I-130 and I-485 Filed. Questions

[jenniper 0]

Hello!

My wife (foreign national) and I (US citizen) just filed I-130 and I-485 today.

We met in December 2013 outside the U.S., proposed in the U.S. in May 2014, and got married in June 2014. in the U.S.

My wife came in under the Visa Waiver Program and overstayed her 3 month period.

I called USCIS couple times regarding this and they said that will be a none issue since we got married before the 3 month was up. Really?

Also, we got married pretty quickly and we just wanted to get it over with before she had to return to her country. Will this be a red flag?

I am a bit worried about the interview.

Do they really ask very invasive questions?

Is there a link to questions that were asked at these interviews?

Thanks!

Edited August 12, 2014 by jenniper

[TBoneTX 45,659]

Welcome to VJ! I'm moving your query to the "Adjustment of Status from Work, Student, & Tourist Visas" case-progress subforum, where similar issues are often discussed. Someone will be along to help. Good luck!

[jenniper 0]

Thanks!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Hi Jenniper,

In this process, things that deserve extra scrutiny are generally called "red flags." It is not necessarily bad to have one, it just means that something needs to be checked a little extra.

So, a short courtship is a red flag. The timing of a marriage can be a red flag, but just getting married before the VWP was over doesn't really count, at least on first glance.

Overstay is irrelevant/forgiven, and it doesn't matter when you married. Beware the USCIS misinformation line. The people who answer the phone are not USCIS workers, they are subcontractors who read from a screen and should not give out any advice. They are most often totally wrong about everything.

They usually don't ask invasive questions at the interview. They can, however, if they suspect fraud and need to do that to weed it out. I wouldn't expect that to happen, though.

Good luck.

[jenniper 0]

Hi Jenniper,

In this process, things that deserve extra scrutiny are generally called "red flags." It is not necessarily bad to have one, it just means that something needs to be checked a little extra.

So, a short courtship is a red flag. The timing of a marriage can be a red flag, but just getting married before the VWP was over doesn't really count, at least on first glance.

Overstay is irrelevant/forgiven, and it doesn't matter when you married. Beware the USCIS misinformation line. The people who answer the phone are not USCIS workers, they are subcontractors who read from a screen and should not give out any advice. They are most often totally wrong about everything.

They usually don't ask invasive questions at the interview. They can, however, if they suspect fraud and need to do that to weed it out. I wouldn't expect that to happen, though.

Good luck.

I appreciate your response. I am a bit worried about the interview just because of what I have seen on YouTube. Haha

But if the marriage is legal and we didn't do anything illegal, then we should be fine.

I just hope we're not targeted just because we got married so soon.

But it was more like knowing that you've found the right person...

Does anyone have info on changing the last name?

When I filed the marriage certificate, I thought I had to use the name on her passport. So all the USCIS forms have her maiden name. Bad mistake on my part.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Why would you watch youtube for this? Sensationalism gets hits, so obviously the worse it seems, the better it is for the person who uploaded it.

You should have applied in the married name, but you can request it be changed at your interview. Might work, might not. If not, then you can change it in 2 years when you file to "remove conditions," the next step after getting the Greencard.

When we had our interview, we had known eachother just over a year and our interview was about 2 minutes long.

[jenniper 0]

It's funny but I found this great helpful website right after I returned from shipping off my application.

Luckily, I filed the application properly judging by feedback people gave to OPs who asked questions on filing.

I will ask them if they can change the name at the interview.

I called USCIS (or so I thought) several times and my encounter has been baffling.

The first few times that I called, I asked them a bunch of questions on filling out the forms and they had a script that they read off of and told me that they cannot provide any advice. Then one time I called, this one rept answered all the questions (correctly) and was very helpful. It's weird.