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| San Francisco CA |  Review on May 17, 2012: |
Sparkbat
Rating:  | Review Topic: Adjustment of Status
Some brief background info:
I'm changing from an F1 visa and I'm now 1/2 way through an MBA. The wife and I did a "quickie" wedding at the local city hall. With our family and friends scattered in Boston and Oz we wanted to get the ball rolling and do the "proper" stuff later when the time is right and we can arrange/afford it.
We had a 9:45am appointment on a Wednesday. We found a parking garage about 3 blocks away easily enough.
Got there at 9:20. There was a line outside with about 8 people in front of us. Our appointment letter and drivers licenses were checked twice and bags scanned on entry. Inside the lobby by 9:25 and made our way up to the second floor reception. It was a huge open room with people waiting in various parts of it. The reception line was quite short. The guy looked at our appointment letter and licenses and directed us up to the 3rd floor. Got up there by 9:30.
The third floor is just a large waiting room with a couple of TV's and a bunch of doors for staff only all around. There were about 15 people waiting there. We were called up at 10am by a middle aged lady named "Ms Chen". We followed her through some corridors to her office and before sitting down raised our right hands and swore not to lie.
She started by asking for my passport (including the I-94) and birth certificate and my wife's "proof of citizenship" (her passport). From this point for the first few minutes she basically just went through her form asking questions to check things on her sheet. My: DOB, Dad's name, Mum's name, current address, who do you live with?, phone number, what date did I last enter the U.S?("some time mid-last year, maybe early August"), are you still at this University?, do you have an SSN? She also ran through a bunch of "have you ever been arrested" or "applied for residency before" yes or no type questions (all nos!!) She asked my wife a couple of similarly administrative questions including her DOB. She also asked for our marriage certificate.
Some less "checking the form" questions were:
Where/when did you meet? ("At a bar, 3 years ago"). And you've been together since? ("Yep")
Have you traveled together? ("Yes, a lot"), What was your favorite country? What did you do there?
Did you have a big wedding? ("No, just us") We explained we wanted to get it done and do something with the families in Oz/Boston when we can.
Any shared accounts or insurances? ("No, not really....haven't done the joint bank thing yet, we've got a shared apartment lease, I tried to get on her car insurance but it would have been ridiculously expensive and they made us sign something saying I wouldn't drive her car..". (she thought that was very entertaining and didn't ask to see any joint documents).
Do you have any pictures? I gave her my 3 pages of different country pics with corresponding passport pages and the two wedding pics. She seemed very impressed by that and asked to keep them.
(To my wife) Do you have your 2 most recent pay stubs and a letter from your employer? ("No, they were in the package, so we didn't bring copies"). This seemed OK with her. She had the whole package in front of her but I guess it was a pain sifting through it all.
Do you have your 2011 tax return? Unfortunately (as we were both on it) we couldn't find it and didn't bring it, but offered a bank receipt of the tax return deposit with both our names on it. She said she didn't need it and it was fine.
At the end she got me to sign her form, showing where she'd made some changes (10 changes in total, nothing major) and told us it was approved and to expect the green card within a month. She gave me a single page form with the "interview results" and how to follow up if I haven't received it in 45 days.
All in all it was a very pleasant and efficient experience. The interviewing lady enjoyed a bit of light-hearted banter in response to some of her questions and didn't seem troubled by any of the missing documentation. She also didn't really seem to be probing, looking to "catch us out" at all with silly questions like "why don't you have rings?". We didn't really expand on our answers unnecessarily and only offered documents when they were asked for and she was fine with that. She didn't ask for my EAD card at all. The interview lasted less than 15 minutes.
That's it.
If anyone has any follow-up questions I'd be happy to answer them. This forum has been fantastic for me, so thank you all.
Cheers.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #9687