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| Los Angeles CA |  Review on October 11, 2021: |
Christopher B
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
Our interview was scheduled for 1:30 PM on Wednesday October 6th at the Los Angeles downtown office. We parked at the Los Angeles Mall across the street - it's $17 for the day, probably not the cheapest parking in the area but worth it for the convenience.
Parking entrance: https://goo.gl/maps/1iQfp4TGbyUE6NHH7
From the mall there is a crosswalk to the Federal Building. There is a dedicated USCIS entrance about 100ft to the left of the main entrance. At 1:10 PM, neither entrance had any line. We went to the USCIS entrance and did not have anyone in front of us. The security guards will want to see your interview notice.
Once through security, you end up in the main building lobby. To the left there is an elevator bank with some prominent signs for USCIS. USCIS is on the 6th and 8th floors. Your interview notice will tell you the floor and room number. For us it was room 8024 on the 8th floor. There was a security guard in the elevator who pressed the button for us.
There's another guard on the 8th floor who will want to see the interview notice again. We made it into room 8024 at around 1:15 PM (15 minutes before the scheduled interview time).
There are about 5 check-in windows, but only two were staffed when we arrived. There was one person in line in front of us, but we got checked in pretty quickly. The check-in staff will need the interview notice, and will take a photo and both index fingerprints of the applicant. They don't need anything from the USC petitioner.
After checking in, it's just a waiting game until your officer comes out and calls you. There's no numerical queue like the DMV and the check-in staff can't give you an ETA. Some people were sent to a different waiting room (8007) after checking in. This might be for COVID social distancing reasons.
We waited for about an hour and a half after checking in. At least the chairs are comfortable. Most people in the room did not have to wait that long - many people who checked in after us were called before us. Finally an officer came out and called us (using my - the applicant's - full name) to Door 1.
One thing that surprised me was that all of the officers were in business casual dress - no uniforms. I had imagined they would wear uniforms similar to CBP at the border. I suppose this was my first in-person interaction with USCIS. Anyway, this made it seem a lot less intimidating than if they had been in uniform.
The officer sort of explained the delay - apparently the officer originally assigned to our case was not available so it got assigned to this new officer instead after we checked in. He had taken some time to look over our case, but didn't seem intimately familiar with it (especially the evidence of bona fides that we submitted).
The interview itself was straightforward and short. I can't remember the officer's name. I think he was Hispanic/Latino. He didn't have a strong accent but he spoke quickly and quietly and was a bit hard to understand at times. He was on the opposite side of a plexiglass partition (COVID measure) so that may have made him more difficult to hear.
He asked some basic demographic questions of my USC husband and me. He asked us what each other's birth dates were and when I last entered the US. After that he asked us to describe the history of our relationship. Key things he wanted to know:
- How we first met (a gay dating app in our case, he wasn't familiar with it LOL so asked us to spell it out and he wrote it down).
- When we first met in person (month and year) and how long it was after we met online.
- Where we went for our first date.
- When we became an "official" couple.
- When/how we met each other's parents.
- When we started discussing marriage and making wedding plans.
It was all a pretty casual conversation that flowed naturally. After the relationship questions, he went through all of the security questions on the I-485. My USC husband hadn't read these before (he is allergic to paperwork so I did all of it) and thought some of them were kind of silly ("are you a communist?" etc.).
The officer asked for any additional evidence we wanted to submit. We had already submitted a lot of evidence with the initial application so didn't have a lot more to add. We added joint bank and credit card statements for the past three months, and the bill of sale, title, and insurance for a vehicle we recently bought together. We also had a small photo album which the officer flipped through but didn't want any of the photos.
The officer said he was satisfied that we had a genuine marriage, but couldn't approve us on the spot because of a delay on my husband's background check. He had to clarify some info with us related to prior names (we made a small mistake on the I-130). So he handed us a "continuation" letter and sent us on our way, but mentioned that we would likely be approved later that day or the next day.
After the interview, we ate at "The Little Jewel of New Orleans", which I'd recommend if you want a big portion of greasy seafood to celebrate. The Po'Boys were great (I got the catfish & shrimp, husband got the seafood lover). The poutine gravy fries were all right - I liked them, but too salty for the husband.
Overall it was a straightforward and unintimidating experience. Both my husband and I were incredibly nervous and anxious leading up to it, but it wasn't that bad in the end. Still very relieved to get it over and done with. My I-485 case tracker updated to "card being produced" later that same day, and both the I-485 and the I-130 updated to "approved" the next day. We received approval letters for the I-130 and I-485 in the mail on Sat Oct 9. I haven't received the Green Card in the mail yet, but should hopefully get it this week.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #30241