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Hi VJ!

I wanted to share an update with you all, following my GC interview today at the Montgomery, AL Field Office.

In short, I arrived in Jan 2025 on a K1 visa, we married in Feb 2025 and filed for AOS in April 2025. I had my biometrics in May 2025 and then there was complete radio silence until December 2025 with an interview scheduled for January 2026.

My experience of Montgomery FO couldn't have been better. We arrived 30min before the time detailed on the letter, but a sign on the door said to not enter more than 15min before your time. Once we were in, there was a short wait in a line while an officer at a front desk asked for the appointment letter and ID. We then went through airport-style security. Once through that, I checked in with another officer who took prints of my left and right index fingers. After that, I was told to take a sit at the far end of the waiting room.

All the staff were super friendly and welcoming.

We waited for another 20-30min or so before an agent called us through to a back corridor where the interview rooms are. Right from the start, he was incredibly warm. We sat down in his room and the first thing he said was that this was going to be very quick because we are what they call a "cut and dry" case. He made a comment that because I was a K1, it's already been established that our relationship is legitimate so the interview was just a formality. I was really surprised, and said so, because I'd been so nervous up to this point (and my husband commented as such to him).He reassured me that we had nothing to worry about. He then asked me to raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth, etc, which I did. I was then asked to confirm my name, DOB and address. He then asked a few questions that were on the AOS forms (regarding terrorist groups, criminal offences, etc).

After that, he said that he would be recommending our case for approval, and then talked me through the next steps. He said I will receive a 2 year conditional GC, and then will need to apply to remove conditions for the 10 year GC, but I would be eligible to apply for citizenship 3 years from the date of adjudication (which he references as being today).

After that, we made chit chat about our jobs, Montgomery and a good place to grab some lunch.

We said our goodbyes and he congratulated me. We couldn't have been in there more than 20min.

And then a very sweet aside:

We went over the road to a Mexican place for some lunch. Just outside the place, I gave my husband a kiss and a woman walked up behind us saying "We need to see more of that!". My husband told her that I was just approved for my greencard and she congratulated me. We went inside, sat down, ordered and ate. While we were eating, I saw the same woman come in the door and she looked at me as she did, and said something to the man at the front counter. We finished eating and when the waitress came back she told us that someone had come in and paid for our meal, saying it was because of my greencard approval! I was so amazed and just wish I could thank that lady or whoever it was! Me and my husband left Montgomery feeling so good. It honestly could not have gone better for us.

I know this is not the end of the road, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of the VJers and recourses that have helped guide me through the whole process to date. It has been invaluable!

Finally managed to submit my K1 AOS in the middle of December and received an RFE for the I864 asking for a joint sponsor. We asked my mother in law and she agreed to be our joint sponsor but I am unsure of what to submit in the RFE package. She retired last month and hasn't actually received her first Social Security check. We put she's retired on the form but on her income we put the income on her last tax transcript from when she still worked which is almost double the Poverty Guidelines. We also mentioned in the additional information section that she recently retired and hasn't received any Social Security so we don't know exactly how much she'll be getting. We're submitting the form, her tax transcripts for the last 3 years and her birth certificate. Is there an anything we should be including or mentioning?

My wife has her N400 interview (no combo and using 3 year rules) next week and obviously since we applied we have additional evidence. Initially, I was just going to print it to take along but I'm wondering if it might be better to upload prior to interview? A quick search showed mixed opinions (I'm sure I'll get the same here) but what are your thoughts and why?

Post (Short timeline)

Beneficiary DOB: 25 Feb 2001

Petitioner: LPR father

Priority Date (PD): 07 Jul 2021

I-130 Approved: 03 Jan 2024

NVC case created: 03 Jan 2024 (initially shown as F2B/F24)

Category corrected (CSPA dispute): 25 Sep 2024 (CEAC showed F2A/F22)

NVC guidance to keep case active: 16 Jan 2025 (advised not to go more than 1 year without contact; logging into CEAC updates last contact date)

IV fees paid: 16 Jul 2025

DS-260 + civil/financial docs submitted: 04 Aug 2025 (CEAC showed F22)

Category reverted: 18 Aug 2025 (back to F2B/F24)

Category corrected again (per dispute): 29 Aug 2025 (email confirmation F2B F2A)

Interview letter: F22 27 Feb 2026

My questions;

For CSPA sought to acquire 1-year rule: What date should be treated as visa availability in a case where NVC initially misclassified (F2B) and later corrected to F2A?

Given the category flip-flops, how likely is it that the consular officer re-determines I m aged out and treats me as F2B at the interview?

Thank you so much in advance.

I am a German citizen who has not left the EU and Germany for more a decade. But I have an Iranian background. Due to this, I cannot travel to the US via a waiver program. So I recently applied for a B1/B2 Visa. Except having an Iranian background, all is normal with me. But to convince the interview officer I brought my bank slip showing a huge amount of cash, hundreds of times above the travel cost to the US, my rental contract, salary slips, resume,... everything you can imagine to the interview which happened in Frankfurt, Germany.

Note that I told you I have an Iranian background. It means before being German, I was born in Iran and was raised there and only as an adult could I leave Iran. With these facts comes the next question: an Iranian male can never leave Iran (they never allow him) until he does his compulsory national service.

So I was forced like anyone else to do my national service in the Iranian army (Artesh) before being allowed to leave Iran.

But now the US doesn't care that I am a normal citizen of Germany. Instead it purely sees me as trouble for being an Iranian male.

When I was in the Iranian army (Artesh) I was the worst soldier you can imagine. I genuinely am not a type of man who can use something called a gun. I cannot genuinely kill a bird. I have zero talent in it. In the army I was super afraid of the noise of gunshots and they merely asked me to hold a gun as I was miserable at doing it. I never touched a gun as such except for 2 or 3 days of compulsory shooting. They were not marked so they wouldn't care if you hit the target or not. Basically you had to show you can withstand the loud noise and empty like 10 bullets into the air and then it was the next one's turn. Again, every Iranian male has to do this and most do it much better but I was very horrible at it. But yes, I was still a normal draftee at most. I say this because on the DS-160 form there is a question: "did you have advanced training such as firearms and like that?" I asked Gemini what to answer to this question and it said due to your limited training as a draftee in the Iranian army by touching a gun, you have to answer YES to this. So to your surprise, I ended up claiming on the form I have advanced firearm training by ticking the option. I argued with Gemini for half an hour that this would be wrong but it STRONGLY rejected my argument and decisively asked me to just tick the option YES and it KNOWS it and it is correct as such.

So I ticked this option yes even though I clarified that "it was just part of my military training and was nothing else". But as I said, I checked this option and answered yes but later I learned checking this option causes a lot of trouble down the road.

On the interview day, the officer had no issue with my massive amount of money and ties to Germany. He was nice but we didn't speak much as he had to refuse my application based on 221g. He didn't call it a refusal though and said they need to process my case further and he asked me to send him the copy of my military service completion card and its translation plus the form DS-5535. Once they have these and processing is done, and my visa is ready "which can take weeks", they will inform me to send my passport so I get the visa.

Now it has been 3 weeks and I still have not heard back anything. On the CEAC website it simply says "refused".

I asked the same Gemini again which now says I made a mistake to answer yes to the advanced firearm question!!! and now my case will take a long time to process (stupid AIs, but yes, they can change their own recommendations!) Now all AIs I ask say I made a MISTAKE by answering yes! Long story short, the AIs now estimate it will take up to 6 months until I hear back from them and do not rule out not hearing until 12 months or even not hearing back at all!

What should I do in this case?