Green Card Marriage Interview Questions: How Can You Pass?

A green Card Marriage Interview is an opportunity for spouses to prove that their marriage is real and not fraudulent.

After you answer different sets of questions about each other, your relationship and other relevant living condition, the immigration authorities’ officer will compare your answers and determine whether you are eligible for the Marriage Green Card.

Photo by Drew Coffman on Unsplash

To have you better prepared for this interview, we’ve gathered examples of commonly asked questions on this interview so you can think them through in time for your appointment.

Let’s take a look at them.

Types of questions you may be asked on your Green Card Marriage Interview

Generally speaking, there are five types or groups of questions you could be asked in your Green Card Marriage interview. Those are the questions regarding:

• Basic information about you and your spouse
• Your familial relationships
• Your relationship with each other
• Your educational background and employment status
• Your medical history

Now, it’s unlikely that you’ll be asked all of them and the ones that your officer does choose will depend on the progression of your interview.

But, to get the gist of what they might be about, let’s take a look at the most common Green Card Marriage interview questions within each of these five groups:

Basic information about you and your spouse

The first group of questions you may be asked concerns the basic information about you and your spouse.

Namely, you two will first be cross-questioned about one another’s personal details. This is done to check whether you have elementary knowledge about each other before delving into deeper topics, such are the details about the progress of your relationship throughout the years.

The questions you two might be asked consist of your:

• Full legal names of you and your spouse (you might also get asked about nicknames you use, whether you had any name changes, when did you have them and what are they)
• Birthplaces and current addresses
• Contact details (e-mail, phone, etc.)
• Questions about migrating to the US (where, when, how, whether you had immigration problems, information about your travel documents, etc.)

Familial information

Next, you’ll be questioned about each other’s family and your relationship with them.

This way, the immigration authorities can check just how entwined your lives are and whether you’ve had enough time to get to know each other.

These questions may be about:

• Your living situation (do you live separately, together, with your families, do you live in an apartment or a house, are you renting or are you the owner, how does your home look, how many rooms does it have, etc.)
• The number of living family members and their names (this usually includes your grandparents, parents, and siblings)
• Your relationships with your families (do they approve of the relationship, how often do you see each other, etc.)
• Your children (do you have or plan any, how many, examples of your individual roles in parenting, your child’s favorite things, etc.)
• Any prior marriage of yours

Information about your relationship

After inquiring about your individual and joined relationships with your families, the officer will likely direct the majority of his attention to the history of your relationship.

They will want to know how your story started, what brought you closer together, as well as where you stand on important topics that couples are expected to discuss before marriage.

This part of your interview may contain questions about the following:

• Where, when, and how did you meet each other
• What made you fall in love with each other
• Your dating life and engagement (where did you go on dates, who made the first move, who proposed, how did they choose the ring)
• Birthdays (when is your spouse’s birthday, how do you spend them, which gifts did you give to each other, etc.)
• What made you decide to get married (common values, favorite things about each other)
• Things you have in common
• Your living situation before marriage
• Honeymoon
• Your religious stances
• Your finances (your annual income, whether you’re on any kind of financial support, the value of your assets, etc.)
• What an ordinary day spent together looks like (your habits and routines, such as who gets up earlier, cooks, cleans, what your favorite activities and hobbies are, where and how you prefer to spend your day, etc.)
• Wedding (date, place, number of invitees, details about the décor, music, food, schedule, highlights, etc.)
• Future plans (regarding children, buying real estate, etc.)

Education and employment

Considering how much time people spend on their jobs and to which extent their careers consume them, it’s no wonder that immigration authorities want to check whether spouses know enough about each other’s employment.

After all, we all spend so much time talking about the things we like or don’t like about our jobs, so a spouse’s knowledge of these matters can be a good indicator of whether a marriage is fraudulent or not.

Besides the questions about employment, a Green Card Marriage interview sometimes also includes questions about your and your spouse’s educational background.

Those questions might include topics such as:

• The school you attended (when and where did you attend high school or university, what is the name of the institution, what did you graduate in, your current level of education)
• Place and type of your employment (including when did you start working for your current employer, your job satisfaction, and other questions alike)
• When do you go to and come back from work
• Your salary
• Your career aspirations
• Your previous jobs
• Periods of unemployment in the past

Medical history

Before granting Green Card, immigration authorities always check whether the applicants have any health conditions that could make them ineligible to migrate to the US.

However, there’s no reason to be nervous about this step of the process, as nobody will deny you based on that 3-day cold you had as a toddler. Just be honest, ‘cause there’s nothing to hide!

To be prepared for the kind of questions you might be asked regarding your medical history, here are some of the examples of health-related inquiries that often occur at Green Card Marriage interviews:

• Have you suffered from any illnesses in the past
• Do you suffer from any illnesses now
• If you did or do, what are those illnesses (are they physical or mental, how serious are they, are they a public health issue)
• Are you fully vaccinated
• Any past and current issues with drugs or alcohol that you have to report

Tips for passing your Green Card Marriage Interview

Still nervous about that interview?

Don’t be. You’ve got nothing to hide and the immigration authorities’ officer is not out there to get you.

If you follow these five simple instructions on how to handle a Green Card Marriage Interview, we’re confident that you’ll pass with flying colors:

• Take the interview seriously: A process of obtaining a Green Card is an important one and you want to show that you perceive it as such. Don’t be late to your interview or show up dressed inappropriately. First impressions matter!
• Prepare: Assuming that you’ve read the exemplary questions from this article in time for your interview, take your time thinking through how to answer them. However, this doesn’t mean that you should memorize your answers by heart. Quite the contrary, that may come off as too rehearsed and insincere. Instead, what you want to do is to have prepared situations to reference in the conversation and then kind of wing it from there on.
• Be honest: In case a question catches you by a surprise, it’s quite okay to show that too and to admit that you haven’t really discussed that specific matter with your spouse. Nobody knows absolutely everything about their partners – and the officer questioning you knows this. Remember, there aren’t any wrong answers, so don’t act sketchy if you can’t think of a perfect one immediately.
• Relax: Here’s the thing – you likely won’t be asked even half of the number of questions listed here. Officers tend to go into detail only when they get suspicious about your marriage, so don’t give them a reason to suspect. Listen carefully to the questions you’re asked, respond calmly and try not to lose track of your thoughts.
• Be respectful: If you start thinking that your interview is taking a wrong turn and panicking because of it, be cautious of how you express your fear. Don’t lash out at the officer or start making assumptions about how they make factor your answers into their decisions. Gather your composure and take one step at a time.

	Author Bio: Nicole Kelly is a Raleigh, North Carolina, US graphic designer, digital marketing consultant, and writer enthusiast. She loves writing about new business strategies, digital marketing, and social media trends for different blogs and DigitalStrategyOne.

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