Tomorrow, Yufang and I will go to the Cleveland United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices for her adjustment of status (AOS) interview. In the picture above, you can see our primary evidence. It is weird looking at these three folders/scrapbooks and thinking that our lives together can be consolidated and condensed into such a small space–it makes me wonder just how far can a marriage be reduced–one scrapbook, one DVD, a single picture, etc. We have included photographs, letters, bank statements, and other evidence that prove we have a bona fide marriage. Certainly, we could take more things with us to the interview, but from reading other folks’ experiences with the AOS interview, you can bring too much. You have to find the right balance of evidences that show to a stranger and government official that you have a dedicated and loving marriage. I certainty don’t know yet if we have struck the right balance, but I hope that we have. We have gone through the checklist, and we feel that we have accumulated the right documents for our case. However, there are more things that we could have done had we thought to do them more in advance. We have taken on a Herculean task on top of other challenging professional events–PhD exams, conferences, and publications. There will be more of this in the future with renewing the AOS and eventually applying for Yufang’s citizenship, but we will take those things as they come. For now, our focus is on tomorrow and its important hurdle that we will be very happy to have behind us.
[...] told some friends, Yufang and I will arrive later than expected, because we were scheduled to have her AOS interview with the USCIS tomorrow. However, we should arrive Friday night, and we will be there for all of the conference happenings [...]
Good luck both of you–You will be fine!!