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| Saint Paul MN |  Review on May 12, 2011: |
MG_Canada_to_US
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
We had our interview in Bloomington MN,a suburb of Minneapolis. We entered the building through the USCIS entrance (to the left of the main). Security asked for our appointment letter and ran our bags through the xray. We walked through the detector and were directed to the next floor up and told to go to the right. Checked in at the window and were asked to have a seat in the waiting room.
We waited about 15 minutes til a woman called my wife's name and asked us both to follow her to her office. We stood at the desk as she swore us in.
She explained to us what would happen during the interview and proceeded. She verified our identity from our drives licenses and asked to see my wife's passport. She verified the information on our petition asking our full names, my wifes mother's name, where she was born, if she had any children anywhere in the world. Just the one I'm carring was my wife's response, the interview seemed quite pleased for us and noted the pregnancy in our file. She asked when my wife moved to the USA, October 12, as indicated on her I-94, and if she was working in the US, of course the answer was no since we just got the EAD in the mail a short time ago.
We were asked about how we met, when we first talked on the phone and when we meet in person.
In regard to our marriage, she asked when and where we got married, if it was a church wedding (which it was) and aproximatedly how many people attended (250), it was a large wedding she repied. She asked if my wife's family were able to attend (they did), and whether or not we had a reception (yes) held at the church or else where (it was held in the community hall).
The interviewer asked my wife if she had been back to Canada since recieving her AP. My wife had been back several times, which seemed perplexing to the agent. She asked, "why did you traveled back so many times?". Her reply, "to visit family and friends". "Hmmm..." ,said the agent. My wife added that we only live about an hour and half from her parents home, with that the agent said, "that makes sense, most people arn't that close to home and arn't able to make the trip. We had a copy of each of the I-94 forms we were issued, which she kept and noted the last time my wife entered the US.
For documentation, we were asked for something with both our names on it. we provided a few bank statements, a utility bill and health insurance records. We had lots more but that was enough. She asked if these were copies for her to keep, and added them to our file.
She then told us that she would be approving our AOS, then corrected herself saying that she couldn't approve our petition as a copy of our medical had not been receive and had been requested in January. We said that we hadn't received a request for it, to which the agent said that it would have come from another USCIS office and that we wouldn't have it. However; we did have a copy given to us at the POE, the interviewer asked to see it, gave it a very quick flip through and said, "I knew there wouldn't be any problems" took our photocopy of the records along with our copy of my wife's vaccination records, handed back our orginals and said "now I can say your approved today."
The interviewer asked if my wife had any plans to travel to Canada in the next few weeks. My wife's brother is getting married the end of the month. We thought we could continue to use her AP for travel but were informed that the AP is no longer valid once the AOS is approved. The agent said, "rather than worry about the card getting to you in time I will stamp your passport granting a tempory greencard valid for one year which you can use until the card arrives." Problem solved!
The interview lasted about 15 minutes, we were never seperated or asked any silly questions. We had two cloth shopping bags of stuff with us including every document we filed or recieved, tax records, finacial records for my affidavitt of support and lots of pictures. None of these things were asked of us yet I would advise anyone else to do the same. Better to be over prepared.
It was not nearly as stressful as I thought it would be, actually it was a pleasant experience for us both.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #7584