Immigration Interview

This post is later than I had hoped to make this update, I actually started it a few days after my immigration interview and then did not have time to finish. I apologize now for it being so long.

So here goes…

Aaron and I were up bright and early on Friday morning (Feb 3), and off to Louisville shortly after running a few errands. You know, nothing like leaving things last minute – picking up his birth certificate from his dads and getting gas all before 7am. We arrived an hour before my appointment time, so we went and hung out at White Castle. Bacon double cheeseburger and mozza sticks at 9am, nothing wrong with that, right?

I made sure that we would arrive nice and early to scope out the building and figure out parking, and make sure that we did not stuck on the I-75 in some massive delay. It would have been my luck for it to snow a few feet and shut the highway down, but we were extra lucky with the roads and weather. The extra hour also gave me some time to relax. I stressed all week about the interview. Did so much googling and watching of YouTube videos that I freaked myself out. 

Our interview was at the Court House in Louisville. Like all federal government buildings here, we had to go through security to get into the building, and then we made our way up to the 3rd floor. We arrived at the front desk and were asked a few questions and had to hand over the interview notice I had received in the mail along with our identification. The guy informed us that we would get all of that stuff back at the end and to go have a seat and wait. I sat down, placed the massive pile of documents I brought beside me on the chair, and then Aaron said he was going to find the restroom. I knew it was out the door, through a door, down some stairs and then somewhere on another floor. I kept checking my watch, our appointment was 9:55, and it said not to be late. I know we had checked in already, but what would happen if they called our names and he wasn’t there. Would they wait? One would hope, but I did not want to chance it. And so I watch…9:53, 9:54…9:55, and he comes around the corner. Phew!  

It must have been about 10:00 or shortly after when I heard “April and Aaron Judd.” My stomach sunk and I thought to myself, I hope we don’t mess this up. Not sure how that could be possible, or why I was worried so much. We’ve known each other almost 6 years, and we’ve lived together for 3.5 years. The officer, Jennifer, was really nice. Made small talk and made you feel comfortable, just like a job interview. That was refreshing, as I had way different expectations. We walked back to her office, and she shut the door. Both of us put our jackets down on the back two chairs, and went to sit in the two chairs in front of her desk, but she told us that we might as well remain standing as we had to take an oath. I placed my bag full of our documents onto the chair, we recited the oath, and had a seat.

I do not remember every bit of our conversation, but I know she started with asking Aaron his full name and to spell it out. At one point she asked him for my birthday, and he said “April,” and paused. I thought, oh my gosh are you drawing a blank on that, we are doomed! LOL. We all started laughing, and she replied with “and…”  He continued with my full birthday. She then asked me for his. She asked us for our address, and didn’t direct the question at either of us. Aaron answered before I had a chance to get words out. She made a statement or asked something else, and then went back to our address asking for the zip code. So I quickly delivered that. She continued on by asking if we have travelled together, so we both started listing off places that we have been and our future trips in the next few months. She asked Aaron where he works, since we get to travel, and what I do. She asked if he had been to Canada. Then came a few questions about the wedding. Was it big or small? How many people? Where was it? Aaron started by saying that we had about 160 people, she made a comment about it being fairly big. I continued in saying where it was, and that I had X amount of people come down from Canada. I rattled off, my four parents, 2 brothers, sister…and she said, “four parents?” I confirmed, and then added that between the two of us we have 8 parents.

At some point she had made a comment about not being able to make a decision because something was incomplete. I tried asking a few questions, but she said we would get to it later. She would just keep repeating the word gonorrhea. Sure made the three of us laugh. She had said that she had to say the word a lot lately. She went back to our file, and I questioned her on the process of how they get the information (as we sent the package to Chicago), so she explained it to me, and then showed us the file of how one side had with their information and the other side was the stuff we sent in. She started laughing and pointed to another file, and said this is yours too. I laughed and apologized by saying we just wanted to make sure you had everything we could provide.

