Family Based Greencard

Hi Everyone!

It has been a pleasure to be part of this forum and a really great help to be able to read all the shared experiences which gives information regarding what to expect on the processing and waiting time. I really do appreciate all those who help me and answered all my queries from receiving the receipts of the filing up to the documents needed for the interview.

For your reference, below is my timeline:

10/26/2015 - USCIS Chicago lock box received the Packet
11/03/2015 - Check has been cashed
11/06/2015 - Receipts have been received
11/16/2015 - Biometrics appointment received scheduled for 11/27/2015
11/16/2015 - Done with Biometrics (walk-in)
01/05/2016 - EAD and Advance Parole have been approved
01/07/2016 - Combo card has been mailed
01/11/2016 - Combo card received
02/25/2016 - Case Updated. Interview is scheduled for 3/29/2016

We were scheduled for the interview at 7:30am. We came at around 6:45am and there's already a line of people outside the USCIS office. We go through the security and got in around 7:00am. The security looked at our appointment letter and told us to drop it off on the box at window 2 and wait for our name to be called. After a while our name was called and the lady officer asks for my I.D. gave us a number and told us to wait for our number to be called. Our lawyer, my wife and i waited for about one hour before our number was called. Around 8:15 a guy officer called our name and number then accompany us on one of the rooms. He was in his 50's and from the way he speaks and his accent i think he is Italian. When we got to the room he swear us in and told my wife to sit on the left chair and me on the right. We were so nervous because he was very strict and even told my wife not to move the chairs ( there's about a foot gap between our chairs). He first asked us for our I.Ds, my passport and my wife's naturalization. He then asked us for all the joint documents we have. My wife started giving him our pictures (we have four albums consisting of family trips, vacation photos, old photos and wedding). He started looking at every single picture we gave him. While he was browsing on the albums we started to lay on his table the joints documents including the apartment lease, car purchased, car insurance, life insurance, bank statements, letters form employers and all the membership cards we have. He started getting some of the photos and asked my wife to write a brief description of that picture, the date and place where it was taken. He took at least ten photos from different events. After browsing the last album (wedding pictures) he briefly looked at the joint documents and asked us if those were all originals which we said yes. Our lawyer then gave him all the photocopies of the documents. He then told us that we can keep all the documents (He didn't looked at everything we provided). He then go through the application and confirm our names, birth date and contact numbers. My wife was so nervous that she scrambled the last four digits of her cellphone number which i immediately corrected. He then ask if we have home phone which we said yes. However, when the officer asked for the number my wife said that she doesn't remember and if it's fine to get it from her cellphone which the officer answered "yeah it's fine". After that the officer told me that it is required for him to ask me the Yes/No questions and for me not to be offended. After the Yes/No questions we thought that he will start asking questions regarding our marriage but instead he told us that the interview is done. We were so surprise that it was so short (lasted less than 20 minutes) and still nervous because he told us that he will still need to review our case one more time which will take 15 minutes and for us to wait in the waiting lobby for the result. While waiting, my wife and i were talking about how the interview went and how come he didn't asked us a lot of questions. Our lawyer then told us that it is because everything were well organized and we have enough joint documents, the officer even told him that we came very well prepared. After waiting for about 20 minutes the officer came out and handed our lawyer a piece of paper indicating that my application to adjust status has been approved (yaaaayy!!!) and they will mail the permanent residency card within 60 days. My online status then changed to new card being produced and later to case has been approved.

My wife and i were so very happy and thankful for the outcome of the interview. All the stress and sleepless night days before the interview were all worth it. My wife and i even fought the night before the interview because i didn't agree on how she answered one of the questions during our practice interview. LOL. We were very thankful and blessed that everything goes smoothly.

Thank you for all of you guys who spend time reading our experience. Best of luck for the others that will be attending their interview soon. Gather enough joint documents as you can and keep everything well organized. Just remember that it's always better to be over prepared than under.

To my neighbor Redline. Good luck on your interview and i know you'll do great. Let me know if you have questions.

Have a great day everyone.