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When my legit wife and I went to the green card interview, the examiner decided she didn't like my attitude. I'm assuming that's what tied up the case for 7 years. I think they forced a redo of the application three times with all updated documents. Seemed punitive and capricious.

Question: is our experience unique? Was it a mistake to hire a lawyer from the get go? We had friends who sailed through without an attorney in months.

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Yes, very unique and outrageous. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

For everyone, when ridiculous things like that happen, some options are to involve your local Congressional office (often issues like this are resolved when a Congressional office makes an inquiry, particularly on local matters) or to involve the USCIS Ombudsman (which surprisingly often yields positive results).

Nothing like small people with power over you. I always wonder what motivates people to behave like that but they do. Best of luck, I can't help you or have any knowledge about what to do but I hope you'll get through this. FWIW I was in Canada for a long time waiting for my immigrant status and eventually just gave up.

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