Our Interview Details And How It Went

[MiaAndSabry 6]

So just to re-cap, my hubby is changing status from F-1 student visa, to resident (marriage-based). We had our interview today, so I wanted to share the details of it here.

We arrived at the immigration office (about 10 minutes late, I am ashamed to say, due to some unexpected traffic problems, even though we did leave early…). We went through the scanners at the front door, and then came up the stairs to the second floor, to meet our lawyer who was seated in the lobby.

She noticed my husband was limping pretty badly on his left foot--- he had gotten flustered when he lost something important the other day, and couldn’t find it anywhere, so he kicked a crumpled up piece of paper under the bed, but in the process, he hit his foot on the metal edge underneath, which I have actually done myself in the past.

Anyway, I helped him over to the seat and we sat down next to our lawyer. She asked what happened to his foot and we explained… She seemed very concerned, suggesting something could be badly bruised or broken, so he better get looked at (I strongly agree).

She told us our immigration officer was an East Indian gentleman, who was fairly new. Our lawyer had been coming there with couples to their interviews for the last 15 years, so she knew the drill pretty well. She said our officer seemed like and ok guy. Although he was new... Meaning she had never seen him there before. I dont't hink she meant new like new to the profession, because when we met him, he was in his late 50's, early 50's...

So our lawyer just went through a few standard procedures with us, and finally we were called in.

The officer brought us into his office and had us remain standing for a minute, to have us hold up our right hands and take little standard oath,

“Do you swear that everything you say here today will be the absolute truth?”

We both said “Yes”, of course.

Then we all sat down, our lawyer taking the chair behind us. The officer was very “stick to the facts, strictly business”. Not grouchy or rude. Not mean. Just maintaining a “impersonal” stance, I guess.

He proceeded asking us a few basic questions, me first, then my husband:

What is your full name?

Date/place of birth?

What do you do for a living?

What is your current address?

Which city do you work in?

Do you own or rent your home?

Were you married before? Do you have a copy of your divorce decree?

(Yes for me, no for my husband. He asked me that question, and I gave my divorce decree to him, he looked it over and asked me a couple of questions about my ex, like where my ex was from, etc. which my ex was from India, same as the officer, lol)

What is your spouse’s name, date of birth?

(Ok, I got confused on this one, because the officer was still starring at my divorce decree when he asked, so I thought he meant my Ex’s date of birth, which is May 11, 1976….. But when the officer paused and looked up at me strangely and pointed to my CURRENT husband, saying, “His date of birth???” I realized my mistake and said, “Oh! I’m sorry, I thought you were asking about my ex, because you were looking at the divorce decree. No for my current husband, that would be May 11, 1989.”…………. Yeah, BOTH my ex husband and current husband were May 11^th, but the year is different. So I hope the officer didn’t take that the wrong way, lol. Because he didn’t really let me explain that they both have the same date, just a different year. He sort of moved on to the next question.)

What does your spouse do for a living?

Which city does your spouse work in?

Any children from previous marriages/relationships? (no for both of us)

Have you ever applied for a green card or citizenship for anyone else before? (no for both of us)

What are your parents names? Your spouse’s parents names?

(Um... Yeah... On that, I have always had trouble remembering my husband’s mother’s name, because he rarely EVER calls her, or talks to her because she always goes on this “criticizing the mistakes in your life” binge every time he calls her… So he really doesn’t talk to her much. I named his father instantly, because he is constantly talking to his father. But his mother, it took me about 5 long seconds, lol).

Where do your parent’s live? Your spouse’s parents?

Have you ever met or spoken to your spouse’s parents? (he has never met my parents because they BOTH died of heart attacks in 2013, Mom in July, Dad in December. And I have never met his, only a couple of emails, as they live in Egypt and there is a language barrier, so usually if I want them to know something, I relay the message through my husband—all of which we explained).

Named our co-sponsor and asked us who he was, how my husband knows him, what our co-sponsor does for a living, etc.

