Tips For The Green Card Interview
It’s not enough to simply think you and your spouse are the model of the perfect couple–the USICS officer may think otherwise. Unless you are able to prove you are, in fact, a legitmate married couple, one that didn’t get married solely for the benefit of getting a green card for one of you, don’t expect to be leaving the interview with that green card. No matter how much you are convinced that you and your spouse are the best married couple in the world, it makes no difference if the USCIS officer thinks both of you are just putting on an act to fool the U.S. government into granting you a green card. He has seen it all before. The married couple who has elaborately staged the appearance of a real marriage, but behind the curtains there is nothing but a scam to get a green card.
The interview is far from a multiple-choice test where the outcome is assured as long as you answer all the questions correctly. The fact is that the USCUS officer who will be interviewing you is not some programmed robot who will simply ask you a set number of questions and then assign your answers an objective value on a truth scale. No, you will be questioned by an actual, live human being with all of the built-in biases, prejudices, and errors in judgment we are all prone to.
Even the closest and loving of couples could end up in a fraud interview. A fraud interview is assigned to a couple when the USCIS officer believes the couple may be involved in a marriage fraud, a scam designed to fool the U.S. government into granting a green card to a member of the couple. Due to some inadvertent remark or answer at the green card interview, a married couple could quickly discover that what they thought was going to be rubber-stamp interview with little drama or problems, could turn into a fight for the their future as a married couple.
While having an immigration attorney at your side during the green card interview might provide a source of psychological comfort and security, the reality is that he or she will not be able to coach or consult with you in how you will answer a particular question from the immigration officer. You and your spouse can definitely benefit from an immigration attorney in the process leading up to the interview, but once the interivew begins the two of you are on your own.
The objective of the interviewing immigration officer: A sales manager interviewing job canddiates for an open sales rep position will ask each candidate at the job interview a series of questions to find out whom he thinks will be the best fit for the job. An admissions officer for a prestigious Ivy League university will interview potential Freshmen determine which one would enhance the overall academic environment of the university. A USCIS immigration officer interviewing married couples who have applied for a green card, will use all of his training, education, common sense, and judgment to determine if the couple seated in front of him is telling him the truth.
