two questions about interview

[forbes19]

Hello everyone. My name is Jaime and I thank you for this great forum.

I am currently applying for Adjustment of Status (I485, I130) through my US citizen wife. I am an overstay of more than 8 years. I received my interview letter this week and I have two questions:

1) does CIS still stamp passports after the marriage interview? if so, do I need my passport to be valid (it is currently expired).
2) what happens after the interview? when you get approved, how long do you have to wait to travel outside of the US?


Thank you so much for your help!!

[pfcwife23]

yes they do stamp your passport after the interview if they are not waiting for your back ground check to go through.. and yes you must have a valid passport to go to the interview with.. when i went he look to make sure mines was valid...

After the interview if there is no problem then you leave with the stamp in your passport, but if there are something they are waiting for they will tell you. and there is one that is pending they will write in your passport the one that was approve and you will have to wait till the one thats pending gets approve and they will sent the greencard in the mail for you..

i left the next week to be with my husband so you can travel right away but you cant stay more than i dont know abut civilians but there is a time limit out of the united states

[fire]

Jaime,

I'm in the same boat as u r. I'm waiting for an interview and my passport has expired. I'm from the country that would not renew a passport if u r not present in the country. I have to be physically present in my country to get my passport renewed. i read this forum before and i talked to some people, i found out that they do not always stamp your passport. i don't think it's a big deal if your passport has expired. u will have just to wait for the card to arrive in the mail, so u would have to wait a little longer to travel outside of the country.
i might be wrong though. i'm not 100% sure. if there is someone else who is more knowledgeable about this, please comment.
Jaime, please let us know how everything went at your interview and how you resolved your passport situation.

[USnoiva]

I heard once that they are not stamping the passports as much as they used to but I think it depends on the office.
I thought that the passport had to be valid also. Have you tried contacting your consulate here in the US?

[pfcwife23]

just make sure it is.. when i went to interview thats the first thing he ask me.. my sister just went for her interview and they made sure she had hers.. the lawyer i was with made sure i had a valid passport..

and even so you go there and they dont ask you what is the harm in makeing sure you are prepared for any thing..

[fire]

I would be glad to renew my passport, but they won't do it here...and i cant go to my home country
what do i do?

[USnoiva]

There has to be a way? Is the consulate the ones saying that you can't renew in USA?
If you haven't already, I would definitely contact your consulate and explain your situation.

[fire]

hi, folks

to those of u who still have these question about expired passports and approaching interviews.

i just had an interview and i brought my expired passport with me. the immigration officer did check out my non-immigrant visa but didn't say anything about passport being expired. she said that they don't stamp passports any longer and i will recv my green card in the mail within 2 weeks.

u can check out my timeline and interview experience here
http://immigrate2us.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2362