Then of course he had to ask my husband the “national security” type questions, which our lawyer told us beforehand the officer would have to ask:

Have you ever been arrested? Done anything illegal?

Been involved in terrorism?

Received weapons, military or combat training?

Served in the military?

Helped anyone come to this country illegally, or obtain a Green Card / Visa illegally?

Do you plan on engaging in any terrorism or politically disrupting actions against or inside the United States?

Etc., etc. And about a dozen other very similar questions. All answered “no”, of course.

At this point, he started asking to see originals and copies of various documents, drivers license, work permit, photos of us, husband’s passport/visa and I-94, our most recent pay stubs, etc. etc.

And that was pretty much it, he let us go after that. Throughout the interview, I got maybe one or two smiles out of him, although he was very business-like with my husband. As we walked out the door, the officer gave me another smile. So I’m hoping he likes us, and we will have a good, speedy process.

On our way out, my poor husband was limping pretty bad again (you know how when you walk on a sore foot for a while, it gets easier, but after you sit down for a while its REALLY sore when you first get up).

When my husband limped so hard he hunched over, I just instinctively reached out and grabbed hold of him, telling him to hold on to my shoulders as he walked, and put most of his weight on me, while stepping on the sore foot. I helped guide him down the hallway, and I forgot all about the immigration officer, so I was really surprised when he appeared out in front of us again, to hold open the lobby door for us. I guess he had been watching my husband limping, and he wanted to help. So that was really nice of him.

Oh my poooooooor baby….

The immigration officer still had my husband’s passport, ID and Social Security card, he said he would bring it out to us in a minute. So our lawyer sat us down in the lobby again, to talk, while we waited for the officer to bring my husband’s items. Our lawyer said,

“Well that went very quickly, and I think it went well. In comparison to others, that was really easy-going. It will get approved, I'm sure, because you guys were just clear and honest with everything. So no big deal. Now we just wait, because he has to go over everything and make his decision. Most of the time with this office, people usually wait 1 or 2 weeks to hear back, and then we proceed from there.”

I commented that in comparison to other interviews I’d heard about, there were VERY FEW personal questions. And he only asked for maybe half of the documents we had brought…. No questions about our brothers and sisters. Or what our family thinks of the union. Or about our home, our lifestyle, or the way we live. No relationship questions. No questions about the wedding. Or about our bills (although he did look at some of the copies of our power bill, and our lease).

Our lawyer laughed and said,

“Well that’s good, because it was quick and simple. Would you rather it be difficult?”

I was like,

“No, I’m perfectly fine with quick and simple.”

Then my husband asked about the procedures when it is approved, or disapproved, and she explained that to us. And strongly recommended my husband see a doctor about his foot…

A couple minutes later the immigration officer reappeared with my husbands passport and ID, etc. and handed it to him, giving us one more smile and wishing us a good day.

So…. Yeah, I’m just hoping all goes well and its fast and fairly easy. The only thing that concerns me is that I took several long seconds to think of my husband’s mother’s name (its an Arabic name I have never heard before, and again, he rarely mentions/communicates with her). And of course the birth year mix up with him and my ex husband…

But I reason that if we do get called back over those 2 things, it is easily explainable and we can answer whatever other questions they ask us…

Ok, so that was basically it. I will update as soon as we know anything. Wish us luck!

Edited June 27, 2014 by MiaAndSabry

[GurkenSalat 48]

Congrats! I hope our interview goes as well. I'm really worried I'll get very nervous and mess it up :S But that's just me...

[frankrohy 2]

Good Luck Guys...

[MiaAndSabry 6]

Thank you

I think its normal to be nervous, because there is always this thought in the back of your head that no couple is perfect, and you feel like immigration just expects you to be the perfect couple. And if you're not, they're gonna accuse you of something you didn't do and cause a lot of trouble for you, lol. Or you are afraid the one you love can be taken away from you if you make ONE little mistake, lol. You just get this feeling that they assume everyone is a liar until proven innocent, and treat you like it, so you feel all defensive of yourself. I don't know if they actually think that, but the questions and their "seriousness" make you feel that way.

