Having lawyer at AOS interview, yes or no?

[caliliving 606]

On 3/14/2017 at 9:03 PM, sparkles_ said:

You mean you printed the pics 6 on a page, or an album with 6 in each plastic page? That is my weekend project, print whatever photos we need in whatever format is easier for this. 

Hey sorry for late response.

No i printed 6 to 8 on a page from the same event...i printed at fedex on colored paper. I themed them and made a timeline...our lawyer said that works best instead of an album too mich to flip thru. And then i got a clear folder and i put everything in frlm noas to birth ceryificates and photos and the io picked what she wanted. 

 

Hope that helps:) i opened word dociment and grabbed the photos and put on the word page if that makes sense. 

[sparkles_ 456]

2 hours ago, caliliving said:

Hey sorry for late response.

No i printed 6 to 8 on a page from the same event...i printed at fedex on colored paper. I themed them and made a timeline...our lawyer said that works best instead of an album too mich to flip thru. And then i got a clear folder and i put everything in frlm noas to birth ceryificates and photos and the io picked what she wanted. 

 

Hope that helps:) i opened word dociment and grabbed the photos and put on the word page if that makes sense. 

Yes, that helps a ton. I was trying to think of a way besides an oldschool album, I owe you a gold star for being crafty

[MiaTher 73]

It sounds like you have plenty of evidence to prove your relationship, so I think you guys will be fine. But you do sound anxious about the interview, so if it will make you feel more secure to have your lawyer with you and the extra fee is no problem for you then by all means bring her to the interview. From what I've heard, lawyers can step in when and if the IO gets tough on the questions. Given that you've petitioned another spouse before, they may look at your case more closely and ask you more questions than usual to determine if your current marriage is legit. I usually get very nervous while waiting for a serious matter and up until it's time for the serious thing to occur, so I thought i was going to be a mess at my interview, but I was actually very calm and responded to the questions easily and without much nervousness. If this sounds like you then you should be fine.

 

My husband however got extremely nervous and messed up a few times when answering questions, I was sure we were going to get denied because of it, but he managed to tell the IO that he was very nervous and thankfully the officer understood. We didn't think it was a good idea to ask if we would be approved (and I wouldn't if I were you just because of the removal detail in your case) so we just waited for the officer to finish the questions and taking copies of our paperwork and for him to tell us whether we were approved or not.

 

My case is not very similar to yours but I'm only giving you advice based on the fact I've done the interview already. Also we printed about 68 photos lol, which only cost $12 at Walmart, and like someone else mentioned, the IO will want to see photos of you two with family and friends. We didn't have photos with friends but we did have several with each other's family and at family parties/gatherings, and the officer kept those. We didn't put them in an album, we just handed the officer the slip in which they came when they were printed and it was no problem, he simply asked if he could take any photos he wanted to keep. I put small labels on several photos indicating the dates and what event it was from and I arranged them in order from first date down to the most current photos we've taken. 

Sorry this is so long but I hope it helps. Good luck!! ?

[sparkles_ 456]

8 minutes ago, MiaTher said:

It sounds like you have plenty of evidence to prove your relationship, so I think you guys will be fine. But you do sound anxious about the interview, so if it will make you feel more secure to have your lawyer with you and the extra fee is no problem for you then by all means bring her to the interview. From what I've heard, lawyers can step in when and if the IO gets tough on the questions. Given that you've petitioned another spouse before, they may look at your case more closely and ask you more questions than usual to determine if your current marriage is legit. I usually get very nervous while waiting for a serious matter and up until it's time for the serious thing to occur, so I thought i was going to be a mess at my interview, but I was actually very calm and responded to the questions easily and without much nervousness. If this sounds like you then you should be fine.

 

My husband however got extremely nervous and messed up a few times when answering questions, I was sure we were going to get denied because of it, but he managed to tell the IO that he was very nervous and thankfully the officer understood. We didn't think it was a good idea to ask if we would be approved (and I wouldn't if I were you just because of the removal detail in your case) so we just waited for the officer to finish the questions and taking copies of our paperwork and for him to tell us whether we were approved or not.

 

My case is not very similar to yours but I'm only giving you advice based on the fact I've done the interview already. Also we printed about 68 photos lol, which only cost $12 at Walmart, and like someone else mentioned, the IO will want to see photos of you two with family and friends. We didn't have photos with friends but we did have several with each other's family and at family parties/gatherings, and the officer kept those. We didn't put them in an album, we just handed the officer the slip in which they came when they were printed and it was no problem, he simply asked if he could take any photos he wanted to keep. I put small labels on several photos indicating the dates and what event it was from and I arranged them in order from first date down to the most current photos we've taken. 

Sorry this is so long but I hope it helps. Good luck!! ?

I appreciate the reply. My last marriage was literally 10yr ago and ended after 7 with 2 kids from it, so we are thinking it won't come up very much. Currently now we have been together almost 3yr and married 2.5yr. I guess the long wait was on our side a bit, we now have a boatload of evidence, lol. 

