Why Stokes Interview From the Beginning?

[MaryLoves 5]

I was on F1 student, and I got married to a US citizen during OPT.

My wife and I both do not have any criminal records, and we have been a true-faith couple. 

 

When we did AOS from F-1, we got called in for an interview just like any other couple who go through the same process, except that we got called in for a stokes interview!

First of all, we used an attorney, not because we had some issues or difficulty, but simply because we didn't wanna miss any single thing in the application packet, and we thought hiring an attorney would be the best for us.

 

With our attorney, we submitted all forms with necessary documents for I-485, I-864, I-130, I-131, and I-765. 

We did not submit the proof of bona-fide marriage because our attorney said we can just bring them with us when we go to the interview. Our attorney had told us that the interview should be very easy and quick for us because we have no criminal records, or no suspicious points.

 

However, when we got to the interview place, only my wife was called in first, and she was asked 30 questions! And then, after that, she left the room, and I was called in and asked the same 30 questions. Every time I answered a question, she was either writing a check mark, or writing down my answer on the question sheet (It looked like she was checking the question where our answers matched, and writing my answer on the question where our answers did not match.). 

We apparently gave 3-4 different answers, but the rest matched. After I answered everything, the interviewer called in my wife while I was still in the room. 

And she said "We will give you the GC, but with current Trump administration, there will be another interview when you remove the condition. Do you have any documents you wanna give us?" and that is when we submitted all the bona-fide documents we had brought.

 

The interviewer did not even look at any of the documents we turned in!!! She only wrote a number at the corner of each document we submitted (Like 1, 2, 3, 4... It looked like she was counting the number of papers)

 

1) Why did we go through a stokes interview even though we did not miss any document? 

2) This was our first interview. It is not like we failed the first interview and got called in for the second interview. Why strokes interview from the beginning?

3) Does this mean they thought I, the immigrant, was committing a fraud? 

4) Actually when we got to the interview place, there were 2 or 3 other couples ahead of us, and all of them were also called in separately! Looked like they were also getting stokes interviews. 

Does this mean the USCIS officers sometimes just randomly do stokes interview for no reason? Or do they just collect all "fraudulent-looking" couples on the same day? 

 

5) Is is true that with current Trump administration, almost all I-751 (Removal of condition) cases are sent to the interview? Or is it possible that our interviewer specifically marked our case as "Fraud level HIGH" and told us we are going to have an interview at 100% chance while doing ROC?

  

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

The IO would not have stated "We're giving you the Green Card", then flagged your cases a "Fraud Level High".  If she thought there was fraud, your case would simply be denied.  That was a pretty bold assumption and election prediction  if she stated that you are going to have an I-751 interview (in 2 years) due the Trump administration.  It sounds, to me,  like you received the same thorough interview as the others there that day.......Congratulations on the approval.  Hopefully, your card will arrive soon.

Edited September 6, 2020 by Lucky Cat

[geowrian 22,337]

No, not all cases are getting ROC interviews now. The change was that if you were never interviewed by USCIS previously, you would generally not be eligible for an interview waiver for ROC.

You were interviewed for AOS, so you are still eligible for an interview waiver (no idea if you will get one or not, obviously).

 

No idea why they did a stokes interview from the start. It could have been random. It could just have been something that flagged in their system. I don't know your specific circumstances, what exactly was filed, etc.

Congrats on the green card.

[RamonGomez 271]

I personally know of two cases where an F1 adjustment got a Stoke's interview right off the bat. I asked our attorney about this out of curiosity years ago and she said F1 is probably the biggest AOS fraud category, where there are a lot of sham marriages so someone can stay in the US and work, and divorce immediately after ROC or N400. She says that on the whole F1 adjustments often get heavy scrutiny esp from certain countries like China/India. Even moreso than B2/ESTA adjustments, which are often blatantly shortcutting the K1/CR1 process but are almost always legitimate couples that just want to shorten the wait.

Edited September 6, 2020 by RamonGomez