Face to face interviews with your local immigration office can be intimidating but they are absolutely vital to obtaining approval of your immigration case. In the past, not every immigration request required an interview. While this is technically still the case, many more applicants are finding themselves called in for interviews than in the past.
You may be called in for an interview when applying for a citizenship, a green card through marriage, asylum, removal of conditions, work visas, fiancé visas, or at the discretion of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In order to help you obtain approval for your immigration case, we’ve created a Top 5 list of tips to use when being interviewed by immigration officials.
Top 5 Tips For Immigration Interviews
5. Be Respectful. Treat immigration officials with the utmost respect. Address the officer with sir or ma’am (Yes, sir, No, sir, etc.). Your application status, approval or denial, all depends on the interview official. You must do your best to obtain their approval, which starts with being respectful.
4. Be Professional. Continuing along in the same vein as being respectful is to be professional and dress professionally. Treat this as a job interview and dress similarly. Suits or dress pants, button-down shirts, ties, skirts, and dresses are all acceptable and present a much more polished, professional image than jeans, shorts, or flip flops. Remove obvious piercings and cover up tattoos to present an even more professional image.
3. Bring the required or requested documents. Bring original or certified copies of all of the necessary, required, or requested documentation with you to the interview. This may be birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce records, arrest records. It does not matter how old these records are or what the outcome was. It is better to arrive overprepared with documents than to arrive underprepared.
2. Bring all supporting documents. If your case can be bolstered with supporting documentation, bring it. For example, you may need to provide evidence that your marriage is true and based on mutual love, not citizenship or you may need to bring documents that show that you are employed in the U.S. Again, err on the side of being overprepared as opposed to underprepared.
1. Bring an attorney. This is one of the most helpful and important actions you can take to bolster your immigration case. You are allowed to bring an immigration attorney to the interview, but their assistance can help long before the interview date as well. An attorney can help your build your case, make sure you have collected all of the necessary documents that have been requested or that will support your case. He or she can also defend you at the interview and advocate on your behalf. This is particularly helpful for people who do not speak English well or who are at all confused by the immigration process.
Contact The Immigration Law Offices of Gail Seeram For Interview Assistance
If you have an immigration interview coming up or just want to be prepared in case you are called in for an interview, contact The Immigration Law Offices of Gail Seeram for help. We have 20 years of experience representing clients at interviews as well as helping clients prepare for their immigration interviews.
Call or text our Orlando immigration law office at 407-292-7730 to arrange a free consultation.