Why was the immigration officer hostile to you during your interview?
My name is Moumita Rahman and I am an immigration attorney.
Throughout my 13 year career, I have attended hundreds of immigration
interviews in front of USCIS officers.
And something that we do see on occasion is an immigration officer
being extremely hostile and aggressive during the interview.
So today we are going to discuss why this issue may happen, what you can do
if your officer becomes aggressive or hostile with you during the interview
and steps that you can take to ensure a fair and respectful interview.
If you would like my assistance in your case, you can give us a call
at 212-248-7907 to schedule a case evaluation with my legal team.
I'm based in New York,
but I work with immigration clients all over the United States.
I believe that
there are absolutely three reasons why that officer may have been hostile to
you and may have gotten aggressive during the interview,
even if you have a lawyer present right next to you.
If the officer doesn’t believe that you qualify
for your immigration application or that you are in a fake marriage,
this can be the number one reason why they are acting aggressively with you
during your interview. And this is really true.
I had an interview where I represented a couple in their marriage based
green card application, but for both of them it was their second
marriage and they had known each other back home in their home countries,
and there were a host of reasons why the case may not have appeared
to look as good as it could have for the traditional marriage-based case.
This interview started out a little bit late for reasons
out of our control, and immediately as we sat down,
the officer started to give a very aggressive line
of questioning to the point where it even took me
back and I had to stop the officer from badgering my client.
I could tell immediately that this officer had an issue with the case.
This couple exhibited many signs of the typical fraud
that you might think of in a marriage case, number one being the fact that the
application was filed for very soon after the foreign national spouse entered
the United States.
Number two, each had been previously married before.
And number three, the interview started approximately a half hour late, which,
if you have ever read any of the fraud indicators for
USCIS, starting your interview late, if it's your own fault,
is a sign of fraud for them.
That's why this officer, I believe, started off the interview very,
very aggressively right away.
Another top reason why an officer might be very aggressive with you is because
of the fact that they had their own personal prejudices and stereotypes
and beliefs that get in the way of them acting professionally.
I was on an interview about a month ago for a client who had happened
to have entered the country illegally through the border.
So, yes, he crossed the border.
And of course, this is an immigration violation,
but it is not a crime, but it is an immigration violation.
However, he was eligible for immigration relief because of something
called Section 245-i adjustment of status.
We had requested an interpreter for this client who did not speak fluent English.
And as soon as we sat down for the interview,
the officer got very nasty about us even using an interpreter
and told us we need one because “he's been here illegally
for 30 years and he knows English by now.” Of course, I objected.
It was my job and I protected my client
by making sure that we got an interpreter on the phone right away.
But this did not stop, throughout the interview the officer kept
emphasizing the word “illegal.” “You've been here illegally.”
You know, sometimes as an immigration attorney, we have to pick our battles.
For that, I decided to see how the officer would play out and to see
if she continued to make any other types of aggressive commenting.
She's at stop at a certain point.
Now, the third reason why an officer might be nasty
with you during your interview is simply because they're a nasty person.
You know, some people are nice and some people are not so nice
and some people are pro-immigrant, some people are anti-immigrant,
some people are just grouchy grouches who have no happiness in life
and they want to be miserable and take it out on the people
that they're interviewing, and because they might believe
it's also their job to be like that.
So sometimes there can be no rhyme or reason why they act nasty with you.
But for the fact that I have mentioned those two things previously about them
believing that you might have committed some sort of fraud and second,
because they're letting
their own personal opinions get in the way of behaving professionally.
Let's now talk about what you can do if this happens to you during your interview.
Number one, if your officer starts getting rude with you during your interview,
keep calm, do not get defensive, and answer the questions calmly.
The way you answer questions is extremely important,
even if the officer is getting aggressive or hostile with you.
If the officer is getting super nasty or starting to make derogatory comments
about your race, religion, ethnicity, or even your current immigration status,
you have the choice to ask them to speak to a supervisor.
This is actually better to do
if you have an attorney with you and the attorney makes that judgment call
because the attorney can actually speak to the supervising officer who is on duty.
But if you run into a situation where an officer starts getting aggressive,
you will have to make a judgment call yourself about whether it is better
to continue on answering the questions that are at hand
or to ask to speak to a supervisor and make a complaint.
My advice is really to just kind of see how the interview goes,
because in my experience, even with the nasty interviews
that I've had, those cases have still gotten approved.
And it's not always predictable how your case will be decided
just from the officer’s demeanor and their questioning during your interview.
Sometimes, no matter what they ask or how they ask, it is not an indication
of whether you will get denied or whether you will get approved.
I always think that the number one piece of advice that I could give
people is to have an attorney present with you during the interview.
While I do think that officers can still behave aggressively
and ask things in a rude and hostile manner,
I do believe that having an attorney present makes them a little bit less bold
and at the very least, an experienced attorney can help
protect your rights, just like I have done for so many of my clients
by preventing officers
from trying to get away with things that they were not allowed to do.
If you want my help in navigating your immigration case,
give our office a call at 212-248-7907 to see if we can give you a case evaluation.
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