Interview is over

[Son of Clyde]

Things went pretty well, we only had to wait for 15 minutes outside and going through the x-ray machines. We sat in a waiting room for another 15 minutes.

The immigration officer was about 36, male and had a 5 O'clock shadow at 9 am. He was very businesslike and did not smile. I must have presented good evidence because he made 3 trips to the xerox machine.

I was asked for Iryna's and Michael's dates of birth and her parents names and the city of her birth. He asked if she was working and how we met.

I did not open joint bank accounts but their names are on my medical insurance policy and her name appears in my auto insurance. This seemed to be OK. He asked for documents from Michael's school but I only had registration forms. He copied these and did not question them.

When he asked for the date of our marriage she could only say the middle of August. The exact date was August 26. This worried me and she did not remember exactly where we were married. It was the Towson courthouse. She said a large building in Baltimore. He could definitely see a language problem.

When I asked why she forgot our wedding day she said it was her second marriage and it was not a large ceremony. We had a wedding party for friends and relatives a few weeks later. We hope to have a second ceremony for her mother and brother in Ukraine.

Except for two omissions from my wife and a few documents that were not complete, I think it went well. He seemed to notice her grasp of English was not perfect and my Russian is limited to about 15 words. He never questioned how well we communicate with each other. Mike helped to do some interpreting and I clarified a few things with her.

I am still a little nervous but he said everything seemed OK except that a second officer must review his work.

It all lasted about 30 minutes. My son could not even charm this humorless agent. He only started to lighten up when he was explaining about the lifting of conditions. His walls were decorated with pictures of WWII bomber planes, a US map and a few other things.

[Michelangelo]

I am still a little nervous but he said everything seemed OK except that a second officer must review his work.

I'm sure she was nervous and this hindered her memory and use of English, too.  But it looks promising!  Good luck, man!  I'm pulling for you.

[Bruno]

When I asked why she forgot our wedding day she said it was her second marriage and it was not a large ceremony.

Clyde, all women have enough cell in the brain for remember two date... first and second marriage... and since that you are the second husband and his always with you, it is not normal that she don't remember your date of marriage... Do she remember your name ?

[Shadow]

Clyde you are a lucky man! Whenever you will forget an anniversary of your marriage or birthday you can remind her of the time she did not remember. 

[Captmonk1]

Hey I got married on August 26th as well!  Congrats Clyde on getting thru the interview. It sounds like everyone passed.

Dan should add wedding anniversaries to the calender.

[Admin]

Hey I got married on August 26th as well!  Congrats Clyde on getting thru the interview. It sounds like everyone passed.

Dan should add wedding anniversaries to the calender.

Brad,

You can add wedding anniversaries to the calendar. Just go to this link -- http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?action=calendar;sa=post

Let me know if you have any questions.

- Dan

[Jumper]

shadow said :

Clyde you are a lucky man! Whenever you will forget an anniversary of your marriage or birthday you can remind her of the time she did not remember. 

LOL! exactly what i was thinking shadow! 

funny how it doesnt really work that way though 

august 28th here.

[Son of Clyde]

I received a pm from a woman in Baltimore who had her interview in March and has not received her temporary 2 year green card yet.

The interview is just another step of the process, then you must wait to see if you are approved, the Officer will not give a definate answer at the interview.

[KenC]

Clyde,
Our interviewer gave us an unofficial "approval" at the time of our interview. Some time later we received a request for a missing document and then still later my wife's green card. I thought I had done an excellent job of putting together binders with an index with all the required documents too. My guess is that your interviewer just didn't have a personality so he wouldn't give you an indication either way. I believe I asked ours.

BTW, my wife should have received an "unconditional" green card as our AOS interview happened after 2 years of marriage. This was due to the fact that we had some delays in our interview because of moving to another state and more than two years had passed. In our delight to receive the green card, we failed to inspect it thouroughly as it was issued as a "conditional" card. We didn't know it until we got a notice in the mail that the card had to be renewed two years later. The follow up "interview" should be a brief meeting at the window of the office to show that the two of us were still alive and still married. I do remember that the window clerk gave us some grief and wasn't going to lift the "unconditional" part as she didn't know the rules very well. I made a big issue of it and demanded to see her supervisor. I just wasn't going to settle for an additional time for my wife to have a "conditional" GC when she should have had the conditions lifted the first time.

My wife's GC was very import to us because she refused to go home for any visits prior to receiving it. Even though she had received an Advance Parole, she had heard of instances where a person could be refused re-entrance to the US even with an Advance Parole. I thought she was listening to some old wives tale, but she was correct. If for any reason, a person is listed as "out of status" at anytime they can be refused re-entry into the US at the POE. It was more important to my wife to be guaranteed re-entry than to visit her friends and family in Russia. No matter how small the risk was, she wasn't willing to accept it.
KenC

[Jet]

Our interviewer was a reaonably pleasant older woman. At the conclusion of the interview she told us that she would love to be able to put the 551 stamp in my wife's passport but unfortunately the FBI had not concluded it's background check yet - that was January '05.

We got a letter yesterday from Miami district office that informed us they are currently trying to clean up the oldest cases - those which were filed before August 2003. We filed November 2003, so we will still be waiting a while (this letter was a response to our inquiry dated Sept 2005 - which they are required to respond to in 30 days or less  )

As far as conditional status vs the straight 10yr GC we have been told that it's possible she'll be issued the 10 yr variety, but more likely the excuse will be used that since we were not married for 2 yrs AT THE TIME WE FILED, we will still have to pay the fee to remove conditions 1yr. & 9mo. down the road. Certainly wouldn't want to screw the CIS out of any opportunity to collect more fees  .

[jb]

As stated before; our interviewer said midway through the interview;  "I'm sure you two are really married", thus ending the suspense.  We knew we had the GC's before it was over.   I'd guess it's a personality thing, how well did you relate to him or her, the interviewer, did you give him the feeling you were a team, like a married couple, or a couple of seperate persons going your own different ways.

Only you know how the interview turned out, best of luck on that.

[Son of Clyde]

I asked him if everything seemed ok and he said yes but his work had to be reviewed by another Officer. Those were his exact words.

I was told by someone to look up our case number in a few days on the USCIS website.

[Bruce]

I guess you can not "fight" like an old married couple. 

Jet - you have got to write a book on your BCINS ordeal, or at the very least compile your ordeal and sell your story to the Miami Herald, LA Times, Chicago Times.  Perhaps FOX would take it and publish it in one of the more conservative papers if none of the major, usually liberally biased, print media would take it. 

Clyde - congratulations.  Now hopefully the waiting game will be shorter for you. 

[Son of Clyde]

My wife received a distressing phone call from another Russian/American couple.

USCIS had lost their paperwork.

It could not get much worse than that. The man just refiled and I hope will not have to wait forever for some action.

[David1963]

Clyde, your interview was two weeks after my wifes.  She received her GC yesterday, your wifes should be in about two weeks, I would think.

[Son of Clyde]

David, she received the GC on Saturday, July 1.

[START2]

Clyde,
   Congrats my fellow american. I know it feels good to clear those hurdles. Was a bit of an early Independence day for you I can imagine. I guess that's it for 2 years?  That's good, now you can give all that money not spent on lawyers and USCIS to your local dentist.    Good luck with that BTW. Thank God there's no deadline on that. Maybe you can streeeeeeeeeeeeetch it out.