Surprise home visit / AOS

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

At 8am this morning, while sound asleep, incessant loud banging on the door as if the house was on fire woke me up.
Sleepily I stumbled to the door in my night gown and in front of me were a man and a lady announcing they were from immigration.
Knowing all about home visits I responded as calm as a cucumber : "Sure come on in have a seat, I need to put some clothes on."
Nothing rattles me anymore on this journey.
I said to my husband honey get up, immigration is here.
He quickly threw some clothes on and came into the living room where the man started asking questions.
Meanwhile our 4 dogs were barking like they were out of their minds drowning out the questions we no longer could hear
and I said excuse me and like the true alpha told them to shuuuut uuuup. Silence at last. Proceed.
It was truly like a scene out of Chevy Chase National Lampoon movie,
Endless Bummer, Animal House, Barely Legal, Threshhold of Hell, pick any title.
(They should make one about immigration it would be a hoot).

Questions asked were about travel together, our work schedules, how long I owned my business, etc.
He took pictures of several things in the house, my African culture decor, photos in frames of us together,
of my husband's mom, of him as a baby, a photo I had sitting in my
bedroom of my naturalization ceremony from almost 20 years ago tucked into a forgotten corner of the dresser,
(I immigrated here over 40 years ago). He recognized that it was from a naturalization ceremony with eagle eyes, must have
been doing this job for a while. I was impressed.
Yes, we were all in the bedroom by now, they wanted a
tour of the house...meaning checking closets, seeing if we really lived together, slept in the same unmade bed and so on.

Now I always pictured the perfect home visit with a clean sparkling house, having coffee with the investigators
and exchanging niceties. No, it was just like they prefer it, a total surprise. The house was a mess and so was I with
a big shiner on my forehead because I ran into a sharp fence post bracket the day before.
I did point to the beautiful bouquet of flowers he bought me a few days ago though.
In the kitchen they took pics I had on the fridge with magnets of my family and they took pics of joint bills, joint bank account
 and CC's we had laying around on the table. I asked if they would like to see our AOS "evidence box". They said no.
They seemed to be only interested in what their eyes randomly caught and peeked their interest.

Fun aside, they were very nice and the whole experience lasted 20 minutes.
I was glad they came so now we can move forward from being stuck in the abyss.
We filed AOS in May 2015, had each a one hour stokes interview Sept. 2016 and now  8 months later after
 numerous service requests, EAD/AP renewal twice, senator contacts, Ombudsman contact it came to this visit.

He said you will have no problems, everything checked out fine and you are obviously legit as a couple as we see you here like this.
He said they came all the way from Texas because my filed office is so backlogged.
He said he didn't know why all the scrutiny when I asked what's up with the checks.
 Again I want to mention the whole thing was like a friendly chit chat,
relaxed, respectful. Don't let that fool you though, they get exactly what they want to know by friendly chit chat.
The worst was the loud banging on the door which freaked me out but I wouldn't have
 heard just a normal  knock because we were sleeping and they would have probably left, leaving us marinade
even longer in the AOS background check sauce of despair.

So why the constant hurdles for us you may wonder. I don't know.
It took us 5 years to come together, first K1 refused after 16 months in AP, second one approved.
I had petitioned someone else in 2005 which was also refused after long AP and he did not make it here because
I stopped it due to his fraudulent motive I discovered in my own investigations. The louse was a liar.
Interestingly, lots of questions were asked during the AOS interview about that.
Other flags may be that we had several trips to Turkey, a somewhat flagish country to visit these days and Cyprus being close to
Syria, him having a Muslim name (he has been an active Christian all his life) and being originally from a high fraud
West African country.

I will update when he receives the green card. We have been a couple since 2009.
Almost 3 years married.
Long story short, no sweat if you have a real relationship and abide by the requirements then eventually
you will be approved. If at first you don't succeed, try again, is my motto.
Never give up, keep your cool and be patient. Be yourself, try not to open the door in a night gown though
and throw the robe on before you open the door.
If we can't mention the funny parts of this and laugh at ourselves then we are taking ourselves way too serious.
So relax and chill and I wish you all  speedy approvals for visas and AOS, ROC and naturalization.
There is always a silver lining for a long drawn out AOS, we qualify for a 10 year green card now because we are married
over 2 years and don't have to ROC. Yay !
 

[Georgia16 2,858]

I'm glad at least something is happening in your case, hopefully they saw what they needed and he can get his 10- year GC! 

[Love_A_Brit 33]

Congratulations! I am so happy that your case is moving along! I had to laugh because immigration called us during the AOS phase and nobody could quite believe it.  I was surprised to receive a phone call, but it would have been an even bigger shock to have someone show up at the front door!!  

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

Thank you for sharing that story and congratulations on finally having this big step forward! After all those hoops - you guys deserve to skip ROC!

So happy for you! 

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

Thanks guys !

[3rd 84]

This is amazing news! Congratulations, here's to hoping that 10 year GC comes in the mail very soon. 

[piff 46]

Well deserved!

[Scandi 4,166]

FINALLY! This must be a huge relief! Home visits are the best, there's where the absolute best proofs of bona fide relationship can be found. 

 

So happy for you, FINALLY this is over and no ROC either. 

[Dutchster 1,107]

I sincerely hope it all works out for the two of you and he gets his green card soon, it's well deserved. Wishing you all the best.

[Diane and Chris 651]

I notice several of you said no ROC. Why will they not have to ROC?

Edited June 30, 2017 by Diane and Chris
Wrong spelling

[Girl from Celebes 588]

It's been ages since the last time I read your post. I'm glad your case is moving and your story seems like I'm watching a movie.

[Lupigirl 67]

Wow, what a story!  That could be an episode in a TV show, for sure!

 

I know they don't have the resources, but I've often thought, I wish immigration would just do a surprise visit and the process would be done.  It's such a weird process, having to justify your relationship and give "evidence" of your love.  

 

Im glad it turned out well for you in the end!  You must be feeling relieved to have that over with.

[Scandi 4,166]

1 hour ago, Diane and Chris said:

I notice several of you said no ROC. Why will they not have to ROC?

If you've been married for more than 2 years when you get your green card you will automatically get the 10 year green card instead of the 2 year conditional one. So no ROC needed, next step is naturalization if one wants to file for that.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

Thank you everyone for the well wishes. I will be relieved when GC is in hand for sure. Glad we are moving forward.

[Unlockable 7,314]

That was actually a good read. Read like a short story.