Question about the interview

[pm_1234 18]

I was just wondering if every couple has to go through the interview process. The reason I am asking is that we consulted with a lawyer about our case and he mentioned we don't need to do an interview. However, I see everywhere that interview is part of the process.  If we really don't need an interview, then our wait time will be shorter by at least a few months, I guess!

 

So here's our case if that helps:

 

We are married for 4 years and we've been living together in Canada since our marriage. I recently filed my i-30 petition so that we can both move to the US within a year time frame. 

 

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[Ryan H 3,839]

***Moved from K3 Process & Procedures to IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures.***

 

**Moderator hat off**

 

That lawyer is full of it when it comes to the visa process.  No immigrant visa will be issued without an interview taking place first at the Consulate (in your case, that will be Montreal).

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

3 minutes ago, Parisa_1234 said:

I was just wondering if every couple has to go through the interview process. The reason I am asking is that we consulted with a lawyer about our case and he mentioned we don't need to do an interview. However, I see everywhere that interview is part of the process.  If we really don't need an interview, then our wait time will be shorter by at least a few months, I guess!

 

So here's our case if that helps:

 

We are married for 4 years and we've been living together in Canada since our marriage. I recently filed my i-30 petition so that we can both move to the US within a year time frame. 

 

Any thoughts are appreciated!

The lawyer must have thought y'all were doing the AOS process because those may or may not get an interview. But you are doing the IR-1 process from outside the country and those ALWAYS require an interview in order to be approved and issued a visa. 

[pm_1234 18]

Just now, cyberfx1024 said:

The lawyer must have thought y'all were doing the AOS process because those may or may not get an interview. But you are doing the IR-1 process from outside the country and those ALWAYS require an interview in order to be approved and issued a visa. 

It could be! cause we were discussing both situations and I might have gotten confused! So in this case, we do have an interview.

[Marzena & Stephen 544]

Yes you will get an interview.

Montreal is awesome so may aswell make a trip of it! 

I did my medical and interview in montreal (i was living in alberta) since i had to travel for the medical anyways i decided just to stay in montreal for just over a week at an Air b n b connected to the nhl stadium and it was AMAZING! good luck and have fun! 

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

1 minute ago, Parisa_1234 said:

It could be! cause we were discussing both situations and I might have gotten confused! So in this case, we do have an interview.

Well you can't do the AOS because that would be considered Visa fraud. You can only do the IR-1 process.

[pm_1234 18]

3 minutes ago, Marzena & Stephen said:

Yes you will get an interview.

Montreal is awesome so may aswell make a trip of it! 

I did my medical and interview in montreal (i was living in alberta) since i had to travel for the medical anyways i decided just to stay in montreal for just over a week at an Air b n b connected to the nhl stadium and it was AMAZING! good luck and have fun! 

We actually live in Montreal! So that is super nice that we have a consulate here. How is scheduling? Is there a long wait? 

[geowrian 22,338]

Even if somebody did do AOS within the US, a spouse beneficiary will always get an interview. The exception is if you do AOS from K-1 status, in which you may or may not get an interview (since you were already interviewed on the relationship to get the K-1 visa).

Or to be more precise, an interview waiver is not available to a spousal beneficiary (except in K-1 cases). This is established policy: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume7-PartA-Chapter5.html

 

And as stated above, doing AOS would require you to already be in the US after having entered without intent to do AOS. That doesn't appear to be the case here, so it's not an option.

Edited April 21, 2018 by geowrian

[Marzena & Stephen 544]

1 hour ago, Parisa_1234 said:

We actually live in Montreal! So that is super nice that we have a consulate here. How is scheduling? Is there a long wait? 

Oh no way!!!! That's so amazing you're lucky  not just for being close to the consulate but to be able to live in montreal ! Montreal is amazing !!!!

 Usually the interviews are about 1 month away from when you get your interview (im not exactly sure what the timeline is right now as mine was last yr) and you can chose longer if you want to.. the only thing is they are only available on Wednesday's! 

So I took the medical the Thursday prior (medical results take 3 business days to get your results) and I picked them up than walked a few blocks to the interview location! 

The interview is literally walking up to a window. At first I thought it would be in a room!

Good luck!!

[pushbrk 13,260]

7 hours ago, geowrian said:

Even if somebody did do AOS within the US, a spouse beneficiary will always get an interview. The exception is if you do AOS from K-1 status, in which you may or may not get an interview (since you were already interviewed on the relationship to get the K-1 visa).

Or to be more precise, an interview waiver is not available to a spousal beneficiary (except in K-1 cases). This is established policy: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume7-PartA-Chapter5.html

 

And as stated above, doing AOS would require you to already be in the US after having entered without intent to do AOS. That doesn't appear to be the case here, so it's not an option.

I'm seeing some evidence that some concurrent filing AOS cases are being adjudicated without interviews.  I haven't seen any completed that way yet but it's looking like some procedures are changing as Lee's Summit, MO.  Either way, the lawyer is dead wrong to advise there will be no interview.  Maybe though.