Jennifer

Hey NG:

Here is our AOS interview experience as posted on kamya.com:

Awesome AOS experience at the very efficient Portland, OR INS office.
When we filed in person, they told us it would be 1-6 months for the
interview to be scheduled: we got our interview in a mere 4 months.

We arrived at the INS at 8:15am for our 8:30am interview. We waited
for about 45 min. in the wrong room (completely our fault, duh, read
the notice!) -- then realized that we needed to leave our interview
notice in the basket at the end of the hall and wait in room #106.
Once we came to our senses, we waited in the interview lobby for about
an hour, and then an interviewer came to the room and called Peter's
name. The interviewer did not introduce himself at this time and
appeared to be very nervous. I thought, "Hey, we're the ones who are
supposed to be nervous! He must have had a lot of coffee this
morning!"

This is what we brought to the interview:

-Copies of the our original AOS application packet
-Originals of everything in the AOS packet
-Proof of joint accounts: bank, utilities, rental agreement
-2 sworn statements from friends of ours
-A new notarized I-184 w/ 6 months of my pay stubs and a letter from
my employer & 3 years of tax return transcripts (which they didn't
need because they already had them)
-Our wedding album
-Peter's vaccination records

The shaky, nervous interviewer went through our entire packet and
asked Peter several questions:

1. Have you every claimed to be a US citizen to an immigration officer
or anyone else for that matter?
2. Do you plan to violently overthrow the US government?
3. Please explain how you entered the country for the first time.
(Peter explained J-1 visa status, etc.)
4. Have you left the country since you've been here?


Then he asked us how we met – and I explained it very briefly. I
asked if he needed more details and he said no.

Then another woman comes into the room and sits down: it turns out,
our immigration officer was a trainee, and she was training him. The
first thing she said was, "Did you introduce yourself to them?" He
said..."Uh....no....my name is officer ‘so & so'" (sorry, I was
nervous, too, and don't remember their names). Anyway, she was very
pleasant, and aided him in sorting through our paperwork and file, and
then helped him enter the info into their computer. She said, You're
Approved – you're now a conditional permanent resident. She stamped
Peter's passport with the I-551 stamp – he can now move in & out of
the country freely, and work without an EAD card. She said he should
receive his conditional green card in 7-8 months, and if we don't
receive it by that time to submit an inquiry form (which she gave us)
to the Nebraska Service Center (UGH!). In 2 years, we'll have to
apply to have the conditions removed from his green card and then
he'll be a permanent resident!

The interview lasted about 30 minutes – and it was completely
painless! They are very nice and efficient at the Portland office –
and we really think it worked to our advantage to have a trainee as
our interviewer...he was as nervous as we were! : )~

Anyway, that's it – and we are so RELIEVED not to have to deal with
the INS for awhile.

Take care,

Jennifer & Peter
(US/NL in Portland, OR)

Andy Platt

"Jennifer" wrote:

    > The interview lasted about 30 minutes - and it was completely
    > painless! They are very nice and efficient at the Portland office -
    > and we really think it worked to our advantage to have a trainee as
    > our interviewer...he was as nervous as we were! : )~

Congrats. BTW, there is a nasty side to the Portland office but luckily you
didn't see it!

Andy.

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

hmiller

Glad to read of your success on the AOS interview Jennifer and Peter! I can only imagine the relief you two must feel

My fiance' and I are still waiting on our 2nd NOA (filed through Nebraska) but are still busy preparing what we'll need for his interview in Amsterdam. Hope we have a good experience when we go for our AOS interview as well! We'll be doing that through the Seattle, WA office and so far I haven't heard any horror stories from there.....


Best Wishes,

Heather

Jennifer

"Andy Platt" wrote in message news:...
    > "Jennifer" wrote:
    >
    > > The interview lasted about 30 minutes - and it was completely
    > > painless! They are very nice and efficient at the Portland office -
    > > and we really think it worked to our advantage to have a trainee as
    > > our interviewer...he was as nervous as we were! : )~
    >
    > Congrats. BTW, there is a nasty side to the Portland office but luckily you
    > didn't see it!
    >
    > Andy.

