AOS Second Interview

[nanasbananas 3]

I'm a little bit shocked by this, but I need some support/help. So we had our initial interview back in October, 2015. The IO was to be quite honest, not nice at all, which I understand, because they are doing their job, so I didn't take anything personal. We were sure that we would be approved, so I think this is where our mistake was in being too confident. While we brought our photos together, including pics from vacations, and joint tax files, we couldn't bring our lease simply because we moved two weeks prior to the interview to a brand new building and the didn't get the copy of our lease from the rental company yet. (ironically, we got it two days after the interview). On the lease prior to that I was the sole renter. But we didn't even think of bringing affidavits from our previous landlord or roommate, or friends that could state that we have been living together since 2011. Moreover we've been married for over a year before we even applied for a green card. I was so sure that it was obvious that we were married, that I guess I overlooked the fact that maybe it's not so obvious for USCIS.
So anyway, our interview lasted for about 20 mins, then we were told to wait for the decision in the mail. FOUR months passed and nothing. I finally sent out the case inquiry and one month after the case inquiry (so five months of waiting all together) they sent me a reply, that they couldn't reach a decision and will schedule a second interview shortly.
My understanding this is going to be a Stokes interview, which is upsetting as I feel like it's not fair. Our case is taking awfully long. So how long now should I wait for them to decide to schedule the second interview. It feels like if I didn't send the case inquire they wouldn't even remember about our case. Should I do the info pass or just stay patient and keep waiting?
Mind you the case status online has not been updated since September 2015.

[MariaR323 199]

Did you take anything else besides pictures and your tax returns? If you didn't, that was probably not enough. You need to take a lot more evidence such as the lease agreement showing both names and more importantly co-mingling of finances: any credit cards you added him to - take the statements, power of attorney, insurance cards showing the same address, state ID cards with the same address, joint bank accounts, etc.

I'd say make sure you try and make it as bullet proof as possible on this second go-round. You have to think in terms of proving your relationship to a complete stranger who already thinks it's not. Anything you can think of that would prove you're in a true, not-for-profit/benefits, marriage is what you need to take.

[Cheezees 1,514]

I think after more than a year of marriage bringing just tax returns and pictures was definitely not enough. MariaR323 gave you excellent advice!

[nanasbananas 3]

MariaR323 and Cheezees, thank you for the respond. Like I mentioned in my post I understand that it was a mistake on our behalf to think that it was so obvious that we were married that we didn't need any additional proof. By the time we got scheduled for the first interview we were already married for a little more than two years.
My question, however, is if I should try for an info pass, because I'm not sure how long will I have to wait for a second interview, it seems like the NYC field office taking longer time than usual with our case and like I said I haven't gotten any update from the office until I sent a case inquiry. My case status online hasn't been updated for almost 7 months.

[Bronxnyc 33]

On 3/18/2016 at 7:57 PM, nanasbananas said:

MariaR323 and Cheezees, thank you for the respond. Like I mentioned in my post I understand that it was a mistake on our behalf to think that it was so obvious that we were married that we didn't need any additional proof. By the time we got scheduled for the first interview we were already married for a little more than two years.
My question, however, is if I should try for an info pass, because I'm not sure how long will I have to wait for a second interview, it seems like the NYC field office taking longer time than usual with our case and like I said I haven't gotten any update from the office until I sent a case inquiry. My case status online hasn't been updated for almost 7 months.

How long did you wait for your stokes interview after you did your first interview 

[nanasbananas 3]

2 hours ago, Bronxnyc said:

How long did you wait for your stokes interview after you did your first interview 

A year and a half. My first interview was in October, 2015 and my stokes interview was in February, 2017

Edited April 25, 2018 by nanasbananas

[Downloader 199]

Please if you are ok share the stokes interview details for the benefit of others who might be in the same situation, also what was the process after that.

We usually like to know the whole history trying to understand why things happen and the method for decisions making of different USCIS officers.

 

Thank You,

[MyJourney 276]

I have never had an interview yet, but I think you need to bring all the documentation you can have to demonstrate strong: 
1. communal ties (renting/living together) for the entire time you were married. 
2. insurance ties - show your rental/home/health/auto/life, etc insurances that demonstrate you both are on the same insurance as a family. 
3. financial ties - show your mutual bank accounts, credit cards, auto loans, etc. 
4. healthy marital ties - pictures from your wedding, travel, children, etc. 
5. official legal marriage - originals of your marriage certificate, divorce decrees (if applicable) 
Good luck. 

[MyJourney 276]

If necessary get support letters from your neighbors, friends, colleagues who have known you as a couple long enough. If you are involved in any community/charity/volunteering activities as a couple, get similar letters from those committees or organizations that can testify to the fact that you are indeed a real, living couple that are actively involved in social life and positively contributing to the society. 

[sweetadams 138]

On 4/25/2018 at 2:33 PM, nanasbananas said:

A year and a half. My first interview was in October, 2015 and my stokes interview was in February, 2017

I would suggest you make an info pass and also get your congressional liaison officer involved. It worked for me, your file is probably somewhere in the field office gathering dust and until you make a move, USCIS is too busy to go far back to pull your case. If after all these years of waiting.....you should either be expecting a house visit then......but my advice don't wait for USCIS to come to you....go to them through info pass and your congressman or senator office.

[nanasbananas 3]

Hey guys, 

thank you for all the responses. I actually completely forgot to update my story, so I'll do it now and hopefully it will help others who are in the same situation.

Like I said earlier, my stokes interview happened a year and a half after my initial interview and two weeks after the stokes I got my green card in the mail. 

For the stokes interview we had the following with us: 

our lease, car insurance, photo album, bills under our name, tax returns.

we didn't have bank statements because we didn't have a joint bank account at the time. 

The interview first started with both of us, the officer asked few basic questions, looked at our photos, asked about our travels and kept couple of pictures for his file. Then he separated us and conducted separate interviews, which lasted maybe 10-15 mins each. After that he went over few questions that we answered differently from each other, so he wanted to clarify them. And that was it. Overall I had a very positive experience with stokes interview, much better from the original one and the officer was very pleasant, we even had few laughs when answering certain questions. 

A week after the interview my case status online was updated and I received my green card shortly after. I got a permanent GC right away, due to the fact that by the time we had a stokes interview we were already married for over 3 years. 

[Lupigirl 67]

11 hours ago, nanasbananas said:

Hey guys, 

thank you for all the responses. I actually completely forgot to update my story, so I'll do it now and hopefully it will help others who are in the same situation.

Like I said earlier, my stokes interview happened a year and a half after my initial interview and two weeks after the stokes I got my green card in the mail. 

For the stokes interview we had the following with us: 

our lease, car insurance, photo album, bills under our name, tax returns.

we didn't have bank statements because we didn't have a joint bank account at the time. 

The interview first started with both of us, the officer asked few basic questions, looked at our photos, asked about our travels and kept couple of pictures for his file. Then he separated us and conducted separate interviews, which lasted maybe 10-15 mins each. After that he went over few questions that we answered differently from each other, so he wanted to clarify them. And that was it. Overall I had a very positive experience with stokes interview, much better from the original one and the officer was very pleasant, we even had few laughs when answering certain questions. 

A week after the interview my case status online was updated and I received my green card shortly after. I got a permanent GC right away, due to the fact that by the time we had a stokes interview we were already married for over 3 years. 

Thank you for that update.  I’m glad it ended up working out well for you guys.