AoS Interview update

[arazin 1]

Hi everyone,

 

     A disclaimer first, I am not sure of this is the right forum to post this in so apologies in case it is not.

 

My wife (USC) and I filed for my AoS in April 2016 and after a year and a half of no movement we suddenly got a letter for the interview at our old address, even though we had filed for an address change with USCIS!!! Luckily the old address was my Mother in-law's house so we got all the info on time because our online case status still shows Case Received for her petition and Bio-metric fee received for my AoS. Our interview was scheduled for 10:30 am in OKC. As per a lawyer we had consulted we waited to get the interview letter before going for the medical checkup. Everything was done on time but as luck would have it the one person at the Doctor's office who was authorized to sign and seal the I-693 decided to fall ill for 10 days and ensured that we didnt have the form when we went for the interview, but I carried all receipts to prove that I had had my medical just in case.

 

We reached the USCIS field office 20 minute before our appointment. We had got a file box with multiple folders to organize all our documents, we had copies of every document we had submitted in our applications including application forms, 2 copies and originals of all our proofs of a bonafide marriage (all our rental agreements, Joint bank account info, Joint mortgage application forms, utility bills, title to jointly owned car) and copies of photographs submitted with application as well new photos taken since application was submitted a year and a half ago.

 

Waiting for the interview was nerve wracking as we had left our phones in the car since they weren't allowed in the building and the waiting room didn't have a clock in it. Finally we were called in by the officer who was conducting our interview (we must have waited a total of 30 minutes max i.e. just 10 minutes past our actual interview time). The officer was a nice middle aged lady, she took us to her office and swore us in and asked to us to hand over our passports and IDs. She then went over my wife's petition file and started asking her questions.

 

What is your name?

Where do you live?

When did you get married? 

After having discussed how to be relaxed and not let the nervousness get to us in the car, my wife promptly  got nervous and answered this wrongly  she said we got married in 2015 instead of 2016 (she got the date right). The officer asked her if she was sure and my wife doubled down and said yes. At this point I was't sure if I should step in and say something but the officer pointed out that it said 2016 on her forms before I could say anything. My wife nervously explained that she got the year we met and the year we got married confused but the officer just laughed and moved on.

 

Next she started questioning me, the 1st couple were the same name and address and then she went through a long list of rapid fire yes or no questions, Have you committed a crime? Drug dependencies? Involved in war crimes? Civil rights violations? etc. I had to be careful there because she was flying through them and I could bare keep up. After that she said if we had any proof of a bonafide marriage we should show it to her. So we pulled out our folders and gave her the rental agreements etc. She looked through them and remarked that she was impressed with our organization and when we said she could keep the documents because they were copies she was even happier (since it saved her the trouble of copying the lot herself). The we showed her our photos, we had two packets of prints plus a scrap book. She went through the packets first and we told her to feel free to take the ones she wanted as these were copies too. I stood over her shoulder while she looked at them and scrapbook to give her the context for the photo that she was looking at. By this point the interview was just a conversation, she was very talkative, telling us how her daughter was an animal lover because our photos were basically 50% family and friends 50% us with our pets and foster dogs

 

Finally she asked for the I-693 which I had explain that we didn't have because of the problem with the doctors office. She was disappointed about that because she said if we had brought it with us she would have approved us right there and then  . She immediately printed out and RFE and told us to send it as soon as we could so she could get process finished.

 

So all in all it was a good experience. The whole interview lasted just 20 minutes, our travel time was the longest and toughest part of the process. I went to the doctor the next day got the sealed medical form and immediately mailed it so hopefully we should all done very soon. Only issue is that our online status has still not been updated so there is no way to tell if the GC is being produced or when it will get here. 

 

My advice for anyone seeking it is to be organized (folders, boxes clearly marked or labeled) this makes retreiving relevant documents easy for you and when the officer sees that you are organized they understand that you are serious and it puts them in a good mood as well. Second thing would be to make extra copies of your documents, this saves them extra work, makes your interview shorter and once again does not harm your image in their eyes

 

I hope this post helps you guys and best of luck to all who are getting ready for their interviews  

[bold 54]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 3:18 PM, arazin said:

Hi everyone,

 

     A disclaimer first, I am not sure of this is the right forum to post this in so apologies in case it is not.

