KK85

Yay! Congratulations!

Nicola1234

dj6372

Welcome to good ole US of A, be interesting to know how things go as a resident as opposed to a visitor!!

Nicola1234

Nicola1234

Hi everyone,

Wanted to update this thread in case anyone is following and finds it helpful!

We had our Adjustment of Status interview yesterday at the Federal building in downtown Manhattan. Our interview was at 10:45am and by the time we found the correct entrance to the building it was 10:20am. We went through airport style security just like at the embassy in London. The New York, Brooklyn and Queens offices were all situated here so we followed the signs to the New York office on the 7th floor. After checking in where they stamped my interview letter, took a photo and my fingerprints, we were given a letter and number and told we would be going through door #1 (there are 2 doors).
It was fairly busy and we waited for almost 2.5 hours before being called (by our letter and number). You are greeted at the door by the officer who will be interviewing you.

We had a male officer who was friendly but very professional. We walked to his booth and were asked to put all our stuff down and stand to swear in. Then we sat and he asked for our IDs (original copies) and marriage certificate (original copy). we couldn't find my husband's original birth certificate but we had a photocopy luckily which the officer accepted especially as we had his passport. Once he verified all of that he went through my K1 paperwork and asked questions from the forms. He asked me my husbands mum and dad's names, my husbands DOB and where he was born.
The officer then asked to see what evidence we had of shared documents. We don't actually have loads but we pulled out all of our shared medical coverage, joint credit card statements, PayPal transactions as that is how I pay my share of the rent to him (it works for us) and also a letter from his mum who we live with to say we live in her apartment. He then went through the AOS paperwork and asked my husband questions like my parents names, my DOB, where I lived, what job I did, he asked me what job he did and where his office is located.
He asked my husband questions about the wedding, how many attended, where it was, if we had a reception and where and if we had a honeymoon (we didn't have a honeymoon). He asked when and how we met, our first date. He asked how long we had been dating. He asked him about the engagement how it happened and where, my husband got the first bit right but then his mind went blank as he was nervous and couldn't remember when it happened, he of course knows this but he was a bit frazzled from all the questions he got. The officer was really nice and helped him out a little and he said after you have been together a while everything kind of merges into one which we laughed and agreed. I felt really bad for my husband as I could see he was beating himself up over it (and still is).
We then handed over our 2 photo albums (one was photos prior to my move and one was from when I moved until now), he asked my husband who was in one particular photo and he named them all. He then went through the photos and selected a few to keep (he asked if that was ok). He then asked me how much our rent is.

He then went back through the AOS paperwork and asked me all the questions like security etc. he took my UK police certificate which he joked looked a lot nicer than US ones and he took some various other paperwork. He said he is going to get everything in the system and it will go under review and we should receive the card in 2-3 weeks then we corrected himself and said of course if it is in your favor which we all kind of nervous laughed to lol. He gave us a pieve of paper with the top box ticked to say it was under review and how long it takes etc. Our status on the website has changed to interview was complete and my case is under review.

I believe he was a newer officer from all the questions he asked and he made a couple of mistakes like he questioned why we only had one year of joint taxes (2019) then he was like ohhhhhh yeah you have only been married for a year and joked that he was just testing I was awake lol. Also I think it needs to be reviewed by someone more senior and he wasn't sure about a couple of things that my husband asked and needed to get it checked.
The interview took about 35 minutes and now it's back to waiting, I was exhausted after and could have slept all afternoon but I had to get back to work.
I hope it went well, we are just worried about the question my husband slipped up on but not much we can do about it. Will update when I hear anymore.

Fingers crossed

Rete

Congratulations, Nicola. We were users of the Federal Plaza office. We also had a delay but ours was due to a missing file which had not been returned from the salt caves in Lee Summit, Missouri. We needed to get our congress person involved only because 9/11 happened and hubby was a member of the New York State Guard and was activated and needed his green card on him instead of his passport with the stamp.

Nicola1234

Oh wow that must have been an intense time to do immigration!? Glad it all got sorted eventually, how long did it take in the end?
I'm hoping ours wont be too long and its just under review because he was a newer officer. My friend lives upstate and was approved on the spot but then again she probably had a more senior officer and also a smaller field office? Who knows lol

Rete

Took a few months and then only got final approval because our congress woman's office intervened. It was a fun time with the INS back then ... NOT.

Nicola1234

Oh wow that's crazy! I would have cried lol

Nicola1234

Ok so we just received an RFE after our interview on Wednesday.

They want court documents from an arrest In 2017 (charges dropped) that have a raised seal. It’s something I think is easy to sort out. Will call the court house on Monday. The court house is in Georgia and we are In NYC so can’t drop in unfortunately

Nicola1234

Hi all,

Hope all is well! Here is an update just to keep my thread updated as much as possible to help others;

Due to COVID I had to mail in the RFE response which I did on March 24th. Didn't hear anything back, not even to say they have received it. I called a few times and spoke to Tier 2 who didn't have anymore information. Finally on July 7th my status updated to New card being produced then to Case approved!

For anyone reading this and you're at the start of your journey I would recommend going down the spousal route. Even though for us it hasn't been terrible, in hindsight (wonderful thing) the spousal route would have been a much convenient process.

Now I am going to sit back and relax for 18 months or so until I need to remove conditions whilst also collecting more evidence etc!

Thanks again to everyone on this site, it is a great help!

user77575775

I had my interview in March. I'll admit to being a little nervous.

Arrived at embassy, straight up to pop up tent to show my docs then had to wait outside until 15 mins before my scheduled time.
Went upstairs and sat for a few then my number was called. I gave my paperwork, had fingerprints and photo taken then asked to take a seat again.
Called up again and the new officer asked me who was my co-sponsor and where their income came from. In my case mother-in-law and pension.
Officer asked how I met my wife and I said online. He asked which site and I had no idea so I said ... sorry I don't remember (it had been a number of years).
As I'm self employed (freelance) the officer asked about health cover and I said oh I'll need to buy some. Visa Approved.
Painless.

Nicola1234

Another update! My Green Card arrived yesterday! What a journey so far! Now to rest for a while until ROC!

I am collecting evidence as we go along so I don't have a mad panic in 18 months or so haha.

Thanks again to everyone, will update again in case this thread is helpful to anyone!

Nicola1234

K1
NOA1 22/03/18
NOA2 20/09/18
NVC received 08/10/18
Case number 16/10/18
Left NVC 30/10/18
Medical 07/11/18
Interview 21/11/18 - APPROVED!!!!!
VIH 10/12/18
POE 01/02/2019
Married 15/02/2019

AOS
Filed 11/03/2019
NOA 18/03/2019
Biometrics 08/04/2019
EAD/AP card approved 15/08/2019
EAD/AP card delivered 21/08/2019
Interview 26/02/2020 (NYC office)
RFE 29/02/2020 (Wanted court document with raised seal)
Approval 07/07/2020
Green Card delivered 30/07/2020

Jasskatten

Congratulations Nicola, that must have felt so good to finally have the Green Card in your hand!