Adjustment of Status - I-485

Hi everyone,

My wife and I just finished up the process so I wanted to share the experience.
I'll do a light overview and then a more detailed part with my thoughts if you care to read that as well.

TIMELINE(need to go through and find the actual dates)

APPLIED: Early March 2019
FINGERPRINT: Late March 2019
REQUESTED EAD EXPEDITE: Mid June 2019
EAD RECEIVED: Mid July 2019
INTERVIEW DATE SET: Early August 2019
INTERVIEWED AND APPROVED: Mid Sept 2019

LONG VERSION

FILL OUT APPLICATIONS:
First off, we didn't use a lawyer. I took a look at the documents and I felt like it was similar to filling out your taxes. If you are not comfortable with that, get a lawyer. Any missteps in this process will greatly effect your process. I've had friends who were less diligent and they are still waiting even when they filed way before us. I'd recommend, print out a list of all required documents, fill out everything you can and sticky note the ones you aren't sure about and then go back and review them(google solved a lot of my questions). My wife and I made a shareable checklist on Google Docs and we systematically went through it all.

Make multiple copies of everything.(You should even bring it to your interview just in case).
When you mail everything, follow their instructions exactly. Don't over burden them with unneeded folders or envelopes.

Also write super neatly. During my interview, I saw our file and it was literally everything we mailed in it meaning someone has to read through all that. Writing that is hard to read will definitely make the process worse(something that the interviewing officer also mentioned).

WAITING
It seems like the longest wait period is after your finger print because you will hear nothing back from them. We waited the standard 75-90 days before reaching out to them about the EAD Card. We submitted an expedited request citing "Financial Hardship". We were required to send a "Job Offer" with that as well. They require you to fax the information. Be proactive in reaching out after a week to check if they got all the new documents because we did that and they said they couldn't find it so we resent it.

Additionally, I reached out to our Congresswoman. It was all done through their website. I am not certain it helped but I did get a call from her office saying they looked into it and our Expedite Request was approved. The reason I do not know if they actually helped was we got the approval notice before the Congresswoman's office called me but I think it is definitely worth doing it. It only takes 5 minutes and being proactive is always a plus.
From there, we just waited for the interview date. For us, the EAD card was more important.

THE INTERVIEW
The interview process was fairly quick. I would say under an hour. the first 20-30 minutes was just basic stuff. Verifying everything written down on our applications like DOB, Address, Family info and a long list of questions like: "Have you committed a crime before", "Have you illegally entered the USA".

After that, the officer basically said he was looking to just hear our "Love" story. How we met, who proposed, what does your family think of it, etc. Very simple questions. About 15-20 mins of a casual talk and he looked through our picture evidence.

We wrote down dates and descriptions on each image which the officer really seemed to appreciate. After that, he said he'll approve us today and we were out.

I would say, treat the interview like a job interview. Be pleasant but not overly friendly unless you feel like its appropriate. I had a little small talk with him while we were walking to his office and we have a few things in common. During the interview, he shared some stories and we joked about in-laws.

On the way out, I asked him about the process and he said it really depends on what is in the file. He also stated the interview before me lasted over 2 hours.

EVIDENCE
Evidence wise, bring anything that has your address with both your names on it. Bank statements, bills, etc.

For your picture evidence, don't make it look perfect. He seemed to skim through the typical posed couple shots and focused more on the vacation trips and the crappy cellphone pictures of us just being dumb at home like instagram pictures with those dumb filters.
There was an embarrassing photo of me on there that my wife added and he said that picture alone makes him want to approve us.
Also, we got there a little over an hour early and we saw a few couples getting split up and interviewed separately.

Hope that helps, happy to answer any questions. Our overall process was about 7 months.

Thanks