Fell in love and getting married. It's easy to say but is it the marriage based on faith and real love. How to prove that you have bonafide marriage in the USA?
USCIS is so strictly about interracial marriage between US citizen and immigrant since there were many cases of marriage fraud happened in the US. Thousands people (or called immigrants) from the other countries came to the US as a business person, professional workers, students, asylum and other backgrounds want to live in the US. What happened when their visa close to expired? So some of them are intentionally looking for US citizen just to get the green card or maintain their visa residency in the US.
Personally we are one of many couples who have a very long distance relationship. Approximately 10,000 miles distance between 2 countries and I tell you the relationship is quite tough and hard. We visited each other and finally we decided that I come and stay in the US and got married. US gov. has granted me a "conditional" residence in July 2008 after I filed I-485 form. It is "conditional" because our marriage occured less than 2 years on the day I was given permanent residence. The conditional resident valid for 2 years. So I have to file the petition to remove the conditional residence in July 2010. The chronology of my green card as following;
June 25th, 2010 - I-751 submitted
July 7th, 2010 - Received I-797 - Notice of Action
Sept 9th, 2010 - I had my biometric taken at ASC Durham, NC
Oct 29th, 2010 - Received letter from USCIS requested additional evidence.
Dec 7th, 2010 - Evidence submitted
July 20th, 2011 - Received letter from USCIS for interview
On Thursday, last week (Aug 4th,2011) was our appointment with USCIS in Durham, NC. It is 2 1/2 hours away from our house so we left home in the morning. The appointment was 1 pm but we arrived early about 11.30 am.
Our case was randomly selected for interview after I sent the I-751 June last year. Duration of application process basically taking 6 months long but they delayed. Government.... (Sigh!). This appointment wanted us to show prove of shared life together such as rental agreement, joint account, filing tax or life insurances. That sucks! We have been doing those things separately for years.
Speaking of interview, Robert thought that they gonna locate us in separate room like in the "Proposal" movie. Have you seen the movie? It was about Canadian immigrant (Sandra bullock) forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to avoid deportation to Canada and to maintain her visa status in the US.
That day was the result of continuance of my US residency since I hold a 2 years conditional resident. Deny Or Approve?? I had nervous feeling. Ironically we’ve had the same guy who interviewed us that we met in 2008. Thank god. We didn't remember his name but we totally recognized his face, an Irish man, bald with a rubber around his thumb. He also glad to see us and surprise he remembered us.
The interview just took about 20 minutes. He just needs our extra evidence documents to prove that we aren't in marriage fraud. We did joint account in the last minute. We told him the truth how we have been sharing life together and answered honestly of his questions. He got into silence for a while and typing on his computer, marking my paperwork and finally he said "ok that's all for today".
"You've been approved!!" and
"You will receive your new card in the mail within a month!"
We felt so happy and grateful to hear that and shook his hand before leaving his office. That picture of building below is the USCIS(US citizenship and immigration services) office in Durham, NC.
That day was hot, I forgot to take Robert photo with his coat and tie. He took off his coat just right after we reached our vehicle. Face of joy!
On the way back, we stopped by at Wal-Mart in Goldsboro and Kinston to shop some groceries. We bought a pizza for celebration. That's all.
Some signboard that attracted us
Have a good weekend!!
