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Hi everyone, I have been coming to this forum for the past year and always found advice, help and answer to my questions I had throughout the process of getting married and getting my green card approved. Now I would like to share my experience to give you hope and also hopefully help someone looking for recommendations as we all know how this process is long and frustrating
little bit bit of my timeline: I met met my husband in August 2016, we got married in September 2017. Out of this one year I spent 6 months in my country because of my visa situation. We filed in February 2018, got my AP and EAD approved in August 2018 and our green card interview in June 2019
when we filed we didn’t have a lot of evidence as our relationship was quite fresh. I am not on the lease from our apartment and we also don’t really have our finances mingled because my husband has two children from his previous marriage and pays child support. I was worried that these two things will affect our interview and also I wasn’t sure how the officer i gonna look at my huge binder with evidence that we gathered over the past year without front loading it
our interview was over 1 hour long and didn’t start very well. My husband started with answering wrong about my name! I wanted to change my name to his but after the marriage they wouldn’t let us do it as I didn’t have valid SSN and so all my civil documents are on my maiden name and that’s what I use. The officer told us if he is aware that he just stated my legal name wrong. We tried to explain why and that obviously he knows how my name will be as we decided about it together. Then she went over his divorce documents and his children’s information. Here I spelled his son’s name wrong (I really have hard time spelling and always make mistake) and also messed up his daughters birthday... so you can imagine what kind of start of an interview we had. After that we went over the questions in our forms, asking what our parents birthdays and names are, some details on our wedding etc. the officer asked how we met, why did he get married so soon after the divorce (1month) but they were separated for a while already and were not living together. Also a lot of questions about his children (we have 40% of custody) how we spend time together, how do they call me, how is my relationship with them. She asked if I met his family and how often we see them, the same regarding my husband and my family. The officer asked how he communicates with my parents as my mom doesn’t, speak English, what we did last weekend, how we split our finances. The officer was very surprised that we share everything meaning rent,utilities,insurance etc. and asked why. For me it’s normal to contribute to the household, that’s how I was raised and I’ve always been very independent so I was surprised that it was weird to her and seemed like she couldn’t understand it. She went over all the documents I brought as evidence with us and kept most of it. I can’t remember all the questions but basically they were about our everyday life, a lot about his divorce and children. I think after an hour she understood we are just two people who met, fell in love, got married and live a normal life together however the timing doesn’t look the best. Nobody is perfect so even if you get wrong answer on name or date or even worse both don’t worry, just be honest, genuine and they will get the idea and understand. I thought she was quite aggressive and not very nice but my husband said it was just her technique and I guess he is right, they are uscis officers and I believe they are trained in a certain way.
evidence I brought with us (originals+copies):
All our civil documents
marriage documents, divorce and custody documents
tax return and W2 for past two years filed jointly
joint checking account statements for the past year (we use it just for groceries, movies etc) everything else goes from my husbands account and I give him cash - we explained he has everything set up as automatic payments and works the best for us
health insurance coverage for past 2 years with both our names on it
my husbands life insurance with my name on it
phone and internet family plan statements on my husbands name with my number on it for the past year
joint car insurance with both our names on it since may 2017 - before our marriage. This is the oldest evidence we have and she made a mark next to it
PG&E bills with both our names on it for the past year
miscellanous letters I received on our joint adress
3 affidavit letters- from my brother, his grandmother and our common friends - she made mark next to it
birthday cards and postcards given to each other since we met
postcards sent to both of us from his and my family and our friends
boarding pases from my husbands two visits of my home country together with pictures and some vouchers I bought for example for couples massage while he was visiting
additional pictures with friends, families and our everyday life organized by date. I picked about 80 pictures even though I had hundreads and tried to pick the ones where you are with other people as well as from your everyday life (I didn’t bring 80 pictures of selfies so pictures where we are kissing)
conversation between us while we were dating in 2016 and when we were separated (when I was in my country for 6 months) - we chatted everyday over messenger or Skype and I picked few printscreen from different time period so when ould get an idea
gifts given to each other while being separated - we would send each other vouchers for yoga clases, massages or my husband recorded a songs for me .. everything via email so I printed them out
I organized everything by date having the oldest one at the top and highlighted the times or names on it. I made it quite clear to the officer and I think she appreciated it. She took pretty much all the evidence I brought.
we were told that she needs to go over the evidence and we will be notified about the result. I asked her if my green card can be on my new name and she noted it which I thought is a good sign and made me feel better
exaclty 1 week later I got online notification that our case was approved and few days later I received an official letter saying the same. Now I am just waiting for my green card to arrive. I can’ believe it’s over! I hope this gives you hope and inspiration how to get ready for the interview, Please be patient and respectful to the process, be honest and everything will be just fine. Good luck everybody!
