The Infamous Immigration Interview

After hearing and reading so much about the infamous date with immigration officials, I wasn't sure what to expect but I was damn sure intimidated. I had a feeling what I had seen in movies wasn't realistic, but I wasn't even sure of that. When we were taking the train to Baltimore for the interview, my stomach began to churn a bit. When we were waiting outside the building, chatting and killing time before going in, my heart was palpitating faster and sweat beads were starting to appear on my neck. When we were sitting in the waiting room hearing people's names called out, I had to cross my legs to prevent them from carrying me out the door to the nearest Starbucks for some much needed R&R. When they called our names, I felt like I was trodding on my intestines all the way to the "interrogation room."

Were all of those jitters necessary? Absolutely not. Was the interview entirely routine? Most definitely. Apart from going through what seemed like every paper in our file, asking for additional evidence such as our lease and bank account documents, and flipping through a couple of our wedding photos, there wasn't a whole lot going on. We had studied and practiced a whole packet-full of questions, and all the official asked us was our address, if we have any kids, each others' dates of birth, and our parents' full names--not that I'm complaining or anything.

Things I expected: the tons of other immigration hopefuls in the waiting room, which was comforting because it reminded us that we weren't the only ones tackling this complicated process; the starkly decorated, gray office (who actually paints their walls gray?? Only the government, I guess.).

Things I hadn't anticipated: interviewing together. I thought maybe they wouldn't want us to influence each others' answers, but that didn't seem to be a factor at all; being sworn in, although I probably should have expected that. I did feel like a rather important person; The small number of questions we were asked; and the most pleasant surprise of all--how downright pleasant our immigration official was. He didn't have any of that intimidation factor that the customs officials exude, and he really seemed to be trying to help us along this particular station in our journey, rather than interrogate us.

All in all, an interesting experience, but boy, am I glad that's over with!