Adjustment of Status - I-485

This forum has been so good. It has been really nice to know other people’s experience so that we know what to do and what not to do. I would like to share my experience and hopefully this would help someone. So here we go.
June 10 Sent the package (I-130, I-485, I-765, I-693 and I-864)
June 13 Package arrived (PD, day 0)
June 22 Package accepted by USCIS (day 9)
June 24 Received NOA in mail (day 11)
July 1 Received biometrics notice in mail (day 18)
July 11 Biometrics done (day 28)
July 26 Online case status alive (day 43)
Aug 1 Case is ready to be scheduled (day 49)
Aug 10 Interview scheduled Sept 12 (day 58)
Aug 27 EAD card is being produced (day 75)
Sept 07 EAD in hand (day 86)
Sept 12 Interview (day 91)
Sept 13 Online status changed to “Name was updated” ????( day 92)
Sept 13 Case approved (I-485, I-130, day 92)
Background info: My nationality is Chinese, married a USC by birth on May 16th of this year. I came here as F-1 in 2009, graduated in 2013, OPT in 2014 and went back to a community college during the time for preparing grad school exam. I met my husband at the end of 2014, dated until February this year and decided to married (I did not get into the schools I wanted).
Initial filing:
This is almost as important as the interview now that I think about it. I admit that my field office is faster than average. However, I think we nailed the initial package so good that it helped us get an interview date so fast. We even read all the instructions for every form and every line. I know it takes a lot of work, but this is what you have to do when you don’t want to spend money on an immigration lawyer. The initial package would probably determine the initial impression of applicants. Make sure you have very organized cover letter listing all the forms and documentations in order. In addition, make sure that you have photocopies of everything in the initial package. This serves two purposes. One, the IO is probably going to ask questions from the initial package plus more. Two, if they miss something in the process, you have a copy to give them in the interview.
Preparation for the interview:
Make sure the first thing is to prepare the documentations listed in the interview notice. If you keep your head clear, you can see that there are two main parts in the documentation listed in the notice. One is about the applicant; the other is about the marriage. For all people changed status from F-1, you would probably prepare all the I-20s (including EAD card during OPT). I made photocopy of each and clipped them in two piles. The original I-20s went into a file with all other original documents like both birth certificates, passports and so on. For the marriage part, we made up several categories; history, finances, insurance, letters and future. History was mainly the pictures we sent in with a printout of timeline that we made in PowerPoint slide. This timeline also included FB screenshots of activities, documenting several important events before marriage. Finances included joint bank accounts, life insurance and investment accounts showing I am either the account holder or the direct and sole beneficiary of the insurance policy. Then the insurance tag included health, dental, vision and auto insurance (either cards or policies). I randomly prepared receipts of vision care which showed my address and it saved me an RFE in the interview (I will get to it in a minute). I also included the mail with the envelope sent by my husband’s company to me as dependent of its employee. The tag “letters” included two letters from our friends saying that they have known us as a couple and our bond is solid and so on. The third letter was from a counselor whom we had pre-marriage counselling with. Last, the future tag included the flight tickets, car rental and hotels we booked for our annual fall trip this year. It also included the emails between lenders and real estate agents indicating that we are in the process of getting a house. With all the “hardware” we prepared, we also prepared “software”. We googled the possible questions asked in an interview and chose a random list and went through it twice. My husband had hard time pronouncing the names of my parents. Hahaha….I shouldn’t have laughed but it was too funy… I also picked out the outfits and sent them to drycleaner before the interview.
Interview day:
Our interview was in Milwaukee, WI at 8:40. We had to travel an hour and a half to get there assuming no traffic. We got up way early around 4:30 because we were too nervous. As we expected, the morning traffic was horrible. After we got to the area, we rested in Starbucks for half an hour before entering the building around 8. We checked in security point and counter and were told to wait. Around 8:40, we got called. The IO swore us in and sat us down. He verified my husband’s name, DOB, birth place and so on. Then he verified mine. Then he asked my husband very open end questions like how we met with details, how the relationship turned romantic with details. We were shocked for a bit because we did not expect open end questions like this. So my husband started to tell our story and disclose the information that I was working in a sushi restaurant when he first met me (I was on I-20 of the community college). That was a red flag for IO, as expected. He looked us the first time after my husband started storytelling and double checked what my husband just said. Then he directed the story telling to me and asked me the first time I met his parents which was last thanksgiving. He then asked my husband if he met my parents. My husband answered that they met via video chat and with my help. IO then asked me if I introduced my husband before or after the marriage. I said before and went ahead to explain that I wanted the process of my parents accepting this multicultural marriage to be as smooth as it could so I told them before the marriage. I also mentioned that when we started to date I had already mentioned my husband to them. He then asked my husband about the lease of our apartment. My husband explained that the management office didn’t allow add-ons at the time and because we were going to get a house soon so we didn’t pursue further. IO then asked me if we had more than one joint bank account. I said no. He then looked upset and asked me if I had other bank accounts. I said only one other and quickly explained that I didn’t use that account often enough to have my husband’s name on it. IO looked really upset at that point and said he needed to see the address on my individual bank account. I answered if I could pull out my phone I could show him. He repeated the same thing and my husband stopped me as I tried to reach my phone and said we couldn’t show him today. I immediately sensed a RFE coming. Then he asked us if we had more stuff to show him. We gave him all five categories of stuff mentioned above. He went through the finances part and the insurance part (they were clearly labeled) carefully. He then spotted the eye care receipts with our address on it and they were from the same store. Then he barely flipped through the other three. We had to point out about the emails with lenders and real estate agents so he could pay attention to it. Then he asked me all yes/no questions on I-485 and that marked the end of the interview. The whole interview was really dry and intense. At the end he asked me if my husband had taken me to his workplace. I said yes (my husband worked in a big company). He asked me if I tried the slide in the company. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter and said my husband’s office was right next to the slide. At that point I was a little relieved. IO then walked us out and we realized the interview was worryingly short. It was just under 20-minute mark.
Post-Interview:
We had really mixed feelings about this interview on our drive way back. We also realized the IO didn’t ask us anything after the marriage, which was weird. We were also worried about the red flag of me working when I was not supposed to. We got home and I checked online status more than 10 times in the rest of the day. It was stuck on interview scheduled. Yesterday, when I checked the online status in the afternoon, it said “Name was updated”. From the very beginning when we sent in the package, I have always used my new name with my husband’s last name. I never updated the name with USCIS. I got so confused. I called USCIS around 4:30 and the customer representative said that I would need to be sent to the next level to figure out which was not available at that time. I would have to call back. That was the only time I called USCIS after filing. I got really worried so I googled, again. It turned out that it is a glitch of the system when someone is looking at your application. Two hours after the glitch, the case got approved.
I can’t tell you how relieved we are. We came forward with my mistake and they forgave me. My advice is to be organized as much as you can, stay patient and just enjoy the process. I know the wait could be really long. But if you do every step right, it will eventually come. God bless.