Here is the full story of our experience. I wanted to wait until Albert finally had citizenship before posting:
Our I-751 petition to remove conditions from Albert's green card had been pending for 1 year and 7 months and our N-400 application for citizenship has been pending for 200 days. In mid November 2018 we went to the Detroit USCIS office for his first N-400 interview. The experience was not pleasant for us because I was not allowed to sit in on the interview and during the questioning he felt like the officer was treating him like a criminal. She made him feel uncomfortable that he couldn't remember the exact date he was drafted into the military without looking at his records, for example. Now that seems to me a tiny, unnecessary detail that does not pertain to whether or not we have a bona fide marriage and fulfilled all the requirements (which we have). He passed the civics and English tests with what should have been flying colors, but the officer didn't accept some of his answers even though they were considered correct in the official civics test preparation booklet USCIS had given him. At the end she told him she could not make a decision on his citizenship because his I-751 was still pending.
Now I was waiting outside staring at the door where he went in, ready to jump up and ask the results or argue against any unfairness. As soon as he came out I saw him smiling and chatting with the officer so I no longer felt so worried. I asked him what happened and the officer hurriedly disappeared before he could tell me that she couldn't make a decision. I wanted to wait until she eventually would come back out and demand for an explanation. Why couldn't she make a decision now on both the I-751 and N-400 together, which is commonly done?
Eventually we cooled down and decided it was best to leave it be and not aggravate the situation. What followed was a few anxious and depressed weeks of us second guessing the evidence for our case and what was to come. Then we received a letter addressed to both of us for a follow up N-400 interview. We couldn't understand why he didn't just get an approval letter. Was there something wrong with our applications? Basically we prepared for the worst: a Stokes interview where we would get separated and grilled on the same questions to see if we could give the same answers. I even got a consultation with a lawyer, and found out we did indeed fulfill all the requirements and needed to provide evidence from the
entire time we were in the US since entering on his conditional green card. That piece of information was really important for us as we were asked to provide all that evidence in the upcoming appointment.
So I gathered and organized all of our evidence into the following categories:
- I-751 application materials
- N-400 application materials
- Evidence that we've lived together for the entire time
- Evidence that we joined our finances
- Evidence of a bona fide marriage
Then we collected a bunch of sample Stokes interview questions and practiced them together like we were cramming for a test. Despite the fact that we have a bona fide marriage some of the questions were ridiculous and you can't expect every couple to pay attention to the same details. For example, we never needed to count the number of doors and windows to our house before this and we got different answers the first time we tried because one of us forgot a door. We also don't pay attention to the color of each other's toothbrushes enough to remember whose is whose unless we look at them. Not every couple is cookie cutter, which seemed contrary to the officer's expectations during the interview as well.
So we arrived for the follow up appointment and thankfully I was allowed to enter the same room as my husband this time to overhear/participate in the interview. Although I still found her to be unpleasant we both agreed she seemed to treat us much better this time. She first asked for evidence that we have lived together and I pulled out each document for her. For some reason she couldn't properly read the time period on one of my bank statements and questioned it as being the latest one, even though it was clearly stated on there. She then asked us individual questions next to each other. This is what I can remember:
- How did you meet?
- Did your parents attend your wedding?
- When are you going to have kids?
- What is your annual income?
The last question was directed at me, and I am mathematically challenged and (thus) do not handle the finances. So I tried to calculate it out loud for her since we have multiple sources of income. She easily became frustrated in my lack of ability to convert how much I get paid an hour to how much I get paid a month and asked what was on our tax records. I had to explain to her that it was not time to file for taxes this year. (Did she not know that?) "Tell me your income for last year," she said. Since I'm not the one who files our taxes I said I'd have to look at my records. "Well I can just pull it up too," she shot back at me. So I said, "I'm sorry I don't want to guess" and told her that Albert would know. Then she literally tsked at me in exasperation. (The nerve!) So I apologized again and defended our choice to have him handle the finances.
