cheradenine

Good day British Expats I hope you are all keeping well.

I submitted the I751 back in December jointly with my wife and in the past couple months have received three I-797 forms.

The first one was an extension of my conditional resident status by 12 months from the expiration date on my green card.
The second reported that our case had been moved to the California service centre of Laguna Niguel to 'speed up processing'.
The most recent I-797 is a further extension, of the previous extension, of 12 months of my green card to 18 months from it's expiration date.

A quick question on this. As the case was moved, if an interview was required would I have to go to that office for the interview?
I live in the bay area of California so it wouldn't be a huge issue to travel down south but it would also be inconvenient.
I'm really hoping we get to avoid any interview, I have read that some couples are approved without one.
Has anyone been through a removal of conditions interview? what was it like?

Thanks in advance.

Noorah101

No. An interview would be held at your local USCIS office.

I would say most are approved without one.

The only cases I recall reading about on here that had an interview were those that were filed with a waiver, after a divorce.

Rene

cheradenine

Thank you Rene, that is most reassuring and a relief to hear that any interview would be local.

civilservant

Not sure that's the case anymore with Trump. Anecdotally from some other forums it seems most get one now.

cheradenine

I had a nose on a few other forums and people were saying the interview is now mandatory due to this
https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-rele...ncy-applicants

But as far as my understanding goes, that is only applying to adjustment of status applicants and refugee/asylum applicants?

Regardless there was also a lot of people refuting this claim saying that they hadn't been called in for an interview or asked for more evidence, including a few that had gotten divorced and used the waiver.

One post I recall reading was that one applicant had gotten his biometrics done and was told by an officer that the interview was now mandatory. This was interestingly rejected by a few posters saying don't believe everything the immigration officers tell you as they 'make stuff up'. One user then explained how he had been told that he couldn't get a social security card until he had his two year conditional green card.

Rete

As your links points out the interviews are for adjustment of status from an employment visa. Interviews for adjustment of status for marriage-based applicants have been the norm for my 20 years of participation with the exception of a few here and there over the last 20 years. As for an interview for the removal of conditions, usually if there is a call for an interview it is usually if there is little evidence sent to show that the marriage is continuing and that the participants have co-mingled their financial and social lives or if the officer felt at the time of AOS that the couple needed an in depth followup at the time of the original AOS interview and made a notation on their records.

If an interview is needed, it is more of the same that you had for the AOS initially.

Disclaimer: I do not read other self-help forums for immigration.

scrubbedexpat084

The same happened to me. My application was transferred to I think 3 different states. During that time I also went again to a local office to do the bio metrics. I also went to another local office a few months ago to get a stamp in my passport and the 2 year GC was submitted to them at the office. The officer told me that the stamp in my passport is the same as the GC. It also had an extension because it has been 1.5 years since i sent in the initial I-751. A few weeks ago I received another letter with a further 6 month extension. As far as I understand the I-751 generally didn't take this long, even if it was a waiver due to divorce, but that's just my observation from reading past posts here.

Since mine is a waiver (divorce) I would be surprised if I didn't need to go for another interview, which is fine, and I would hope that it is with the local office, as my application is currently in a state very far from the one in which I live. I think things are changing now, but I am no expert, however you should be prepared for another interview which I would imagine is similar to the initial interview when you received your 2 year GC.

BenK91

IO at my AOS interview stated it was now the norm for everyone to be interviewed for I-485's and I-751's. Definitely read conflicting info to this though.