Will our I-130 and I-485 be approved at the interview?
Mar 13, 2024
If you’re preparing for your marriage-based adjustment of status interview, one question weighing heavily on your mind is likely:
So will our I-130 petition and I-485 adjustment of status both be approved at the end of the interview? Will the USCIS officer tell us if we passed the interview?
After having attended hundreds of interviews at USCIS offices in several states across the country, I can tell you firsthand that there is no one particular ending that happens at every interview. However, there are definitely three different scenarios that I see play out most commonly:
Scenario #1: Officer needs more information
The USCIS Officer in charge of processing your case has the responsibility to make sure absolutely all the required evidence is in your official immigration file before making a decision. Sometimes the interview goes well, but there is some type of evidence still missing that he or she needs to have before approving your case. Either during the officer’s review of your documents or at some point during the interview, he or she might realize that there is something missing. What sorts of things can be missing? Literally anything that is a requirement for your case! Some of the more common issues are things like:
- Not having enough relationship evidence
- Having outdated evidence (like expired documents, not updating your most recent tax returns)
- Your situation changed (like petitioner lost a job or you moved) and you didn’t properly amend your filing
- Problems with the medical exam once the envelope is unsealed (doctor made a mistake filling it out, form version was expired, the exam was done too long ago and is expired, etc.)
For any of these issues and more, the officer can decide to ask you to correct the problem by submitting more documents. Sometimes they end the interview by handing you a letter that lists the items that are missing and instructs you about how to submit them by a certain deadline. Other times they tell you that they will be mailing a paper letter with the request to you in the next few days.
If you end up in Scenario #1, be sure to respond well before the deadline. You might also want to get legal advice if you aren’t already working with an attorney to make sure that what you’re submitting is actually going to fix the problem.
Scenario #2: Officer doesn’t need more information, but can’t or won’t tell you the decision
Other times, the officer doesn’t ask you for anything else or mention that anything is missing, but they also don’t tell you what their decision is. They might say something to you like, “This concludes the interview. You will receive a decision in the mail.”
When this happens, many people worry that this might be a bad sign that their case is going to be denied. But this is NOT TRUE! So don’t panic just yet! There are several reasons an officer might not tell you they are approving your case but everything is still okay:
- Maybe the officer hasn’t actually had time to read through your file yet. They usually do that before the interview, but I’ve had several officers over the years admit to me that they didn’t have time. They might need to take a closer look at everything to figure out whether there is anything still missing or not.
- Maybe there is an internal process that USCIS has not yet completed for your file. I have had cases where the officer mentioned that they were still waiting on the final updated background checks to come back or on old portions of the immigrant’s alien file to be consolidated into their main file for review prior to approval.
- Maybe your USCIS Field Office currently has a general policy not to disclose the decisions verbally to interviewees. At different times under different leadership this policy has been in effect in different officers.
- Maybe your interviewing officer is new to the job, and they don’t feel comfortable making a spontaneous decision about the case. Sometimes newer officers are not even allowed to give you any news yet until they have been on the job longer. Some officers will tell you they are new; most new officers won’t tell you and the only way to know is if you brought an attorney who goes to that office frequently and knows all of the regular officers.
When you leave the interview without knowing what the final result was, be sure to watch your online status for any updates. Sometimes the status is updated as soon as a few hours after the interview ends. Other times it takes months! (So annoying, right?) Be sure to watch your mailbox also for either a letter with a Request for Additional Evidence or a decision letter.
Scenario #3: Officer tells you the case will be recommended for approval
You will be happy to hear that this is also a real possibility! Sometimes the officer will simply tell you that they will be recommending your case for approval. Why don’t they say that it’s “approved”? Technically the officer who does the interview is not the one who formally signs off on your case approval; their boss is the ultimate decision maker. However, it is very rare for a case to be recommended for approval but then the decision overturned for some reason by the management, so don’t overthink it! Relax and celebrate if your case has been recommended for approval. You can also start checking your online status for updates about your green card being printed and mailed to you.