Thanks Andy. Yes, lucky for us, we were there on a "good" day!

And by the way, all the question marks in my post are there because I
copied and pasted from the kamya site. The symbols changed in the
process. I'm not quite that inquisitve! : ) Just in case anyone
wondered....

Jen

Jacky Zimmerman

Congratultions Jennifer

Reading your post sounds like it took 4 months from initial application
until interview. Is that right? It is posted on INS that AOS takes 1050
days (over 3 years) at the Portland office. I have to go thru the process in
about 2 years when I get my citizenship. Thank you for posting your
experience.
"Jennifer" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hey NG:
    > Here is our AOS interview experience as posted on kamya.com:
    > Awesome AOS experience at the very efficient Portland, OR INS office.
    > When we filed in person, they told us it would be 1-6 months for the
    > interview to be scheduled: we got our interview in a mere 4 months.
    > We arrived at the INS at 8:15am for our 8:30am interview. We waited
    > for about 45 min. in the wrong room (completely our fault, duh, read
    > the notice!) -- then realized that we needed to leave our interview
    > notice in the basket at the end of the hall and wait in room #106.
    > Once we came to our senses, we waited in the interview lobby for about
    > an hour, and then an interviewer came to the room and called Peter's
    > name. The interviewer did not introduce himself at this time and
    > appeared to be very nervous. I thought, "Hey, we're the ones who are
    > supposed to be nervous! He must have had a lot of coffee this
    > morning!"
    > This is what we brought to the interview:
    > -Copies of the our original AOS application packet
    > -Originals of everything in the AOS packet
    > -Proof of joint accounts: bank, utilities, rental agreement
    > -2 sworn statements from friends of ours
    > -A new notarized I-184 w/ 6 months of my pay stubs and a letter from
    > my employer & 3 years of tax return transcripts (which they didn't
    > need because they already had them)
    > -Our wedding album
    > -Peter's vaccination records
    > The shaky, nervous interviewer went through our entire packet and
    > asked Peter several questions:
    > 1. Have you every claimed to be a US citizen to an immigration officer
    > or anyone else for that matter?
    > 2. Do you plan to violently overthrow the US government?
    > 3. Please explain how you entered the country for the first time.
    > (Peter explained J-1 visa status, etc.)
    > 4. Have you left the country since you've been here?
    > Then he asked us how we met - and I explained it very briefly. I
    > asked if he needed more details and he said no.
    > Then another woman comes into the room and sits down: it turns out,
    > our immigration officer was a trainee, and she was training him. The
    > first thing she said was, "Did you introduce yourself to them?" He
    > said..."Uh....no....my name is officer 'so & so'" (sorry, I was
    > nervous, too, and don't remember their names). Anyway, she was very
    > pleasant, and aided him in sorting through our paperwork and file, and
    > then helped him enter the info into their computer. She said, You're
    > Approved - you're now a conditional permanent resident. She stamped
    > Peter's passport with the I-551 stamp - he can now move in & out of
    > the country freely, and work without an EAD card. She said he should
    > receive his conditional green card in 7-8 months, and if we don't
    > receive it by that time to submit an inquiry form (which she gave us)
    > to the Nebraska Service Center (UGH!). In 2 years, we'll have to
    > apply to have the conditions removed from his green card and then
    > he'll be a permanent resident!
    > The interview lasted about 30 minutes - and it was completely
    > painless! They are very nice and efficient at the Portland office -
    > and we really think it worked to our advantage to have a trainee as
    > our interviewer...he was as nervous as we were! : )~
    > Anyway, that's it - and we are so RELIEVED not to have to deal with
    > the INS for awhile.
    > Take care,
    > Jennifer & Peter
    > (US/NL in Portland, OR)

Jennifer

"Jacky Zimmerman" wrote in message news:...
    > Congratultions Jennifer
    >
    > Reading your post sounds like it took 4 months from initial application
    > until interview. Is that right? It is posted on INS that AOS takes 1050
    > days (over 3 years) at the Portland office. I have to go thru the process in
    > about 2 years when I get my citizenship. Thank you for posting your
    > experience.

