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| San Bernadino CA |  Review on January 28, 2009: |
Jeraly
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
Our appointment was at 7.30am so we had to get up at 5.30am - yawn!
We found the DHS building really easily but didn't realise we had to pay to park(!). Everyone else was driving in though so we just went on our merry way. We entered the building behind some other people after the guy at the door checked our appointment letter and IDs and removed all our metal bits to walk through the metal detector. I had to put my bag on the conveyor belt and we were through in no time - everyone was really friendly.
We arrived maybe 5 minutes before our appointment and after handing the appointment letter in, sat down to wait. Literally within about five minutes we were called up by another friendly person (I was mildly surprised, especially as the lady at the appointment letter window looked really miserable!) and followed him to an office. We had to remain standing while we swore to tell the truth and were instructed where to sit. It must really matter which side the immigrant sits on??
He asked when and where we met so we told him it was online on a game about seven or eight years ago. He was rooting through our (two inch thick) file checking paperwork and asked to see Jeremy's ID and my passport. He then asked why I hadn't filled out my family name on the I-485 form. OMGWTFBBQ???!!!1 Somehow, I had managed to put my first and middle names, but completely neglected to put my surname - I even checked the duplicate form I had and nothing... how we never got an RFE I will never know! He asked what name I wanted there and filled it in for me :*)
There were two points that caused a few questions but nothing serious - the first was my DS-3025 vaccine form that had the "incomplete" box checked. That was because the varicella vaccine isn't available in the UK so I couldn't have it. I explained that (after I panicked a bit until I figured it out) to the officer and he went on his merry way. The other "issue" was our marriage certificate. Even though it was the original copy we had when we got married, it didn't say it was a certified copy of an entry anywhere on it. The officer had to leave the office to check with someone else if it was ok and it was - otherwise I guess we would have just had an approval pending documentation.
I am glad I came prepared even though he didn't want to look at most of the stuff. He wanted to see the "comingled finances" paperwork - we had our insurance documents, a check from our joint bank account, our rental lease and our joint credit cards and it all appeared to be fine.
And that was it! He stamped our gigantic pile of papers with a nice red "Approved" stamp and we were done! He explained about having to remove conditions etc. and we were off!
All in all the interview took about 15 minutes and most of it consisted of a list of twenty five million questions about if I was involved in terrorist activities or suchlike :D He seemed interested in Jeremy's job because he works on a Native American reservation and asked me if English food is really as bland as it is supposed to be!!
As we left, there was a guy waiting to take payment for the car park - we didn't have any cash which was all they took so he let us go to the store in our car to get some money! Very trusting! But being the good people we are, we went back and paid :D
No more immigration for two years! Yippee!!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3866