Employment Based Greencard

Hello all,

I have been more of an observer rather than a big poster in the forum ( apart from the frustrating time waiting moments ).

After a year and a month I went to my interview and I was approved on the spot. Here is my time line for the Santa Ana Office - CA.

01/24/18 - applied for I-131,I-130,I-485 and I-765
late Feb/18 - went for my finger prints
08/07/19 - EAD card produced ( it took the longest, the avg. for other people with the same timeline at my office was 5/6 months tops. Apparently if you request advance parole it takes longer? not sure why. )
01/16/19 - interview was booked ( my birthday, funny)
02/26/19- interview day ( my sister birthday, even funnier)

Interview day:
I had an attorney through the whole time ( personally I think it was helpful, especially on detail moments when you aren't sure about what to do ) and he sent one of his associates with us to the interview. Our appointment was at 2pm, and we got there roughly 20 min before that. We wait probably till 2:05pm to get my pic taken, then 15 min after we got called by our officer. We were nervous at first, we practice the whole morning for it, by the time we got there and start talking to the attorney we all laughed a bit we felt more calmed( my wife, the USC, not as calmed lol ). The officer was this old asian man with some accent( probably Korean), he was super nice and smiley, as soon we sat down at his office he said: " your case seems very simple, I don't see anything abnormal so this should be fine; however, I need to follow some procedures and collect some data so my boss don't get angry at me". As soon as he said that a big weight lifted off our shoulders especially for my wife. He asked to GLANCE at some documents and quickly checked some pics and we talked about our our trip and restaurants we went that he was familiar with(kbbq). He took another fast GLANCE again, on our pics and asked for a pic with our parents in it or friends( those were the pics we pulled out of the album that our lawyer requested to let it loose glued to a sheet of paper so he could take in case they ask). The last part he asked how we met, and just jot down exactly what we said when we met. And DONE. Then he said: "I don't want to waste your time here, so I'm gonna do 5 or 7 of the yes or no questions, from that I assume you should be good, I NEVER ask all the questions, then you guys wait outside and I will grant your case". We were awed! and turned out he forgot the swear part and he made us swear the truth and nothing but the truth and we were all laughing. From there he told:" just wait outside for 20mins or so, I will make some copy of your passports, and I will fill out some paper work and I will give you a letter saying you are being approved." We chilled for another 20mins outside and he brought our passports and a letter and shook our hands saying congratulations and we left. Simple as that.

A few notes: Our lawyer said she goes there all the time and she has almost never seen the same officer, almost rarely. She said they have probably almost 50 officers, which means it's really a luck of the draw when comes down to pick a cool officer or not, in our case we really got lucky, but when they book your appointment they already have a specific officer for you and he kinda knows your case before ( you gotta keep in mind that they have a lot of cases, but they sorta knows you). We did see some officers with a lil more grumpier faces than others, so you never know; all you can do is BE PREPARED!!!, make sure to practice questions that could turn into problems, answer short and simple, and try to go with the mood of your officer if they are serious, be serious or if they are silly be silly; meeting your officers flow it kinda helps them to like you. I personally think the lawyer made this long cruise a lot simpler when comes down to paper work and that mattered to us since we have busy lives, we felt like we had to collect a lot of things already, without a lawyer that would be a lot more stressful. LASTLY and VERY IMPORTANT, our lawyer and the officer mentioned this! Our case was very very very easy because we have similar back grounds. If you have similar ages, similar incomes, we are at the same college, we went to the same community college, we are the same ethnicity, similar majors, similar jobs backgrounds. Despite not having a weeding, due to financial reasons or the fact that she didn't change her name, none of that mattered. THEY classify you according how similar you are as a couple; they will give you a harder time according to those backgrounds standards.

Sorry for the long text, but I hope this helps people the same way your guy's post helped me and my wife!

If you have questions please don't hesitate to ask; I will try to touch up in the forum here and there. Besides that SEE YOU GUYS AN YEAR AND HALF, when we'll apply to remove the conditional green card.

Good luck to all!