US Green Card Interview Experience  

Initial screening 

My interview was scheduled on a Monday, Jan 24^th, 2022, at 2.30pm and I was planning to enter the building at 2.15pm. As per the interview letter, they will not allow us inside even if we enter the building too early. 15mins early was fine. My family arrived at the parking lot at 2.02pm and waited inside our car for few mins. After that, I took out the folder that had the interview letter and original photo id (driving license) since these were the first documents’ officers would be verifying initially along with the bag containing rest of the document. We entered the building at 2.15pm, the security officer verified the interview letter, then verified photo id (driving license), then asked us to lower our mask to compare our face against driving license photo.  

Security scan 

After that we were asked to go for the security scan. We mentioned we had liquid (buttermilk -> watered yogurt) drink in a coffee mug which cannot be fully closed with lid that would prevent spilling. They wanted us to finish that drink outside and come back again. So, we drank a little and kept the liquid drink in the car and re-entered the building. They did allow a water bottle that had a closed cap. After going out, when we entered the building again and the officer re-verified the interview letter, photo id, lowered the mask. After that, she asked us to go for a security scan. It was like airport style security check-in (Remove belt, jacket, watch, phone, laptops, shoes, keys in tray and bags in the conveyor belt). After the security check-in, we gathered all our belongings, and we were asked to go to the next section where the officer was giving out token number. 

Token collection 

In the next section, the officer asked for my interview letter and gave it back in a minute with a token number stapled to it. He did not ask for remaining family members’ interview letter. He gave information about where restrooms were before asking us to go and wait in the waiting hall. There was a restroom right next to the token-collection-section.  

Waiting hall 

We entered the waiting hall and were trying to find a seat to sit. There were only 3 other families waiting inside. Most of the chairs had only one seat separated with three sets with “Do not sit” label because of COVID restriction. We looked around and found one that had two seats together. As we sat down and in less than a minute an officer walked out and called our token number. 

Officer walked us to her desk 

We walked towards the officer. She introduced herself and walked us inside the walkway to her desk. As she walked, she explained what would be the process that would happen once we entered her desk. She mentioned, “First would be taking oath before sitting down”. As we continued, following her, she asked, “Whether attorneys were going to represent us?” We replied, “No” She said, “You both have to sign a waiver once we enter her room” Once we entered her desk (room with doors), she asked us to make ourselves comfortable and keep bags and files wherever we find space, since the space was limited inside. 

About the officer 

Our officer was very cool and humorous. As we entered her room, she said wow, you guys got a nice purple bag. I replied that in my company everything was Purple! As she was asking questions (mentioned below), she would make humorous comments in between. She made us wonderfully comfortable, so we thanked her couple of times during the interview. 

Interview inside the officer’s room 

Next, she asked/instructed us with the following: 

1. Take oath. First thing after entering the room and before sitting. – Oath was about “What we say is true, with our right hand raised by our side” 

2. Sign a waiver for doing the interview without Attorney’s 

3. The she verified our original birth certificate (along with affidavit, since original birth certificate was not matching the requirement) and marriage certificate. She gave it back after checking. 

4. She asked me questions with our I-485 form she already had kept on her table. The same thing that was submitted during AOS (Adjustment of Status). 
   • First and last name – As I was answering she was putting tick mark in the form for each section for this and the following questions. 
   • Have you been known by any other name? 
   • DOB
   • Birthplace
   • Address
   • Parents name
   • About my current role 
   • What work do I do at my company – For the question, as I was answering, she wrote a one-line summary on the i485 form. 
   • Was your last port of entry on this particular MM YYYY? 
   • Are you married? Yes  
   • Were we planning to be married to more than one person at the same time? No
5. After that she started to ask some questions to my wife 
   • First and last name 
   • Have you been known by any other name? 
   • DOB  
   • Birthplace 
   • Address 
   • Parents name 
   • Did she ever work in the US?
   • Officer continued with similar questions that she asked me above
   • Do we have a child?  
   • Was the child born in the US?  

6. Followed by this, the typical YES/NO questions we have already answered when we filled I-485 Part 8, Page 10-16 to both of us. She hurriedly read the questions and we answered “No” for all questions except for one question where my wife had to say “Yes”. Some of the questions I could not hear properly, so I asked her to repeat. She gladly repeated. 
   • Have you ever been denied a VISA? Yes. She herself said your wife’s application already has a note in the original application that your F1-visa was denied. She asked, “Did you get F1-visa at a later point” My wife answered “No”. She felt sorry and then she wrote the same note again for visa-denial with her pen in another section of the i–485 form. 

7. After that she explained to us that she had made two notes in the form. One for each. She filled in a section in I-485 about the number of notes she wrote and signed them. 

After a few seconds, she said she was done from her side. She asked, “Was there anything else that I wanted to ask her or needed to submit”. I replied yes. I said, I have medicals, I-485j supplement and, I requested if I can interfile from eb3 to eb2. She did not understand “what interfile meant?” As I was trying to explain again, she herself asked do you want to upgrade to EB2. I said Yes.  

1. Gave medical documents 

2. Gave I-485j supplement documents

3. Gave documents requesting to upgrade from EB3 to EB2.  

She appreciated the attorneys did an excellent job, but as she was appreciating them; she was looking for the last 2 months’ paychecks and w2 forms in the set of files for I-485J supplement which was not there. I said, “I have them separately” and added “I have pay stubs but do not have w2 forms instead have last three years of tax transcripts”. She said, “tax transcripts are fine”. She verified both paychecks and tax transcripts.  

Then she said everything looks good. Since my priority date (PD) would be current under EB2, she said she will approve the case. She asked us to check the USCIS website for status change on that day and keep checking regularly until we get a USPS tracking number. 

Since I was not expecting this answer from the officer, I asked, “What approval actually means?”  She replied, “It is the approval for green card, and she added we would receive the green card in 2-6 weeks”. We thanked the officer. 

She printed a paper for each of us that had the status of the application as of today (day of the interview) with the officer’s name printed on it. 

She gave us time to put back all the files, folders inside our bags. Towards the end, I asked whether she would need the interview letter. She replied, “Sure, she can have it but if I wanted to keep it, it was okay with her too”. I was asking if I could give you the photocopy instead. She replied the same, “Sure, she can have it but if I wanted to keep it, it was okay with her too, it won’t make any difference”. She did not say “Yes” to my photocopy question, so I gave the original letter to her that had the token stapled to it. 

What about others scenarios? For colleagues for whom the priority date (PD) was not current, they were informed that their documents looks good and requested them wait until PD becomes current for further action. For another colleague the officer asked for clarification documents so they had to follow up later.

Officer walked us out 

She walked us out. She mentioned she did not know “Yahoo or Oath was purple”. I replied, “Yahoo is purple” but Oath is “black and blue” She asked about Oath Holdings and the new office. I explained her about Verizon media (Yahoo name change to Oath) and transition again to Apollo private equity firm and how Apollo allowed us to function under Yahoo name. She asked, “Whether I have visited the new building” I replied “I have not yet. Original plan was to go to office in January but because of COVID it got pushed to March, April but I still miss the old Sunnyvale Office since I have worked there for long time”. By this time, we were already near the exit door. I felt, I was explaining a lot, so I ended my explanation with proper closure. She said thank you and showed us the way to exit. We also thanked her and walked out. We were out by 3pm. It was overall a 25–30-minute interview for us.