After marrying a U.S. citizen, an immigrant becomes what is known as an "immediate relative," and eligible for lawful permanent resident status (a green card). However, receiving the green card happens neither automatically nor quickly.
As part of the lengthy application process, every couple -- or at least the immigrant half of the couple -- will at some point need to meet with an immigration officer, either in the U.S. or overseas (depending on where they're applying from). In fact, if the immigration authorities become suspicious about whether the marriage is the real thing, the couple may have to undergo more than one personal interview.
When and how these interviews might take place is detailed below.
Initial Green Card Interview
The process of applying for a green card depends on where the immigrant is living and, if it's in the U.S., whether the immigrant has a right to adjust status there.
If the immigrant will be adjusting status in the U.S., then after submitting the paperwork, the couple will be called to an office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for an interview. Assuming they bring enough documentary proof of their life as a bona fide married couple, and the facts of their situation don't raise any red flags (for example, there isn't an extreme age difference, language barrier, or religious difference), an immigration officer will interview the couple together. The officer will ask questions about how the couple met, their wedding, their life together, and so forth, and will watch and listen carefully to their answers.
If the immigrant is overseas and will be applying for the green card (or more accurately, an "immigrant visa" for travel to the U.S to claim permanent resident status), the immigrant may do the interview solo, at a U.S. consular office. The U.S. citizen half of the couple can, however, attend the interview, and doing so is often a good idea. The consular officer will ask detailed questions to test whether the marriage is the real thing.
Bringing Documentary Evidence to the Marriage Interview
Although the marriage interview gives the immigration official an opportunity to see you interact with your spouse and to judge the credibility of your marriage, the interviewer will not base a decision on your behavior alone.
You and your spouse will have to present evidence showing you are truly married. The more evidence you present, the less suspicious the interviewer is likely to be. The following types of documents will help you prove you and your spouse are not entering into a fraudulent marriage:
- Shared financial/banking statements
- Shared credit card statements
- Shared contracts for an apartment or a house
- Shared insurance policies
- Birth certificates of children born to you as a couple
- Sworn statements from people who know you both and who can swear you are a real married couple
Marriage Fraud Interview
If, at the initial marriage interview, the immigration interviewer is not convinced that the marriage is bona fide, the couple will each have to undergo separate interviews. If the immigrant is adjusting status in the U.S., this may occur on the same day as the initial interview. Husband and wife will be led to different rooms and asked the same set of questions. The questions wil be compared later to see how well they match up.
If the immigrant is doing consular processing, then the U.S. citizen will be called for an interview at a USCIS office near his or her home and asked the same set of questions that the immigrant was asked overseas.
For obvious reasons, the questions asked during a marriage fraud interview are not the same from one applicant to the next. But they're always designed to find out whether the couple truly lives together and shares life activities and finances or (if they're in separate countries) share important knowledge about each other, do their best to maintain a close relationship, and otherwise behave like married couples ordinarily do.
For example, the immigration authorities might ask the couple questions like:
- What color is your bedspread?
- Where does your pet sleep?
- Who sleeps on which side of the bed?
- What did each of you give each other for your last birthday?
- What form of contraception (birth control) do you use?
- How do each of you travel to and from work?
- What time do each of you return from work?
- What time do you eat dinner?
- Do you usually eat dessert after dinner?
And so on . . . .
Conditional Residence Marriage Interview
For couples who have been married for less than two years when the immigrant receives a green card, that green card is only temporary -- representing conditional permanent residence. The conditional status is good for two years.
Before the two-year anniversary of the green card, the couple must file a petition on USCIS Form I-751 (Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence) for the conditions to be removed and the immigrant's green card to become permanent.
After filing the petition, the couple may be asked to attend a marriage interview and once again provide evidence that the marriage is valid and answer questions. Being called for a marriage interview at this stage is not a good sign. You should by all means hire an experienced immigration attorney to review your case and accompany you to the interview.
