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| Dallas TX |  Review on March 10, 2013: |
Hypnos
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
My appointment was for 2:15pm, which I thought was perhaps a good thing in itself since I had read (here) that earlier appointments were considered by some to be an indication of a more difficult case, and later afternoon appointments of a simpler one. Anyway, my lawyer had asked me to arrive around 1:45pm so we could talk for a time before we were called in, but I didn't arrive until just after 1:50pm thanks to some heavy duty roadworks and traffic on the west side of the Irving office. It turns out she hit the same issue, and arrived about two minutes after I did. This was the first time I had met her in person but she was very professional and we talked for a time about my case (mostly how USCIS had screwed it up) before branching off into lighter topics.
We waited and waited, and she told me she saw some officers buzzing around (coming and going) that she would prefer not to have if at all possible, that she would have some indication of how it would go by who they had assigned to the case. At 3pm a man came up to us and said he was running a little behind, but would be with us in a few minutes. I asked my lawyer “good or bad” and she said “good”, which was another plus sign.
As he said, he came to collect us a few minutes later and we went into his office around 3:10pm. He didn't introduce himself so I don't know his name, but he was a tall caucasian gentleman in his early 40s with a very pleasant demeanour. He said did I have any questions before we started, and I replied no. He then said that my attorney could interject and explain anything I needed explaining as we proceeded, but that the simpler the case, the less they attorney would be involved. He was smiling when he said this and so I could see he didn't mean it in a negative way.
We then got into it. He confirmed my basic information (name, address, dob, country of citizenship) and he then moved onto the Yes / No questions. Obviously I replied “No” to all of them, and every 2 – 3 he would stop and say “I believe you” with a smile on his face. Clearly I do not have a terrorist vibe, which I guess will serve me well in the future.
After we were done with that, he said that he saw no issues with my eligibility, and moved on to the evidence I had submitted. He carefully examined it all, and said that it looked very thorough and complete. He commented that I was apparently in excellent health, after looking through my I-693 medical exam, which made me laugh.
He flipped through it all, before acting as if he was looking for something he couldn't find. My lawyer asked if needed something, and he replied he was trying to find the copy of my daughter's birth certificate we had submitted. I told him that I had an original copy with me and went to pull it out of my folder, but right at that second he found it in his folder. At that point he said something like “Ok, looks good” and then said he was going to approve my self-petition (the I-360) and also my application to legally immigrate (the I-485). He said to expect the green card in the mail in around 10 – 15 days.
I was fairly stunned at that point (this whole process has left me very jaded, even more so than I was before) and just kinda sat there, before managing to get out “ok, thank you” like he had just handed me a dinner roll. He then asked if I had any questions, to which I somehow managed to pull out a question about would my green card be valid for the full ten years, as I had read that green cards issued to widows and widowers are always valid for ten years regardless of the length of the marriage (no RoC required). He said “that's a good question, but I will have to pass that to your attorney”. I looked at Maria and she smiled and said “yes, that's correct”.
And that was about it. We stood up and he asked me about a fossil park in our (tiny) town, and that he was wanting to take his children there. We talked about that for a couple of minutes, before he walked us out and back into the lobby.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #11599