Surprise home visit / AOS

[trudi 1,317]

Congratulations!!

 

And kudos for your ability to stay positive throughout the long process you've been through, you've been poked, prodded, doubted and provoked but have been calm,  determined and certain that love will overcome all the obstacles - I couldn't be happier you are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel 🎉🎉

[sweetadams 138]

Spoiler

 

 Congrats on your "surprised visit".. Can I sign out to have a script written for this new show called...."My Immigration Visit"..... lol

[LionessDeon 2,060]

My dear friend what else could they possibly put you two through?!  I shudder to think!  I would've been a nervous wreck!  You definitely deserve the 10 year greencard!  Hope this means the end of AOS for you. 

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

4 hours ago, LionessDeon said:

My dear friend what else could they possibly put you two through?!  I shudder to think!  I would've been a nervous wreck!  You definitely deserve the 10 year greencard!  Hope this means the end of AOS for you. 

Thank you Lioness, we made another service request. Crickets.

[Usagi_tsukino 89]

They visited you almost 2 months ago. What is taking them so long now.  Aaaaahhhh they are so annoying.

I don't remember if me or someone else asked you about it, but have you ever thought of filing wom? Or do you think you could do it in the future if everything stays like this for a long time (really hope it wont happen, of course).

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

35 minutes ago, banana_princess said:

They visited you almost 2 months ago. What is taking them so long now.  Aaaaahhhh they are so annoying.

I don't remember if me or someone else asked you about it, but have you ever thought of filing wom? Or do you think you could do it in the future if everything stays like this for a long time (really hope it wont happen, of course).

No, don't want to do a WOM with the big risk of getting denied. It usually takes a few more months after a home visit for them to review the
new info from the investigators so.......

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

Forgot to update here as promised, sorry.

Ten year green card in hand since October 2017. ROC skipped due to having been married over 2 years when GC was finally issued.

[Jon York 156]

Wait, are you saying people who have been married more than two years will automatically be approved for a 10 year green card?

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

35 minutes ago, Jon York said:

Wait, are you saying people who have been married more than two years will automatically be approved for a 10 year green card?

Yes. If  the marriage occured more than 2 years before the approval of a GC then a 10 year GC will be issued and ROC is skipped.

[Jon York 156]

On 12/1/2017 at 12:52 AM, Ebunoluwa said:

Yes. If  the marriage occured more than 2 years before the approval of a GC then a 10 year GC will be issued and ROC is skipped.

Oh wow.  I didn't know that.  So, my wife and I have been married 3 years as of two days ago.  But we sent in the ROC application in August.  Does that mean we didn't have to do that?

 

I thought it was if you had been married two years before you started the process.  

[BuiQuang 95]

49 minutes ago, Jon York said:

Oh wow.  I didn't know that.  So, my wife and I have been married 3 years as of two days ago.  But we sent in the ROC application in August.  Does that mean we didn't have to do that?

 

I thought it was if you had been married two years before you started the process.  

if ur wife have expiring green card then she need ROC

 

AT TIME THE FIRST GREEN CARD IS APPROVED AND COUPLE MARRIED MORE THAN 2 YEARS AT THAT TIME, then get 10 years green card and ROC not needed.

[geowrian 22,337]

5 hours ago, Jon York said:

Oh wow.  I didn't know that.  So, my wife and I have been married 3 years as of two days ago.  But we sent in the ROC application in August.  Does that mean we didn't have to do that?

 

I thought it was if you had been married two years before you started the process.  

What matters is how long you were married at the time you were granted a green card. Since you sent ROC off and have been married 3 years now, I would assume you were married for less than 2 years when you obtained the green card (since ROC is filed after 2 years of getting the green card).

Edited December 2, 2017 by geowrian

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

@Jon York Bui Quang and Geowrian are correct.

[Blondie26 43]

On 6/30/2017 at 2:32 PM, Ebunoluwa said:

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 !
 

WOW congratulations. 

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

6 minutes ago, Blondie26 said:

WOW congratulations. 

Thank you.