cowall

hello all! Just wanted to post our interview experience since we wouldn't have gotten through it without this forum...

My husband (ireland) and I (US citizen) had our AOS interview on Friday. He came over on VWP and we filed to adjust status in Sept.2002. You can imagine our surprise when we were called into our interview on Jan.10 2003. Only four months after filing!! We expected it to take much longer and I felt nervous since we haven't been married very long, so of course we didn't have piles of "evidence" to take. But we were worried for nothing! We were only asked for my old divorce decree and 3 photos of my husband. We brought:

passports, ss cards, birth cert.s, marriage cert., my W-2's from 2001 and 2002, a letter from my employer, paystubs from my employer, divorce decree, 4 photos of my hubby to their specifications, photocopies of his EAD card along with my driver's license and student ID. And then there was the "proof of shared life" stuff - I filled a folder with a copy of our lease, a voided check showing our joint bank account, a bank statement from our account, photocopies of our bank cards showing the same account number, a phone bill and cable bill with both our names, random mail with his name on it, letters from family in ireland with both our names, and our photo album with dated pics showing we've been together a year and a half, including photos of me and his family and him and my family. also a document from my work showing he is the beneficiary on my life insurance and a bill showing us both on our auto insurance. phew! I was nervous because my driver's license is expired, i only recently cleared a fine i owed for a ticket and all i had was the flimsy receipt card with no photo on it, so i took my expired one as well and it was no problem.

we arrived 15 min. early but were not called in until an hour after our appt. time. I was relieved when we were called in by a very friendly looking lady. I was even more shocked when she was actually sweet to us! The interview lasted about 15 min. She basically went through our file confirming things like my hubby's birthday, our address, etc. She asked him a couple of those "have you ever" questions (been arrested? helped anyone come into the US? claimed to be a US citizen?), she asked for the photos, saying the ones we sent with our application were "no good" - he was turned too much to the side - then asked us how we met (online!!) and chuckled at us for that. She laughingly asked if we had "gone onto one of those matchmaking sites" and we laughed, "no, no...just met by accident in a chat room", she asked "you sent pictures back and forth and love letters?", we said "yes", she said "and then he came here?", i said, "no, i went to ireland first and lived there with him for awhile but i had to come back to finish school", she said, "oh, okay". She asked him if he likes it here, he said "yes, it's nice". She asked about my previous marriage to which i responded "teenage mistake" and shoved a certified copy of my divorce decree towards her. She said she already had it in my file and asked "you were only married a year to him?" i said yes, i was 18 and never saw the guy again. She said okay. Then she asked if I had a letter or anything from my employer and any W-2's. How happy I was that i did! I was not asked to bring that but i did it because i read on here that people bring that kind of stuff just in case. Yay! She took the letter and pulled off a stub of my 2001 W-2 and put it in the file. Then she asked if we had anything to show we live together or share finances. This is when i triumphantly produced the folder. On the front I had listed its contents in order. She said great and took our lease and a bill with both our names on it. She then said our case would be approved but she could not stamp his passport because of the new FBI check thing, but she would send us a card in the mail (?). I thought we were supposed to come back for the stamp but she said she would send us an approval letter and a card with his photo on it. She put a paper on top of our file that said "Approvable pending FBI check" and where it said "when?" she wrote "NOW". woo hoo! She shook my hubby's hand and rode down with us in the elevator. She said she was sorry about the wait but sometimes if interviews are "difficult" they run over their time. My hubby asked how many she has to do in a day, she said "ten". She said she was hungry and hadn't even gotten her lunch break yet. We made small talk until we got to the lobby. She said congratulations and thank you and we left! She made us feel very relaxed and i can't believe how nice and laid back she was. Her name is Juanita and we are thinking about naming our first born after her. Ha ha! WE LOVE JUANITA! Anyway, if you are a legit couple like us and you come in overprepared you will be FINE. Thank you to all of you who post your experiences, it really helped me prepare all our stuff. Good luck!

kitty-uk

Hi Cowall

Thank you for writing your AOS Interview experience,it was very help full to me as I to will be using that office.
Fingers crossed that mine will be as smooth,and get Juanita ..
May your 2003 be as smooth, all the best kit

Targaff

cowall wrote in news:609989.1042297852
@britishexpats.com:

Thanks for the post; someone else had posted about AoS in San Antonio a month or so
ago and I got the impression that they were processing them relatively quickly
(especially compared to some of the other offices).

I think everyone's going to be hoping for Juanita now...

--

Targaff

Johnhisc2

Had Juanita myself 2 months ago, And shes Great, I have recieved my Temporary
Evidence on a I94 with the I551 Stamp and such on it...... It said 6 months for
the PLastic Per Res Card but who knows.... Maybe Today maybe next year...

GOOD luck to everyone!

K1 Mailed JAN 14th 2002
Approved March 4th
Interview in Montreal April 24th
Moved July 26th
Married Sept 14th
EAD Nov 11th AP Same week
AOS Dec 10th
I551 Stamp Jan 5th