Did the INS ever go to peoples homes?

[MissStacey 1]

Even after we got married, and I knew nothing about the Immigration process, I always thought INS came to your house to check up on you. Make sure you were really married, slept in the same room,etc. Did they ever actually do this? Or am I getting this from things I have seen on TV and movies?

[Robor007 0]

I've never heard of anything like that. I know a USC/Filipina couple who were K-3 in Oct 2004 (arrival) and as far as I know they've never had an USCIS/INS visit.

[Caladan 19]

I'm pretty sure that's just from the movie Green Card. I don't think the INS would have the resources to waste knocking on doors short of deportation order & a warrant.

Plus, there's the whole 4th Amendment thing, which I think is still in force, maybe. (It's hard to tell, lately)

[featherB 1]

I'm pretty sure that's just from the movie Green Card. I don't think the INS would have the resources to waste knocking on doors short of deportation order & a warrant.

Plus, there's the whole 4th Amendment thing, which I think is still in force, maybe. (It's hard to tell, lately)

Was going to say... if you close your eyes and try to picture the scene in which they come round to someone's house to check on their living arrangements, do the couple involved look suspiciously like Gerard Depardieu and Andie Macdowell??

(seriously, I have no idea whether they might actually do this on some very rare occasions if they're suspicious enough, but my first thought on seeing this post was 'ahh, someone else whose entire understanding of the immigration process will be forever skewed by having seen Green Card at a young age - just like me!')

[MissStacey 1]

I haven't seen Greencard. I have seen commercials for it in the past but never had an urge to watch it. I want to see it now though.

Edited January 17, 2007 by Stacey33

[featherB 1]

I haven't seen Greencard. I have seen commercials for it in the past but never had an urge to watch it. I want to see it now though.

I saw it when I was about 14, and had totally forgotten about it 'til filing our petition (all that 'proof of relationship' stuff) and reading up on the whole process... then a few weeks ago I was flicking through the TV channels and it was on! I had to sit and watch it... at which point I realised that's exactly where all my niggling worries that we'll be interrogated about the colour of each other's toothbrushes and preferred brands of moisturiser etc at some point came from!

[kitkat1 5]

If there was a serious question regarding the relationship, it could happen. In that case they normally do a stokes interview but with immigration, you never know.

[peezey 0]

I know personally of a couple this happened to. Her husband (the applicant) was home and she (the sponsor) was at work. He asked questions, looked in the bedroom, closets, living room. He left his biz card when he left.

Edited January 17, 2007 by peezey

[Mary Lou 682]

I also know of a couple this happened to. They arrived at their house unannounced, the USC was away working and the applicant was home. Checked the house out, even asked to see photo albums.

[deathbydalbhat 0]

Yoicks! I am scared of this...

Currently I am living with a male friend/roommate(purely platonic!) and depending on the timing of the whole visa process I am hoping to find an apartment before Kumar gets here, but given our finances and the insane NYC rental situation Kumar and I may have to share with my roommate when he first gets here, and I am wondering if the situation might look a little 'fishy'. Since my rent is very low now(this is how I can afford all this on my librarian's salary) and will go up greatly when I get my own apartment, plus I will be in Nepal for the whole summer, it makes no sense to look for an apartment before I come back from Nepal in August.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Don't loose too much sleep about this. It is very much the exception rather than the norm, and I expect there must be something to give them suspicions first. I agree that they don't have staff to make arbitrary home visits unless there is a red flag first.

[MissStacey 1]

It wouldn't bother me if they did come to our house one day. We would probably invite them to stay for dinner. I was always curious if they really did do this or not, even Mel thought they did this too. I was not sure where I knew this, or got this from.

[Fandango 1,440]

I always thought it'd be cool to play this insano-newlywed game. Especially if they came over while we were fighting...they'd be all 'yep, they're a real couple' lol

[peejay 327]

A co-worker friend of mine that lives in south Louisiana married a Russian woman that came over on a K-1 visa. Shortly after they were married in 2004 an FBI agent came by while he was offshore at work to ask routine questions of his wife and also left a card. She freaked out and it scared the hell out of her. My friend later called the local FBI office the agent was assigned to and was told it was routine that their office interviews newly arrived foreign nationals to the area. They never heard anything from the FBI since then. Very strange. I've never heard of anyone else getting a welcome wagon treatment from the FBI. Maybe they thought she was Chechen? (She isn't.)

[almaty 19]

A co-worker friend of mine that lives in south Louisiana married a Russian woman that came over on a K-1 visa. Shortly after they were married in 2004 an FBI agent came by while he was offshore at work to ask routine questions of his wife and also left a card. She freaked out and it scared the hell out of her. My friend later called the local FBI office the agent was assigned to and was told it was routine that their office interviews newly arrived foreign nationals to the area. They never heard anything from the FBI since then. Very strange. I've never heard of anyone else getting a welcome wagon treatment from the FBI. Maybe they thought she was Chechen? (She isn't.)

my wife, Sanita, is a Chechen..the only people to come around was the Welcome Wagon..of course, now i think of it..they were wearing dark suits and had ray-bans on....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm