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| Cincinnati OH |  Review on May 13, 2019: |
Raiden30
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
We arrived to the USCIS office ~30 minutes before our interview time. We checked in at the window where they verified our documents and took a photo / fingerprint of my wife (the beneficiary). There were 4 other couples in the waiting room. The sequence we observed went like this: beneficiary was interviewed individually while petitioner stayed in waiting room, petitioner was interviewed individually while beneficiary stayed in waiting room, beneficiary called back to the room, couple exited together.
We went to the interview room together; the officer informed us that based on our file, we would either be interviewed separately or together. She went through our I-485 application while asking my wife to confirm certain things from it. Basic information like name, DOB, etc. Certain questions from the yes/no criminal/drug questions had been circled previously and she only asked about those (my wife answered 'no' to all). She asked for our marriage certificate and my last year federal tax return (form 1040). She also asked if we had any additional information that we would like to be included in our file. I handed her a packet of information that we had prepared with my wife's name on it: life insurance, 401k, health/dental/vision insurance, car insurance, and a bunch of photos with descriptions of us together since our wedding. She didn't really look through it at all, just let me page through it and show it to her. We were a bit worried before the interview because we didn't have her name on anything connected to our house like the mortgage, utility bills, etc, but it didn't seem to be an issue for us.
After that, my wife went back to the waiting room so I could be interviewed alone. She started by going over some basic information from the I-129F form. Then she went into relationship history questions: when / how / where did you meet, where was our first date and what did we do, when did I meet her parents, how is my relationship with her parents, who did she live with, when did we start dating, did we live together while we were dating, how long have we been living together now, are we planning to have kids. I was surprised that she didn't ask much beyond that. She didn't ask anything about our marriage or our time since then. I could see the answers she was writing on a piece of paper that she had drawn a line down to separate into 2 sides. I spoke slowly at times to let her write the information down, including specific dates that I was mentioning.
My wife was then interviewed alone and was asked similar questions as well as some others: how did I propose, did I ask her parents for permission, when did we get married at the court, are we going to have a big wedding ceremony, where will the ceremony be, will her parents come to the ceremony. I thought it was odd that she was asked some different questions because the officer would have nothing to compare them to.
I was called back into the room and the officer informed us that we were recommended for approval. She said we should receive the card in the mail in about 3 weeks. I asked about stamping her passport and she said they only do that in cases where the green card is delayed for some time.
I was surprised that we, and all the other couples, had individual Stokes style interviews. From reading on this site, it seems that those are normally reserved for cases where marriage fraud is suspected. I guess it's the normal procedure at the Cincinnati office at least.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #26161