Local US CIS Office Review: Saint Paul MN
Review Topic: cis_topic
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
April 2, 2006 |
| Embassy Review : |
OK, so we got it - we're approved...and here's the interview story:
We arrive about 12.05 at St Paul, had no trouble finding the building - parked on the higher side, and went in through the doors, got everything scanned, walked through the metal door thing that goes *beep* (heh...) and then got scanned again. Went up the stairs, to the left, past the sign that said "Deportation and Removal" (with an arrow *shudders*) and into the waiting room, after sticking the letter in the tray.
We sat down in a medium-full waiting room, which quickly became full of different people, many of them with lawyers. Ben was getting anxious and said to me "everyone has lawyers", so I explained that not all cases are as simple as ours, and some people do need to "lawyer-up". So that calmed him a little, and with a bit of eye-closing and fidgeting, he did avoid sheer panic Bless him! Luckily though, we were called in shortly after that (must have been around our designated time of 12.30), by a nice young lady immigration officer.
She called out my name, and Ben followed, as we went through the door, down the hall and into the interview room. We were asked to stay standing, and raise our right hands, and swore to tell the truth...the whole truth and nothing but the truth...we said "I do" (Ben and "yes" (me ) simultaneously :D. She took Ben's ID, my ID, my passport, I-94 and EAD card.
So at that point, she asked us a few questions about the forms - Ben first, writing as she went. She asked him personal information about him, just confirming what was written, then my name, my date of birth and our current address. Hilariously, he got my two middle names completely wrong, mixing up all the syllables, and we just both ended up falling about laughing - even the immigration officer was amused (but she was really very nice, and professional.). He got my birth date right, but when asked the year, he had to count backward to find it - and got that right too I love my husband, he's such a sweetie - he was so amused at himself!
I was asked several questions from the forms, then the address, telephone number, what I did for a living in England etc. We were then asked when we met, when we first met in person, where that meeting took place, the approximate dates of further visits and how long I stayed each time, if I'd stayed longer than 6 months on any occasion, if I'd only ever come in on a tourist visa, etc etc.
After that, we were asked for evidence of jointly living together, at which point I just dumped the following on the table:
* Our "Memory Book" - we've been making it for the next generation and it has pictures from both our childhoods, wedding pics, pictures from Puerto Rico and England, etc etc.
* A photo album of Christmas, an outing or two and a few other things.
* Bills etc going to the same place.
* Cards etc addressed to both of us.
* Tax returns.
* Birth certificates.
* Joint health insurance (which we actually never got to show her!)
So she started looking through the evidences - all of them, with great interest in all of our memory book - not just the parts that applied to our present lives together. She looked through every page of everything there, but didn't read the joint cards or take a really close look at bills addressed to both of us at the same address. I was all ready to tell her about the health insurance, but forgot about it as we explained some of the pictures and had a laugh between us. We also took the info and pics of our new house, and she looked at that and thought it looked lovely! She and Ben chatted about that in depth, especially the big living room!
So she took the original copies of the birth certificates, and then kept the photocopies. She looked at our tax returns, and Ben explained that we'd filed seperately because that way, he got more money this year, and I could still file the foreign earned income exclusion on my own little seperate 1040. She asked us for wage slips, and just wanted 1 week's worth from Ben to photocopy. I mentioned that we both had employer's letters and that I also had wage slips, so she took mine too, and then I asked her if she needed to see our joint-sponsor's birth certificate also, or if we even needed a joint sponsor anymore. She replied that no, she felt we were more than capable of just doing it ourselves. Which was great!
She went out and photocopied the documents, and we were left alone for a few minutes. When she came back, she asked me a few more questions, about where I worked in the UK, what I did, a few questions more. Then she asked me the "have you ever been convicted" etc questions from the I-485 form. I answered "no", of course.
She asked about how long I intended to stay when I arrived in May, and I told her "until 23rd August", and she asked "why did you stay longer" - I replied, briefly saying that we'd had no intentions upon entry, but that three weeks later, on June 22nd, he'd asked me to marry him - the London bombings had happened, and at that point, our plans for the K1/K3 went out-the-window after speaking to USCIS on the 'phone and being told that I could stay and adjust from here....so we did! She was prefectly happy with that, wrote it down and nodded.
Shortly after that she gave us our ID's back, and kept the EAD card aside. I asked "Oh - you'll be taking that now, won't you?" - she replied that yes, she would...and then I knew we'd been approved!
She took my passport and stamped it, wrote it up until this date in 2007, and then explained that it was taking between 3-4 weeks to get the Green Cards in the post, so just to keep my name on the PO box of this address until it arrived, and then to go ahead and change it to our new address as and when.
She explained about removal of conditions (or rather, it was a discussion because I asked her about it - she said "oh, you know all of that then!?"), about sitizenship and I confirmed we'd be doing that, and then congratulated us, and told us the way to go out! We picked up our scattered evidences, giggled as I threw everything on the floor by accident, and made our way back to the crowded waiting room, trying not to be too vocal about our victory in case anyone had just been denied...!
We told our sister in law in the hallway, and she took the following picture of us outside...then we went to stuff ourselves at Olive Garden in Burnsville - meh eh eh!
So all in all, it was the most pleasant USCIS experience we've ever had...it took about 25 minutes or perhaps 30, and was very professional, human, friendly and fine. No problems at all - and a great relief for Ben, who'd obviously been having horrible visions of interrogation techniques involving dogs and water torture
We're free until 2007..!Lots of love, Jeanne and Ben!! |
| Harassment Level : |
Very Good |
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ver 5.0