N-400 Interview Having Children 3 Year Rule

[Huckleberry&Koala 184]

Hi All,

I just wanted to tell my interesting experience with N-400 interview last week. All is well and I took oath ceremony and am a citizen now. I had applied under 3-year rule. When searching in Visajourney how to prove your marriage to Uscis, I always have been getting the idea that they don't really care that you have children and it is counted as a secondary evidence, and they only care about commingled finances and residency. Well, it was not the case in my interview... He asked if we have any children, I said no but I am pregnant. He asked for proof of pregnancy and said "Having children matters, we expect people to have children after certain time of marriage. Bank accounts, insurances, etc. are ok but we are looking for these if the couple don't have children", and since I am a kinda person over preparing everything i luckily had the proof of pregnancy, he took that, and did not look at any other evidence, just approved. I don't know if my interview was a unique one but I just wanted to share this with the community to express and advise people that sometimes you need to bring every doc you think may be important, and you may never know what they'll ask

[Crazy Cat 41,772]

9 minutes ago, Huckleberry&Koala said:

"Having children matters, we expect people to have children after certain time of marriage. Bank accounts, insurances, etc. are ok but we are looking for these if the couple don't have children"

Congratulations..  What about couples who can't or DON"T WANT to have children?   I think this is extremely discriminatory.  

Edited August 28, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[Huckleberry&Koala 184]

6 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Congratulations..  What about couples who can't or DON"T WANT to have children?   I think this is extremely discriminatory.  

This was exactly what I thought and my question to him... After my interview is done, I told him "can i ask a question just out of curiosity? What if people can't have children?" he said then they're looking for other evidence, but makes it harder to evaluate. We could have been one of those couples since we didn't want any children until last year. I don't know what he would do if i didn't bring any evidence or i didn't tell him that i am pregnant.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Huckleberry&Koala

[Crazy Cat 41,772]

21 minutes ago, Huckleberry&Koala said:

but makes it harder to evaluate.

I think he is full of (a word which would be censored)

 

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[Mike E 11,739]

1 hour ago, Huckleberry&Koala said:

 . When searching in Visajourney how to prove your marriage to Uscis, I always have been getting the idea that they don't really care that you have children and it is counted as a secondary evidence,  

Absolutely not my experience and I’ve commented on this before. 
 

My interview letter for my 5 year-based naturalization wanted birth certificates of my children and the IO even said that birth certificates are evidence of bonafide marriage, and he wanted that evidence.  
 

  My green card was spousal based and I had been divorced for 2 years at the time of N-400 interview.

 

i don’t see it as discrimination. Having children is evidence of bonafide marriage as are co-mingled finances, living together, jour Costco memberships, sharing an Apple ID across devices, etc.

 

Not every couple does all of it. USCIS wants to see some of it.  

[Mobius1 175]

Haha yep, they are the heaviest of evidences but still many VJ posters refuse to believe it (Perhaps because they don't want children?).

 

My AoS interview was decided in literally in the first 30 seconds because of a child in marriage. 

 

As per IO, no one produces children just for paper marriage to seem more genuine.

 

Congrats!

Edited August 28, 2022 by Mobius1

[mniceguy16 186]

29 minutes ago, Mobius1 said:

Haha yep, they are the heaviest of evidences but still many VJ posters refuse to believe it (Perhaps because they don't want children?).

 

My AoS interview was decided in literally in the first 30 seconds because of a child in marriage. 

 

As per IO, no one produces children just for paper marriage to seem more genuine.

 

Congrats!

Same here, in 2019 at My consular interview, questions were based mainly about My USC kids who were living with Me at them time. Fast forward to 3 years later, My ROC was approved without any interview, guess because I had another child with My spouse when I came to the USA and I included his birth certificate to My application, whether people believe it or not, it is the main thing to prove a bonafide relationship, reason why USCIS is strict about consummation of marriage.

[mushroomspore 3,044]

23 minutes ago, mniceguy16 said:

Same here, in 2019 at My consular interview, questions were based mainly about My USC kids who were living with Me at them time. Fast forward to 3 years later, My ROC was approved without any interview, guess because I had another child with My spouse when I came to the USA and I included his birth certificate to My application, whether people believe it or not, it is the main thing to prove a bonafide relationship, reason why USCIS is strict about consummation of marriage.

