After we’d closed the distance and had our wedding in California, the next step in the journey towards being able to stay together in the USA was the Adjustment of Status, from K-1 visa beneficiary to Permanent Resident.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This is not current information. We had our Adjustment of Status interview in 2013, and we’re sure a lot has changed since then. We’ve kept this information on our website as a record of the process we went through. Please don’t rely on any of our immigration information if you’re going through the process yourself. We recommend seeking advice from an immigration attorney, because you need to be sure you don’t miss out any of the important steps!

Gathering documents for our Green Card interview

We had our Adjustment of Status interview at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices in San Jose on January 11th, 2013.  We’d been surprised to have to attend an interview, as our immigration attorney had told us it would be unlikely. In some ways, the idea was exciting though, so we weren’t too worried about it. We imagined that perhaps we’d be interviewed separately, and would be asked questions designed to catch us out, like in the old movie Green Card. It didn’t quite happen that way.

We spent some time before the interview gathering up the following documents for the interview:

• The interview appointment letters;
• Our passports;
• Scanned copies of all the forms previously sent to the USCIS by our immigration attorney;
• Recent payslips (Larry’s);
• All documents recently issued to Carla by the USCIS (employment authorization letter and card);
• I-94 arrival document;
• Our original birth certificates, and birth certificate of child who entered the US on the K-1 visa;
• Divorce decrees;
• Our original marriage certificate;
• Evidence of our marital status: financial documents showing shared bank accounts, insurance policies etc;
• Photos and other evidence of our marriage and cohabilitation.

Arriving at the office

When we arrived at the office, and looked for the entrance, but couldn’t find it. Around the corner was a door with black tape over it and a sign saying, “THIS LINE FOR OATH CEREMONIES ONLY”. We checked for other possible entrances, in case we had the wrong door, but there didn’t seem to be any others. So we waited just outside, and finally managed to attract the attention of an officer inside the building. He asked us for our appointment letters and our passports, and we gave them to him. He then moved the black tape so that we could go inside the building, and we had to go through airport-style security procedures. We took off our coats, shoes and belts, took everything out of our pockets, and put all our belongings and documents into plastic trays.

Be careful what you take with you!

The scanner wasn’t working, so a security officer checked the contents of the trays. Carla had a small packet of crackers in her bag, and the security officer threw them away. It’s probably safest not to take food into the building. The eyebrow tweezers in her makeup bag were also the subject of some discussion. We had already left our phones and cameras in the car, after reading that we shouldn’t take those things into USCIS buildings.

After we’d gone through security, we put our shoes back on, and went through a door and down the corridor. There was another officer there, who checked our passports and appointment letters again, and directed us up some stairs and into a large waiting room with rows of chairs. There was a customer service hatch there, with the blinds pulled nearly all the way down, and no sign of life at the counter. We sat down, and then spotted a sign saying “APPOINTMENT LETTERS” with an arrow pointing downwards to a plastic tray tucked under the nearly-closed blind. So we put our appointment letter in the tray, and a few minutes later, we saw someone’s hand taking the letter out of the tray… and then a side door opened, and the interviewing officer appeared and called our names.

In the interview room

We went into a small office, and sat down. The interviewing officer asked for our passports and appointment notices, and then took out a huge file containing an astonishing amount of paperwork relating to our case – copies of every document we’d supplied throughout out K-1 visa process, as well as Carla’s medical and vaccination records.  We sat and gasped at the amount of paperwork there!

Should we have taken an attorney with us?

Then the officer said, “You do have a lawyer… yes?” and we said yes. He said, “But you didn’t want your lawyer here?”, and we confirmed that we were on our own. He seemed surprised that we hadn’t brought our attorney, and didn’t respond to Carla’s question: “Oh! Do people normally bring a lawyer?”. Carla signed a form to confirm that we had waived our right to have an attorney present at the interview. At that point, we were feeling pretty nervous, because it had never even occurred to us that we would need a lawyer at the interview.

