AOS Interview Questions

[Techniix 7]

27 minutes ago, Loo1 said:

I still don’t have my SSN number yet and was interviewed yesterday, it was no issue at all. 

I was able to open a joint bank account with my husband in Bank of America-it was the only bank that would do it for us where we live. It was a pretty easy process with them, they needed my passport, our marriage licence and proof of address. 

Do you have health/car insurance you can add her on too? Have you taken any trips together since she’s been here than have both your names on it? We included flight receipts with both our names on it and they were accepted 

My open enrollment is going on right now for benefits. Unfortunately I was not able to get her added when we got married due to the lack of SSN. (I know we shouldn't need this, but at my company everything is done online and SSN field was not optional. I made several attempts at contacting our service desk but kept getting flung around between managers and by the time I got the answer I needed I was no longer in the 30 day qualifying period to file my change of life event.) I have however, since last week completed my enrollment and was able to bypass the SSN field by putting in a dummy SSN they gave me that will let me update it later. The only thing that concerns me is those new benefits don't go into effort until January. I'm not sure if I could contact my insurance company for records reflecting the new changes before January. Or maybe just take screenshots of the changes? Not sure what to do there. She is however, on my car insurance and cable\internet bill. 

[Sarah G 179]

Do you have any evidence of sending money to each other? You can run reports on PayPal to show transactions. If you have a credit card you may be able to add her to that. Make each other beneficiaries of your insurance policies and pensions, put her on the title to the car if you have one, put all your utilities in both of your names, have your friend who you rent from write up a basic lease agreement - you can download a basic template for free - and put you both on it. Back date it if you want to. 

[Lebanese23 303]

Evidence that you added her as a beneficiary on your retirement account (401k, pension, etc.) health insurance.  life insurance. even your phone bill, I'm guessing she has her own phone # under your bill, try to add her name to the bill if you can. It's easy to add her to your credit card as an authorized user.

[Techniix 7]

I have a PayPal account with a PayPal cash card. It is in my name however. I just put money on my PayPal balance and give her that card to use for her spending. That has been working pretty well but I see my mistake now in that it doesn't really link to her in any way... not sure what good it would be for evidence. My friend are already drawing something up. Not sure if it's a lease agreement or an affidavit of residence. But I will be getting that from them in the next couple days. Might be best though if we do the agreement instead?

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

1 hour ago, Techniix said:

I have a PayPal account with a PayPal cash card. It is in my name however. I just put money on my PayPal balance and give her that card to use for her spending. That has been working pretty well but I see my mistake now in that it doesn't really link to her in any way... not sure what good it would be for evidence. My friend are already drawing something up. Not sure if it's a lease agreement or an affidavit of residence. But I will be getting that from them in the next couple days. Might be best though if we do the agreement instead?

We are going for the interview tomorrow. We don't have much evidence either besides her being on my health insurance. We had a difficult time with the SSA and verification so no SSN.  Blah...We will give it our best song and dance anyway))). I'll post back on what happens...

[Loo1 91]

3 hours ago, Samfar 92 said:

Hello, what were the questions they asked you 

She asked us how we met, about our first date, how my husband proposed and how I liked Tennessee. I was stressed about it in the lead up to it, but honestly it was fine. The officer was really nice, we were with her for 30 or minutes 

[Loafhack 32]

When we had our AOS, they checked for the checking and savings account but took lots of pictures. Take a lot of photos together, in different contexts, with your families, friends, different places, even boring stuff like just watching TV at home. Show you have a life together. 

[Highmystic 234]

20 hours ago, Techniix said:

Hello everyone,

 

I've been reading around about other's experiences with the green card interview. Ours is coming up and there are some pretty consistent things I'm seeing that people bring but we don't have and I'm a bit worried.

 

 

Others gave good advice,  so I won't add to it, however since spouse if Filipino, have you filed the ROM yet?  In our interview, we had the copy from the PH gov, and she was impressed that we had it.  If anything, it proves that we were serious in marriage as if we didn't it would look like the wife did not want the PH gov to know about our marriage.  So, it can be an important side paper.

