Local US CIS Office Review: Portland OR
Review Topic: cis_topic
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
October 17, 2012 |
| Embassy Review : |
Well, thanks to reading these reviews before we had our interview, we were much more confident that the interview would go well. Before that, we were imagining all sorts of things they would ask us, and really working ourselves up over it...overwhelmed with how much we were supposed to know about each other, and what kind of trick questions they would ask. So, to help others quell their anxiety, here is how our interview went at the Porland, OR service center.
First, we got there about an hour early. We knew we would be really early, but we used this time to watch other couples come and go, see the expresions on their faces when they returned, timed how long each were gone. For us (and this may not be for everyone), it gave us a sense of calm to see how easy going it was for everyone else.
Our name was called back, and my husband and I went with the interviewing officer. She was very nice, introduced herself and said she would be the one conducting our interview.
We followed her to her office where there was her desk, two chairs in front of her desk and two chairs on the side. We sat in the ones in front (of course), but pulled them closer to each other.
The IO (interviewing officer) just briefly told us what the procedure was. She had questions to ask, and we were to answer. She joked that the longer we took answering her questions, the less she would have time to ask. 
She started by asking my Husband (the non-USC) what his name was, what his birthday was, and where he lived. My husband quickly rattled his address off, and she said "wow, you rattled that off like you memorized it". Uhh oh we thought, she thinks we are just giving her memorized answeres. Which of course, and address is. She then went on to say that most husbands don't know their address, and need to pull their wallet out to look. I asked her if they could do that durning the interview, and she said, "yes, we're not that strict here". From that point on, we were much more relaxed.
She then switched to me and asked me if I knew his parents names, however my husband didn't realize she switched to me, so he started telling her my parents names. I then told her his parents names, and messed up on his dad's (which is a bit different), and explained that I only met him once before he passed away and that I always just called him Tata. She seemed to like that answer.
After those simple questions (and seriously, that's all she asked), she went on to ask the mandatory questions to my husband "are you a killer, prostitute, criminal, communist, etc.). We actually were giggling through all this and had to explain to her that we absolute don't find these things funny, but if she at all knew either one of us, she would realize that these are all the furthest things from his personality that he could be. Again, she seemed to like our unsolicited explanation.
After that, she reviewed the letter of support, said everything looks fine, and asked if we had any proof of living together.
We had earlier explained to her that my husband was never given his i-94 back from the immigration officer, and by the time we figured out he needed it (when he went to get his soc), and by the time we finally got it (took FOREVER, and they almost didn't believe that he never got it back from immigration), it was too late to get his soc, so we had a very hard time getting him on joint accounts that required a s.s. #. We told her that because he only three week prior had finally received the soc, he still wasn't on too many joint accounts. We submitted our water bill, our house lease, and pictures. That is is. She took the stack of pictures and picked out about six to make copies for the files, made copies of the lease and water bill, and then said, congratulations, you should receive your greencard in about 10 day. She kept his i-94 and his work permit/advance parole.
Seriously, this interview should be absolutely easy for any truly married couple. Please don't fret, or worry about it. The portland office interiew officers are so nice, it's so casual, and if you have what they ask you to bring, you should be just fine. Good Luck to anyone else going through the AOS process.
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| Harassment Level : |
Very Good |
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ver 5.0