 

My wife (USC) and I filed for my AoS in April 2016 and after a year and a half of no movement we suddenly got a letter for the interview at our old address, even though we had filed for an address change with USCIS!!! Luckily the old address was my Mother in-law's house so we got all the info on time because our online case status still shows Case Received for her petition and Bio-metric fee received for my AoS. Our interview was scheduled for 10:30 am in OKC. As per a lawyer we had consulted we waited to get the interview letter before going for the medical checkup. Everything was done on time but as luck would have it the one person at the Doctor's office who was authorized to sign and seal the I-693 decided to fall ill for 10 days and ensured that we didnt have the form when we went for the interview, but I carried all receipts to prove that I had had my medical just in case.

 

We reached the USCIS field office 20 minute before our appointment. We had got a file box with multiple folders to organize all our documents, we had copies of every document we had submitted in our applications including application forms, 2 copies and originals of all our proofs of a bonafide marriage (all our rental agreements, Joint bank account info, Joint mortgage application forms, utility bills, title to jointly owned car) and copies of photographs submitted with application as well new photos taken since application was submitted a year and a half ago.

 

Waiting for the interview was nerve wracking as we had left our phones in the car since they weren't allowed in the building and the waiting room didn't have a clock in it. Finally we were called in by the officer who was conducting our interview (we must have waited a total of 30 minutes max i.e. just 10 minutes past our actual interview time). The officer was a nice middle aged lady, she took us to her office and swore us in and asked to us to hand over our passports and IDs. She then went over my wife's petition file and started asking her questions.

 

What is your name?

Where do you live?

When did you get married? 

After having discussed how to be relaxed and not let the nervousness get to us in the car, my wife promptly  got nervous and answered this wrongly  she said we got married in 2015 instead of 2016 (she got the date right). The officer asked her if she was sure and my wife doubled down and said yes. At this point I was't sure if I should step in and say something but the officer pointed out that it said 2016 on her forms before I could say anything. My wife nervously explained that she got the year we met and the year we got married confused but the officer just laughed and moved on.

 

Next she started questioning me, the 1st couple were the same name and address and then she went through a long list of rapid fire yes or no questions, Have you committed a crime? Drug dependencies? Involved in war crimes? Civil rights violations? etc. I had to be careful there because she was flying through them and I could bare keep up. After that she said if we had any proof of a bonafide marriage we should show it to her. So we pulled out our folders and gave her the rental agreements etc. She looked through them and remarked that she was impressed with our organization and when we said she could keep the documents because they were copies she was even happier (since it saved her the trouble of copying the lot herself). The we showed her our photos, we had two packets of prints plus a scrap book. She went through the packets first and we told her to feel free to take the ones she wanted as these were copies too. I stood over her shoulder while she looked at them and scrapbook to give her the context for the photo that she was looking at. By this point the interview was just a conversation, she was very talkative, telling us how her daughter was an animal lover because our photos were basically 50% family and friends 50% us with our pets and foster dogs

 

Finally she asked for the I-693 which I had explain that we didn't have because of the problem with the doctors office. She was disappointed about that because she said if we had brought it with us she would have approved us right there and then  . She immediately printed out and RFE and told us to send it as soon as we could so she could get process finished.

 

So all in all it was a good experience. The whole interview lasted just 20 minutes, our travel time was the longest and toughest part of the process. I went to the doctor the next day got the sealed medical form and immediately mailed it so hopefully we should all done very soon. Only issue is that our online status has still not been updated so there is no way to tell if the GC is being produced or when it will get here. 

 

My advice for anyone seeking it is to be organized (folders, boxes clearly marked or labeled) this makes retreiving relevant documents easy for you and when the officer sees that you are organized they understand that you are serious and it puts them in a good mood as well. Second thing would be to make extra copies of your documents, this saves them extra work, makes your interview shorter and once again does not harm your image in their eyes

 

I hope this post helps you guys and best of luck to all who are getting ready for their interviews  

GREAT insight. Thank u so much