Bob248usa

From: [email protected] (Bob248USA)
Date: Fri, May 16, 2003 4:29 PM
Message-id:



After almost 2 years of waiting we have the AOS interview in 2 months, whew!!!

Anyway: should we bring letters from family or friends as references?
The instruction sheet does not request this, so, I thought I'd ask you guys n
gals

thanks a lot, Bob

Matthew Udall

I suppose you could, but I don't see most BCIS officers wanting to sit there in silence with you across the desk, as they take the time to read these letters. If you did submit such evidence, perhaps short and sweet affidavits might be a better idea.

They want to see evidence to help them come to a conclusion that you and your spouse married for love and are giving it a go as husband and wife (not just one friend who married another friend to help that other friend get a greencard).

Having children together is very powerful evidence of a bonafide marriage, but don’t knock up your spouse just for another piece of evidence to show BCIS :-). Second to that, the commingling of financial assets is very strong evidence of a bonafide marriage (of course, if a couple of friends engaged in a sham marriage for immigration purposes, they too could set up a joint checking or savings account, but I’ll bet in that situation only one of the spouses would be actively using the account).

If you used an attorney (don’t know if you did), you might feel good if he or she conducts an AOS interview prep session with you (either face to face or on the phone) to go over what you originally submitted with your case, what evidence has come into existence since you filed (and therefore evidence you should take with you), tell you what a typical interview is like, go over common mistakes that people make during these interviews (so hopefully you can avoid them) go over pet peeves of the officers (again, so you might avoid these things), etc. I do this for my AOS clients, and the prep sessions usually last around an hour. Most clients feel very prepared after this type of prep session.

Good luck with your interview.

Regards,
Matthew Udall
Attorney
http://members.aol.com/MDUdall/fiancee.htm

Rete

Just a personal observation. If your evidence is solid in showing the commingling of your financial and social lives, then affidavits from family and friends would not be needed. After two years of marriage I'm assuming you can show enough joint evident to support the validity of a true marriage. We included cards with envelopes addressed to us both as part of that evidence at our interview.

Have you read the experiences of those that interviewed at your particular BCIS to see how they fared and what they used to support their claim of marriage at the time of the interview. This always helps in preparing one for the actual face to face interrogation at the interview.

Rete

brisray

If our experience is anything to go by the AOS interview is a relatively painless experience. We were more in danger dying of boredom waiting than having a heart attack fretting about the interview. Our appointment was on 10th April in Indianapolis at 10.30am, we finally got in to see him at 12:30pm.

I was asked the address where we lived, my mothers maiden name, my wife's birthday and our wedding day. I even got the last two right! After that my wife showed him our wedding photos and explained at great length the life story of our pets (5 cats and 3 ferrets). After a while he said he believed we were married. I think that was mostly because I let my wife do most of the talking, I just looked on looking sweet and innocent. All in all it took about 15 or 20 minutes.

We were approved, all bar the name checks which he said would take anywhere from a few days to who knows when.

Apart from our folder containing copies and originals of everything we'd ever sent to them, some of the stuff they specifically asked for in the interview letter (tax returns, utility bills and so on) and our wedding photos we didn't take any other paperwork.

Ray

lairdside

Sweet and innocent..lol. I love it

I think that much of their assessment is based on the manner in which a couple relates to each other, my husband and I for instance have the natural pauses in our speech for each other that in his opinion only come from having spent a reasonable amount of time together. We know the rhythms and forms of each others speech patterns.

I bet they watch your body language too

We actually wondered if they'd been watching us whilst we were outside in the queue...lol

Dekka's Angel

See now, to me this is very interesting.

If indeed the production of a child is very powerful evidence of a bonafide marriage, is BCIS basing that conclusion on the archaic notion that "really married" people have sex and "not really married" people don't? (since of course the only truly irrebutable evidence of actually engaging in sexual conduct is a living child -- at least as far as women are concerned). Or is it the financial and emotional bonding that usually people experience fairly automatically when they have a child that leads BCIS to conclude that the marriage is more likely to be viable? Or some other theory?

Playing a game of Devil's Advocate a minute because its Friday evening and I'm stuck at home, but I could easily see a situation where if someone's primary motivation for a marriage was that ultimately they could remain in the US, it would be very easy to get pregnant or impregnate your wife just to manufacture some "powerful" evidence of bona fide marriage and clear AOS even if other things might indicate to BCIS that the marriage might not be based entirely on love. After all, nothing says you have to stick around and rear your child after you've produced it or remain with the other parent. Not to mention you get the fringe benefit of the high entertainment value inherent in aggressively pursuing this type of AOS strategy.

Seems to me that a bona-fide marriage would be more persuasively established not by children (since a lot of married couples that honestly can't stand each other still manage to produce children during moments of detente) but by other types of evidence, such as financial intertwining and shared mutual risk of financial loss, and the testimony of real live normal people who won't likely all lie because they don't want to go to jail, as if anyone actually goes to jail for perjury anymore, who can actually testify under oath about a couple's actual relationship in detail because they've interacted with the couple day to day. I suspect that BCIS will never have the resources to actually pursue placing serious weight on things like investigating community references about a couple, but if they did it would be far better evidence than a child.

Rest assured I do not believe that rational people take on the lifetime commitment of a child just for permanent residency, and the above was truly a game of Devil's Advocate. But it seems that the system almost encourages such cavalier behavior when it places that much weight on any single criteria for establishing a "bona fide" marriage for AOS purposes.

Caro

It is funny that you should mention that, because the exact same thing came to my mind! There are a lot of unscrupulous people on this planet!!!

Caroline

Rete

Yes, as a matter of fact they do. During our interview, I, the USC, was questioned heavily about my husband's life both before and after our marriage. It was not until the DAO asked for the fingerprint receipt and I was going through our redweld for it and Jim tried to take it from me because he thought I was taking too long and I said "Jim, I know where it is" and gave him my best wifely, "Don't start now" look, that she laughed and said "Now I know you two are married."

As for the issue of a child being the deciding factor for a successful AOS, I will once again recount the story of the couple who interviewed in Baltimore and had their AOS decision placed on hold until DNA tests proved the child's father was indeed the USC husband. And this child was born 12 months after their wedding. So while it might mean something to some DAO's it clearly does not mean the same to all of them.

Rete

lairdside

Nice story Rete

When the officer invited me interview I asked if she wanted my husband too. She said, "Yes, of course" and I called out to him across the office, " She wants you too!" and gestured with my hands. I wondered if they had been watching us outside in the queue because they realy DID seem to have made up their minds before the interview had even taken place.

I was worried because my husband and I have a 25 year age diference and I had spent 6 1/2 months away from him in the UK on an AP whilst waiting for the AOS interview as I had legal affairs to sort out.

It did occur to me though that our case was such a mess that it had to be real, no-one in their right minds in my opinion would put themselves in such a situation unless it was for love.

I also wondered about the issue of whether or not a child of the marriage was truly a product of the two parties of the marriage. Apparently a lot of people's fathers are not who they think they are.....