Ging's Adjustment of Status Interview Experience:
Our interview gave us a big question mark since the officer didn't confirm us if we were approved or not. We finally figured out the right answer after Ging received her green card on the mail after 3 weeks!
(As shared by Ging)
Our Interview
August 30, 2006 - 9:15AM
USCIS, Baltimore, MD
We arrived at USCIS, Baltimore exactly at 9:15am with still me catching my breath! We were supposed to arrive 45 minutes from home, but there was a bit of traffic downtown.
After an hour, Ging's name was called by a nice young guy. And yes, we were able to get his name, David Gaisford. We would say, he is a very detailed officer and this was what happened:
He told us to both raise our right hands to swear the truth and nothing but the truth! LOL. Then we both sat after that.
CO: (Consul Officer)
G: (Ging)
C: (Craig)
CO: Is your lawyer not coming today?
Ging & Craig: No, he's not.
CO: Okay, I need you to sign this, both of you just to prove that your lawyer was not here today.
Then after signing, he asked my passport, EAD card and my SSN. He also asked Craig's passport plus his driving license. We gave what he requested. He detached my I-94 card from my passport, took glance at my EAD and SSN, Craig's passport and his driver's license. He confirmed our home address, after which he returned all of the documents he asked.
He then started scaning our papers and I was dumbfounded when he asked me this:
CO: So, did you have a K1 previous petition? With ______(name of my exbf)?
(I didn't expect this question, since it wasn't even touched at the US embassy, Manila. Of course, not everybody knows my past immigration history, but it is a long story to tell again...I posted this at asawa.org.
G: Yes, sir.
CO: What happened? Did you come here in the US during that petition?
G: No sir. The relationship didn't work out. But he didn't cancel the petition.
C: (in support to my answer) Ya, it was very exhausting on her part, but I had to marry her just to prove to her that I really love her. I also have been talking to an immigration officer about this, and he told me on what to do. I am sure of myself I did the right thing.
CO: (to Ging) Okay, when did he first contact you? (I gave him the date).
CO: (to Craig) What website is that?
C: FFF...then he added some more answers :).
CO: (to Craig) When did you get married?
C: oct. 24, 2004
CO: How many times did you visit her? The dates?
C: (Gave dates)
CO: (to Ging) So, how many visitors were there in your wedding?
G: About 150 or so sir. That was the number of guests we had already paid to the hotel for the reception.
CO: I see. Can I see your wedding photos? (Gosh! It's good we brought our wedding photos...actually, the one that I showed at my visa interview, which also includes our engagement, honeymoon photos and family, friend photos.) We offered to show him further our most recent photos here in the US during our travel, and he said, wow!)
Then we also offered to give him our joint bank statements and accounts, insurance, credit cards. He only asked for photocopies of them. It's good we photocopied every documents.
CO: Do you have your 2005 ITR?
C: No, because we are filing for an extension, since ours was a joint ITR. But I can give you my recent pay stubs plus my employment letter? (We also gave him the form 4868 application, just to show proof that we are doing the file extension.)
CO: Sure, that's fine.
CO: (to Ging) Can I see your original birth certificate? (Then he noticed my misspelled name on it, and we told him it is, but there is an annotation below already, so he said, oh, good, that's good...I didn't see it!).
CO: How about your wedding certificate? (we showed him, and when he saw it he said, oh, you got one already on your file, sorry!)
He also asked the usual yes/no questions about terroristic activities which of course all of my answers were NO.
Now, this was the part where I got paranoid!!!...
CO: Do you have the original I-130 petition with you?
G: Huh? What do you mean sir?
CO: I mean the form.
Now, this was the one that we weren't aware about...he wants the I-130 filled up form, original copy.
G: No, but I got a copy of that at home. I actually got an interview date for that at US embassy, Manila last May 15, 2006, but we didn't attend to it because I am already here in the US when they informed us about it.
CO: Oh, I see, I know what you meant! I am giving you this blank form to fill up and sing, just for our file.
After filling it up and signing it, he requested us to give it to the receptionist's window together with a referral slip with his name on it. Then he said we were done and can go home.
It was uncomfortable for me to walk out from that room without his firm decision of approval but he said he got what he wanted and that we would gonna hear from them through mail. We shook hands and Craig said thanks a lot. He said you're welcome! And off we go.
I was getting paranoid, and kept asking if we did it good. Craig was assuring me not to worry about it coz I did good.
Perhaps I was worrying too much then because of too much reading from previous AOS experiences in different forums, LOL!