After that, we stood, raised our right hands, and swore that we would tell the truth during the interview. Then the officer spent some time looking through the documents in our file, with occasional glances up at us, presumably to check for signs of nerves or deceit. He asked some “casual” questions occasionally; things like “How do you like it here?”, and “Is married life going well, then?”

Lots of questions!

The officer asked to see our original birth certificates and marriage certificate, and asked when Carla first arrived in the USA. We had a bit of a discussion about the exact date, because of the change in time zones between the UK and the USA. The officer was interested to hear that Larry had flown to England to collect Carla, and we had travelled to the USA together. He asked Carla if she had been to America before, and if she had ever been subject to deportation. He also asked if she had ever been arrested for any crime. Then he asked her if she’d had another medical exam since coming to the USA, but accepted her answer that no, she had only had the medical as part of the K-1 visa process. There didn’t seem to be a problem with that. 

The officer asked us briefly about previous marriages, and about our (now adult) children. Then he asked Larry some questions about his current employer, and talked in a fairly chatty way about that for a few minutes. He asked some questions about church, and we talked a bit about our wedding. We told him that we had live-streamed our wedding ceremony online, for family and friends who couldn’t be there in person.

Trust!

The questions he asked were all easy for us to answer, and there were none of the “what color is his toothbrush?” or “who cooked dinner last night?” questions that we’d read about in other people’s interviews. We stayed together in that same office all the time, and were able to hold hands throughout. The officer was friendly, but we were aware that he was watching our body language as well as listening to the answers we gave. After we’d talked about our wedding day, he asked us for paperwork to prove our cohabitation, such as joint financial documents, health insurance etc. Larry said that he had added Carla’s name to his bank account, and the officer sat back in his chair, looked at Carla, and said, “Wow!”… to which Larry replied, “TRUST!”… and we all laughed.

Photos of our time together

The officer asked us to provide photos of our time together, and we were glad we’d taken the time to print out sheets of photos covering every month we’d spent together since Carla arrived in the USA. He spent some time looking at the photos, then said he would keep them and add them to our file.

No immediate approval for us

He then filled in some I-485 Adjustment of Status Interview Results forms, which he handed to us. He told us that he would have to spend some time going over our file and reviewing our paperwork before he could make a final decision about our case. The forms advised us that our Adjustment of Status had not been approved, but had been set aside for further review. So disappointing!

The officer said that he would get started first thing on Monday morning. He said he’d see if there was anything on the file that “jumped out” at him, or made him want to ask further questions. He told us that he would write to us if we needed to provide any further information. If he couldn’t find any problems, we should hear something within the next 30 days. We shook hands before we left, and said goodbye in a relaxed, friendly way.

The whole experience was similar to Carla’s interview at the U.S. Embassy in London. We didn’t feel that we were asked any questions that were designed to trick us, or catch us out, and there were none that we’d have needed to prepare for in advance. Carla’s 10-year-old son was also at the interview, and he was very nervous. The officer quickly put him at ease, and asked him straightforward questions about how he was enjoying life in America, and about school. Our attorney had advised us to answer only the questions that were asked, and not to elaborate or provide extra information that wasn’t asked for. We found the officer easy to talk to, and the conversation flowed quite easily between us.

A nerve-racking experience, but really nothing to worry about

All in all, there was nothing in this interview that a genuine married couple would have to worry about. No tests and no trickery. Immigration interviews will always be a bit nerve-racking, and we’re glad it’s over, but it wasn’t the scary experience that we’d been fearing it might be, from some of the accounts we’d found online. The important thing to remember is that if you came to the USA on a K-1 visa, the USCIS had already made a decision that your relationship was genuine… so all they have to do is confirm that they made the right decision in allowing you to be together. If you’re living as a normal, married couple, all you need to do is provide all the documents and evidence they request… and just be yourselves!

Please remember that all information given is from our own personal experience only. We’re not immigration experts. Nothing on our website should be construed as legal advice, or relied upon for your own visa process. Every case is different. For expert help and advice, we would always recommend that you contact an immigration attorney.

© Larry and Carla Sue