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Immigration
Adjustment of Status - I-485
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Boston experience - Adjustment of status and intervie
Hi everyone! I want to share my experience on the process of Adjusting my status and how the interview went at the USCIS Boston office. It’s going to be a long post but I believe it will be helpful, especially for couples not using an attorney.
My husband (US citizen) and I had a happy ending BUT it was not easy.
We decided to do everything ourselves and not to hire an immigration attorney which was challenging. We sent our I-130, I-485 and I-765 on September 4th 2015. I did fingerprints on October 7th 2015 and month later I got my EAD card in the mail. So far so good. After that my online status changed “As of October 14th 2015 we are ready to schedule an interview”. In January it changed to “As of January 24th 2016 we are ready to schedule an interview” which was pretty disappointing. Exactly a month later they scheduled us an interview for March 30th 2016.
We showed up 20 min early. IO came to get us 10 min after that and asked for the I-130 petitioner (my husband) to go in first. After 15-20 min he came back out and said that she wants to see me now but alone and he had to stay and wait in the waiting room. I did not expect that and got a little bit nervous. He gave me a hint that she was not happy that he hadn’t changed his ID (He is from FL). I went in and she immediately asked me if I knew that my husband had a FL ID. I said yes. And then she asked me why he hadn’t changed it, to which I responded: ‘I don’t know.’ I didn’t really know why. I’ve always thought that is not a mandatory. In this case if we had an attorney I would assume that he would have warned us that that might be a problem. Then she asked me how often does he go down to FL and if he has had any other relationships. I think that she might have suspected that he doesn’t actually live here in MA and this is a fake marriage. We cleared that up. After that she asked me these questions:
- Where did you meet?
- When did you meet?
- When was your first date?
- Where did you go? What did you do on your first date?
- When did he propose? Where? How did he propose? - After I answered that question she said that my husband’s and mine answers didn’t match. I said that that is impossible. Then she told me what my husband has said which was just a way longer version of my answer. I think she was just testing me.
Then she became kind of harsh and said that we were not giving her enough proof. I disagreed and started naming what documents we have brought - Health insurance (I was on his insurance), Car Insurance with both our names, all of our Bank statements (we have a joint bank account since last May). She looked over my binder where I had copies of all documents which also included: W2 forms from last two years with the same address, some utility bills with both our names on them, copies of our credit cards with the same number on them, our current lease. Here it got a little bit tricky because for one year we lived in a house with no lease and we were paying cash. We just recently moved to a new place where we have a lease with both our names on it. I also told her that I have tons of mail from his family all mailed to both of us at our old address. She didn’t want to see it. She also didn’t want to see the bank statements but she did take the copies of health and dental insurance.
After clarifying the address situation she asked me if we have been on any trips together. I told her about all of our trips and offered to show her pictures but she didn’t want to see them. When I thought that it might get a little bit better she asked me when and where we got married. We got married last April, at the City hall, just us and one friend who was taking pictures. She asked me why we didn’t invite his parents. The story is that we told our parents right after we did it. Later in the summer his parents threw us a party. My brother also flew to the States. She asked me if I had pictures from the party and she wanted me to show her the ones with his family and my brother on them. She didn’t want to see any other pictures.
After that she asked me why we didn’t invite his parents again. I was confused and asked her if she meant that we didn’t invite them to the City Hall. She said yes and I told her again because we didn’t tell anyone. I guess she was testing me again to see if I was making this whole story up. After that she was asking me for his parents and my parents names in different order just to see if I am going to say one of them wrong. Then she asked me how we came to the interview and what we had for dinner the night before (later my husband told me that she didn’t ask him that)
After all that she asked me the Yes/No questions , said again that we didn’t give her enough proof, and that she couldn’t make a decision, but we would get “something” in the mail. She didn’t say what or when.
As you can imagine, my husband and I were just destroyed. He especially, because he thought it was his fault for not changing his ID. On Monday, four days after the interview, my status changed to “Case was approved” Just like that. Four days later it changed again to “New card has been mailed to me”. Today, April 9th, 10 days after the interview I got my green card.
My advice is be well prepared - get your papers in order, think about what will ease the process, don’t think that just a joint bank account would work. I know that sometimes it’s easier for the budget if some of your bills are not joint (It’s so much cheaper for us for example not to have a family phone plan), but for the sake of making everything as easy as possible - do it! Also keep track if all the forms you fill and send to USCIS are up to date. For example, I had my medical examination last April, sent the forms to USCIS in September, but got a letter requesting a new exam because earlier in July they had changed the forms. Be calm, be honest and if you don’t get approved on the spot don’t feel bad and don’t freak out. Most likely you will be approved a little bit after that or the worst thing that can happen is to go to another interview and to spend more time waiting anxiously, but if your marriage is real everything will fall into place sooner or later.
