Our Interview (Marriage Based Green Card)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
My husband and I had our interview for his green card just before the holidays. It was a bit nerve racking. I have done all the paperwork myself, from applying for my husbands fiance (K-1) visa to the permanent residency. All the paperwork is self explanatory but you must do everything carefully. Read through the instructions several times and check your work again and again and make sure Adobe Reader doesn't autofill the wrong information.
We arrived at the USCIS office about 40 minutes early. We parked and went through security, then waited in the proper line for interviews. We were then told to go upstairs and wait. My husband waited for our interpreter to arrive (who was late) and I waited on the stairs just under the door where names were being called, just in case our name was called early. Our interpreter arrived exactly when our appointment was scheduled. So we all hurried upstairs and waited for our named to be called while getting to know our interpreter a little bit. We waited five minutes max before the door opened and a quiet voice mumbled out something I couldn't make out form across the room and then repeated "Last name: B- U- I " and I realized that was us! As we walked over to the door I heard someone from behind chuckle and repeat "Last name: B- U- I" which was exactly what I was laughing to myself about. My husbands name is pronounced buoy, like the things that float in the water. The officer way playing it safe by just spelling it out.
We entered and the woman asked if we had just checked in because she had called our name once already but we didn't come. Which I also chuckled to myself about since it was difficult for us to register they were calling our name by spelling it out. She guided us to an office where there was a man waiting. The woman introduced here self and stated that she was going to be performing the interview.
First she had our interpreter sign some paper work and swear that he would only translate what the two parties had said. Then we both had swear that we would tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The woman started the interview by asking me how my husband and I met and then asked to see some photos, which she looked through and then passed to the man sitting behind her. She then asked if we had a joint bank account, which we didn't because we could not until he had a social security number. Then she asked if we had joint insurance of any kind, which we also did not have. "Did we have a car with both our names on it?" "Did we have a house with both our names on?"Yet again both of those questions were answered with a "no." I explained to her that because he cannot get a social security number until her received his green card we have had a difficult time getting things such as joint bank accounts. Last she asked if we had any bills with our names on it, which we did and I handed them to her. By that point my chest was bright red because I was so scared that we didn't have all the things they were asking for.
Then she moved on to asking my husband questions. For the most part they were all questions that had already been answered in the application. Then she handed us a paper and said that she was approving us and the card should come in the mail in 30 days.
My husband and I were so relieved, the woman was so straight faced the entire time that it was hard not to be nervous even though we had nothing to be nervous about. In the end the interview went real smoothly, the interviewer only looked at 1/4 of the stuff I had prepared as evidence for the interview.
My husband received his conditional Permanent Resident 17 days later and we are now waiting for his social security card to come in the mail.
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