Paul

My wife Katia got her hard-earned stamp on her passport at Arlington yesterday. We
filed on 2/10/00, so it was almost 21 months, as opposed to the promised 20 months.

To put those at ease who are still waiting for their interview, I just wanted to add
my voice to the others who have posted here about just how painless the interview is.
My wife, who is Russian, so may have been expecting some kind of KGB interrogation,
commented afterward, "I can't believe how easily you let people into this country."

Along the appointment letter, we received a checklist of documents to bring, along
with copies. I was a little surprised that many were documents we had produced
before, but I did my best to collect all of them. I brought along all the documents
in the order that appeared on the letter, assuming that the examiner would be
operating from the same list.

Well she didn't. She asked for some of these documents, but not all. I had a last
minute moment of panic when I couldn't find a copy of our state tax returns from 1999
-- the letter said to bring federal and local returns -- but the officer told us she
only needed federal returns. She wanted a copy of Katia's divorce decree, but when I
asked her if she wanted a copy of her birth certificate she said she didn't need it
because there was already one in her file (well, there should have been a copy of her
divorce decree in there as well). The instructions said I was supposed to bring a
notarized I-864, but she never collected it. Our only anxious moment came when I
presented a marriage certificate as proof of our marriage and she said she wanted a
copy of the marriage registry. But she just shrugged and took the copy of the
certificate.

After going through the questions again on the I-485, the examiner asked us some
simple questions about how we met, what kind of wedding we had, how Katia's son likes
America. She was business-like but not at all intimidating. She looked through the
pictures we brought, and asked us where it was and who the people were. The only time
she seemed to be trying to catch was when, after I had mentioned that I had visited
Katia in Russia before she came over, several minutes later she very coyly asked, "so
you kind of (!!!) got married in Russia first, then had another ceremony here, is
that right?"

About the closest thing to a hitch was that our appointment was for
9:15 but we had to wait until about 10:00 before we were called in. All things
considered, we can live with that.

Again, Katia and I would like to thank this group for all of the valuable information
that allowed us to forego the expense of an attorney.

Paul

Andy Platt

Congrats Paul.

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I'm not sure what a marriage registry is supposed to be. Any ideas?

Andy.

--
I'm not really here - it's just your warped imagination.

Paul

Thanks.

I remember when Katia and I went for our marriage license, they gave us some form
that we could send in. I'm not sure what this was for, because I just assumed that
the certificate was all we would need. I guess this is a record you could pick up at
the county licensing office.