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| Atlanta GA |  Review on May 31, 2018: |
Chicken7585
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
Today we had our Adjustment of Status interview at the Atlanta USCIS office and were approved for a conditional GC! From filing of the documents to approval today, it has been approximately 140 days (nearly 5 months). We used a lawyer to file our paperwork, but we did not need her to join us at the interview today as we felt we were confident enough to prove our marriage was bona fide.
Our experience was as follows:
We got to the Atlanta USCIS office about 90 minutes before the time on the interview notice. I'd rather wait in the waiting room than wait in traffic or risk an accident delaying us. This was too important!
On entering the building, you have to pass through airport-style security detectors and belts, jackets and everything in your pockets needs to be put in a bin and X-rayed. I know some posts state that you cannot take cellphones inside, but we were allowed to take them in as long as you don't make phone calls or take pictures. Your USCIS field office may be different. We had an accordion style folder and a separate photo album with our pictures in a bag. We checked in at the reception on the main floor and were told to go up to the 3rd floor where adjudications happen. We checked in once again on the third floor and you have to show your appointment letter and ID (both of you). You are only allowed to get your "appointment" ticket (think DMV token") 30 minutes before your scheduled time. We got our ticket - but for almost an hour and a half it did not show up on the screen. When we went back to check with the receptionist and she told us that our assigned officer was dealing with a case that was taking well above the normal time. It was frustrating watching so many other people who had come later than us getting called and then leaving.
Finally, our officer came out and got us. Before she will even let you follow her, you have to show her the interview letter and IDs. Then she led us through a locked door and to her office. She asked us to remain standing and take the oath. Since we had a lawyer, but didn't bring her along, we also had to sign a waiver. Then she took my biometrics (fingerprints) to make sure I was the same person. Then she took a picture with a webcam that will be on my GC (I guess?). After that, she asked us to hand over ALL identity documents, entry documents and documents showing that we had a bona fide marriage. I was expecting to hand this to her one by one as we went through the interview but she wanted it all right away. The accordion folder made this super easy and I had tabbed each of my documents with little Post-It file tabs and written on the small colored area what the document was. If the copy was already in the application then she just needed to see the original. If it was a new item, she wanted a copy. Luckily, I had all these ready.
Handed her :
Joint account statements
Beneficiary statements for 401k (both ways)
Life insurance statements
US Spouse tax returns for 2017 (most recent tax year) + W-2s
Employment verification letters for US Spouse (X works here since Y and is paid Z hourly etc)
Paystubs for US Spouse for last two months (typically 4 paystubs)
Joint bills with both our names, bills with only one name but same address
Photocopies of health insurance cards with me as dependent
Copies of both driver's licenses on one page both showing the same address
Birth certificates (original and copy)
Marriage certificate (original and copy)
I-94 and travel history
Sealed medical results
It was a lot of paper! She went through some of these, but mostly set them aside after glancing at them to put in our file. But she looked at EVERYTHING. As you can imagine, there's a lot of silence while she looks at papers we've supplied.
Then she started working on the I-130 document which is the initial petition to sponsor a spouse. She went through and checked all information with US spouse. Then she turned to me and checked all the information - parent's names, where they were born etc etc. Since I had a new job since the petition was filed, she made modifications to the file to account for the new employer. To be helpful, I recreated the pages of the petition with the updated information. She seemed to appreciate this. Then she made me sign the revised form since there was an update. After reviewing the entire I-130, she began to ask us how we met, our dates, have we met our in-laws, the ceremony etc. She would intersperse questions from the form with questions about our relationship. She was joking and laughing with us through the process, but I think this was to some extent to throw someone off guard or judge the body language of someone who was lying on the application. Pretty clever!
Then she began to ask me almost all of the Yes/No questions on the I-485 - this takes a while. You have to listen very carefully to what she is saying and make sure she has finished speaking before you respond verbally. After she was done with that, she started working on the computer again and began to approve the application. Finally she handed us a letter saying we had been approved (yay!) and explained how the conditional green card works. She also handed us a list of evidence that is needed to be gathered to get ready for the I-751 filing in one year and 9 months (90 days before the two year anniversary). Basically, she recommended just having a folder that you regularly put in everything on this list so that when you are ready to file your I-751 (removal of conditions) you are good to go! Smart idea!
Right before we left, I told her my driver's license was about to expire and could she please give me the I-551 stamp in my passport so I could get my license? Based on everything I had read here on VJ, I expected her to say no, but because we had developed a rapport through the meeting and she was apologetic for the delay, she tapped away some more on her computer and triggered some additional approvals and then wrote something cryptic on the approval sheet and asked us to take it downstairs and show it to the clerk. I went downstairs after thanking her and fifteen minutes later had the I-551 stamp in my passport that's valid for a year.
By the time I got downstairs, my USCIS case tracker had already updated to say Card in Production which is what I think she did to get the I-551 stamp in the system.
Happy to answer any questions you might have and wishing you all the best for a speedy and successful conclusion to your cases!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23916