Originally Posted by rakhmetov567

Just wanted to post the results of our interview here since anyone else searching on this subject might well want to know . We met with an experienced immigration lawyer (May group Pittsburgh, PA) who read over our files/forms and told us we don't need her assistance. She told us that we would certainly be asked about the issue of intent upon re-entry during the interview and that we need to be very careful about how we stated our situation (her advice: be very prepared for every question & contingency and the rationale she figured out we were trying to articulate was: the first time when her I-485 form was returned in early 2007 due to our errors demonstrates how little intent we had the first time and upon re-entry in 2007 she waited more than 30 days to apply for AOS, so her intent clearly was not to apply right away, we only decided to reapply later). While we don't know much about this firm because we didn't really work with them, their honesty and forthrightness about our not needing their services reflect well on their firm.
After all my worry and concern, we had our interview on February 26, 2008 in Pittsburgh, PA and the question never even came up!
Our interview lasted 25 minutes and only involved two real questions about our marriage: "Were you married in a church or courthouse?" (a church) and "Do you have pictures of the wedding."
Good luck to everyone going through this and to those who worry as much as me, my experience shows that worrying too much doesn't help. Relax, it will all go well.

Originally Posted by alcoa

Looks like the interviewing officer didn't do his/her job very well if s/he didn't even look at your marriage/re-entry timeline. Some of them are just lazy..

Just kidding. Congratulations!

Originally Posted by rakhmetov567

Interesting last comment. Wish I would have had this perspective at the time.

Seriously, some of the comments on here from people really freaked me out and sent me dashing for the lawyer's phone number. Had the lawyer not been so forthright that we really didn't need her help, we would have forked over badly needed money needlessly.
Next time I'll take a responder's rating into account.

Originally Posted by rakhmetov567

.....
After all my worry and concern, we had our interview on February 26, 2008 in Pittsburgh, PA and the question never even came up!
Our interview lasted 25 minutes and only involved two real questions about our marriage: "Were you married in a church or courthouse?" (a church) and "Do you have pictures of the wedding."
Good luck to everyone going through this and to those who worry as much as me, my experience shows that worrying too much doesn't help. Relax, it will all go well.

Originally Posted by Folinskyinla

Hi:

If she had been traveling on a visitor's visa or VWP, that is one thing. But it looks like she was attending school just like she was supposed to! The BIA ruled in 19-seventy-5 that getting married, or even having an adjustment pending is NOT inconsistent with maintaining F-1 status.

See http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol15/2349.pdf

That said, it seems that a lot of government officials and not a few immigration lawyers seem to be unaware of this case. Perhaps because the law is so settled