Do not give up at the AOS interview!

[Coleman21 6]

I thought I would share my experience here, as I had a lot of help from people on Visa Journey, and I would like everyone here to get their cases approved. I had my AOS interview on August 6^th, 2013 at USCIS in Atlanta.

My husband (US citizen) and I were scheduled for noon, but we got to the building at 10:30am. Went through security and waited on the first floor until 11:30am, as we were not allowed to check in till 30 minutes before the interview time. We checked in, went upstairs, and waited on the second floor. Our number was 51. We could go to the bathroom and drink water from the fountain as we waited. We were anxious, but we were not called until 40 minutes past our scheduled time. People who were called before us didn’t come out for a long time. Every time I saw this interviewer who was a big man with scary expression on his face, I hoped we wouldn’t get him as our interview.

Our interviewer was a black lady, Ms. Helena. (I couldn’t get her name when she said her name, but my husband told me her name after the interview.) She looked less scary than the man, but she still looked strict and didn’t look like she was in a good mood. My husband had the number sheet with him, but our interview notice that had come in mail was in my bag. All I had to do was put my hand in the bag, but Ms. Helena wouldn’t wait! She sounded irritated and she was like, never mind, I’ll see it in the room. We went through a door and I realized there were many rooms and a long corridor inside it. We went into the room as I thought I had already screwed my first impression by not showing the interview notice as soon as she came out to call us. In the room, we were asked to raise our right hand and swear that everything we were going to say was true. Then we sat down.

I showed my interview notice and all my passports and EAD card. I had prepared old ones I used before 2008 when I traveled with my family as a child, so I handed them in as well as my current passport with my F-1 student visa on it. Ms. Helena asked me if I was on J-1 at first. I said no, I was on F-1 all the time. She asked me if I had used any other passports. I said that one is the only one I used after I got my student visa. She didn’t seem interested in the old passports.

From both of us, Ms. Helena wanted a driver’s license, but my husband didn’t have one and I didn’t bring my Japanese license. I didn’t have my American license anyway. We said we didn’t have a license, so Ms. Helena just got my husband’s state IDs (He had lived in NY with me until last May, so he had two) and my passport was the only ID she got from me.

Ms. Helena told us to put anything that proves our relationship, but not things we’d already mailed. I was a little surprised because the interview notice had said to bring all original and copy of what we had sent. So we had to pull out everything from our files and bags and put them on the table. We had: 84 pictures with captions on the backs, our phones that had more pictures on, (Atlanta office does allow electric device as long as you do not use them at the waiting room and do not bring chargers or anything that have to be plugged in.) diaries, bank packet we got when we opened accounts, drawings we drew together, letters that were addressed to both of us or either of us, bills that came to our address, recent bank statements, receipts including grocery receipts (we knew grocery receipts were not important, but we had brought just in case so that we could show we bought things in GA as we had just moved to GA last May), affidavit of residence from my husband’s mother that shows we live at her address. The table got lots of piles!!

But she did not look at them, and she was looking through all the documents we had sent. She found from the document that I went to college in NY but that I am in GA now. She asked me why it was so, and what my plan was. I explained that I went to college in NY but my parents were so against our marriage that they had said if we do not divorce, they would stop funding me and they had done so, so my husband’s family decided to help us. I explained that I am still enrolled in the school, and I will have to take a semester or a year off after the break. She said the USCIS did not allow me to do that. I said, this is only about if I get green card. She said it doesn’t matter whether I get green card or not. This is what she kept on saying: When I got F1 visa, I had to promise that I would come back to Japan. That was a promise between Japan and America, as America can’t get all the immigrants, America has enough. If green card is the only way for me to go back and forth between Japan and America, she doesn’t know if I qualify for green card. I thought in my mind, oh my goodness, I shouldn’t have said anything about taking a leave of absence. I could have just said I was here for summer break because it was really summer break and my school hadn’t started yet. I thought I screwed it up. My husband looked anxious too. I had thought that if anything comes up suspicious during the interview, that would be about my visa. And I was reading a lot about student visas and adjusting status from F-1. Yet, at the very beginning of the interview, this. I thought she was going to accuse me of visa fraud, so I said, “but I did not know we would apply for green card when I came to the USA”. Apparently it wasn’t what she was thinking about. She said it didn’t matter. She kept repeating “the promise” between Japan and America and she said she wasn’t sure if I qualify for green card. I thought maybe she had never dealt with people adjusting status from F-1, because I knew a lot of people did that already, including people I know in person. But she said she had to see if I qualify for green card, and she started looking at some paper and checking stuff. I held my husband’s hand.