little bit bit of my timeline: I met met my husband in August 2016, we got married in September 2017. Out of this one year I spent 6 months in my country because of my visa situation. We filed in February 2018, got my AP and EAD approved in August 2018 and our green card interview in June 2019
when we filed we didn’t have a lot of evidence as our relationship was quite fresh. I am not on the lease from our apartment and we also don’t really have our finances mingled because my husband has two children from his previous marriage and pays child support. I was worried that these two things will affect our interview and also I wasn’t sure how the officer i gonna look at my huge binder with evidence that we gathered over the past year without front loading it
our interview was over 1 hour long and didn’t start very well. My husband started with answering wrong about my name! I wanted to change my name to his but after the marriage they wouldn’t let us do it as I didn’t have valid SSN and so all my civil documents are on my maiden name and that’s what I use. The officer told us if he is aware that he just stated my legal name wrong. We tried to explain why and that obviously he knows how my name will be as we decided about it together. Then she went over his divorce documents and his children’s information. Here I spelled his son’s name wrong (I really have hard time spelling and always make mistake) and also messed up his daughters birthday... so you can imagine what kind of start of an interview we had. After that we went over the questions in our forms, asking what our parents birthdays and names are, some details on our wedding etc. the officer asked how we met, why did he get married so soon after the divorce (1month) but they were separated for a while already and were not living together. Also a lot of questions about his children (we have 40% of custody) how we spend time together, how do they call me, how is my relationship with them. She asked if I met his family and how often we see them, the same regarding my husband and my family. The officer asked how he communicates with my parents as my mom doesn’t, speak English, what we did last weekend, how we split our finances. The officer was very surprised that we share everything meaning rent,utilities,insurance etc. and asked why. For me it’s normal to contribute to the household, that’s how I was raised and I’ve always been very independent so I was surprised that it was weird to her and seemed like she couldn’t understand it. She went over all the documents I brought as evidence with us and kept most of it. I can’t remember all the questions but basically they were about our everyday life, a lot about his divorce and children. I think after an hour she understood we are just two people who met, fell in love, got married and live a normal life together however the timing doesn’t look the best. Nobody is perfect so even if you get wrong answer on name or date or even worse both don’t worry, just be honest, genuine and they will get the idea and understand. I thought she was quite aggressive and not very nice but my husband said it was just her technique and I guess he is right, they are uscis officers and I believe they are trained in a certain way.
evidence I brought with us (originals+copies):
All our civil documents
marriage documents, divorce and custody documents
tax return and W2 for past two years filed jointly
joint checking account statements for the past year (we use it just for groceries, movies etc) everything else goes from my husbands account and I give him cash - we explained he has everything set up as automatic payments and works the best for us
health insurance coverage for past 2 years with both our names on it
my husbands life insurance with my name on it
phone and internet family plan statements on my husbands name with my number on it for the past year
joint car insurance with both our names on it since may 2017 - before our marriage. This is the oldest evidence we have and she made a mark next to it
PG&E bills with both our names on it for the past year
miscellanous letters I received on our joint adress
3 affidavit letters- from my brother, his grandmother and our common friends - she made mark next to it
birthday cards and postcards given to each other since we met
postcards sent to both of us from his and my family and our friends
boarding pases from my husbands two visits of my home country together with pictures and some vouchers I bought for example for couples massage while he was visiting
additional pictures with friends, families and our everyday life organized by date. I picked about 80 pictures even though I had hundreads and tried to pick the ones where you are with other people as well as from your everyday life (I didn’t bring 80 pictures of selfies so pictures where we are kissing)
conversation between us while we were dating in 2016 and when we were separated (when I was in my country for 6 months) - we chatted everyday over messenger or Skype and I picked few printscreen from different time period so when ould get an idea
gifts given to each other while being separated - we would send each other vouchers for yoga clases, massages or my husband recorded a songs for me .. everything via email so I printed them out
I organized everything by date having the oldest one at the top and highlighted the times or names on it. I made it quite clear to the officer and I think she appreciated it. She took pretty much all the evidence I brought.
we were told that she needs to go over the evidence and we will be notified about the result. I asked her if my green card can be on my new name and she noted it which I thought is a good sign and made me feel better
exaclty 1 week later I got online notification that our case was approved and few days later I received an official letter saying the same. Now I am just waiting for my green card to arrive. I can’ believe it’s over! I hope this gives you hope and inspiration how to get ready for the interview, Please be patient and respectful to the process, be honest and everything will be just fine. Good luck everybody!
