Jim

We went in for our interview today, after my wife arrived on a K-1 in November of
1999. We had long delays, but my letters asking about this seemed to have some
effect. The officer asked if my wife had immigration photos (the "left ear" shot) and
seemed surprised when we produced them. This meant we had no delays in
fingerprinting. He seemed to be missing our marriage certificate, my birth
certificate AND our application for AOS (I-485). Again, it was an enormous help that
we could produce copies of these documents immediately. After scratching his head for
awhile, he decided there must be two files for us. He left the room and consulted
with a file clerk. When they returned, I heard them say that we had both a "T" file
and an "A" file and the two had not been merged. We had been through some confusion
earlier and I think it was a result of this.

Anyway, he asked my wife all of the stock questions and mostly ignored
me. My wife couldn't avoid giggling at some of the questions, and this seemed to put
him at ease. For instance, he wanted to know if my wife planned to practice
polygamy here . He did ask the same questions in different ways, searching for
inconsistencies. He also stared very insistently into my wife's eyes as he asked
each question. This must be in their training book. He made sure she sat
immediately across from him. But overall, the interview was short. My wife had
never been married before. She had no arrest record. Also, we are close to the
same age. So, there wasn't much in our case to arouse suspicion. The whole
interview was over in an hour and Irina had her passport stamped. Now, we're done
with the INS for another two years. Slava bogu! We can live like normal people
for awhile.