Appointment Re-schedules/Interpreters

[Mike and Adriana 0]

Hello All:

I had some questions about these two topics earlier this year and really did not get much in the way of a reply. So, now that I've been through the AOS process and know the answers, I thought I'd share our experience with anyone who may be wondering about the same issues we did.

1) What is the basis for the re-scheduling of an AOS interview? Well, I guess no one really knows. However, the appointment letter that you get indicates that the AOS interview can be re-scheduled if there is an emergency. Our AOS appointment was scheduled for June 28. Unfortunately, my wife and step-daughter were going to be in Colombia at the time....because my mother-in-law was going to be having scheduled surgery. As soon as I got the appointment letter in late April, I wrote a letter to the Orlando field office explaining the circumstances and asking for a re-schedule (I included a copy of the air ticket). When I had not heard anything in a month, I called the 800 number...and got no information, other than "you've done what you were supposed to do." So, I sent a second letter (both were sent certified). When I still heard nothing, I decided not to risk it and showed up for our interview time by myself. A nice man came out to talk to me. He said they had received our letters and that a re-schedule was no problem. He said something to the effect of "gee, I guess I should have called you."

Based on my experience, it appears that the offices do not send re-schedule notices until AFTER your first appointment has passed. I went to Colombia in mid-July for two weeks to see my wife. While I was gone, our re-scheduled appointment came in the mail. Of course, I did not know this....I had assumed that our request had gone "to the back of the line" and we would not get a re-schedule until September. Because my mother-in-law's second surgery had been delayed, we decided that my wife and step-daughter would stay in Colombia an extra week until her mom was released from the hospital. That changed their departure date from 8/3 to 8/12. Imagine the look on my face when I returned home on 8/3 to discover a re-scheduled appointment date of 8/8 in my mail!!!!!! So, another letter written to the Orlando office, begging them to re-schedule the appointment for a second time. And you know what? They did it without a problem. We had our second re-scheduled appointment on August 28 and had no problems at all.

2) Must you bring an interpreter if the beneficiary does not speak relatively fluent English? Yes. Obviously, I live in Florida where Spanish is spoken just about everywhere. My wife speaks Spanish. Her English is progressing, but she is nowhere near fluent. I speak "funtional" Spanish, but not good enough to translate difficult/complicated questions for her. Some folks suggested: "Don't worry. I am sure there are plenty of SPanish-speaking USCIS employees at the Orlando office. You will not need an interpreter." Glad I did not listen, as this is not so. Yes, there are some Spanish-speaking employees at the USCIS, but, no, our interviewer was not one of him. He was a very nice man from Vermont (used to work at the VSC) and he only spoke a few words of Spanish. So, lucky for us that we brought a translator. At first we looked into hiring one, but the local agencies wanted between $100 and $125/hour. So, we brought along one of my wife's Colombiana friends who has been in the U.S. for about 30 years. She still has a heavy accent, but she speaks English well and was perfect as a translator for us. And we needed her....a couple of the questions were complicated (such as "do you plan to practice polygamy while you are living in the US?") and I could have never translated that!

Hope this helps some of you.

Mike

[Mike and Adriana 0]

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere, but I should also note that my wife and step-daughter had their I-94s taken at the Miami airport when they returned from Colombia in August. I was a bit worried (although I had photocopies from the AOS application), but I told the field officer during our AOS interview and he said not to worry, they do not need the I-94 for the interview any more.

Mike

[~*Maria*~ 1]

Congrats on your approval

[Kez/JWolf 6]

You were very lucky to get your interview re-scheduled so easly.... many people on VJ have tried to get a interview re-sechedulde and all that has happened is they have got a denial for failing to turn up....

I would still advise others that unless it is a life or death situation you should change any plans you had and go to your interview....

Congrats on your approval...

Kez

[Mike and Adriana 0]

I concur....do on request a re-schedule unless you absolutely have to. In our case, we made the plane reservations in February, after my wife's mother's surgery date had been set. We did not get the AOS appointment until April (had we known that, we probably would have delayed filing AOS until May). The surgery was pretty serious double back surgery (two surgeries) and my wife needed to be there to take care of her mother.

I think the key for us was 1) writing a letter as soon as we knew there was a problem; 2) writing a nice letter (the field officer commented on our "nice letter" when I showed up for the 6/28 appointment solo); and providing evidence (in our case, a copy of the plane reservation). I can't guarantee that it will work for everyone in every situation, but it worked for us at the Orlando field office.

You were very lucky to get your interview re-scheduled so easly.... many people on VJ have tried to get a interview re-sechedulde and all that has happened is they have got a denial for failing to turn up....

I would still advise others that unless it is a life or death situation you should change any plans you had and go to your interview....

Congrats on your approval...

Kez

[ELW 5]

Thanks so much Mike and Adriana for writing this all up - it is a great help! You did everything right; it is important to immediately write a letter if we need to reschedule the interview, and also have someone show up on that day to explain, if possible.

Also stressing about the translator is really smart; recently I read something on VJ where someone was denied because they did not answer one of the "yes/no" questions correctly, due to not fully understanding it. It is just not work it, better safe than sorry. The trouble and/or expensive of a translator is nothing compared to the agony of denial.