She moved on to different section. In the middle I asked if I don’t qualify for green card. She was like, oh, yes, you do. That was a relief. She asked me how I met my husband. I told her I met my husband on Myspace in March, 2010. I added that I went see him in person in 2011, but she was now questioning meeting online. She asked when we started dating, and we said April 5^th, 2010, and we explained it was like online dating, but she wanted to know why it had to be him; there are so many people out there on the internet. I tried to explain that as both of us were teenagers we had some problem in mind and we worked it out together, but she wouldn’t listen and she was doing something on the paper. I had to be a little rude and say to her that he was just a good person to talk to at first, and as we kept talking, our relationship became more and more serious. I said we had a wonderful platonic relationship. She didn’t seem to be interested. When I explained that we decided to get married as my parents were about to separate us, she said, “Would you not rather marry someone who your parents would approve?” I got a little red and said, “NO! I would never marry anyone other than him!” “See, that’s what I’m concerned about.” She said, and I did not understand. When she found out I had not really dated anyone before my husband, she again said that’s what she was concerned about. When she said, “I don’t see how you guys can last.” I got more emotional and said, “You mean, we are going to divorce??!” She was like, no, but she was still looking at paper, as if she wasn’t interested in our relationship. As she was writing something and we almost fell silent, I interrupted, “I’m sorry, can I say something?” She unwillingly said yes, so I said, “When we were talking, we actually got into a lot of fights. That’s why I know we will last, because a lot of couples never fight and as soon as they fight they break up, but every time we fought we came back to each other and understood each other more deeply.” She was like, okay, okay, but I felt better then. My husband was not asked any questions and so he was just sitting and watching us, but later he said to me that I was being emotional at the interview. And at this time I felt Ms. Helena understood my emotion as I showed it to her.

Yet there was another thing that scared us: my medical exam form. Ms. Helena looked over my form I had sent by mail, and she asked me who my doctor was. Before I could answer, she said, this doctor did not complete my medical form. This time she showed that she wasn’t blaming me but the doctor. It was the skin test thing that she said the doctor hadn’t finished filling out. I told her that in Japan we get BCG vaccination, so we automatically get positive for skin test, so I had an X-ray exam, and that the doctor must have attached explanation about it. But she said she knew about the Japanese people’s positive result, and the doctor still had to fill out the form thoroughly because the immigration officers are not doctors. She said the doctor had to fill it out soon. I asked if we can’t get green card because of this. She said we can still get it, but if the doctor doesn’t complete the form, I can’t. My husband and I were disappointed. Fortunately, Ms. Helena called the doctor and someone answered on the phone. Ms. Helena told the person that the doctor had to complete the form and fax it immediately. But before the person got the doctor on the phone, Ms. Helena said, oh, I’m sorry, the form is complete. It was alright. Bye. Phew! Ms. Helena realized that I did not even have the skin test because the doctor had known I cannot do that. Ms. Helena apologized and continued the interview.

Ms. Helena was now looking at the affiliation section on my I-485 form. I had listed my honors societies. She asked me what my major was. I said piano performance and geography. She asked me if I was pretty good. I said yes, at least my piano teacher says so, and she wanted me to go graduate school, I also competed a lot at competitions. I also explained that the honors society I had listed second is a geography honors society and I have very good grades. Ms. Helena again said that Japan would like to have me back because Japan is a piano country. But this time she also said that the US goverment would want me, too. That made me feel a little better. Ms. Helena said that all this information can be in public, and the Japanese ambassy could see this information, too. I wondered why Japan would want me to go back to Japan though, as I haven't got degrees yet. I was just listening and nodding. Ms. Helena said that although she does not know what Japan would really do, America could give me a green card. I was glad I had listed honors socities on my application.

Although I felt that Ms. Helena was going to approve our case, she didn't make it clear and kept going. So I wanted to make sure she wouldn't change her mind. She asked us if we had recent bank statements. We had opened a new account in GA, so we showed a letter from the bank that showed that we had recently opened an account. We hadn’t got bank statements from the bank, but we had saved bank statements from our other bank back in NY that came by mail, and Ms. Helena was more interested in that one. However, she just looked at the envelopes and did not look actual statements. I was glad because our money on the bank was extremely low. I said that as I showed the enveloped, though. I guess she just wanted to see if we had a joint account, and both of our names were on the envelope, so that was enough for her.

Then she asked if we had something like a lease to show we live at our current address. I said my mother in law had signed a letter that stated we live at her house. She was like, oh you have it, and she took it and read it. It was an affidavit of residence that I had looked up how to write on Ehow and had my mother in law sign it and get it notarized at the court. (It cost less than 3 dollars.) My mother in law had asked me if she really needed to do that, and I had told her that lawyers I had contacted suggested we should do that. (I asked about it on Avvo.com, as I didn’t hire any lawyer. Great site to ask questions for free.) I was glad I had her sign it, because that was the only thing Ms. Helena really looked at. She didn’t even look at any of our 84 pictures! The letter listed both of our names and the address and since when we have lived at the address.

