Description of my Russian wife Lena's Adjustment of Status Interview (for her Conditional Green Card)

-By Khashyar

Hi Everyone,

My Russian wife Lena had her Adjustment of Status Interview in Los Angeles (to receive her conditional Green Card) on November 3 (2004).

I was surprised that the waiting room at the U.S. Federal Building that we were sent to was very small, and after handing in our "Appointment Letter" to the secretary at the reception desk, we were called to come into the office about 15 minutes later.

The man who was assigned to conduct our interview was from either Pakistan, India or Bangladesh (he said that later that he was Muslim, and he looked Indian). He pointed us to his office.

One of the first things that told us was "I am a senior officer, and there was some concern expressed about whether your marriage is legitimate," or something like that.

I was a little baffled about this, because I did not know of anything in our file that would create a red flag.

Unbeknownst to me, Lena had heard from two of her other friends who had recent Adjustment of Status (provisional green card) interviews that their interviewing officers had said something very similar to them. After our interview, Lena said that she thought that the officer was trying to use a psychological technique during the interview, and I think that there were several things that he said in which Lena believed that he was trying to fish for any sign of illegitimacy in our marriage.

For example, he asked us whether we had any plans to buy a house, and then after I mentioned that we did, then he began a discussion with us about real estate in the L.A. area, about where we were looking to buy something, etc...

But, the man was pretty friendly with us, and in fact, he said that he had spoken with the U.S. consular officer in Warsaw who had interviewed Lena for her fiancé visa, and he said that the consular officer thought very highly of Lena, and had good things to say.

Our Interviewer mentioned that he understands 11 languages, including Russian and Farsi, and that he even was stationed in Moscow for a time.

I had a suspicion that he may have been an intelligence officer in the past (and perhaps that he still was) since he seemed extraordinarily trained in languages, and since he had traveled quite a bit.

He mentioned that he had also made a documentary for the BBC at one time, but perhaps that was also a psychological trick to see if I really knew what I was talking about regarding Documentary film. But, I had the sense at the time that he was honest about making a film, but in hindsight, I am not so sure now.

But, again, he seemed very friendly with us, and after he had loosened up, he told us that he doesn't normally do Adjustment of Status interviews (only very unique cases), but because of the high case load, he was assigned some additional interviews to relieve the general caseload.

(It seems then that the reason that he received our case was NOT because there was a great suspicion as to whether our marriage was legitimate, but rather that there is a high case load and that he was assigned our case to lessen the case backlog).

He also said that there is not so much suspicion of women from Belarus, but more so of women from Romania and Russia.

He mentioned that because he is a senior officer, that he had done some high profile cases, like the wife of one of the actors on the show "Will and Grace," some well-known musicians, etc. He also mentioned that the officer in the officer next to him had done the interview for actress Pamela Anderson.

Anyway, he seemed to ask Lena many more questions than he asked me, although he asked me why I had divorced my first wife (I was married once before marrying Lena), as well as about my film work.

But, he was really praising Lena on a few occasions during the interview, mentioning that she was very educated and that she can accomplish a lot in America if she wanted.

He even encouraged her to apply at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) as a translator and counselor for International Students, and he even said that he would recommend her to them :)  So, it was apparent that he thought highly of Lena by his behavior during the interview.

He mentioned that Immigration officers are trained as to how to spot fictitious marriages.

He asked to see some originals of the copies that we submitted with the original AOS application like my divorce certificate as well as our marriage license, Lena's Russian immunization record, etc. I did not have time to make copies of them before the interview, and so he took the originals and made xeroxes while we were there. He also asked for each of our last 2 paycheck stubs.

I gave him our last tax return (we submitted our AOS application in the Spring of 2003), which he also xeroxed, and he also asked to see some documents with both of our names on it, and so I showed him joint bank statements from two different checking accounts with both of our names on them, as well as each of our health insurance cards with the same policy number and each of our individual names on them.

He said that he would call us if he had any questions, and that we should hear back in 90 days from today. (Another friend of Lena's who had her interview received her conditional green card in the mail after her interview, so they will probably send us Lena's green card within 90 days).

He said that in about 2 years, Lena will have another interview which will remove the conditional status of her greencard.

After that time, she can begin the process of applying for U.S. citizenship if she would like, although he did not say how long Lena would have to wait after the conditional status was removed from her green card. (And, I am not sure if Lena wants to renounce her Belarusian citizenship, or whether she can hold joint Belarusian and U.S. citizenship or not.)

But, in general, it was a pretty laid back interview, and the interviewing officer and we had a pretty casual conversation.

One of Lena's other Russian friends is in her twenties and her husband is in his late 50s or early 60s, and they separated them for their interview in August of this year. They asked both of them what the name of their new baby was :)  as well as some other basic silly questions to determine if their marriage was a real one or not.

But, even with the large age difference of this other Russian-American couple, Lena's Russian friend received her green card in the mail within 90 days after the interview.

I think unless there is clear evidence of fraud in a marriage, a green card will be approved.

But, everyone who is about to have an Adjustment of Status interview should realize that their U.S. Immigration interviewer will probably try to use some psychological manipulation to try to draw out any illegitimacy or untruths in your case. So don't get nervous, and realize that it is just an interview technique that they are taught to use. (However, it somewhat reminds me of some of the interrogation techniques that I have heard that soldiers and police officers use, so I think that because of increased national security, that the Department of Justice has implemented more manipulative techniques in their immigration interviews).

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