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| Detroit MI |  Review on July 1, 2009: |
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Rating:  | Review Topic: General Review
Had green card interview on July 1st, 2009: PASSED!
We had everything organized in a folder since forever (pictures/EAD card/BC/marriage license/passports/SS card/all NOAs/etcetera). Our main problem is that my wife doesn't speak English and we didn't bring an interpreter. We called last minute yesterday and the average cost would have been about $200. I didn't want to pay that for a 5-minute interview when I can translate myself from Spanish to English. I heard on VJ that I couldn't be the interpreter because I had an interest in the case (translating for my wife). I'm pretty sure we just got lucky and had a very nice and friendly officer. I'm certain she could have told us to come back another day when we had a professional interpreter.
So we had a 12:15pm appointment in the Detroit office. We got there around 12pm. There were about 20 couples in a very large room. We were instructed to drop the appointment notice at window 8 (the last window) and have a seat. Nobody was in window 8 and all the other windows were not occupied by officers. There were a pile of appointment notices at window 8. We sat down for probably 40 minutes waiting to be called. There were people going in by themselves, I'm not sure what type of interview they had, and others entering with what appeared to be interpreters or lawyers. We were very prepared to be sent back home immediately as soon as the officer found out my wife doesn't speak English.
Anyways, her name was called and we walked to the door to be escorted to the interviewing officer's office. We sat down and she was like "I'll be doing your interview today" in a very friendly and non-intimidating tone. She told us to stand up and raise our right hands to swear to tell the truth. She asked Diana a question and realized right away she didn't speak English. She asked her directly and my wife responded in an accent, "A little". Then she asked me if I spoke fluent Spanish and I said yes. She had me raise my right hand to swear to translate her questions without changing the wording around.
The officer went through a check list of things to look for. From what I picked up on this would not change for each individual case. She asked for basic things first: Our identification first, then passports, her social security card, her EAD card. Then we went on with the interview. She asked for the medical results and opened the envelope and read the results; checking off each vaccination on her checklist to make sure it was complete. Then she starting going down a list of yes/no questions. She started off asking Diana herself in English. To the first question (I forget what) Diana responded no (these types of questions are all "answer no" questions). The second question came along and she asked: "Have you committed a crime that you have not been caught for?" Well, it was something like that. Diana responded "No". The officer then asked her, "Do you understand what I am saying? Can you explain to me the question I just asked you!" Diana couldn't and so the officer said from that point on she would ask the question and I would translate from Spanish to English without changing the question around. I was disappointed because I knew the type of questions would be incredibly difficult to translate and my Spanish is ok, but far from perfect. I'd say I am about 70% fluent meaning I have major work to do on grammar, word tenses, vocabulary, etc., and it will probably take me another 4 years to get closer to a native level of fluency.
So I translated each question as best I could. I was holding back from laughing because I was having such a difficult time (but hid it well) and I knew how piss poor my translations were. Also, which I thought was hilarious while interviewing, was that I was making up words if didn't know how to say. For some of the words I didn't know translations for I would just say the word in English and add "ista" which I also found to be somewhat funny. Other times I would sort of mumble or just completely make up a word! I thought it was fairly obvious that when she read a three sentence, 50-word question and I translated it in 6 words :rofl: she might pick up on the fact that maybe I wasn't capable enough to translate. Either she knew and didn't care or didn't notice.
So we finally got through the 10-15 questions, and I was extremely relieved because the hard part was over. Then she asked for proof that we lived together, such as a bank statement. I told her we have a joint bank account with the last three statements and different envelopes addressed to her which had our address on them. It was completely fine and she didn't question anything or ask for more evidence. Then she asked for photos and we showed her about 20 photos (which she kept). We talked about the photos, and she asked a couple questions like what did you do after your wedding, did you have lunch. Then she asked where we had lunch and with whom. That was it.
Then she asked for my 2008 tax returns. I told her I don't have them because I am still filing as a dependent on my father's returns. My father filed an extension which wasn't ready yet and I didn't work last year because I was finishing my last year of college. She said that I wasn't given a pass on the affidavit of support and that she may need to see some new information, such as a 2008 return, to give us a pass. She went through my dad's returns and said they looked good, and that he was well over the poverty limits. She said that if there is reason not to give the pass on the affidavit, it is usually very obvious and sticking out very clearly. She ended up giving us the green light on the affidavit, and then proceeded to put a stamp in Diana's passport and explain that what the next step was (to file to remove conditions in two years). Then she congratulated us and that was it, we walked out after a 15-20 minute interview. It was a very casual interview, all the questions were very simple. She did ask me if I knew her parent's names and that was the only "quiz" question we received.
She didn't once ask to see our marriage license, my birth certificate, or her birth certificate. Everything we sent for AOS was in a big file and she already previously went over all the paperwork minutes before our interview to review our case. Overall, it was painless.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #4672