I-751 Interview now mandatory?

[nightingalejules 678]

8 minutes ago, foldpages said:

I had interview for both AOS and ROC after receiving RFE for ROC. My evidence both for initial filing and RFE were very strong confirmed by two attorneys and even the officer said during the interview "I wish more cases were like this". My I-751 case file was over 1000 pages. Nobody knows what's going on. 

It does seem like some interviews actually are related to insufficiency of evidence, and some are much more random. Maybe there's a quota? But so far it seems like a "waived interview" (ie approval without interview) is still the norm.

[4444510 33]

1 hour ago, nightingalejules said:

It does seem like some interviews actually are related to insufficiency of evidence, and some are much more random. Maybe there's a quota? But so far it seems like a "waived interview" (ie approval without interview) is still the norm.

I just don't get it why would they need random interviews for good cases while there are so many "red-flagged" ones in their opinion

[nightingalejules 678]

19 minutes ago, 4444510 said:

I just don't get it why would they need random interviews for good cases while there are so many "red-flagged" ones in their opinion

"Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to..." wait and wait and wait and.... 

There is literally no logic to any of this - so pretty much no point in trying to figure it out!

[Mollie09 1,543]

4 hours ago, 4444510 said:

It sounds reasonable but no one knows what's indeed going on over there. I have read about 2 interviews both for AOS and ROC, about interviews without RFE, etc., and divorce waivers with no interview (few of them on this forum).

I'm one of the divorce waivers approved with no interview, and keep hearing that short marriages are a guarantee for an interview. Mine lasted less than a year, but we were together for a couple of years beforehand in the US. You never know.

[4444510 33]

19 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

I'm one of the divorce waivers approved with no interview, and keep hearing that short marriages are a guarantee for an interview. Mine lasted less than a year, but we were together for a couple of years beforehand in the US. You never know.

Since I am an immigrant and revolve in the respective circle I have very many examples of I-751. No one got a second interview with them beimg married a bit more than 2 years

[Sam_Son_83 17]

2 hours ago, Mollie09 said:

I'm one of the divorce waivers approved with no interview, and keep hearing that short marriages are a guarantee for an interview. Mine lasted less than a year, but we were together for a couple of years beforehand in the US. You never know.

 

There's at least one other person (in the September thread) whose waiver was approved without interview.

It also was a short marriage and mentioned that, having been completely over the whole USCIS thing, did not bother to send in a lot of evidence. His attitude was "if they don't believe me I can always explain my case at the interview".

 

Imho there are quite a few factors that will affect the initial I-751 decision. Probably also things like the adjudicating officer's life experiences etc.

 

In general I believe waiver cases are just as easy or hard to get approved than regular applications. If push comes to shove and you end up in front of a judge, the burden of proof lies on USCIS. It makes me believe (also considering what I read on here), that they will try to approve your case, unless they have pretty much slam dunk evidence of fraud etc.

 

I'm in a similar position, as my marriage was short too. I guess we will have to see!

[xillini 71]

15 hours ago, 4444510 said:

I just don't get it why would they need random interviews for good cases while there are so many "red-flagged" ones in their opinion

The big stake is their job security and public images. If they don't enforce random interviews, then it gives a signal for potential marriage fraudsters that they are gonna be safe, but by announcing the random selection, it discourages the fraudsters. 

 

Yet, the question still remains: fraudsters are not stupid enough. They may actually continued to get married 2 years, knowing that all marriage interviews are required for initial AOS interviews in order to avoid I-751 process. Plus, during the 2 years of marriages, fraudsters will accumulates more convincing evidences for AOS approval while not even worried about I-751, financially and timelinewise. 

 

So in the end, the random interview selection is just about whom to blame when things go viral whilst USCIS doesn't actually care other than job security. 

[xillini 71]

10 hours ago, Sam_Son_83 said:

In general I believe waiver cases are just as easy or hard to get approved than regular applications. If push comes to shove and you end up in front of a judge, the burden of proof lies on USCIS. It makes me believe (also considering what I read on here), that they will try to approve your case, unless they have pretty much slam dunk evidence of fraud etc.

 

 

Yes, the irony thing is USCIS claims the burden of proof is the applicant's, not USCIS. In other words, the null hypothesis is all immigration applicants are guilt until proven otherwise. Only when and if the applicants provide convincing evidences does USCIS grant for immigration benefits. 

 

But when it becomes to the court, the burden of proof is on USCIS and its prosecutors to convince the judge. The null hypothesis in US criminal system is all suspects are innocent until proven guilty. 

 

Also, I read routinely glassdoor reviews how USCIS officers think about itself. It has tons of valuable insights that we would never know as outsiders, who are very concerned and just annoyed by USCIS, about how insider's think of organization. One of the impressive comments was the leadership team in field office is more concerned about how many applications they receive and the ratios of approvals vs denials, which is a strong threshold for their promotions.

 

So, the burden is now transferred to IO, who actually conducts the interviews with somewhat pressuring from the Field Office's managers. So I am guessing, if I have to, USCIS IO generally tends to approve the cases if applicants provide reasoanble, strong, and convincing evidences for the immigration benefits. 

