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| Providence RI |  Review on January 26, 2007: |
ctjwa
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
The interview went smoothly. It was only 15 minutes later than our scheduled appointment time, and probably only took 20 minutes or so total.
A few things of note:
He wouldn't let us change Joana's middle name to be her maiden name. I'm not sure why this is, but he said we had to "legally change it" and have a paper from city hall or something. Her social security card, state driver's license, and application were all put in her "new" married name, but he only would let her take my last name, not add her maiden name as her middle name. Odd, but in the grand scheme of things no big deal really. He said we could bring in the city hall paperwork at the 2 year lifting of conditions interview, and take care of it then.
He was able to tell us that we she had passed FBI name check already, and said that he wouldnt have even gotten the case file if she hadn't passed yet. That's contrary to what most people say on here, so I'm not sure what that's all about. He did say that it is highly dependant on the country of origin. I guess Germany isn't considered a high risk, and her name "wasn't Hussein, Castro, or Bin Ladin", he might have been joking but that's a direct quote! He also said that if you have any convictions, lots of kids, or a really complicated application that it might slow it down.
He asked for some proof of our relationship, and we had our wedding album which he flipped through. We don't have joint checking accounts, a lease, or anything else financial really (I personally don't think that should be a requirement, or their business) so he had to settle for both of our health insurance cards having the same account number. If we had been more suspicious, that might not have been enough, but it got us through the sniff test.
Our file was actually missing the entire K1 application packet, and he was a little annoyed that it wasn't in there, but it wasn't our fault. He also asked us for the medical packet, which she had obviously given away at the PoE. It seems that was gone forever too. None of this is surprising because as we were walking back to his office, there were TONS and TONS of manila files filled with people's cases. Literally walls and walls lined with files pretty much out in the open. I couldn't imagine working in a situation like that, and I cannot believe that hasn't been transferred to electronic documents only by now. It should be priority #1 to make that completely paper free in the next 10 years. Anyway, I actually had spare copies of all our application papers with me for the interview, and he seemed pretty impressed. He also was surprised that we had filled out all the papers ourselves, I guess us VJ'ers aren't the majority, and a lot of people use a lawyer! That made me feel pretty good, and all of you guys should too. Go us!
At the end he said we were approved, and the card should be here within 2 weeks. Pretty easy!
Our RFE was because they wanted a translated birth certificate. This was suprising because it's not something that is asked for in the AOS papers, since identity was already establised with the K1 papers. We submitted it anyway, and got the interview. I questioned this, and he said that all of the initial reviews of applications are pretty much contracted out to drones who just check items off a list and assemble your official folder. I guess since the K1 documents were there (obviously, because they were submitted months earlier) they RFE'd it. So my advice there, is just to send in anything you think might be necessary, and they'll shred anything that's extra.
One other thing I forgot to mention -- The CO took her AP papers and EAD Card from her at the interview, and gave her a stamp in her passport that would function as the same thing. He said they usually don't do that, but since we already applied for the EAD and AP he'd give the stamp. We all agreed that it would be a moot point since she was approved and the Green Card would be coming in 2 weeks, but I would have been very hesitant to leave without either the stamp or the papers just in case something came up.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #1227