I really don't know how "fake" couples do stuff like that. Because even us honest couples are nervous as heck at an interview, and as you can see from what I wrote above, even we screw up, lol. Literally during the oath, when we were raising our hand, I looked and my husband's hand and it was shaking.... My hand was shaking too. We are honest people, but something about the environment or the situation just makes people nervous, lol. I had to lay my hands together in my lap to keep them still.

[braveheart97xxx 7]

MiaandSabry .,, thank you so much for posting this interview details... This is a big help to all of us going through the process ..

I am sure you will get your approval soonest..

[MiaAndSabry 6]

Thank you, glad to help. I think every time someone posts the details of their interview, it helps everyone to know what to expect, and reduces some of the nervous feelings. Because you can find out what is normal procedure for an interview.

I hope we get it approved too, I hope they don't make a huge deal out of my 2 silly goof ups, lol. But like I said, even if they want another interview, its not a probelm, we can pass, just its a pain in the butt cuz the place is a 2-hour drive away, and I gotta take time off work for it, lol.

Edited June 27, 2014 by MiaAndSabry

[sweet cakes 326]

Thank you, glad to help. I think every time someone posts the details of their interview, it helps everyone to know what to expect, and reduces some of the nervous feelings. Because you can find out what is normal procedure for an interview.

I hope we get it approved too, I hope they don't make a huge deal out of my 2 silly goof ups, lol. But like I said, even if they want another interview, its not a probelm, we can pass, just its a pain in the butt cuz the place is a 2-hour drive away, and I gotta take time off work for it, lol.

Thanks for sharing an extensive review of your interview experience and hope you receive the approval soon too!

Btw, when you have a chance, , it helps everyone using the forum.

[Soloenta 2,218]

So just to re-cap, my hubby is changing status from F-1 student visa, to resident (marriage-based). We had our interview today, so I wanted to share the details of it here.

We arrived at the immigration office (about 10 minutes late, I am ashamed to say, due to some unexpected traffic problems, even though we did leave early…). We went through the scanners at the front door, and then came up the stairs to the second floor, to meet our lawyer who was seated in the lobby.

She noticed my husband was limping pretty badly on his left foot--- he had gotten flustered when he lost something important the other day, and couldn’t find it anywhere, so he kicked a crumpled up piece of paper under the bed, but in the process, he hit his foot on the metal edge underneath, which I have actually done myself in the past.

Anyway, I helped him over to the seat and we sat down next to our lawyer. She asked what happened to his foot and we explained… She seemed very concerned, suggesting something could be badly bruised or broken, so he better get looked at (I strongly agree).

I'm very happy for you both sounds like all will be well from my view point. I think this is very helpful for those living with their spouse in the USA but it is totally different when they/we are living in Egypt and the interview is in Cairo. They are just vicious and down right insulting from friends of mine that have gone threw this horror. Very few are treated with the respect they deserve and all are looked at as being fraudulent. I wish we could all have great interviews like this. Much luck but don't think you will need it.

[Girl from Celebes 588]

Thank you, glad to help. I think every time someone posts the details of their interview, it helps everyone to know what to expect, and reduces some of the nervous feelings. Because you can find out what is normal procedure for an interview.

I hope we get it approved too, I hope they don't make a huge deal out of my 2 silly goof ups, lol. But like I said, even if they want another interview, its not a probelm, we can pass, just its a pain in the butt cuz the place is a 2-hour drive away, and I gotta take time off work for it, lol.

Hah, you seemed attract to Taurus men, lol. Congrats finally the interview was over. Wish all the best for both of you!

Edited June 28, 2014 by Girl from Celebes

[Rayann 1]

How long did the interview take?

Thanks!

[MiaAndSabry 6]

Girl from Celebes -- Haha yeah I guess I am. Even though they have qualities that sometimes frustrate me

Rayann-- Our interview only took about 15 minutes, if you can believe that, lol. That's why we were so surprised.