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| New York City NY |  Review on July 17, 2007: |
perunyc
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
interview was scheduled at 9am.
garden city is NOT very easy to get to via public transportation, it involved us catching a 7am LIRR. turns out there are buses from garden city and hempstead LIRR that go to a big mall that is on Stewart Ave not too far from the immigrations building. MTA card works on the buses.
got to Garden City 835am. walk was longer than we expected and our map did not properly depict where building was. so we got there at 920. turns out you have a one hour grace period. but one hour only- if you show up over an hour late, your interview is cancelled.
we were called at 945 to go upstairs with a group.
we waited upstairs about 1.5hrs before being called.
the interview took maybe 30min. we brought a wheeling suitcase with all our info and i was glad we did.
we brought:
-copies of all immigration paperwork we filled out/recieved (actually brought two copies of everything)
-two photo albums
-4 notarized letters from friends/family stating they knew us, we were a bona-fide in-love married couple living in the same apartment
-original and copies of passports/i-94/birth certificates
-W2s and tax forms (for 3yrs)
the officer mostly flipped through our file to make sure nothing was missing. took the copy of my birth certificate since apparently we should have included that in the original packet
she asked me how/when i met his family, if my first trip to peru was to do so (it wasn't), how many times i'd traveled to peru. that's actually all she really asked me related to immigration issues. she asked me about my job, etc. she asked my husband the obligatory "answer no to the questions". she asked him what his career plans are in the US.
she commented on the fact that we have virtually nothing in our name- no bank accounts, no credit cards, no lease, etc. i explained that we are waiting on his SSN and that i had already signed my lease before my husband came, that my bank wouldn't let him join my account with a SSN, no credit cards without SSN, etc. she said she needed anything with his name and our address. thank God i brought pile of wedding cards and some of the envelopes addressed to both of us- those are now part of our file.
she asked us to pick a photo of us to be part of our file (nice that she asked us, friends weren't asked and instead the officer took one of them in their bathing suits. not many women would want photo of them in a bikini as part of their file!!)
then she explained my husband was approved as a conditional resident and we have to file papers 90d prior to the 2yr anniversary of our interview date. that we will most likely be interviewed again because we lack much proof of our together-ness.
then we went back downstairs and waited about 20min for my husband's stamped passport.
overall, positive experience. would advise everyone to just relax and be yourself.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #1808