What to bring to your USCIS interview: a court interpreter's checklist

Bring your appointment notice, your travel passport, your vital records with certified English translations, proof of your status, and the originals of everything you already submitted. Below is what Mikhail, a certified court interpreter who has sat through countless interviews, sees people need, forget and bring for nothing.

What to bring to every USCIS interview

• Your appointment notice. It is what gets you through the door of the USCIS office. If you forget the paper copy, an electronic copy on your phone is usually accepted, at least in the Los Angeles area. With no appointment confirmation at all, you may not be let into the building, and a no-show finding may lead to the denial of the benefit you are seeking.
• Your travel passport, the one you used to come to the United States. If it has expired and you have since received a new passport at the consulate or elsewhere, bring both.
• Vital records: marriage, divorce, name change, adoption and death certificates are always needed. The birth certificate, ironically, is not always asked for, but it is always a good idea to have it.
• A certified English translation of every foreign document.
• Proof of status: the asylum grant or the petition approval notice for a green card interview; the plastic green card itself for a citizenship interview, because you will hand it over and the officer will hole-punch it, cancelling it, when you naturalize.
• U.S. court records: if there are or were any proceedings against you in the United States, a court-certified disposition with the court's stamp is a must. You can get one at the clerk's window of the court where the case was heard, or from the court archive if it has been a while. If the record has been destroyed, the clerk will tell you so, and you can get a written confirmation of that from the court as well.
• Everything you already submitted, again. Documents may not have reached the officer, may not have been scanned properly or uploaded in full, or may have been lost along the way. Having everything and not using it is better than missing something and risking the outcome or a long delay.

Do you need your internal passport?

Usually not. The internal (domestic) passport puzzles many officers who are not familiar with countries that issue both a domestic and a travel passport: to them, a document used inside the country is an ID or a driver's license, and a passport is something you travel with. So when an officer asks for your passport, they mean your travel passport.

If your passport was lost or stolen, bring a police report or another document confirming the loss. That is secondary evidence, and it is very useful when the original is unavailable. A copy of the passport also helps, though the ideal is always the document itself.

Originals, copies and how to organize them

• Originals. One copy is a good idea; if you don't bring one, the officer will scan the original at the interview anyway.
• Folder or binder: whatever suits you. What matters is that the order is clear to you as you sit in front of the officer, so you are not searching for papers nervously.
• Do not staple or hole-punch documents. If the officer accepts paper, they will hole-punch it themselves, and these days everything is ultimately scanned and uploaded, so staples just mean extra work for the officer. Use paper clips if you must.

Phones, flash drives and email don't work

Flash drives, CDs and other storage devices cannot be accepted: for obvious security reasons, the government cannot insert a private person's drive into a government computer. Photos of documents on your phone cannot be used either, because they cannot be attached to your file. In 99% of cases you also cannot email the officer a missing document during the interview; in very rare situations, at the officer's sole discretion, an attorney has been allowed to do so, but that is an exception, not a practice. If you have an online USCIS account, you can upload missing documents to your application there.

Asylum interview (Form I-589)

• Your declaration in both languages. If you wrote it in Russian or another native language, bring the original-language version along with the English translation. Officers often want to see the original to make sure you wrote it yourself.
• Form I-589: not necessarily. But if you recently submitted a new, updated version, bring a copy so the officer can carry the updates over to the edition you originally filed.
• Evidence of the facts you claim: police and court documents about proceedings against you; medical records of the harm you suffered, including trauma unit records, discharge papers and medical notes. There is no need to bring X-ray, MRI or ultrasound images: officers are not doctors and cannot read them.
• Expert opinion letters and witness statements, usually accompanied by the author's ID or passport to confirm who wrote them.
• U.S. medical records confirming a diagnosis, especially a psychological one: bring the original, and if you submitted one before, a new, current letter confirming that treatment is ongoing or, if it has ended, how long it lasted and with what result.
• Timing: all documents must be received at least 14 days before the interview.

What to leave at home: education diplomas, course certificates, awards and other commendations. They are typically irrelevant, because asylum is not a merit-based process.

Green card and citizenship interviews

• Tax records: definitely, for green card and citizenship interviews (not for asylum).
• Medical exemption from the English test: the original and an updated note from your doctor.
• EB, O and P petitions: bring the entire approved case, printed in black and white, just in case. It will most likely not be needed, but it is safe to have if the officer wants to look at something in it.

Removal of conditions (I-751) together with citizenship

The I-751 often stays pending so long that people who are still married file for citizenship before it is decided. The interview then has two parts: before turning to the naturalization application, the officer reviews the new evidence that the marriage is still real and ongoing, and only then does the N-400 part begin. If the officer decides you cannot use your interpreter for the citizenship part (for example, because the residency requirement is not met or your medical documents are insufficient), the interpreter may still help with the I-751 part and possibly with the biographical and administrative questions, but must step out or stay silent during the citizenship test itself.

What people forget most often

• The appointment notice.
• The Russian or other original-language versions of documents, including declarations and letters.
• The military ID book or other military documents. Every page must be translated, including blank pages.

What if you don't have a document?

This is what many people won't tell you. It is not legal advice: an attorney can explain the difference between primary and secondary evidence. But here is what Mikhail sees people do in practice.

• Military ID book (never issued, lost or otherwise unavailable): contact the issuing authority, such as the military enlistment office, by email, by regular mail and by phone, all three. Each attempt leaves a trace. If they don't respond to you, your representative or a relative acting at your request, keep the records showing you made every effort. Then the missing document is not held against you, which is far better than doing nothing.
• Arrested but never charged: the court will have no record, and the police will not always give you a copy of the arrest or incident report. But the city or district attorney's office (in Los Angeles, the city attorney) will have a "D.A. reject" letter or a similar document confirming that no charges were filed.
• Court records: see U.S. court records above.
• Lost or stolen passport: a police report or, at worst, a witness affidavit confirming the loss.
• Asylum, if you may be presumed to be a citizen of another country or eligible for its citizenship: a letter from that country's consulate confirming you are not a citizen or not eligible may help. Alternatively, a printout of that country's nationality law setting out the criteria, with your attorney's letter explaining why you don't qualify.

Make sure every foreign document has a certified translation, see what interview day looks like at your office, and read what to do if your interpreter is late or doesn't come.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Mikhail Bogomolny

California-certified court interpreter (English–Russian) with 17+ years of experience in courts, immigration courts and USCIS interviews. Mikhail is not an attorney, and nothing on this site is legal advice.

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