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| New York City NY |  Review on October 9, 2015: |
ShubhaBala
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
We came to our appointment with 2 1.5" binders of documents, plus copies of what we submitted. We also were very professionally dressed based on our friend's advice. We probably overdid it (suits in NYC??) but it didn't hurt. I definitely would advise at least wearing business casual.
We got to the appointment desk at 11:09 for an 11:15 appointment (it took us some time to find the right spot). You can't actually check in more than 15 minutes before your appointment time.
At about 11:45 we got called in...right when my husband went to the bathroom! The woman was nice and said she'd call us again in a few minutes.
So then we got in around 11:55.
She was very, very nice from the beginning. She asked us to say a vow of truth and then said we would cover the basics.
She went through my husband's application asking him his name, DOB, etc and then the same for me (although I forgot my social security number! but she didn't mind). She asked for our birth certificates, passports, and marriage certificates.
She asked my husband how we met. He said we met at a meditation class, and then I jumped in to say we sort of met on the subway after class. She asked me who approached whom and I said I'm the outgoing one so it was definitely me. I said I wanted to meet a meditator who was younger... he jumped in and said "well actually you asked what book I was reading." I said "oh yes that's right!"
The next part was interesting because she asked him how meditation has helped him in his life. And then he answered, I jumped in a bit to make a cute joke, and then she said "how about you? How has it helped you?" I thought that she was just genuinely interested in meditation because I couldn't see what that had to do with our relationship but my husband afterwards pointed out she probably just wanted to see how genuinely we responded. Like if we made up "at meditation class" then we would probably stumble over how meditation has helped in our lives.
She asked me if my family was all in Canada and I said my parents were, my brother in San Francisco. She said "just one sibling then?" Then she asked my husband the same thing and he said his sister was also in San Francisco. She said that was nice they lived in the same place and I told her we were planning an all-siblings camping trip for next summer. She then talked about how much she loves San Francisco.
She asked if our parents had met yet and my husband explained they had this summer, and I jumped in (always with the jumping!) to point out that we are having a big wedding in November so they met to check out our wedding venue. My friend had told me to make sure to bring up our upcoming wedding celebration as early as possible. I told her that we had photos of our families if she'd like to see them. She said that would be great, and also any examples of finances.
I handed over all our photos since we only had about 20, she flipped through to the first couple of families. I explained my family is big and that makes wedding planning tough. She said "and expensive!" and we all joked about how expensive weddings are ok as long as you only have them once. She flipped through our finances but really didn't look at them at all.
Then she asked if we had any questions. She explained the next step is that they need to review the documents and make sure they're all there, and then we would get a temporary green card, etc, etc. She said that she would be recommending us.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #18018