And please don’t get me wrong I am not against hiring an immigration attorney. They sure will keep everything in track and make it so much easier for you, but my husband and I absolutely could not afford it.
Good luck and if you have any questions, please ask,
MandM
My husband (US citizen) and I had a happy ending BUT it was not easy.
We decided to do everything ourselves and not to hire an immigration attorney which was challenging. We sent our I-130, I-485 and I-765 on September 4th 2015. I did fingerprints on October 7th 2015 and month later I got my EAD card in the mail. So far so good. After that my online status changed “As of October 14th 2015 we are ready to schedule an interview”. In January it changed to “As of January 24th 2016 we are ready to schedule an interview” which was pretty disappointing. Exactly a month later they scheduled us an interview for March 30th 2016.
We showed up 20 min early. IO came to get us 10 min after that and asked for the I-130 petitioner (my husband) to go in first. After 15-20 min he came back out and said that she wants to see me now but alone and he had to stay and wait in the waiting room. I did not expect that and got a little bit nervous. He gave me a hint that she was not happy that he hadn’t changed his ID (He is from FL). I went in and she immediately asked me if I knew that my husband had a FL ID. I said yes. And then she asked me why he hadn’t changed it, to which I responded: ‘I don’t know.’ I didn’t really know why. I’ve always thought that is not a mandatory. In this case if we had an attorney I would assume that he would have warned us that that might be a problem. Then she asked me how often does he go down to FL and if he has had any other relationships. I think that she might have suspected that he doesn’t actually live here in MA and this is a fake marriage. We cleared that up. After that she asked me these questions:
- Where did you meet?
- When did you meet?
- When was your first date?
- Where did you go? What did you do on your first date?
- When did he propose? Where? How did he propose? - After I answered that question she said that my husband’s and mine answers didn’t match. I said that that is impossible. Then she told me what my husband has said which was just a way longer version of my answer. I think she was just testing me.
Then she became kind of harsh and said that we were not giving her enough proof. I disagreed and started naming what documents we have brought - Health insurance (I was on his insurance), Car Insurance with both our names, all of our Bank statements (we have a joint bank account since last May). She looked over my binder where I had copies of all documents which also included: W2 forms from last two years with the same address, some utility bills with both our names on them, copies of our credit cards with the same number on them, our current lease. Here it got a little bit tricky because for one year we lived in a house with no lease and we were paying cash. We just recently moved to a new place where we have a lease with both our names on it. I also told her that I have tons of mail from his family all mailed to both of us at our old address. She didn’t want to see it. She also didn’t want to see the bank statements but she did take the copies of health and dental insurance.
After clarifying the address situation she asked me if we have been on any trips together. I told her about all of our trips and offered to show her pictures but she didn’t want to see them. When I thought that it might get a little bit better she asked me when and where we got married. We got married last April, at the City hall, just us and one friend who was taking pictures. She asked me why we didn’t invite his parents. The story is that we told our parents right after we did it. Later in the summer his parents threw us a party. My brother also flew to the States. She asked me if I had pictures from the party and she wanted me to show her the ones with his family and my brother on them. She didn’t want to see any other pictures.
After that she asked me why we didn’t invite his parents again. I was confused and asked her if she meant that we didn’t invite them to the City Hall. She said yes and I told her again because we didn’t tell anyone. I guess she was testing me again to see if I was making this whole story up. After that she was asking me for his parents and my parents names in different order just to see if I am going to say one of them wrong. Then she asked me how we came to the interview and what we had for dinner the night before (later my husband told me that she didn’t ask him that)
After all that she asked me the Yes/No questions , said again that we didn’t give her enough proof, and that she couldn’t make a decision, but we would get “something” in the mail. She didn’t say what or when.
As you can imagine, my husband and I were just destroyed. He especially, because he thought it was his fault for not changing his ID. On Monday, four days after the interview, my status changed to “Case was approved” Just like that. Four days later it changed again to “New card has been mailed to me”. Today, April 9th, 10 days after the interview I got my green card.
My advice is be well prepared - get your papers in order, think about what will ease the process, don’t think that just a joint bank account would work. I know that sometimes it’s easier for the budget if some of your bills are not joint (It’s so much cheaper for us for example not to have a family phone plan), but for the sake of making everything as easy as possible - do it! Also keep track if all the forms you fill and send to USCIS are up to date. For example, I had my medical examination last April, sent the forms to USCIS in September, but got a letter requesting a new exam because earlier in July they had changed the forms. Be calm, be honest and if you don’t get approved on the spot don’t feel bad and don’t freak out. Most likely you will be approved a little bit after that or the worst thing that can happen is to go to another interview and to spend more time waiting anxiously, but if your marriage is real everything will fall into place sooner or later.
And please don’t get me wrong I am not against hiring an immigration attorney. They sure will keep everything in track and make it so much easier for you, but my husband and I absolutely could not afford it.
Good luck and if you have any questions, please ask,
MandM
All Replies (4)
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