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| Los Angeles CA |  Review on October 21, 2013: |
ramu2012
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
Our interview was scheduled for 10am and we parked our car, got to the office by 9:20am. We walked through security (no lines and really courteous staff) and were pointed to the elevators.
We went up to the room that was mentioned on our letter and walked to the check-in counter. The lady there took our interview notice and asked us to take a seat. It was 9:30ish at this time. We were called in by our I/O at around 10:15am.
Our I/O had a stern face but was extremely polite and she directed us to her office. Once we got to the office, she asked us to remain standing and swore us in.
After that, she asked us for my (beneficiary's) passport, my wife's green card and our IDs (We gave her our driver licenses). She also asked for my work permit (my H1B was in my passport and my I-94).
At this point, she opened our file and asked if we had our I-130 approval notice. Our I-130 was approved a few weeks ago and I had the notice with me. She then asked us when did we submit the I-130 and why did we not file I-485 and I-130 together. We were pretty confused at this point and explained that my wife was a LPR and not a US Citizen so we had to wait for the dates to become concurrent. It seems there was some confusion because our I-130 approval had our priority date listed as July, XX, 2013. However, we had filed our I-130 in July, 2012!!!! She then saw that the notice also had the receipt date of July XX, 2012 and then mentioned that they made a mistake on our I-130's priority date and hence, all the confusion. She had a copy of the October Visa Bulletin and she looked up the F2A dates on it a couple of times.
At this point, she asked us our names. Most of the questions were directed to me (beneficiary) and very few of them at my wife (petitioner). She asked to see a copy of our marriage certificate and asked us to verify our dates of birth, date of our marriage and place of marriage.
After this, she opened our I-485 application and started going through it, verifying our Social security numbers (matched them with our cards), our addresses (matched with the driver's licenses). My license had an older address to which she asked why. I told her I changed my address with the DMV and showed her the tiny DMV change of address receipt. She then asked us how long have we known each other (about 9 years :-) ).
She asked me all the Yes/No questions from the I-485 and then asked what my wife did and who our sponsor was (I was the sponsor as my wife is a student). She was perfectly fine with that. She then asked us if we wanted to give her any more documents. We gave our our Joint account statements in the US and from back home, our joint insurances, our home and auto insurance as well. She asked if we had some pictures with each other's families and asked us to give us just 3-4. We picked out 4 and she took 3 of them (we took about 25 pictures).
At this point, she started to talk to us about how far India is and that she has always wanted to go there etc. She asked me about my H1B, when did I get it etc. She also asked me that I was on F1 before and so asked me "what happened to that"? I explained that I graduated, got a job and moved to a H1B.
At this point she explained that she would "like" to approve us but couldn't do that technically as the service center did not send her our I-130 file. We had previously mentioned that we had plans to go to India in December and so she asked if we had the tickets for going to India already. As I was taking out the tickets, she said that's not required and that she will see what she can do.
She was really concerned that if we left the country, and our green card got approved, my H1B would instantly get invalidated and hence, I would not be able to enter the country. She also said that right now, visas are available but might not be the next month and so she will go and talk to someone and try and secure us a visa. She left us in her office for about 20 minutes and came back after discussing with a few people.
She then asked me if my work filed for a green card (I had them not file the I-140 as F2A became current in August) and asked me the dates of my stay in the US (Transition between F1 to OPT to H1B).
She then said she was going to approve us :-) and that we would get our card in mail in the next 2-4 weeks! She took my passport and canceled my H1B and F1 visas. She also gave us an approval letter and explained the conditional green card and ROC. She took away my OPT EAD as well as my I-94 as well.
Overall, it was a nice experience and totally painless! The I/O was really nice and she was really concerned about our travel plans and went out of the way to make things happen!
After we got out, I got a text saying my card is in production and a few hours later my status changed to "Decision - we mailed you a notice that we had registered this customer's new permanent resident status."
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13061