Thanks Jacky! Yes, it was 4 months from application to interview.
Pretty impressive, huh? Yep, Peter will be going through the
citizenship process as well in 2+ years...and then applying for dual
citizenship in the Netherlands. But we're just going to breathe easy
right now...until it all starts up again. : )

Take care and best of luck to you!

Jennifer

    > "Jennifer" wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > Hey NG:
    > >
    > > Here is our AOS interview experience as posted on kamya.com:
    > >
    > > Awesome AOS experience at the very efficient Portland, OR INS office.
    > > When we filed in person, they told us it would be 1-6 months for the
    > > interview to be scheduled: we got our interview in a mere 4 months.
    > >
    > > We arrived at the INS at 8:15am for our 8:30am interview. We waited
    > > for about 45 min. in the wrong room (completely our fault, duh, read
    > > the notice!) -- then realized that we needed to leave our interview
    > > notice in the basket at the end of the hall and wait in room #106.
    > > Once we came to our senses, we waited in the interview lobby for about
    > > an hour, and then an interviewer came to the room and called Peter's
    > > name. The interviewer did not introduce himself at this time and
    > > appeared to be very nervous. I thought, "Hey, we're the ones who are
    > > supposed to be nervous! He must have had a lot of coffee this
    > > morning!"
    > >
    > > This is what we brought to the interview:
    > >
    > > -Copies of the our original AOS application packet
    > > -Originals of everything in the AOS packet
    > > -Proof of joint accounts: bank, utilities, rental agreement
    > > -2 sworn statements from friends of ours
    > > -A new notarized I-184 w/ 6 months of my pay stubs and a letter from
    > > my employer & 3 years of tax return transcripts (which they didn't
    > > need because they already had them)
    > > -Our wedding album
    > > -Peter's vaccination records
    > >
    > > The shaky, nervous interviewer went through our entire packet and
    > > asked Peter several questions:
    > >
    > > 1. Have you every claimed to be a US citizen to an immigration officer
    > > or anyone else for that matter?
    > > 2. Do you plan to violently overthrow the US government?
    > > 3. Please explain how you entered the country for the first time.
    > > (Peter explained J-1 visa status, etc.)
    > > 4. Have you left the country since you've been here?
    > >
    > >
    > > Then he asked us how we met - and I explained it very briefly. I
    > > asked if he needed more details and he said no.
    > >
    > > Then another woman comes into the room and sits down: it turns out,
    > > our immigration officer was a trainee, and she was training him. The
    > > first thing she said was, "Did you introduce yourself to them?" He
    > > said..."Uh....no....my name is officer 'so & so'" (sorry, I was
    > > nervous, too, and don't remember their names). Anyway, she was very
    > > pleasant, and aided him in sorting through our paperwork and file, and
    > > then helped him enter the info into their computer. She said, You're
    > > Approved - you're now a conditional permanent resident. She stamped
    > > Peter's passport with the I-551 stamp - he can now move in & out of
    > > the country freely, and work without an EAD card. She said he should
    > > receive his conditional green card in 7-8 months, and if we don't
    > > receive it by that time to submit an inquiry form (which she gave us)
    > > to the Nebraska Service Center (UGH!). In 2 years, we'll have to
    > > apply to have the conditions removed from his green card and then
    > > he'll be a permanent resident!
    > >
    > > The interview lasted about 30 minutes - and it was completely
    > > painless! They are very nice and efficient at the Portland office -
    > > and we really think it worked to our advantage to have a trainee as
    > > our interviewer...he was as nervous as we were! : )~
    > >
    > > Anyway, that's it - and we are so RELIEVED not to have to deal with
    > > the INS for awhile.
    > >
    > > Take care,
    > >
    > > Jennifer & Peter
    > > (US/NL in Portland, OR)