Local US CIS Office Review: Tampa FL
Review Topic: cis_topic
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
August 21, 2017 |
| Embassy Review : |
Its been over 3 years since my AOS Interview so I am sorry if I have forgotten some of the finer details, especially with regards to the types of questions I was asked. I had intended to write my review immediately after but things just always got in the way and then I forgot!
Anyway, here is my review:
We were the very first interview of the day and it was on a Saturday. We arrived early and USCIS had not yet opened the doors to the building. After a 15 mins wait, we were able to enter the building, go through security, show our appointment letter and were then given a number and told to proceed to the waiting room. I think we waited approx 20 mins and then we were called in together. Our officer was polite and led us to the interview room. He had our file on his desk but he did not look at it. He was friendly at first, talked about sports to my husband...then asked us some basic questions about where we live, how we met and when did we decide to get married etc. I am sure there were other questions but unfortunately I am having problems remembering them exactly but it was nothing very complicated.
He then asked if we had brought supporting evidence with us. As I assumed he had seen all the supporting evidence we submitted in the file, I just showed him some additional photos that had been taken since I had submitted the file. The issue with the photos were that a lot of them were selfies of us two together, we were not big socialites so didn't have many photos with other people in them and because they were selfies, you could never really tell what was in the back ground!. In hindsight, I wish that we had been more careful to document our time together in the photos...clear landmarks, locations and pictures with other friends and family members.
The officer asked if we had anything else which at first I didn't understand why he would ask considering I had submitted so much information and evidence in my application. He asked if we had pictures of the wedding and I said yes but they were all in the file...he asked to see them so I pulled out copies of the photos that I had submitted. At that point I realized, he had barely even looked through our file as everything I showed him seemed new. This made me realize how important it is to bring an exact copy of everything you submit in your file and have the original copies where applicable.
Anyway, I showed him a lot of different photos of the wedding and other times together. I also had affidavits, valentines and holiday cards, flight tickets, our rental agreement from England when we lived together, utility bills in the UK etc proving our relationship was genuine. All of these documents were in the file that I had already submitted and he had in front of him.
At the time we were still living with my husband's mother in the US as we were not in a strong financial situation so we did not have our own rental agreement or joint utility bills. Also, we had not opened up any joint bank accounts or have any joint medical policies or insurance etc. I guess we just weren't those kind of people....we were still getting established as newly weds, my husband didn't have medical or other insurance, we didn't own a car. I was still very new to the US, I had not yet been working long enough for us to submit a joint tax return... my husband didn't earn enough the previous year to have to submit one even himself so we had no proof of financial ties. I definitely did not take note of everyone's advice on this forum... joint accounts, medical, insurance, memberships etc are so important.
The officer did not seem impressed with our lack of joint official documents while in the US and said that he needed to be excused from the room. He left a few minutes and then came back and said that the next part of the interview we would be separate. He took my husband with him and I was left alone in the room for what felt like maybe just 15/20 mins.
He then came back with another man (I think he was possibly his supervisor but the man did not say anything apart from hello so I cannot confirm. I was just told he would be listening in). The officer then started to ask me a wide range of questions...anything from details about my husband's family, my family, who drove to the interview, what time we left, when was the last time we stayed in a hotel, what do I do for work, he even asked me when we first had sexual relations (which I found very inappropriate) and there were also some other intimate questions which I can't quite remember the exact question but I know I felt very uncomfortable at how personal the questions became.
The officer then started looking at my passport and was asking why I had visited all these different countries such as Japan, India or Thailand... Many of these visits were for work in my previous job when I was a Hotel Sales Manager in Europe and traveled for business. I am also a keen traveler of the world and always went on 1 or 2 big vacations a year to either Asia, Africa or around Europe. He kept showing my passport to the other person and kept pointing at it. He asked why did I go to Japan twice in a year or why would I not take my husband with me...he was getting quite aggressive and it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I had to explain all the dates that I had gone somewhere despite the fact that most of the stamps were before I had even met my husband. It really did feel like an interrogation as I was having to explain visits to places years before my husband was even in the picture.
After what was nearly an hour of questioning, the officer told me to go out and join my husband and he will come back and get us in a while. I think we waited 20 mins or so...my husband had said that the officer had asked him very few questions. Just some basics about who drove here, family, our last vacation together etc. He did not go through the same experience as I did at all!
When he called us back in, the officer seemed calm again and just said that after reviewing our case, he would have approved us on the spot but we are lacking some supporting evidence so he could not approve me for my greencard. He gave us an RFE and said that we should print out emails, facebook messages and also show some kind of financial ties and suggested we open a joint account. I think we had 90 days to submit the evidence and then our case will be reviewed and he was confident that we would be approved.
All in all we were at the interview for nearly 2 1/2 hours from start to finish.
Needless to say, we were very disappointed but I knew what I needed to do and figured we would just go about trying to collect more evidence.
Then strangely, on the same day, about 5 hours after the interview, I received an email notification from USCIS referencing my AOS application and saying that they had ordered production of a new card and it will be mailed within 30 days. I didn't know what to think at all... I thought it might be an error but as it was the weekend, I just figured I would follow up on it on Monday. Then Monday morning came and I received another email notification saying that my I130 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN was approved and then a second email reconfirming that my card was being produced and I will receive it within 30 days. I didn't know what to think... I wondered if it was true..I planned to call USCIS and ask as I still didn't believe it and thought it wouldn't hurt to start gathering the additional evidence anyway... but before I even started, my card was mailed out 3 days later!
I have no idea what happened, did the officer look through my file once we were gone and realize I had enough evidence? Or did his supervisor look over the file and approve it? To this day I do not know!
The interview process was stressful, I do not know why I had been questioned so severely but I guess he was just doing his job. It ended up working out in the end.
All I can say is listen to everyone's suggestions, submit as much evidence as you can and bring copies of everything you submit with you. Do not assume the officer has looked through everything in your file as it certainly did not feel that way to me.
This website has been a godsend... there is so much helpful information on there so please read people posts as there are a lot of people who know what they are talking about! |
| Harassment Level : |
Poor |
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ver 5.0