Edited September 29, 2017 by xillini

[martincook 0]

Can omebody tell me whether guidelines to select i751 filers to undergo interview process have recently been changed by USICS ?

whether the percentage for interview has gone up or down in last one year

[Scazy 78]

I was at infopass last week and been told ALL 751 go to interview. They did not said "from now" or something to indicate that it's a new policy, so I didn't even paid attention much, and I probably would be concerned now if I haven't seen all these recent approvals. If all 751s would go to interview, that means our petitions would sit at the dark closet of cervice center in line until it's time ( 11 months NCS, 16 and who knows at CSC), then it must be transferred to local office, at the end of another line and priority cases. Give it another year if you have tons of i751 ahead. Then come back here and see forum flooded with threads "divorce during ROC" ( it  already started) as 2 years is a lot of time and marriages do fall apart ( plain divorce statistics ). That would be a total mess. Still believe that is rumor and get mixed up with the new policy for H1B and such 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Scazy

[Lemon23 400]

42 minutes ago, martincook said:

Can omebody tell me whether guidelines to select i751 filers to undergo interview process have recently been changed by USICS ?

whether the percentage for interview has gone up or down in last one year

 

10 minutes ago, Scazy said:

I was at infopass last week and been told ALL 751 go to interview. They did not said "from now" or something to indicate that it's a new policy, so I didn't even paid attention much, and I probably would be concerned now if I haven't seen all these recent approvals. If all 751s would go to interview, that means our petitions would sit at the dark closet of cervice center in line until it's time ( 11 months NCS, 16 and who knows at CSC), then it must be transferred to local office, at the end of another line and priority cases. Give it another year if you have tons of i751 ahead. Then come back here and see forum flooded with threads "divorce during ROC" ( it  already started) as 2 years is a lot of time and marriages do fall apart ( plain divorce statistics ). That would be a total mess. Still believe that is rumor and get mixed up with the new policy for H1B and such 

I read this from December 2016 Filer:

 

Interview for employment-based AOS is essential and required under the new USCIS policy. That's one of the major change in USCIS policy this year. I-751 still remain the same and I agree with you guys that the attorneys scare people to get some money out of them. Below is the new policy effective from October-2017.

https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-to-expand-in-person-interview-requirements-for-certain-permanent-residency-applicants

 

Based on the link i-751, is not included as mandatory but random 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Lemon23

[4444510 33]

3 hours ago, Lemon23 said:

 

I read this from December 2016 Filer:

 

Interview for employment-based AOS is essential and required under the new USCIS policy. That's one of the major change in USCIS policy this year. I-751 still remain the same and I agree with you guys that the attorneys scare people to get some money out of them. Below is the new policy effective from October-2017.

https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-to-expand-in-person-interview-requirements-for-certain-permanent-residency-applicants

 

Based on the link i-751, is not included as mandatory but random 

Once again, new policy did not affect Removal of Conditions but USCIS is planning to extend this mandatory interview for all types of I-751 in future. No dates were given. If you check out current approvals in August 2016 and July 2016 filers threads, you'll see none of them reported being called for the interview. Chill out.

[mindthegap 2,605]

4 hours ago, martincook said:

Can omebody tell me whether guidelines to select i751 filers to undergo interview process have recently been changed by USICS ?

No

[4444510 33]

3 hours ago, mindthegap said:

No

I've just read your timeline, it's insane, sorry about that. My question, how was your interview when you switched to a divorce waiver? What did you say, what did they ask? How long were you staying there? Thank you.

 

P.S. This is fun:  W, and indeed, TF is going on????

[mindthegap 2,605]

7 hours ago, 4444510 said:

I've just read your timeline, it's insane, sorry about that. My question, how was your interview when you switched to a divorce waiver? What did you say, what did they ask? How long were you staying there? Thank you.

 

P.S. This is fun:  W, and indeed, TF is going on????

Simple enough.

Lasted one hour, asked to confirm I wanted to switch to a waiver, and that i tick the waiver box and then initial it, and then write on a plain piece of paper something about the circumstances of the marriage ending and sign and date it. 

Asked for a copy of the divorce decree which I handed over.

 

She had a list of specific questions - presumably from the officer who had reviewed the petition originally  - which she asked. One of these seemed quite innocent at the time, but was in fact (as I found out at a later date) directly related to the false allegations made, that I was given no opportunity to refute or answer (as I should be, so breached their policy).

The interviewer also straight up lied to me on a couple of occasions. 

 

Some of the documents with the answers to these questions were in the file, some were not. 

I gave some more evidence - she only wanted a fraction of what I had with me, mainly concentrating on proof of travel and financial co-mingling as late as possible in the marriage.

She looked through and took a handful of photos from the multiple albums I had with me. 

 

 

 

I guess I will now have another one of these to look forward to next year, along with my N-400 interview - hopefully done as a combined interview. 

Edited December 21, 2017 by mindthegap