My ROC was also approved with no interview and we have no children and don't plan to. We were also never asked once throughout the whole process if we had children or were planning to. It's purely due to the individual IO and their bias. Some IO's do think that if a couple has children, it's "stronger evidence". But not every IO operates like that (and they shouldn't because the whole point is to be objective and adjudicate each couple on the basis of their unique circumstances) beause as pointed out, there are many couples who can't have children or don't want to. Not having children does not mean a couple is less in love or is less legitimate or is less bonafide than those do. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by mushroomspore

[mushroomspore 3,044]

56 minutes ago, Mobius1 said:

As per IO, no one produces children just for paper marriage to seem more genuine.

Umm, not true. Baby-trapping certainly does happen.

[Huckleberry&Koala 184]

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

Absolutely not my experience and I’ve commented on this before. 
 

My interview letter for my 5 year-based naturalization wanted birth certificates of my children and the IO even said that birth certificates are evidence of bonafide marriage, and he wanted that evidence.  
 

  My green card was spousal based and I had been divorced for 2 years at the time of N-400 interview.

 

i don’t see it as discrimination. Having children is evidence of bonafide marriage as are co-mingled finances, living together, jour Costco memberships, sharing an Apple ID across devices, etc.

 

Not every couple does all of it. USCIS wants to see some of it.  

He even made fun of the other evidences I submitted. I had submitted insurance cards to show both financial commingling and residency,  bank account, Id cards to show residency, some bills to show residency, and plane tickets just to show my trips due to its being citizenship interview. He was just like "I was looking at what has been submitted, I don't care about insurance cards or tickets, bank account is ok but not enough"... Considering officer was not friendly, and did not even look at my face or say even a good morning to me whereas I hear other officers welcome everyone in the waiting room in a very friendly way makes me now think that IO I encountered could have been one of a kind 😅

[mushroomspore 3,044]

6 minutes ago, Huckleberry&Koala said:

He even made fun of the other evidences I submitted. I had submitted insurance cards to show both financial commingling and residency,  bank account, Id cards to show residency, some bills to show residency, and plane tickets just to show my trips due to its being citizenship interview. He was just like "I was looking at what has been submitted, I don't care about insurance cards or tickets, bank account is ok but not enough"... Considering officer was not friendly, and did not even look at my face or say even a good morning to me whereas I hear other officers welcome everyone in the waiting room in a very friendly way makes me now think that IO I encountered could have been one of a kind 😅

As Crazy Cat said, it just sounds like your IO is a (bad word that I can't type out).

[Mobius1 175]

25 minutes ago, mushroomspore said:

Umm, not true. Baby-trapping certainly does happen.

One could think of this the other way around as well. Spouse trapping, where USC wants a child but immigrant doesn’t. It would cast a doubt on the immigrant’s intentions in the IO’s mind.

 

At the end whether VJ posters believe it or not, USCIS looks much more favorably at couples with children. 

[mushroomspore 3,044]

3 minutes ago, Mobius1 said:

One could think of this the other way around as well. Spouse trapping, where USC wants a child but immigrant doesn’t. It would cast a doubt on the immigrant’s intentions in the IO’s mind.

 

At the end whether VJ posters believe it or not, USCIS looks much more favorably at couples with children. 

And where are the statistics that prove that USCIS looks more favorably on couples with children? If that were the case, why was I never asked about children or why I don't want to have children? Why was my process super easy, all the way until naturalization under the 3-year rule? And why were my other friends who went through this exact same process as me who also don't have children were not asked about children either and why was their process so easy then? What about the couples who DO want children but cannot due to severe medical and/or psychological issues? 

Edited August 28, 2022 by mushroomspore

[Ontarkie 14,207]

Not true at all. 

My AOS we had no children together. No interview.  My ROC we had no children together. No Interview.  My N400 we had a daughter together and the IO did not count her at all or want to even see her BC. She wanted more joint/co mingled items. 

 

Every now and again we get someone with and IO who says and does silly things like the above. Good thing most of the time the files need to be approved by a supervisor and not he wing nut who says things like that. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Ontarkie

[Mobius1 175]

24 minutes ago, mushroomspore said:

And where are the statistics that prove that USCIS looks more favorably on couples with children? If that were the case, why was I never asked about children or why I don't want to have children? Why was my process super easy, all the way until naturalization under the 3-year rule? And why were my other friends who went through this exact same process as me who also don't have children were not asked about children either and why was their process so easy then? What about the couples who DO want children but cannot due to severe medical and/or psychological issues? 

 

To be eligible for GC / Citizenship, having children isn't a requirement. Its a supplementary evidence that trumps others. Not sure why its difficult to understand. People do get approved without children as well and a lot easily.

 

Either the OP is lying, or I am lying or like you and crazycat pointed out the IOs we encountered must be (whatever word you wanted to insert). But then again its VJ, where posters are self proclaimed experts / lawyers.