When did you first meet your spouse, and where exactly were you?

“When did you first meet your spouse, and where exactly were you?” is a practice question about how you met 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?

This question may help the officer place the start of your relationship on a timeline. A date and a specific setting can explain whether you were already nearby or needed to travel to meet. The officer may also clarify whether your answer describes a remote conversation or the first time you met face to face.

What might the officer ask next?

• Were you together in person at that point?
• Which month and year do you remember?
• What was the name or location of the place where you met?

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?

Identify the city and the actual setting, not just the country where the meeting happened. For remote contact, recall where each person was and which service you used if you know. Keep the date of that contact separate from any later visit. You can check a relevant message or travel record before speaking, but if the day remains uncertain, say which part of the date you do remember.

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 how you met questions

• How did you and your spouse first meet?
• Who introduced you, or did you meet on your own?
• What was your first date, and what did you do together?
• How long after you met did you start dating seriously?
• What city and state or country was your spouse living in when you first met?
• What was your first impression of your spouse?
• Did your relationship involve any period of long-distance contact before you lived in the same place?

Read the how you met topic guide, or see all 91 interview questions.