Santa Ana CA Field Office 2020

[BellaUnion 75]

7 minutes ago, mickester said:

March 31st!

Much appreciated. If you have some time after your celebrations, please try and leave us a short review of how the interview went, what kind of questions you were asked etc. I'm sure everyone here would appreciate some advance info on how they do things in the Santa Ana FO.

 

Cheers

 

[terbett81 3]

@Hphelp we have a group chat for Santa Ana filers and you are welcome to join. Anyone is also welcome to join.  Here is the link https://groupme.com/join_group/60313145/N7pJA0pm

[mickester 6]

3 hours ago, BellaUnion said:

Much appreciated. If you have some time after your celebrations, please try and leave us a short review of how the interview went, what kind of questions you were asked etc. I'm sure everyone here would appreciate some advance info on how they do things in the Santa Ana FO.

 

Cheers

 

It was pretty quick. I would say 95% percent of the questions was just a review of all the information filled out on the i-485. Including asking my husband for my full name and birthday since that was on the form. My husband was also asked if he works and what his job is.This was to update the info on i485 since when we submitted it he was unemployed. Then they asked for all supporting documents of our relationship and original copies of some documents not all. The only relationship based question was how did we meet. And that was it. Never asked for pictures, vaccine record , or medical exam. We thought we weren't done yet because the officer didn't see our pictures or asks us more questions. But then the officer handed us a paper and said congratulations. We were not expecting to be given the results at that moment, it was a great surprise. 

[BellaUnion 75]

29 minutes ago, mickester said:

It was pretty quick. I would say 95% percent of the questions was just a review of all the information filled out on the i-485. Including asking my husband for my full name and birthday since that was on the form. My husband was also asked if he works and what his job is.This was to update the info on i485 since when we submitted it he was unemployed. Then they asked for all supporting documents of our relationship and original copies of some documents not all. The only relationship based question was how did we meet. And that was it. Never asked for pictures, vaccine record , or medical exam. We thought we weren't done yet because the officer didn't see our pictures or asks us more questions. But then the officer handed us a paper and said congratulations. We were not expecting to be given the results at that moment, it was a great surprise. 

Thanks for this. That's really helpful. Good to hear it wasn't too gruelling. Congrats again on the instant approval!

[Hphelp 28]

Update: Our interview was rescheduled but our status online stopped working and showed and still shows as invalid, apparently it's a glitch in the system. We received the notice in the mail about a 1.5 weeks before the interview. Interview went well...no questions out of the ordinary and we were approved on the spot.

 

Sorry for not updating you all earlier as it was a bit crazy but I would recommend having everything prepped since the time between notice and interview date may be short. Good luck to you all! 

[terbett81 3]

On 9/10/2020 at 8:30 PM, Cornflake said:

Awesome! Thank you so much! 

Hi! I just found the link for LA/ San Bernardino group. https://chat.whatsapp.com/JUBjJKjb7xTBSYpXTZpTQz

[BellaUnion 75]

3 hours ago, Hphelp said:

Update: Our interview was rescheduled but our status online stopped working and showed and still shows as invalid, apparently it's a glitch in the system. We received the notice in the mail about a 1.5 weeks before the interview. Interview went well...no questions out of the ordinary and we were approved on the spot.

 

Sorry for not updating you all earlier as it was a bit crazy but I would recommend having everything prepped since the time between notice and interview date may be short. Good luck to you all! 

Great news! Congratulations and thanks for the update.

[Vincenator 0]

Still waiting for our interview to be re-scheduled. It was originally scheduled for March 2020 but got cancelled due to COVID. Haven't heard anything since then (7 months ago).

 

I'm wondering if I should call them at this point and see what's happening? Or should I just keep patiently waiting? Any recommendations?

[Hphelp 28]

8 minutes ago, Vincenator said:

Still waiting for our interview to be re-scheduled. It was originally scheduled for March 2020 but got cancelled due to COVID. Haven't heard anything since then (7 months ago).

 

I'm wondering if I should call them at this point and see what's happening? Or should I just keep patiently waiting? Any recommendations?

I would say give them a call. Hope you hear back soon! 

[terbett81 3]

Just a quick update. I just got my interview scheduled for Dec 8th. My pd is Sept 30, 2019

[BellaUnion 75]

3 minutes ago, terbett81 said:

Just a quick update. I just got my interview scheduled for Dec 8th. My pd is Sept 30, 2019

Good news! Thanks for the update. Hopefully we won't be too far behind you. Good luck and let us know how the interview goes.

 

[terbett81 3]

1 minute ago, BellaUnion said:

Good news! Thanks for the update. Hopefully we won't be too far behind you. Good luck and let us know how the interview goes.

 

No problem. I will keep you posted. 

[BellaUnion 75]

Finally, after nearly 14 months of waiting, status updated today to Interview Was Scheduled. Will update further on the date when we get the letter. 

 

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[BellaUnion 75]

Had our interview this week and were lucky enough to get a really kind and friendly IO who put us completely at ease immediately. He didn't ask us any questions about our relationship or anything else - just went through the standard questions on the I-485. Also didn't ask to see any documents at all beyond my passport. He kept all the relationship evidence we brought (which was a lot) and seemed very pleased that we had gone to a great deal of effort to organise it all. USCIS's entire network was down during our interview, but he pretty much told us we were approved on the spot and a few hours later (when their network was back online) the case status updated to 'New Card Is Being Produced.'

 

I know USCIS takes a lot of stick, but I have to say that everyone we had contact with at Santa Ana, from the guy at the front door, the security, right up to the IO were charming, friendly and professional. We even had a brief chat with another IO a couple of times in the corridor who wished us good luck before the interview and, when we saw him again on the way out, asked us how it went and congratulated us.

 

As many people have said before, if your case is straightforward and you're in a genuine relationship, don't sweat it. You have nothing to worry about. 

 

If anyone has any questions about the process or what to expect from this FO in particular, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. Please don't PM me, but ask in the thread so everyone can benefit.

 

Good luck to everyone still waiting.

[Sweetdreaming 397]

1 hour ago, BellaUnion said:

I know USCIS takes a lot of stick, but I have to say that everyone we had contact with at Santa Ana, from the guy at the front door, the security, right up to the IO were charming, friendly and professional.

I agree, everyone ive came into contact with USCIS has been the same way, maybe it works in their interest too, the more relaxed the person getting interviewed is the more likely they may slip up if they have something to hide, if the agents were more fearsome it will cause people to clam up.