Just wanted to update everyone and say we had our interview this morning, scheduled for 8 AM in Atlanta. We got there at 7.55, checked in at 7.59 and were called at 8.02. Interview was all done in 10 minutes and we were out of the building at 8.15.
I'm on the west coast (California): Application Mailed: Sep, 2008 Finger Printing: Oct, 2008 Interview: Jan, 2009
Here are a few things worth mentioning:
- Dont take your cell phone with you. One of the offices(fingerprints) didn't allow them at all. The other office wouldn't let me take my cell phone in as it had a camera on it.
Take all your old passports (as well as your current one) that include entry into the U.S since getting your green card.
Following are my Dates: Application Mailed: Sep, 2008 Priority Date: Sep, 2008 Finger Printing: Oct, 2008 Interview: Jan, 2009
My Interview was scheduled at 10:00 am today. Reached the location at around 9.35 am. Submitted the forms and were asked to wait for the name to be called.
They ran out of slots for the 10/30 oath about 7 people before me, so after that all of us got the N652 with "civics test/English passed" and "congratulations; it seems you are eligible...etc etc checked off, and when they handed it to to us they said our oath letters will be in the mail soon.
So, we had our interview in Tampa. We waited for about an hour and begin to get worried when people arriving after us started to get called in. Eventually after waiting for an hour we were called. the officer was nice and courteous. He asked for our ID's then a few questions about how and when we came about living on this planet. Then he
The interview took place @ 11:45 a.m. but we had been there for over an hour. There were at least another 50 couples waiting and as some couples left new couples would arrive, so the room had about 100 people waiting at all times.
I had my interview in downtown L.A and my experience was extremely pleasant. There was a parking structure right in front of the federal building that charged 13.20 for all day parking. My interview was on November 17th, 2008 at 2:15 pm and I left 2 hours earlier than usual. Good thing because there was a very long line into the federal building itself .It took me 30 minutes before I got to security point. So it was until 2:00 pm when I was able to get into the building.
I've been in the US for 13 of the last 14 years and over the years I've obtained 6 different TN's and I've been on an H1b for a total of 8 years. I was voluntarily out of the country for 1 year about 5 years ago, which reset my H1b clock.
The last status I had was a TN and that was after I was married to a USC (we were still deciding what country we'd live in) and finally I filed for my GC. My EAD was approved 2 weeks prior to my TN expiring and now I am just waiting for my GC Interview in 4 weeks.
I got my first TN in 07/96 and was content working with that until the Pigeon River point of entry decided that the TN for health care worker was good only for 6 months with the second one at no charge. Back then, dual intent was either ignored or didn't exist for TNs so I started the immigration process. I was in Kansas, so my labor cert took 2 years because there was only one person in Topeka working on them. If I lived in New Jersey, it would have been approved in a month. Once it was approved, I filed the I-140 and after that was approved, the I-485. There was no H1B involved.
