The other topic that has been really popular lately is whether or not your spouse needs to attend that adjustment of status I-485 interview.
Recently, immigration has made a change to the interview letter form that comes when your interview has been scheduled. These changes made a lot of people confused because immigration is being very clear about making sure that only the immigrant is coming to the interview or the immigrant and their spouse if it is a marriage-based adjustment.
They actually say on there that they don’t even want interpreters to come. With everything that’s going on with COVID, they’re trying to limit the number of people that come to the office. They put at the very top in bold, COVID-19 safety precautions.
They say only you should attend the interview. You’re allowed to bring your attorney or if you have a disability, to bring someone to provide you with assistance. Your interpreter is not allowed to come and should be by phone instead.
Everybody’s asking, “I thought that my spouse was supposed to come to the interview? I thought we were both going to be asked questions but I’m afraid because I see that it says only I should attend the interview.”
But if you look at the very bottom of the letter, right above the address of where the interview will occur, you will see that immigration has moved that. It used to be at the top and it used to say you and your spouse will attend.
They recently changed the format of the letter, so now it is on the bottom. It’s just a bullet point towards the very end of the letter. It says, “If your eligibility is based on your marriage, in addition to your spouse coming to the interview with you, you must bring relationship evidence.”
It is a concern that individuals are going to be afraid to bring their spouse to the interview because they want to follow the rules. If you have filed for a marriage-based case, then you both need to attend the interview.
If you don’t, it can cause issues for your case because immigration needs to ask both of you questions about your relationship along with looking at all of your relationship evidence.
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