Finally! Time to be interrogated about the nature of our relationship, to make sure this isn’t a sham marriage for quick citizenship. I have no idea what to expect at the interview - I presume it’s not quite like I’ve seen in the sitcoms where they ask who takes the trash out and what side of the bed you sleep on. I’m not good in these situations. I get very nervous and intimidated by the interviewers.
Does anyone have any insight to help calm my nerves?
Of course, now I’m freaking out making sure we have every possible document they might want to see. In triplicate.
I’m assuming the intensity will be highly variable, depending on how suspicious they are. I went through this with my wife about 5 years ago, and the “interview” was a single question about our unusual housing arrangements (we kept separate mailing addresses until we bought a house together a year after getting married).
If you show them a lot of evidence that you’re a real couple - good reference letters from family/friends/colleagues affirming that you’re a legitimately married couple and participate in social functions as such, financial documents (e.g. bank statements and/or a house title indicating joint ownership) that show you’ve merged your finances in at least some ways - then they won’t have much suspicion, and probably won’t pursue the questioning for very long.
ISTR the instructions ask you to bring not just forms, but other evidence of your relationship. Vacation photos of you together and pics of extended-family gatherings would likely be helpful here. Maybe valentine’s day cards, that sort of thing, if you’re willing to share. The more evidence you show up with, the better off you’ll be, but at the same time, if your relationship is truly legitimate, I don’t think you have much to worry about at all. I don’t think they’d get into detailed questions about your daily life unless they are suspicious to begin with.
Is this for conditional permanent resident status, or have you already got that and are now seeking to have the “conditonal” removed?
A friend went through this a few years ago and she said after all the stress and preparation they asked them almost nothing. She had file boxes of receipts from their trips back and forth between Toronto and NY, wedding pictures, statements from friends and family and had spent weeks before hand quizzing each other on toothpaste preferences and other weird trivia. I was quite amused by the overpreparation but of course it wasn’t my life on the line
My wife and I had the interview about 9 years ago, after I had been in the US for 2 years on a temporary employment visa, and had then won the green-card lottery. Since we were Australian, married about 24 years, with 4 children, and since the US had already recognised our marriage by giving my wife a derivative visa based on it, the interview was really just a formality.
This was our experience as well, though they did take photocopies of most of the pictures we brought in, including photos of our cats of all things, plus our wedding invitations. I think they also copied our banking statements and tax returns. 95% of it was paperwork. The other 3% of it was asking about paperwork. The rest was waiting for things to be copied and talking about really basic stuff you’d probably ask someone you don’t know at a cocktail party - “What do you do? How did you meet?” And we were never separated and questioned independently or anything.
I’ve made a thread like this before, but this seems hella related to my situation.
I’ll be brief, not to hijack.
Dating girl online. She lives in Toronto. I live in Pittsburgh. Seeing each other for 1.5 years or so.
I’ve been told to consult an immigration lawyer, which I definitely plan to do, and we have no issues with getting married, either. Do you normally get married HERE (the States) first? We plan to live here. She is a vet tech, so I’ve heard that a work visa won’t really be possible.
It’s for conditional status, I think. I was on a work visa, got married, then filed for adjustment of status.
And no, not a terrorist, nothing here but lily-white girl-nerd, but I do seem to get picked for random airport searches a lot, so maybe I’m on a list somewhere…
We have plenty of photos, some old emails and cards, and some printouts of travel confirmations from some of the trips we made to visit each other. We have stuff indicating we own a house and car together, a shared bank account, our birth and marriage certificates, and financial documents showing he can support me. I also have stuff showing I can support myself but I don’t think they care. The only thing that I’m unclear on is that they want some things “unless already submitted”, which makes me think I don’t need them. But then it also says to bring originals and copies of all documents submitted. So…? I’ll be talking to the lawyer tomorrow so he should help clear it up. I hate government-speak!
A couple of you have mentioned reference letters - do I need those? I haven’t asked anyone to write any…
The OP is Canadian and white. Others who have responded to this thread saying they had no problem getting through the process are all white. I’m love to hear from someone’s experience trying to get through the immigration by marriage who is not some white Canadian/Australian/European person.
Just to clarify - are you looking for stories from couples where both parties aren’t of European descent, or just one or both? For what it’s worth, my husband’s Indian.
Mainly the immigrating party - especially if they are from Latin America, since that is where the bulk of the illegal immigration is coming from and I am led to believe they scrutinize much more harshly if a potential immigrant is coming from that region.
My wife’s Asian. Hope I’m not bursting your bubble, but we had no problems at all. My general impression is that the immigration people give you the benefit of a doubt, as long as you don’t raise any red flags (like living separately for an extended period). If you’ve been living here two years already on a conditional green card and you’re going in for adjustment of status to have conditinons removed, the USCIS people would probably have to form a well-grounded belief that you’re scamming them before deciding to break up your family and send you packing – no matter what color you are.
For the initial entry visa, certainly–it’s the same way with Asia, especially young unmarried Asian women. But by the time you’re doing the interview, you’ve already cleared that hurdle, gotten conditional green card and have been living in the US for nearly two years. By that time, I doubt there’s much of a difference. IOW, the key word in your quote is potential immigrant. By the time you do the interview, you already are an immigrant, albeit with conditions.
Had my interview about 18 months ago. I’m an Australian.
It really was a very painless process. The interviewer was a very amiable guy, and we basically chatted with him for about 20 minutes, during which i’m sure he used his experience to gauge the nature of our relationship. I think that the way that couples interact in a conversation can often tell you as much about their relationship as any paperwork.
We had photos and stuff like a lease, car title, bills, etc. The only thing that he seemed at all concerned about was the fact that we don’t have a joint checking account. There’s no particular reason for this; we just never bothered getting one, and still maintain our separate accounts. Anyway, he seemed satisfied with our response.
We probably raised fewer flags than most people, given that we have been married for almost 5 years before we even submitted the paperwork for my green card (i had previously been on a student visa). I can’t imagine that many fraudsters are willing to be married and live together for 5 years before trying to apply for residency.
I should add, by the way, that because we had already been married for 5 years when i submitted my paperwork, i never had to get a conditional green card. I got my permanent one straight away. I also have less time to wait before i can apply for citizenship.
I already got my citizenship last year but the interview for the green card was really easy. And I’m a non white Canadian who has an Arab sounding name. No problems, they wanted to see our tax returns and wondered if we were going to have kids in the future and how did we meet.
My husband is African - Congolese - and our interview for his green card was pretty smooth. I suppose it helped that we had our beautiful little baby on my lap. We also brought a box to the interview, of the usual documents, as well as wedding cards, emails, reference letters, etc. Nothing wrong with over-preparation! I think it’s true that they do not ask a lot of questions if they are not already suspicious. We had one funny/scary moment when she asked him if he had any kids. He likes to joke around with me and pretend that this is his third child and that he has two other kids in the Congo. The interviewer had just asked him a question relating to Africa so he was thinking about that. Then she said, “Do you have any children?” He says, “No.” My eyes get wide and I think, “Did he really just say that? Did he really just tell the interviewer that he has no kids?!? With Tesseractito sitting right here on my lap??” The interviewer looks at him quizzically and then he hastily says, “Besides this one.” Then he explained that he was thinking she meant did he have any kids in Africa. I suffered for a minute thinking that she was going to become suspicious of us, but I think it is fairly obvious when people are genuine. I believe they expect people to be nervous. Since your marriage is real, you really don’t need to worry too much – just bring all the documents and be yourself. However, it doesn’t hurt to have a reference letter or two from friends/family.