She asked if my husband had filled out I-864. As I prepared everything, my husband didn’t recognize the form name, and he was confused. I said, “yes,

he did” to Ms. Helena, and “yes, you did” to my husband. Ms. Helena apparently found the form he had signed and said that she recognizes he didn’t have enough income, so she would look solely at our joint sponsor’s income. She just glanced at the form and said that the income was enough, and that was the end of the interview. She didn’t ask for most recent pay stubs! I knew that a lot of interviewers don’t ask for updated information for I-864 based on many forums I had read on VJ, but I thought there was still a big chance she would look at most recent ones because our joint sponsor (my husband’s stepfather) got his current job just this year. But she didn’t.

And she started explaining how to lift conditions on my green card in two years. I was very happy to hear the explanation, because I knew that this is something only those who got approval can hear! My husband asked if we could get our joint sponsor’s birth certificate back, because we accidentally sent the original. Ms. Helena told us to write a letter to Washington D.C. office because they have it. Then she started off to another room to make a copy of our IDs. We were saying that we would just pay 25 dollars for another birth certificate. We hugged each other in happiness!

When Ms. Helena came back, she gave us back the original IDs. She said we could go to another room to tidy up our stuff as we were taking time cleaning up the desk piled up with our things, but in order to tidy up our stuff in another room, we had to collect it anyway, so we were still in the interview room when she was working on the file and the computer. I asked if she really didn’t want to look at anything. She shook her head. I asked if she wanted to look at some pictures. She again shook her head and said no. She looked busy and it seemed that we could go any time. But I asked, “May I shake hands with you?” and then she smiled and shook mine and shook my husband’s. She said she couldn't believe she was shaking hands with a pianist. I laughed. And we thanked her a lot. We said we had been stressed out just because of green card, and she understood. She said something like all couples would be stressed out. We couldn’t help smiling as we got approval, and Ms. Helena seemed happy, too. When we finally left, she told us to have a good evening, and told us the way back.

I want to say that even if your interview starts off badly, even if your interviewer doesn’t seem friendly, don’t give up! Keep showing how important your marriage is, verbally and with such attitude, and show that you’re respectful. Some immigration officers are strict, and say things that sound threatening, because it’s their job, but they are human after all who feel like we do. So if you can show it, most likely they will understand and approve your case. Just don’t be too shy! Even if you’re nervous, you can show your emotion. Good luck to everybody who is going to have their interview!!! And thank you to everyone who directly or indirectly answered to my questions and gave me advice. This forum is really great, and I am glad I didn’t have to hire an attorney, as VJ members had pretty much been my free attornies! THANK YOU!!!!! And good luck on your marriage life!!!!!!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Good job, but you were woefully unprepared. A lot of this story is just total confusion about the requirements, throwing way too much meaningless evidence at them (grocery receipts, old visas from when you were a kid??).

Hopefully for ROC you study up more on the requirements and make a meaningful package. Best of luck.

[Mehur4e 4]

Thank u a lot for sharing your experience in details!!! Congratulations!!!!! Stay positive! Happy and long lasting marriage!!!

[TBoneTX 45,649]

*** Thread moved from main "AOS from WS&T Visas" forum to the Case Progress subforum. ***

[bamarolltide 4]

Thank you for sharing! our interview will be in Atlanta too! this was really helpful Congrats!

[Morningmist 76]

Was she thin and had blonde hair or lot of pictures of her family at her desk and a plastic wriggly plant shaped thing on her desk? Because she sounds a lot like the IO we had. Our interview was late too, by 40 minutes. And she grilled us in the beginning about all sorts of random things. She didn't look happy until my husband started some small talk with her while she kept typing something into the computer. He talked even when not spoken to. My husband didn't even look at this site but I do think his attitude helped us get approval on the spot. By the end of the interview , she was very nice and friendly too.

[MochiKamo 93]

Congratulations! It looks like you had some snags and potential red flags, but everything got ironed out at the end and you were successful !

[AnotherLostSoul 167]

Congratulations! But Harpa is right, you were way too unprepared. So you should feel yourself lucky and do a whole lot better job at the ROC application. On the other hand, the behavior this lady was presenting surprises me...what's up with the "there was an agreement between Japan and US" and "Japan wants you back" and "why didn't you find someone else who your parents would approve?" questions??? I find them, personally, a bit insulting....let alone the statement of "we have enough immigrants" statement...if so, they should make sure that all the people work hard, and honestly because it seems to me that all these F1 students who try to immigrate here would bring nothing but a bit more money in the long run with their skills...gotta teach local spoiled brats what hard work is if "we really don't want any more immigrants coming in"....this lady was a bit rude, and insensitive, I believe. Anyway, a big congratulations, and prepare better for ROC. All the best!