Then she asked for evidence of our marriage BEFORE entering the US on his conditional green card. This is definitely not normal practice according to the lawyer I had consulted with and also confirmed with after the interview. The officer also said we have a harder burden of proof since we are applying for citizenship after 3 years (which is recommended for spousal citizenship) instead of 5 years (for other modes of citizenship). NOT TRUE AGAIN according to my research, the USCIS website and the same lawyer. I didn't call her out for that but I did contradict her on asking for proof of our lives before the US. "If I had known I would have gathered even more evidence for her," I said. Albert also did a good job of pointing out that that evidence would have all been in Chinese anyways. Luckily, I brought our collection of pictures that we had already submitted with our I-751 (had she not looked at them already?!) along with albums of our weddings plus guestbooks from the receptions. She seemed to really accept this evidence more readily than the documents I gave her for the rest of our case. I had my hair cut short at the beginning of our relationship and she said it helped to see it grow longer. She also pointed out that she could tell we were much younger in the earlier pictures. Not a compliment but I was willing to suffer that insult for our cause.
She asked us a few questions about the pictures- like "Who is this?" etc. Then she said she would look over all of our evidence in detail and make a decision later. I really wanted to offer to sit with her to answer any questions while she does go over the evidence and hear her decision in person, but I didn't. She said we would get a notice in the mail and that if we were approved we would get an invitation for an oath ceremony. Then a few sentences later she said casually, "You'll get an invitation in the mail." Hoping that was a Freudian slip, we were confident upon leaving and she chatted with us on our way out like we were friends. Maybe that meant she wasn't such an unpleasant person in real life, or maybe it was a tactic to avoid any backlash if we were unsatisfied with the experience. I wonder what happens when an applicant knows they failed the interview- how do they walk out with the officer then?
The rest of the day and for the next few after that we felt angry and resentful at being interrogated and having to defend our relationship. I was still smarting at her attitude to the income answer. I kept looking up more peoples' experiences and found an app that will check our case status four times a day and give you alerts when it changes. Despite setting it up on my phone I kept compulsively checking every day manually. A little over a week later his N-400 showed that an oath ceremony is being scheduled, and a few days after that his I-751 showed that it was approved. We received a letter confirmation of his green card being made soon after and are still waiting for the N-400 notice.
What I've learned from this experience and suggestions I wish I had from the beginning: (This is not legal advice so don't try to sue me)
- Put both of your names on everything you can- bills, leases, etc. even if only one of you handles finances
- Make sure you always have joint health insurance, and never get Medicaid
- Update all of your accounts every time you change your address (and change it with USCIS on time)
- If you can do it, don't move at all from the time you have your conditional green card to the time you take your oath of citizenship. It saves a lot of headache with evidence and you won't have to memorize the exact dates you moved.
- Similarly, if you can avoid leaving the US during that time it will save a lot of trouble as well
- Take tons of pictures and make sure you change physically somehow throughout that time.
- If your case is straightforward you most likely won't need a lawyer (saved a ton of money with that!)
- Finally, I wish we had kids to support our case. The officer expected we would have kids in the future, which is an unfair assumption for all couples.
Things I wish the US would change about the spousal citizenship process:
- The costs need to be lowered immensely. We spent over $2,000 in fees to USCIS alone.
- The Affidavit of Support financial burden is ridiculous. We were not yet allowed to move to the US and were making enough money with our overseas jobs to qualify, but overseas salaries are not recognized. I can see how some people could take advantage of the system and abuse welfare after coming to the US but since there is a push to reject any Medicaid users for citizenship I doubt many people will apply for any welfare anymore.
- If we are paying an agency that much money to consider our cases there should be better service. The waiting times are way too long and you should be able to call the exact officer working on your case. Instead of hiring countless unhelpful phone handlers for the general USCIS line they should hire more officers to actually work on cases.
- Innocent until proven guilty should apply to immigration applicants. We provided a plethora of evidence showing we fulfilled the requirements and still we felt treated with suspicion and animosity at our interviews.
- Stokes interviews should not use ridiculous questions and expect every couple to be the same. Not everyone is good at memorizing dates and numbers (points to self). If you aren't comfortable with certain information you should be allowed to reference an official document, and you shouldn't be antagonized for saying you don't know.
- Finally, the English "tests" should be revamped and improved by someone with an expertise in TESOL or language learning. Asking someone to read a sentence out loud or write a sentence they hear is not a valid representation of that person's language abilities. One chance to get it right is unfair. In addition, officers untrained in TESOL shouldn't be given the power to make a personal judgement of someone's speaking abilities. With that you are relying on someone's intuition, and this is a person who is looking for and perhaps wanting you to fail.
