This is our experience of the AOS interview and too my surprise it was pretty straight forward. Firstly we made a lot of preparation and made sure that we had all documentation needed. It is listed on the forms plus I checked out some newsgroups and forums also.

Our appointment was for 9:30 am on a pleasant sunny morning in Seattle. My wife and I both went as both the petitioner and beneficiary are required to attend. We went through the usual security and went in. The place was bursting at the seams there were people everywhere. If our EAD was anything to go by we would be there for another three hours. Anyway we put our appointment letter in the tray like it said and we waited. It was a surprise when twenty minutes later we were called up.

The person dealing with us was actually quite pleasant and not like some of the horror stories that I have heard. So we sat down and out comes our file. It was nearly an inch thick I think it had nearly everything that we had sent to USCIS. Even back to filing the I129F 14 months earlier. She skimmed through it. We were then asked for proof of our relationship. We had a lot of different things but we gave her our bank statements, lease and marriage certificate. I think to prove a marriage and cohabitation. I was then asked all the questions on the I485. Things such as if I was affiliated with Nazi Germany. Also if I wanted to overthrow the government. It is almost a joke to ask these after waiting 14 months. One of the questions was if I practiced polygamy. I jokingly said that no since one wife was more than enough.

One of the questions asked is if you have ever had a J1 Visa. Having a J1 visa can mean that you have to fulfill a two year foreign residency requirement after leaving the USA. I have had four J1 Visas. Having done my research and knew all about the questions and knowing that I had answered yes to that particular question I knew I would have been asked about it. Basically you are subject to the two year requirement if you meet certain requirements. One of them is if your exchange program had any sort of government funding. Mines didn't so I was fine. To prove it I gave her my IAP66's for the last three years which give the details of the programs. I then showed them to her. She checked them through and everything was fine. Please not that if you are subject to the two year requirement marrying a US Citizen is not a way to get round it. There is however an option for you to file a waiver. I don't really know much about that since I have not had to deal with it.

After that we were then told that I would have been approved there and then. However I had not had an FBI background check. We were given a form explaining about it and told that we would hear from them soon. So we left a little disappointed but knowing that only the background check was left and hopefully it would only be another month or two. So that was that

9 Dec 2003