Approved AOS with almost 40 years age difference

[Johnsy 1]

I want to give back to the community by writing our experience because this forum was very helpful.

Our interview lasted for an hour. Our interviewer was an older lady. I am beneficiary and my husband petitioner. I am 20, he is 59. I came here on F1 visa one year ago. We have known each other for 1.5 years when I came. He came to visit me in Europe for one month and I came to visit him in the US for 2 months.

She called us in and started asking us some usual questions like how we met, our names, previous marriages. Then she asked my husband about his previous marriage like why it didn’t work, how long it lasted, when he divorced, how they met. She asked him about his life which wasn’t really relevant for our interview like about the time he spent in Europe, time spent in army and so on. She was laughing when they spoke because my husband was so funny. She became much more relax at this point. Then she started to ask about the age difference (if it matters to us, if both families approve, if we talked about what will happen when he gets old) and about kids (we said that we don’t want any so she asked why not, what if I change my mind because I am young). She repeated the questions about kids several times. We answered her that we have 2 cats. He doesn’t want children because he worked at pediatric unit and discovered that he doesn’t like kids. I said I don’t want to have kids because I have 6 years old brother and I know how hard it is to take care of him. Regarding the age difference, I said that I didn’t know how old he was when I met him. He looks much younger. I thought he is 40 something. When she asked what will happen when he gets older he answered that he goes to the gym 4 times a weeks and he won’t get old. I said that my family approves of the relationship because they see I am happy and when they met him he didn’t look old at all.

We showed her our wedding pictures. I told her names of people who attended. She asked why parents didn’t attend. We said because the cost of my parents attending was too high and because he is not in touch with his parents. I also showed her pictures of my family (parents, grandparents, siblings) and him.

Then she asked about other evidence we have. We gave her a list of all evidences we have and then we gave her the binder with the evidence. Every folder in the binder had a label and in was in the same order as on the list. She looked thought it and took our joint tax return and she also kept the list of evidence. 

She verified information on i485 and asked me yes/no questions. Then my husband asked when we will hear back. She said couple months.

We got message 4 hours later that card is in production! We got our green card after 6.5 months. 

She paid close attention to how many people attended the wedding and looked at the wedding pictures carefully. It seems that the sponsor’s income was important, because the higher the income the less chance that the marriage is fraudulent. (Sponsor is rich; unlikely he is being paid to perpetuate a fraudulent marriage). She asked about the 401K and asks if my wife's name was added to my 401K. If you have a large 401K that is jointly owned would further support a legit marriage. She look at the joint car title and asked what kind of car it was to access the value to the car. I guess if you have a joint mortgage that  would also help. Also she asked about my wife changing her name (which she did) and I believe that was also important. It’s a hassle to change name and all the record associated with it. Our large age difference, I believe caused her to take a closer look, but on the final analysis, the overwhelming evidence supports that marriage is real. We were not separated for questioning, because we answered the questions well and provided a large body of evidence.  Large age difference cannot be grounds for rejection, because it is not illegal to marry someone much older or younger but it does draws closer scrutiny. If you provide overwhelming evidence, they should approve it. We’ve seen reports of other couples with age difference around 40 years. They were also approved. Below is the proof of Relationship (evidence) we submitted with our application. 

ASSETS AND FINANCES Car title and registration, Bank account statements, Joint credit cards

TAXES Joint tax return, Property tax exemption

BILLS Phone bills, PG&E bills

INSURANCE Life insurance, Car insurance, Health, vision and dental insurance

DOCUMENTS SHOWING THE SAME ADDRESS Drivers licenses, Mailbox, Prescriptions, Cat adoption papers, Emergency contact form

COMMUNICATION Skype chats, SMS,  Letters sent to each other and letters from family, Recipient’s cards for his European mail box

OTHER Affidavit of support, Plane tickets and boarding passes

PHOTOGRAPHS  

[mushroomspore 3,044]

Congrats! 6.5 months is really quick, so you're super lucky it got finished that fast. Ours took 12 months to schedule the interview.

 

Sounds like the IO was nice and professional. However I hate it when ANYONE asks, "Why don't you want kids? What if you change your minds?". Even if the question is not directed to me, I still get annoyed. It's none of their business! There are lots of people out there reproducing enough to make up for those who are not reproducing. Anyway, I'm mentally preparing myself in case our IO asks us that. We don't want kids either. I'll have to try to not let it annoy me at the interview if it is asked.

 

Congrats again.