The conversation continued as she went through my application form and asked me some of the questions on the form to confirm my responses were still the same as they were from when I originally submitted it. There was only one question that I had been uncertain about answering, the very last one, have you EVER received any type of military, paramilitary, or weapons training? For a few days last fall I tossed the answer around in my head a bit, as I had taken a firearms safety course, but did that count? Was that what they would consider weapons training? In the end, I decided that I would say “yes” for my response, and made sure to place a copy of the firearm acquisition and possession card in my package. So when she asked me the question, I responded “yes” and quickly explained that I had taken this firearms safety course a few years back, and she replied that she remembered seeing a copy of my card in the file. I told her how I just wanted to be able to say that I took the course, had hoped to do my hunters safety but haven’t yet, and that my dad was pretty proud of me for going to do it. Not sure if that hurt me or not, can’t see how, I was being honest.

Keep in mind that from the point she had initially said the word gonorrhea, I had that in the back of my mind the entire time. All I could think was, do I have it and not even know it? How did I not read through the copy of the medical documents the doctors office gave me last September.

It was after the last question on my form that she pulled out the “Request for Evidence” letter, and explained to us why she could not make a decision on the case file yet. She informed me that the doctor had signed off the medical documents prior to having all testing done, and that test required was for gonorrhea. She informed us that the Centre for Disease Control required this screening as part of the process on August 1, 2016. I couldn’t believe it as I sat there – I had gone in on September 20^th, how and why did the guy not do the test. I pulled out my copy of the medical documents and asked her to show me what she meant and where the doctor needed to make sure to enter this information. She showed us and gave me the letter that needed to be taken to the doctors’ office. I then asked about the process and timing, trying to understand how much longer a decision could take, and all she kept saying was “the sooner you get the information to me, the sooner I can make a decision.” At one point I said to her how it can take upwards of 3 weeks to get in to see these certified surgeons, and that I was going to call them as soon as we left.

The conversation wrapped up and she walked us out to the waiting area.

That was it.

As we walked out of the building, I told Aaron that I had to call the clinic right away to see if I could get in as soon as we got back to Northern Kentucky. As we walked to the car, we discussed how the whole interview went and how we felt it went really well. I told Aaron that I felt really good knowing that we submitted everything on our own, without hiring and paying for a lawyer, and the only thing that was required to make a decision was now something that we could not control. The mistake was not something we did, as I went to the doctor and trusted that they knew what they needed to do for completing the medical examination and vaccination record form.

Once we got to the car, I called the doctors’ office and explained how I had just left my immigration interview and that we had left with a request for evidence letter requesting missing medical information. The lady was very apologetic and asked when I could be there. I was surprised, would they really get me in today? So I said that, “today? You can see me today?” And she said, “absolutely, what time can you be here?” I told her how as soon as I got off the phone with her we would be leaving Louisville and would head right to the clinic, so we would be there shortly after 12:00. She told me that was great, and that she would left everyone know I was coming.

We arrived at the office some time after 12, and they had me refill in the required form, and quickly took me back for the test. Easy as that. Then to wait…

Fast forward to Monday, February 6. I was a little impatient, and called the clinic that afternoon to see if perhaps the document was ready to pick up. Of course it wasn’t, and the lady reminded me that they would call as soon as it was ready. Tuesday I decided to just let it be and hoped for a call that afternoon, as they said Tuesday at the latest. Wednesday morning, I got ready and headed to work. Just as I was telling my co-worker how I should go turn the volume up on my cell phone, so I do not miss the call from the clinic, I checked my phone, and I had just missed the call. Checked my message, and my envelope was ready for pick up. It was so hard sitting there until 3pm when I really wanted to leave work when I got the message that the envelope was ready. I made it out to the clinic and over to the post office all within the hour. I was done. I did what I needed to do, and now to wait to hear something. I paid a lot of money to ensure the envelope was delivered the next day, and when I checked the tracking on Thursday afternoon, it had arrived and been signed for at 10:13am that morning.

Now I wait….

I’ve checked the website for status updates a few times already. They’ve barely had it for 3 working days, I shouldn’t be so crazy to think it would be processed yet.