After you send your family-based adjustment of status application packet to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency is likely to eventually schedule you for an in-person interview (though it occasionally waives this requirement in straightforward cases). The interview will take place at one of USCIS's local offices, hopefully near where you live.
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In the best of times, the USCIS adjustment interview can take many months to schedule. And delays of well over a year are not uncommon (as of early 2024).
To get an idea of the wait times in your area, go to the USCIS Check Processing Times page and, from the drop-down menus, choose "I-485" then "family-based adjustment applications" and then the city in which your local USCIS office is (the one that will likely hold your interview).
After you click "Get processing time," you'll be told the average number of months that applicants are currently waiting for their interviews. Of course, the length of the wait could change by the time your application is in line.
The USCIS appointment notice will tell you what you must bring, so read it carefully for details. For example, you will be asked to bring a photo identity card, such as a driver's license, and all travel documents (such as advance parole).
You'll want to bring your own copies of documents you've sent to USCIS as well, for reference. And bring any originals that you sent copies of earlier, so that the USCIC examiner can verify their authenticity. For further detail (especially if yours is a marriage-based case) read Documents to Bring to Your Marriage-Based Adjustment of Status Interview.
Also take not of WHO the USCIS appointment notice says to bring to the interview—your U.S. petitioner might or might not be required to attend (but definitely will if it's a marriage-based case). You can bring an attorney to represent you, if you wish. You, not your attorney, will have to answer the questions, however. Your attorney's role will simply be to discuss any legal issues, provide moral support, and perhaps clear up procedural misunderstandings.
USCIS does not provide interpreters at adjustment of status interviews in the United States. A few of its officers speak Spanish or some other language, but you cannot count on getting a bilingual officer, nor can you request one.
If you're unsure of your ability to understand questions and express yourself in English, by all means bring a friend or hire a professional interpreter to help. Even if your petitioning U.S. family member is capable of interpreting for you, the USCIS officer might not allow this, particularly in a marriage-based case. Having all questions go through the same person reduces the USCIS officer's ability to compare both members of the couple's answers and to detect marriage frauds.
The interpreter must be over the age of 18 and fluent in both your language and in English. Some USCIS officers also require that the interpreter be a legal resident or citizen of the United States. (Of course, a person in the U.S. illegally would be taking a huge risk by walking into a USCIS office.) Also see Rules for Bringing Interpreters to Immigration (USCIS) Interviews.
Thousands of different immigrating family members are normally interviewed each day across the United States. Regardless, these interviews tend to follow a pattern. Here's what will probably happen at yours.
If the adjustment interview goes well—your family relationship is obviously the real deal, you don't fall into any of the grounds for inadmissibility, and your documents are in order—the interview can take as little as 20 minutes.
At the end of the interview, if you are approved for U.S. residence, you will be given a letter stating this. The letter is just for your records. It cannot, for example, be used like a green card in order to travel in and out of the United States. The USCIS officer might also ask you to turn in your work permit (EAD), on the basis of the fact that you are no longer an applicant for adjustment of status, but a permanent or conditional U.S. resident, such that your existing EAD is no longer valid. This should not interfere with your life much, however, because several weeks later, your actual green card will arrive by mail.
If you receive conditional residence (rather than "permanent," because your marriage was still less than two years old on the day USCIS approved you for residence), you will have to file an I-751 petition about 21 months from your approval date in order to progress to permanent residency.
You could make your life easier by hiring an experienced immigration attorney to handle your family visa case from the beginning, or at least to attend the interview with you.
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