Whether involved in a fiancé visa, fiancée visa, spouse visa, or adjustment of status to Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States, the applicant will have an interview. For any visa process, this interview will include only the foreign visa applicant and will be conducted by a Consular Officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate in either the applicant’s country of citizenship, or country of current legal residence. For an adjustment of status to Lawful Permanent Resident Status, the interview will be conducted by a USCIS Official, at a local office in the USA. When adjusting status based on marriage to a US Citizen, both the Citizen and the foreign spouse will attend the interview, along with step children, if applicable.
The biggest mistake applicants can make is to proceed on the assumption that what happens in this interview will be the primary decision making step in their process. While it is true, the interview is usually the final decision making step, it is absolutely not so all important as one’s intuition or logic might think it is.
The truth is, that in almost all cases, the officer or official conducting the interview, has fully and carefully reviewed everything in the file, including any notes of others who have previously reviewed the file, prior to the interview. They will then already have a final decision in mind, before ever meeting the person or persons to be interviewed.
My conversations with Consular Officers have confirmed this on several occasions. Both the Consular Officers at the Department of State and Immigration Officials at USCIS, (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) have been trained to consider the totality of circumstances, presented in the file, and then to conduct their interview, with the goal of either confirming or, rarely, changing their conclusions.
In some cases, the person conducting the interview, will only make a recommendation for approval or denial of the visa or immigration benefit sought, followed by a thorough review by a senior official, before a decision is announced and further action taken on the case.
These issues, in part, are why it is so important to have a comprehensive discussion of the case with a immigration professional from Platinum Immigration Services, before deciding what to include in addition to the required forms and documents, in order to address any possible red flags or issues that might negatively influence the Officer or Official who will ultimately make the decision. The goal is to address all issues in the initial filing, in such a way, that the review and consideration of the totality of circumstances, leaves the decision maker leaning in a positive direction before the interview begins.