How do you prepare for a USCIS Marriage Green Card interview?

November 25, 2025

At your marriage-based green card interview, a USCIS officer will investigate the legitimacy of your marriage (ensure that it is bona fide). USCIS officers will use both evidence, such as bank statements and a marriage certificate, as well as your answers to the questions in the interview, to decide on your case.

The first step of preparing for your interview is collecting the proper documents and evidence to bring with you to the interview.

Evidence is essential in marriage-based immigration cases, and the officer will want to see the documentary evidence you provided in your application. You should bring paper (printed) versions of all of the documents and evidence that you submitted to USCIS with your I-130/I-485 applications. Make sure to bring the original versions of the evidence you submitted with your initial application, such as your official birth certificate, original marriage certificate, passports, IDs, and prior divorce documents, if applicable.

In addition to the original evidence, you can provide further evidence at your interview. This means that, for example, you should bring updated documents such as recent bank statements, utility bills, IDs with the same address, new insurance policies with both your spouse as a beneficiary, new photos, and birth certificates if you have had children after submitting your application.

You can learn more about the kinds of evidence you can include in your application here.

The next step in preparing for your interview is meeting with your spouse to review important dates in your relationship and marriage.

This can include the day that you met, began dating, got engaged, and were married. Some of these dates can be less exact in your memory than others. For example, if you met your spouse at a mutual friend’s wedding, but you saw each other again at a dinner with friends a few weeks later, one of you might forget which one was actually your first meeting. These are important details to discuss with your spouse before you go to the interview. Make sure that you both remember the timeline of your relationship clearly.

The next step in preparing for your interview is to review common marriage interview questions.

Many questions in the interview can get quite personal, and the interviewer will likely ask you very specific details about you and your spouse. There are some general questions that you should ensure you know, like birthdays, anniversaries, and other factual information about your spouse. You should also know this information about their immediate family, such as your spouse’s parents’ names, and the names of your spouse’s friends.

You should also prepare for questions about the layout of your home, your daily routine, and any other information that couples in a marriage together and who live together would know. For example, you may need to remember how your living room is laid out, how many windows you have in your

Stokes Interview

Sometimes, if a USCIS officer notices a red flag in your relationship, or if you have an inconsistency during your interview (and sometimes just at the discretion of the officer), you will be separated from your spouse, and you will be interviewed separately. In each individual interview, you will be asked the same questions, and the interviewer will check if your answers are the same. This is called a Stokes interview. These interviews can be intimidating, and you and your partner should be prepared for the possibility of this form of interview. After you each answer questions, you will have the chance to explain any discrepancies in your answers.

At our firm, we offer interview preparation for our clients who are applying for green cards based on marriage. We understand that there is a wide range of questions that couples can be asked during the interview and that it is essential that couples come prepared. Our interview preparation includes mock USCIS interviews, document review, and an assessment of your interview answers. If you are interested in learning more about our interview preparation process or if you would like to hire us for interview preparation, please contact us.