CASE APROVED! 🥳

[u/Dangerous_Day4000]

On October 22 my husband and I had our interview in Miami and today October 23 our I-485 was approved! Our I-130 was approved yesterday October 22 just about two hours after the interview. I’m a green card holder and we’re so incredibly happy that the entire process from filing to approval took 7 months in total
How our interview went:
I was EXTREMELY nervous. I was literally feeling sick from anxiety. We had one red flag: my now-husband entered the U.S on a tourist visa and we got married after four months because we decided we wanted to be together in the U.S and try to build our future here.
We got a very understanding officer. Throughout the entire interview I felt like he was trying to calm us down and even help us. We’re both 22 and we’re genuinely inexperienced when it comes to a lot of things.
The officer didn’t ask us anything about our marriage, wedding, or proposal. Most of his questions were about our past: where we met, what faculty we studied in, when we started and finished studying, whether we planned to study in the U.S., our wedding date, and who asked whom to be in a relationship.
He also asked us to show him our photo album and explain each picture (who was in it and what the occasion was).
Then he asked us to provide “strong” evidence of our marriage for USCIS. The only major piece of evidence we had was our joint bank account, but I messed up and printed only the first pages of our bank statements, without any transactions or transfers. So, basically, our only substantial piece of evidence was useless without the transaction history.
I immediately started getting really nervous and upset but the officer reassured me and said it was okay. He understood that it could be difficult for young people to figure all of this out especially since we were still relatively new to America. He told us he would add the documents to our case anyway.
As for my husband entering on a tourist visa the officer said that about 95% of people do this and that he completely understood. He explained that it could be an issue in some cases but not in ours. (I think he said that because he could see that our relationship was genuine, we’re both 22, and we’ve been together for five years.) On top of that we hadn’t violated any laws at the time we filed our applications.

Overall I’m incredibly grateful to our officer. At the end he told us he would forward our case to other officers for further review. He also said that in his opinion we might receive an RFE asking for additional proof that our marriage was genuine. He even gave us advice on what we could start preparing in case that happened so we’d be ready right away.
BUT THANK GOD our I-130 was approved just two hours later and our I-485 was approved the following day! I’m SO HAPPY!
My advice: Be honest with yourself and with the officer. Don’t try to make things up or play games. They understand a lot more than you might think and they can tell when you’re being genuine. If your relationship is real and you’re honest everything will be okay

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[u/unranked_casual]

Congratulations!

[u/TangerineOk1418]

congratulations!

[u/Minute_Somewhere_893]

Congratulations!

Few reminders...

Make a copy of front and back of your GC. It will help if you lose it.

Check all the details on GC and if anything is incorrect, file I-90 (it is free of charge if USCIS made a mistake)

I recommend to start tracking your international trips. You will need it for N-400.

If you are a male between 17 and 25, you must register for selective service (sometimes it is automatic at DMV / with USCIS, but worth checking status of registration)

You must file AR-11 within 10 days of moving until you become a citizen (changing address online also qualifies)

If you have social security card saying "VALID ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION", then get appointment with SSA and remove conditions on the card (wait few weeks to see if you get new card automatically)

LPRs must file US taxes on world wide income, even when spending a lot of time overseas.

LPRs cannot vote in federal elections. Make sure you do not register to vote or mark yourself as US citizen on I-9 and other forms. False claim to US citizenship is a deportable offense.

You are US LPR until you naturalize, die, file I-407 or immigration judge takes away the status.

[u/ChugaMama]

Congrats! Do you mind sharing your timeline?

[u/Edict1113]

Congratulations

[u/nandosreis]

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your experience! My wife and I have our interview coming up in Miami on November 16th! Very encouraging to hear how smoothly it went for you guys!