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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawWhat Interview Questions can be asked in an IR-1 Visa Application?

What Interview Questions can be asked in an IR-1 Visa Application?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video may suggest, we are discussing the IR-1 Visa, specifically the interviews and interview questions associated with the IR-1 Visa. 

Let me preface this video by saying this is not just going to be a list of interview questions. Instead, it is here to provide some insight to those who are interested in this topic as to how the interview is going to work and how best to prepare for it. 

Let me also preface this video by saying, IR-1 visas, unlike some of the other Visa categories where you have a lower duration of marriage, I often, I won't say like them or anything better but it seems to be that certain aspects in the IR-1 aren’t quite as problematic as when dealing with for example a fiance visa. An IR-1 visa is issued to those who have been married for over two years at the time of the filing of the application and upon entry to the United States one is admitted in IR-1 status so long as one has been married prior to two years at the time of admission. So for that reason, you are already dealing with the couple that has been married for a fairly prolonged period of time unlike the K-1 where you are dealing with somebody that is not even yet married so there are certain things that are going to change with respect to the analysis on that. 

That being said, this brings me to my whole point with respect to this video which is a good legal professional does a couple of things with respect to interview questions. First of all you need to understand, this is not some sort of robotic procedure if you will. Folks that are undertaking the adjudication of an IR-1 visa application are looking at the specific circumstances of that given case. They don't process these things through on some sort of "assembly line". They are looking at the facts. They are looking at for example, the applicant’s travel history; have they been to the United States? They are looking at the marital history. They're looking at all sorts of things but it is specific to that case. So a good legal professional is going to go ahead and craft their advice, and go ahead and craft their services especially with respect to preparation for an interview, based on the circumstances in that given case and for this reason, simply listing out a bunch of questions is not the way to deal with this. The best way to do it is on a case-by-case basis, having a legal professional assist and basically say “Look in this situation I think you're going to have issues where they're going to ask about this,” for example. Or “In this situation, I think you are going to have a situation where they are going to ask about this.” For example a visa application for someone who has never been to the United States, has been married to an American citizen for 10 years, and has no criminal history and no legal ground of inadmissibility is going to be a very different matter than a case involving someone who has been married just over two years, has been to the United States, perhaps overstayed and maybe even has another ground of inadmissibility on top of that when going in to the interview. I am going to deal with those two cases in very different manners because they require a different level of service and support based on the circumstances of that given case and they require a different kind, a qualitatively different kind of assistance because somebody with no foreseeable grounds of inadmissibility problems, well you were going to treat that differently than those that clearly have a ground of inadmissibility.

To sort of sum all this up, it should also be noted that a legal professional is not there in this context to assist somebody in providing flowery language or a way to evade or dance around questions. That is not at all the case. What you are there to do is to facilitate concise and accurate answers to the interview questions. These Consular Officers are not in the business of playing "stump the immigrant"; they are not trying to create some level of consternation or confusion.  Their job is sort of a due-diligence function. They need to provide: they need to go through, they need to adjudicate the case: they need to watch out for red flags: they need to make findings of fact in some cases and conclusions of law, especially with respect to things like legal grounds of inadmissibility and by doing so, they are not trying to cause problems for the interviewing applicants. If anything they are simply trying to do their job and ascertain whether or not this person should be issued a Visa based on the application in front of them and for this reason, I think that the thing to take away from this video is a good legal professional is going to be there, again just let me reiterate, to assist somebody in concisely and accurately summing up their position and to provide a level of comfort. I find that a lot of my clients are going into this extremely nervously. Me personally I have been through an immigration process myself. It is not fun. I don't think anybody particularly likes it. Adjudicators don't particularly like it putting people on the spot. So to provide a level of comfort to be able to say, “Look this is probably the parameters of what they're going to be looking at in your interview case and we are just simply trying to be able to provide you with some insight into how to answer concisely and accurately with respect to the facts of your given case so that the adjudicating officer can efficiently process the case out and the case can hopefully be brought to a positive conclusion”.