Has your spouse visited your home country or hometown? When?

“Has your spouse visited your home country or hometown? When?” is a practice question about travel for a marriage-based green card interview at a USCIS field office. A real officer may ask it in other words, ask something else, or skip it. Practice can help you explain your own facts. It cannot tell you what USCIS will decide.

What is the officer checking with this question?

The officer may ask about a visit to your hometown or home country to understand your spouse's connection with your background. A visit may also provide context for meeting relatives or spending time with people who knew you earlier. The country and hometown are not always the same destination, so a follow-up may clarify which places your spouse actually visited.

What might the officer ask next?

• Which city or town did your spouse visit?
• About what month and year was the visit?
• Which relatives, if any, did your spouse meet there?
• Were you there with your spouse during that visit?

The next question usually comes from the words in your answer. If you name a person, a place, or a month, expect a question about it. The guide to green card interview follow-up questions explains how to practice past the first answer.

How do you prepare to answer it?

Separate visits to your country from visits to the town where you grew up. Recall whether you traveled together, when the visit happened, and which relatives your spouse actually met in person. Keep meetings from other trips out of this visit's description. If you know about a visit only because your spouse told you, make that distinction rather than claiming a personal memory of it. Leave uncertain dates approximate.

Answer from your own memory, in your own words. Do not learn a script or a sample answer. If your spouse remembers a detail differently, first check whether you mean the same event. Ask your lawyer about any concern with your forms or documents.

Can you practice this question out loud for free?

Yes. Choose "Answer it now, free". The officer asks this question first. You answer out loud, and the officer follows up on what you said. You can try 3 questions free, and you do not need documents. Feedback comes after the session, not while you speak.

More travel questions

• Have you traveled together since you met? Where did you go?
• Have either of you traveled abroad since filing your adjustment application?
• If you left the United States while your adjustment case was pending, what travel document did you use to return?
• When was the last trip you took as a couple, and how did you get there?
• Do you have any upcoming travel plans together?

Read the travel topic guide, or see all 91 interview questions.