I do apologize to everyone who is sick of hearing about the frustrations of the U.S. immigration process…but, trust me, you can’t possibly be more sick of it than are my wife and I.
I’m a U.S. citizen, my wife is Greek and has applied for immigration (actually, adjustment of status, I-485) based on our marriage. We filed the application 28 months ago at (…had we only but known better…) the Chicago field office. We dutifully and correctly went through all the crap and attitude on the part of semi-intelligible, power-hungry bureaucrats and it was indeed quite an ordeal…but we were confident because we’re the real thing: a bona fide marriage, two people who want to be together.
So we finally get our interview after 28 months, we go in prepared with a HUGE stack of paper documenting everything, we present everything as asked, we respond well to any questions that are put to us.
We are then told by the interviewing officer that “I need to review the file. Tomorrow [Friday] is my day to review paperwork so I will do that and send you a letter.” This was rather a disappointment as we expected or at least hoped for immediate approval as we had been told this was the usual case…but what could we do? Argue with him?
That was two weeks ago and we’re still in limbo. Obviously, our only recourse is to go down to 10 W. Jackson and stand in line and ask if anyone knows what is going on. We’re reluctant to do this because Immigration ‘Information Officer’ is the most profound oxymoron we’ve ever encountered.
Is this ‘reviewing the file’ a new policy? Is it something that everyone now is put through? Or is it indicative of some problem with the case that requires extensive research? In short, does anyone have any idea what might be going on?
We’ve both bitten our fingernails down to the elbow and would deeply appreciate any insights anyone could offer.