The CO didn't put a stamp (whatever that is) on my passport which we usually read from previous experiences, and he didn't give us any letter or informations regarding the removal of conditional status and about I-751 filing, etc...
(As shared by Ging)
Our Interview
August 30, 2006 - 9:15AM
USCIS, Baltimore, MD
We arrived at USCIS, Baltimore exactly at 9:15am with still me catching my breath! We were supposed to arrive 45 minutes from home, but there was a bit of traffic downtown.
After an hour, Ging's name was called by a nice young guy. And yes, we were able to get his name, David Gaisford. We would say, he is a very detailed officer and this was what happened:
He told us to both raise our right hands to swear the truth and nothing but the truth! LOL. Then we both sat after that.
CO: (Consul Officer)
G: (Ging)
C: (Craig)
CO: Is your lawyer not coming today?
Ging & Craig: No, he's not.
CO: Okay, I need you to sign this, both of you just to prove that your lawyer was not here today.
Then after signing, he asked my passport, EAD card and my SSN. He also asked Craig's passport plus his driving license. We gave what he requested. He detached my I-94 card from my passport, took glance at my EAD and SSN, Craig's passport and his driver's license. He confirmed our home address, after which he returned all of the documents he asked.
He then started scaning our papers and I was dumbfounded when he asked me this:
CO: So, did you have a K1 previous petition? With ______(name of my exbf)?
(I didn't expect this question, since it wasn't even touched at the US embassy, Manila. Of course, not everybody knows my past immigration history, but it is a long story to tell again...I posted this at asawa.org.
G: Yes, sir.
CO: What happened? Did you come here in the US during that petition?
G: No sir. The relationship didn't work out. But he didn't cancel the petition.
C: (in support to my answer) Ya, it was very exhausting on her part, but I had to marry her just to prove to her that I really love her. I also have been talking to an immigration officer about this, and he told me on what to do. I am sure of myself I did the right thing.
CO: (to Ging) Okay, when did he first contact you? (I gave him the date).
CO: (to Craig) What website is that?
C: FFF...then he added some more answers :).
CO: (to Craig) When did you get married?
C: oct. 24, 2004
CO: How many times did you visit her? The dates?
C: (Gave dates)
CO: (to Ging) So, how many visitors were there in your wedding?
G: About 150 or so sir. That was the number of guests we had already paid to the hotel for the reception.
CO: I see. Can I see your wedding photos? (Gosh! It's good we brought our wedding photos...actually, the one that I showed at my visa interview, which also includes our engagement, honeymoon photos and family, friend photos.) We offered to show him further our most recent photos here in the US during our travel, and he said, wow!)
Then we also offered to give him our joint bank statements and accounts, insurance, credit cards. He only asked for photocopies of them. It's good we photocopied every documents.
CO: Do you have your 2005 ITR?
C: No, because we are filing for an extension, since ours was a joint ITR. But I can give you my recent pay stubs plus my employment letter? (We also gave him the form 4868 application, just to show proof that we are doing the file extension.)
CO: Sure, that's fine.
CO: (to Ging) Can I see your original birth certificate? (Then he noticed my misspelled name on it, and we told him it is, but there is an annotation below already, so he said, oh, good, that's good...I didn't see it!).
CO: How about your wedding certificate? (we showed him, and when he saw it he said, oh, you got one already on your file, sorry!)
He also asked the usual yes/no questions about terroristic activities which of course all of my answers were NO.
Now, this was the part where I got paranoid!!!...
CO: Do you have the original I-130 petition with you?
G: Huh? What do you mean sir?
CO: I mean the form.
Now, this was the one that we weren't aware about...he wants the I-130 filled up form, original copy.
G: No, but I got a copy of that at home. I actually got an interview date for that at US embassy, Manila last May 15, 2006, but we didn't attend to it because I am already here in the US when they informed us about it.
CO: Oh, I see, I know what you meant! I am giving you this blank form to fill up and sing, just for our file.
After filling it up and signing it, he requested us to give it to the receptionist's window together with a referral slip with his name on it. Then he said we were done and can go home.
It was uncomfortable for me to walk out from that room without his firm decision of approval but he said he got what he wanted and that we would gonna hear from them through mail. We shook hands and Craig said thanks a lot. He said you're welcome! And off we go.
I was getting paranoid, and kept asking if we did it good. Craig was assuring me not to worry about it coz I did good.
Perhaps I was worrying too much then because of too much reading from previous AOS experiences in different forums, LOL!
The CO didn't put a stamp (whatever that is) on my passport which we usually read from previous experiences, and he didn't give us any letter or informations regarding the removal of conditional status and about I-751 filing, etc...