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

Just returned from our interview. Recommended for approval. She said she would try to have the approval in the system by the end of the day. The young woman who interviewed us was very professional. Make sure you talk to your spouse about means tested benefits, food stamps, and other welfare programs. My wife was asked if she planned on using any of these benefits specifically and my wife looked at me like "WT& is she talking about." :-)))) I told the interviewer that my wife had no idea about the concept of food stamps or welfare. Overall positive experience. The only bad thing is when we got there (St. Louis) there was no line or system to decide who is next to check in. The applicants had to police themselves. That isn't always going to work. Good luck to everyone else.

[Techniix 7]

21 hours ago, Highmystic said:

Others gave good advice,  so I won't add to it, however since spouse if Filipino, have you filed the ROM yet?  In our interview, we had the copy from the PH gov, and she was impressed that we had it.  If anything, it proves that we were serious in marriage as if we didn't it would look like the wife did not want the PH gov to know about our marriage.  So, it can be an important side paper.

ROM? I have no idea what this is. Please forgive me. I've poured hours and hours of time into researching, reading people's experiences, and yet somehow there is always room for me to miss something. My interview is coming up very soon on the 7th. If this is a requirement please let me know what it is and how to complete it. I did a quick search but did not come up with anything very useful. 

Edit: Unfortunately it looks like I've messed up in cutting it too close. I have less than a week left before our interview. I hope what I have will be enough. 

Edited October 31, 2019 by Techniix
Additional Info

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

3 hours ago, Techniix said:

ROM? I have no idea what this is. Please forgive me. I've poured hours and hours of time into researching, reading people's experiences, and yet somehow there is always room for me to miss something. My interview is coming up very soon on the 7th. If this is a requirement please let me know what it is and how to complete it. I did a quick search but did not come up with anything very useful. 

Edit: Unfortunately it looks like I've messed up in cutting it too close. I have less than a week left before our interview. I hope what I have will be enough. 

Report of Marriage to Philippine consulate. Optional. Not part of the immigration process)

[Highmystic 234]

6 hours ago, boris64 said:

Report of Marriage to Philippine consulate. Optional. Not part of the immigration process)

Yeah, not needed for the process, however, it is something to show you are serious, besides the PhGov gets irritated if you don't file he ROM within a year.  I can see where it could come back to bite someone if they don't file at all, when they try to upgrade their PH passport in their married name with absolutely no ROM on file.  One "might" have to file that  prior to filing for changing or renewing the PH passport. 

[Techniix 7]

11 hours ago, Highmystic said:

Yeah, not needed for the process, however, it is something to show you are serious, besides the PhGov gets irritated if you don't file he ROM within a year.  I can see where it could come back to bite someone if they don't file at all, when they try to upgrade their PH passport in their married name with absolutely no ROM on file.  One "might" have to file that  prior to filing for changing or renewing the PH passport. 

That at least is good to know. We're going ahead and sending that in, however it definitely won't be back in time for our interview. Will at least save us possible pain in the future. 

[Techniix 7]

On 10/31/2019 at 1:09 PM, boris64 said:

Just returned from our interview. Recommended for approval. She said she would try to have the approval in the system by the end of the day. The young woman who interviewed us was very professional. Make sure you talk to your spouse about means tested benefits, food stamps, and other welfare programs. My wife was asked if she planned on using any of these benefits specifically and my wife looked at me like "WT& is she talking about." :-)))) I told the interviewer that my wife had no idea about the concept of food stamps or welfare. Overall positive experience. The only bad thing is when we got there (St. Louis) there was no line or system to decide who is next to check in. The applicants had to police themselves. That isn't always going to work. Good luck to everyone else.

We just finished our interview. We were recommended for approval as well. The interviewer seemed to be perfectly fine with just an affidavit of residence from my landlord stating where we live, how much we pay for rent, and for how long. (Specifically specifying me AND my wife) He said to expect something in the mail within 30 days. All seemed to go very well and smoothly for both of us. The only odd thing was that we were interviewed separately. I visited my wife twice during the wait for the fiance visa and was asked about that. I did make a mistake in getting the dates mixed up but later in the interview corrected myself and the interviewer was very humble and said it was no problem. He seemed to correct his notes when I corrected this. Hoping to see my case status update soon. Thanks everyone for your help.