Local US CIS Office Review: Saint Paul MN
Review Topic: cis_topic
|
| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
February 28, 2009 |
| Embassy Review : |
Ok, so we had our interview today at Bloomington, MN. It was scheduled for 2.30 pm, we arrived good half an hour early, but had a long wait. The waiting room was half packed, people were going in and out, but we were still waiting... I didn't like that, thinking that we had an officer that spent way more time with people then everyone else did. The couple that was sitting in front of us was called in separately by a young female officer, they had a lawyer, we didn't.
After half an hour the wife came out worried and started talking to us, while her husband was taken inside. She was not happy having female IO because, as she said, women always go deeper into details when questioning. She was asked a lot of questions about specific dates, also some personal questions around the house like stokes interview. She messed up some dates, and thought she did really bad, but later I found out they were denied before based on bad paperwork regarding previous marriage, I guess that was the reason. By the time her husband came out, we were the only remaining couple. No surprise, the same lady called us in. I was relieved when she invited us together, and she seemed pretty friendly and approachable.
She swore us in and started asking my husband (USC) first:
Name, DOB, SSN, address, place of birth, how long have you been living there, where did you live before that, when did we meet, where and how (online), which web site, who proposed, where, when how (describe)? Then she turned to me with the same personal info. In the meantime she asked for my passport and took my I-94 and asked to put everything I had from paperwork on the desk (I had PLENTY). She didn't ask to see any of the original papers, didn't ask for AP, EAD or SS card, not even birth certificates or my husbands passport. She never asked for any of our jobs, just asked my husband if he signed Affidavit of support and checked if signature on the petition I-130 was his. He told him he had enough income and that was it. My job came up later in the conversation, then she said: "Oh, you do work, really?" and I explained where and for how long.
She was interested in all of my entries in US, and the purpose, she wanted to know what I did (journalism) and how we saw each other during that time. Never asked, however, about the "non-intention" or why I didn't go back.
She did ask several questions about paperwork we already submitted in the mail, like where we got our wedding rings (we did online - didn't have a lot of money at the time). She smiled and said she ordered her wedding gown online and it was a disaster. We had a nice laugh about it, and went on to questions about our life together, confirmed since when (several times), if we lived alone (we said we lived with out kitty cat - she laughed again)... Weird questions were if we smoke or drink (I guess to see common habits), then she asked if my husband met my family -she didn't realize that he visited me in my country first, if I met his family, who attended the wedding, did we have the reception... We explained that we married on St. Patrick's day early in the morning because we had a plane to catch and go to his birth city and spend the day partying with his friends, and spent the whole next day with his dad. We explained we didn't have a lot of money at the time and she seemed ok with that.
Her supervisor knocked at the door in the middle trying to rush her, since it was the end of the day, and after she said she'd be done in two minutes, she just took all of papers without even looking. We had joint checking and savings in two banks, she wanted to know if any of us had any additional account, I left her car insurance, health and life insurance, job letters, taxes and w2 for both, bills, apartment lease, Sam's club cards copy, copies of all paperwork and documents... She kept all originals and copies.
Affidavit letters she had from before, she didn't take that, and didn't want to see any pictures, she had about 10 from application. She did, however, run through my scrapbook with like 20 boarding passes from trips, hotel receipts, cards, mail, vet papers etc, and said it looked really nice. I had to answer every yes/no question and she rushed us out.
I am worried because she didn't mention removing of conditions at all and didn't take AP and EAD. But when she asked if when had any questions, I asked how did we do, and she said: "You did just fine, we'll let you know within 30 days if we need anything else from you."
That was it. Sorry about the long post, I am still excited. Hubby and I went out for lunch and cocktails as if we were approved on the spot We do have the feeling that we did really well, had no hick-ups or wrong answers. We hope for the best |
| Harassment Level : |
Good |
|
ver 5.0