I did my interview last Tuesday and just received the approval letters in the mail. I'd like to share my timeline and feel free to ask me if you have any questions. This forum helped me a lot and I hope to be helpful for people who are waiting for their interview or greencard.
Manhattan NY filer
Aug 30, 2016- PD
June 7, 2017- Interviee notice (it went straight from fingerprint fee received to interview scheduled)
July 11, 2017- Interview at Federal Plaza
July 12, 2017- Approval notice online (We ordered your new card)
July 14, 2017- We mailed your new card
July 17, 2017- received approval letters for I130 and I485
Waiting to receive my greencard
Interview experience
We brought
-both passports
-original marriage certificate
-original citizenship
-original birth certificate
-wedding album
-photo album with 250 photos
-joint bank account, credit card, phone bills, home insurance
-joint tax return, saving account
-utilities bills with both of our names on
-travel documents
-wedding ceremony receipt
-receipts for engagement ring and wedding bands
Our interview took around 45 minutes. Our interviewer was friendly, but asked a lot of questions, but nothing tricky- each other's date of birth, where we live, where we met, how long we've been together, if we know each other's family members, when we moved in together. He asked 95% of questions to me(beneficiary). He looked at every single photo of the wedding album as well as the other one. He asked for my original birth certificate and took it. He took all other documents we brought and kept them with the documents we sent when filing. Then he asked me if we have any receipts of furniture purchased for our house which we didn't. Instead, I showed him the receipts of wedding bands and engagement ring and he took them. He asked us to show our actually joint credit cards and debit cards, and looked at them very carefully and then made a copy of them. At the end, he said he'll review our case and we'll hear from him in the next few weeks. Overall, it was very good experience and there were a few moments we all laughted-very friendly interview. The next day, I received the noice in the email that they ordered a new card for me.
If you marriage is bona fide, you have nothing to worry about. Just relax and prepare documents you need to bring, and dress nicely for the interview. There were a few questions our interviewer asked while looking at our photos, and I couldn't answer because it was back in 2012. Of course I don't remember every single thing we did a log time ago which is normal. A day before the interview, we went over the documents we brought. We didn't really prepare to answer to all the questions we might be asked. We knew it would come out naturally.
I did my medical in Aug 2016. My doctor did the gonorrhea test, but used the old form since the new form wasn't available yet. I didn't update or redo the exam. Mine was a month away from being expired. Our interviewer didn't ask for a new one or anything.
Let me know if you have any questions. I wish everyone the best of luck!!!