tax year, I added her to my credit card as a user, photos from the wedding day ( maybe four or five of me, her and her daughter that drove in town), 1 photo of us with her brother watching the super bowl, the official foward mail notification from the post office to forward mail to our new address.

Goodbar,

Something that has helped Dave & I in the photos area is using the timer on the camera. We don't have anyone to take photos of us so that little feature has come in handy. If you don't have a camera with that function see if you can borrow one.

[ddkorestin 10]

what a journey. the end was fill with joy