My husband and I were very disappointed this week. He was told he needs a 2nd interview because he did not demonstrate an ability to speak and understand English and will receive a second interview. What will happen then? Here's what happened.
We filed I-751 ROC in Aug. 2015 and N-400 in May 2016. The I-751 wasn't ever approved, so we reached out to our Congressman once his N-400 was scheduled for Boston. We got a letter from USCIS saying both would be adjudicated at the same time. Our Congressman's office told me to go with my husband because they'd do the I-751 interview first.
We both showed up, he was called, and went back with the adjudicator who was Mr. Singh. I'm not putting his first name on here to protect his privacy, but both first and last name were on a nameplate in his office. Mr. Singh had a strong accent. He asked if I'm the attorney of record, and I said no, I'm the spouse. He said "you aren't supposed to be here". I showed him the USCIS letter saying both I-751 and N-400 would be adjudicated and explained i was told to come. He said he didn't know that and had to log into a different computer system.
Then Mr. Singh said he would do the I-751 first. He said to my husband, "So you are from Colombia?" No, he is from Guatemala. This is what he asked us, both together (not separated/Stokes interview):
1) When and where we were married, and he asked both of us our birth dates. He told my husband to take out his driver's license, green card, and passport, but he didn't have the green card because USCIS took it when he got a stamp after the I-751 extension letter expired in Aug. So, he gave him the extension letter.
2) How we met and what was my husband's status in the US when we met
3) Was my husband ever arrested or deported (no)
4) Where do we live? I told him, and he asked if that's near NY. No, its in Southeast MA near RI.
5) What does my husband do for work
6) What do I do for work. He then asked follow up questions: is that a government job? (no, nonprofit) How is my work funded? (donations, grants, contracts) Am I a lawyer? (no, I work with lawyers and do fundraising)
7) How much is my salary? How much did I make last year?
8) How much is my husband's salary? How much did we make on our taxes last year? I offered to show him the 4 years of IRS transcripts I brought, and he said that wasn't necessary.
9) Where do we live (again)
10) How much is our rent? He commented our rent is cheap. Do we live by NY? No...we live 1 hr 20 min away, south of here, as I stated before.
11) How long have we lived there? We told him and then said, before our current place we lived with my mom, then we lived in another state before. My husband offered to show statements and bills with our address. We had a 2 inch stack of papers on my lap.
12) Do we have kids? No, only a dog and 2 cats.
At that point, another adjudicator knocked on the door and interrupted us to ask if the previous person had left photos. Mr. Singh said no. This other adjudicator also had an accent and appeared to be Latino.
13) Who is our landlord? We told him, and he asked if we have a lease. I said, "I have an old copy of our lease, which I can show you and was also sent in the I-751 packet. But it is expired and we rent month to month without a lease." He seemed confused and said, you pay "$XX" for rent. And you live where again? Near NY? NOTE: We live NOWHERE near NY. We live 4 hours from NY. I do not know why he kept bringing up NY. I said, "No, as I stated, we live 1 hr 20 min from here. You take Rt X to Rt Y. Yes, rent is significantly cheaper. There's a challenge in our city of low income people from Boston moving to our city because rent is so much cheaper and a Section 8 voucher goes a lot further." He asked for our landlord's number. My husband gave him the number. I said, you can call him now but he's a HS teacher and it was during the school day. I stated the landlord owns the house, lives in the bottom unit, and we live in the top. He took the number and never called our landlord.
At that point, Mr. Singh said "I am approving the I-751". He asked me to leave. I left.
About 15 minutes later, my husband came out upset. He had a paper with him showing he passed the civics exam (6/6 right), the written exam, and the oral exam. However, the box was checked saying he did not demonstrate an ability to understand and speak English and a decision could not be made at the time. He thinks it is because he thrice asked Mr. Singh to repeat the question.
Note, I *also* asked Mr. Singh the same thing at one point. I could not understand him due to his accent. I was surprised an immigrant with an accent was interviewing another immigrant with an accent to ascertain his command of English. My husband was told he'll get a follow up letter with a new appointment.
Has this happened to anyone? Will he have an entirely new civics exam? We are frankly concerned. My husband is a supervisor at his workplace, where he manages staff and clients and they all only speak English. He did 4 years of ESL at a state college and a community college. He speaks English every day! He is disappointed and doesn't know what else to study. Its not like he failed the civics test. He got all those answers correct, the first 6 out of 6.
Other notes: Mr. Singh didn't let me show him anything we brought except the USCIS letter saying both applications would be adjudicated at the same appointment and our marriage certificate. He took a photo copy of our marriage certificate at his desk and gave us the original.
We also live in one of the largest cities in MA. I'm surprised he didn't have a basic understanding of the state's geography. We live a mere 50 miles from Boston.