 

Yes, how you described sounds just like me. I freak out up until the day of whatever event, then get very calm and go on auto pilot. I think we have about 150ish photos spanning the 2.5yr, at least 1/3 of them with family members. We also don't really take pics with friends because we aren't photo people, but I made it a point to stay taking photos at holidays and family vacations, etc. We aren't too worried over hard questions, our lawyer said just answer truthfully....we have lived together for so long now that there shouldnt be any hard questions really. 

[MiaTher 73]

Excellent, you will be fine then. Let us know how it goes! 

[sparkles_ 456]

Well, it was a poopy experience, lol. The local office was beyond busy, we arrived at 915 and didn't get seen til about 1015. Got a lady IO and I somehow knew she would nitpick us. She started asking about how we met and telling us that our i130 may not have been adjudicated properly.....literally almost had me in tears at hearing this. We had to explain to her that because we got married before my husband got put into removal, an interview wasn't required but we were aware it was a chance. Then she started in about the i130 receipt date being after we dealt with ICE...cue more explaining. Says an interview for this would have been beneficial. I say well it took 11mo to approve, and she said they were probably deciding to interview or not. Fine. She gets on how we met, she tried to twist my words of saying I was at X place alone and he was with a friend who he blew off to hang out with me. Asks me, but I thought you said you were alone. Again, I clarify that I did say that, it was my husband who blew off the buddy to hit on me. She asks for the name of my husband's room mate at that time. Asks how we got engaged and when. Asks about what we have in common. We say language, travel, etc and religion. Which one is that? Muslim....

 

Cue the religion questions. Why didn't we have a mosque wedding? Because we didn't think it would take this long to get back to Morocco to have the big one. Well, so your legal civilmarriage isn't technically valid in your religion? My god, she is trying hard to make us screw ourselves. I explain that we are the equal of Easter christians, we don't go to the mosque weekly or even monthly. Yes our faith is important to us but we are also moderate and live far away from the mosque anyway. And that our marriage is valid for us because we are supposed to follow the laws of the land we live in firstly. My husband looked like he was about to pass out at this point. 

 

She flips deep into our file and says to me, "I see you aren't new to this." Meaning I filed for my ex husband about 10yr ago. And I say yes, I filed for my ex 10yr ago. She lets that go. She gets on the fact that I never changed my DL address from my mothers address, it's been 3yr. Why? Because I kept it in her address so I don't pay both county, city and new car highway tax by leaving it in that address. She says it's a discrepancy and explains to us that this is usually a key piece but my explanation makes sense, she knows how high NC newer car taxes are. 

 

We hand over two leases and 2.5 yr worth of detailed bank statements, printed every 3-4mo. She uses her eagle eyes to pick one damn thing to get on, our big tax refund deposit. Why is it in this name? Who is this? Why does it have an & sign in there, I've never seen it this way. I explain we have long first and last names, they used our first initial and what they could fit of our last names. Still asking. I finally present our tax transcript which is address to the same cut off names and this pleases her on that issue. At this point, I'm ready for a shot of vodka. She starts to click on her computer and tells us her connection is down, wait a second she has to call to see what's going on. After this she flips the hard ### act off and starts to smile and look semi human. Says she is sorry she can't approve us now because there is no connection to do the final security check. Basically to make sure hubs wasn't a criminal recently, and to expect something in the mail in 5-7 days pending the final security is good. 

 

Meanwhile im trying to get her to look at my damn 100$ worth of album and printed photos, which she wasn't interested in. Didn't even look at them. Didn't want our utilities. Didn't want anything else after the bank and lease stuff really. She didn't even ask us the yes/no questions on the i485....I give her some of our car insurance stuff. She seemed to want older things and said so, that anyone can add someone to something 2mo ago. I get that. I hand over emergency contact stuff from my kids school like 2yr ago and 3yr worth of zoo memberships. Now she is making small talk and saying she is really sorry she has no connection but that nothing appears negative in our file. Again 5-7 days for her decision. She can't tell us for sure approved without that damn internet. 

 

I ask her one one last time about our i130, because she has went and scared the out of me about it. Is our i130 ok? I need to call my lawyer and fill her in. Yes, she says everything is ok. She thinks we should have filed concurrent and had an i130 interview and adjust in front of a judge but she thinks our lawyer opted for the long way to save money for us...she says adjusting in court is a lot of money, so she gets why. By the end of everything she was pretty decent and only made a copy of our DLs because of the address thing, and said she wouldn't be requesting any other info. 

 

Our lawyer says the 5-7 days thing is goo because a denial takes months. We were not asked anything personal about each other, about our kids, it was literally the 4-5 dagger questions and done. 

 

I wont believe it's approved til I see the card in my mail box. 

 

I also was so worked up from the whole half hour that I estimate we were in her office, that I ended up dry heaving in the parking lot....thank god I skipped breakfast. 

[MiaTher 73]

@sparkles_ Oh man ? the IO at our interview also asked questions in a tricky way like that, which is maybe why my husband gave inaccurate answers. There was a lady at our local office who looked SO mean my husband kept saying "oh god not this one" every time she would walk out to call someone in lol.  I'm sure you'll get the GC in the mail soon, I was the same, didn't want to believe I was approved until I had it in my hands.