questions
06-04-2008, 09:21 PM
I just wanted to update everyone.
We just had our court date with the judge. We had scared ourselves with horror stories found on the internet of couples making it this far only to find out some technicality prevented them from adjusting.
It was very quick. The judge asked a few questions and the person from immigration didn't ask me any. He asked my wife a few question though but she said they weren't really about immigration and it just seemed like he was curious.
It was a very laid back atmosphere and everyone was very nice. Some stories I've read online made it seem like the prosecutor and the judge would be grilling you trying to find any reason to deport your spouse. It was nothing like that. The judge asked us a few questions about our relationship separately and he asked her questions about her immigration history and granted the adjustment.
Advice that I wish someone had given us during this whole ordeal.
1) Start saving now, it is very expensive and you do need a good and experienced lawyer. My wife and I make a reasonable amount of money but it was still a large strain on our finances.
Our total costs when this is all over and she is a citizen will be well over 5000 dollars. I'm scared to sit down and calculate the exact amount but it's a lot and might be higher.
2) Find an experienced lawyer who also cares about you.
We choose an expensive lawyer only because he had lots of experience with cases such as ours.
Even though he was a jerk, we could not have done it on our own. He put everything off until the last minuet and we had to keep harassing him about our case but when he did do it, he did a great job. Our case was a little more complicated than most and it all worked out in the end so I'm in a forgiving mood.
3) Don't worry if you get a stokes interview(they interview you separately), it's normal.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare for it. After all this is what decides if your spouse gets to stay or not.
4) Don't take the adjustment hearing lightly or assume your lawyer is actually doing his job.
Our lawyer discovered something that might have made my wife unable to adjust after he gave us a copy of the questions on the I-485. It turns out the issue had been taken care years ago by a previous lawyer of my wife's but I was furious that he wasn't aware of it until only a few days ago when my wife brought it to his attention. The look on his face really scared me until he found something in her file that addressed the issue. I'm glad he did because it was brought up in the hearing and he was prepared to answer it.
Good luck everyone else!
We just had our court date with the judge. We had scared ourselves with horror stories found on the internet of couples making it this far only to find out some technicality prevented them from adjusting.
It was very quick. The judge asked a few questions and the person from immigration didn't ask me any. He asked my wife a few question though but she said they weren't really about immigration and it just seemed like he was curious.
It was a very laid back atmosphere and everyone was very nice. Some stories I've read online made it seem like the prosecutor and the judge would be grilling you trying to find any reason to deport your spouse. It was nothing like that. The judge asked us a few questions about our relationship separately and he asked her questions about her immigration history and granted the adjustment.
Advice that I wish someone had given us during this whole ordeal.
1) Start saving now, it is very expensive and you do need a good and experienced lawyer. My wife and I make a reasonable amount of money but it was still a large strain on our finances.
Our total costs when this is all over and she is a citizen will be well over 5000 dollars. I'm scared to sit down and calculate the exact amount but it's a lot and might be higher.
2) Find an experienced lawyer who also cares about you.
We choose an expensive lawyer only because he had lots of experience with cases such as ours.
Even though he was a jerk, we could not have done it on our own. He put everything off until the last minuet and we had to keep harassing him about our case but when he did do it, he did a great job. Our case was a little more complicated than most and it all worked out in the end so I'm in a forgiving mood.
3) Don't worry if you get a stokes interview(they interview you separately), it's normal.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare for it. After all this is what decides if your spouse gets to stay or not.
4) Don't take the adjustment hearing lightly or assume your lawyer is actually doing his job.
Our lawyer discovered something that might have made my wife unable to adjust after he gave us a copy of the questions on the I-485. It turns out the issue had been taken care years ago by a previous lawyer of my wife's but I was furious that he wasn't aware of it until only a few days ago when my wife brought it to his attention. The look on his face really scared me until he found something in her file that addressed the issue. I'm glad he did because it was brought up in the hearing and he was prepared to answer it.
Good luck everyone else!