Green Card Interview - Do Your Homework So You Don't Mess Up The Green Card Interview Questions

If you are nervous about your green card by marriage interview you are not alone. Several thousand other people are feeling the way you do right now. The truth is that several legitimate spouses face a more forceful interview than ever to make sure the USA is protected from individuals that may want to cause harm to the country and its people.

Of course, if you are reading this I'm confident you are an authentic loyal resident who simply needs a bit more self-confidence for interview day. That's all right and by reading this article you will hopefully pick up a lot of information that will help you and cut your stress levels a couple of degrees.

It is worth remembering what is at stake on interview day. Ultimately the worst case scenario is refusal by the I.N.S to hand out a green card to the interviewee. What repercussions' would this have on your marriage, children (if you have some), future plans, job prospects etc? A scary thought isn't it?
Your interviewing officer will be very well trained and will take this interview very seriously. It is very important that you think of it the same way and don't be complacent in any way.

The questions you will be asked will cover a broad spectrum of you and your spouses' private life. The aim of the interview is to ensure that the marriage is not a fraud and that you have a legitimate right to obtain citizenship.

You will be asked open questions. An open question requires more than a yes or no answer. The first questions are likely to focus on the time ahead of your marriage and are likely to include the circumstances of your first meeting, what month did you first meet, who introduced you, how long after did you go out on your first date, where did you go, who met each others family first,

The next set of questions will concentrate on the time leading up to your marriage and the marriage service itself. Several of the questions you will be asked will be related too, who proposed, where did it happen, was the engagement ring bought before the proposal, did you have any financial assistance for the wedding or honeymoon, if so who assisted you, how many guests attended, did you have a reception after the ceremony,

To finish, you will be asked questions about your residence. Common questions are what side of the bed do you sleep on, who wakes first in the morning, what are the housing costs for your home, how many televisions do you have in the home, what is the color scheme in the lounge, what day does the refuse get taken away, where do you routinely do your food shopping, what did you do yesterday evening, what did you eat yesterday evening, etc

Please don't forget to take all ID requested of you for the interview. It will aid the process a lot if the interviewing officer has documented evidence that clearly shows a legitimate marriage which is the complete point of the interview.

The green card interview is vital to your future happiness so make certain you are as well prepared as you can possibly be. How would you feel if you failed the interview because you didn't do everything to get ready?

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Do You Know How to answer behavioral interview questions?

When you get enough qualification then the next step that you have to take is to get a job that can give you personal and professional satisfaction. It is important for success. But before getting any good job you have to go through an interview. Here you may be bombarded with some difficult questions but with a little intelligence and deep patience these difficult questions can be answered very easily. For this, you need to know how to answer behavioral interview questions . In such questions you are cross checked with your behavioral qualities. Here are some points that should be included in the personality when anyone goes through an interview. These will definitely prove to be helpful. You can answer such question with:

• • Confidence: it is a key factor that is counted first. If you don't have this, you can't grab the opportunity. It is important to involve it in the behavior. Confidence is all about destroying your fear of interview or job or anything. You can read any motivational book or can take inspiration from famous people for this. Your confidence will let the interviewer to believe in you. It helps win his faith and also tells about your potential to handle any situation.

• • Eye contact: know how to answer behavioral interview questions and these can be answered properly by making eye contact with the interviewer. You can make people to believe in you through this attribute. Through eye contact you can keep the interviewer alert. He will listen to you more attentively. It's important. Eye contact will reflect your confidence and leaves a good impact over the mind of the people. It also shows that you have good knowledge about the topic. You can make others comfortable too.

• • Honesty: it is well said that honesty is the best policy. When you are asked with any sharp question like why you leave your previous job or any others then stay honest and give them solid reason and clear your point of view it will be better to clear your side rather than just giving a reason. The interviewer can get impress with this quality and to succeed in any profession it's important also.

• Communication skills: Communication skills are also important to know How to answer behavioral interview questions . Every company wants to keep such people in their team who can mix up easily and can create a positive aura. Communication skills are noticed very much so when the interviewer asks questions stay cool and think before speaking anything. Besides this, a good smile is also important.

These few skills can play important role if adopted during interview. Positive and optimistic approach is also necessary for winning the heart of the interviewer.


Article source: articlebase.com

How To Conduct A Telephone Screening Interview?

More and more employers are using telephone interviews for their initial screening of candidates. Job candidates should be prepared for such interviews just as they would for an interview in person. In other words, they should:

• Be ready to interpret and sell every achievement noted on their resumes.
• Have available a clear, appealing outline of their research, if they are graduate students or practicing scientists.
• Offer a well-rehearsed presentation of their work and academic achievements.
• Understand their goals, abilities, skills, and developmental needs, and their expectations of an employer.

A telephone interview can be a relaxed and effective experience. In some ways, it can be more comfortable and natural than a face-to-face interview, especially if you have access to a speaker telephone to free your hands for note taking.
Telephone interviews have other advantages. Interviewers and candidates can schedule the interview based on their mutual convenience - conducting only morning interviews, for example, if that is their best time. They can also avoid back-to-back interviews, and concentrate more closely on each interview, increasing likelihood of success.
A telephone-screening interview operates as follows:
Set the stage. Contact the candidate by e-mail or telephone to explain the job opening, elicit the candidate's interest, and schedule a screening interview to occur within the next three business days.
Conduct the interview. A good interviewer starts on time, stays on time, and ends on time. Since you and the candidate have already met once by telephone, the usual small talk to get an interview rolling may be kept brief.
The outline of the interview. Use the candidate's resume to formulate specific lines of questions, and take notes during the interview to document key information. Research by the National Association of Colleges and Employers and by Dr. William Swan, a leader in interviewer training, advises probing a candidate's background in the following order:

1. Work experience. For a new graduate, spend about 25 percent of the time on this topic; for an experienced candidate, up to 50 percent. The work history may consist of summer and part-time jobs dating back to high school. Start at the beginning but spend most of the time exploring recent experience. Try to learn what the candidate actually accomplished, liked or disliked, and learned in each job. If teamwork was involved, determine the candidate's role. How were obstacles overcome? Your goal is to grasp the candidate's various talents, growth in experience, productivity, interests, and transferable skills. Since undergraduate and graduate research, as well as cooperative assignments, are part of education, many recruiters include those topics as part of the discussion about education.
2. Education. For a new graduate, devote 30-35 percent of the time to education; for an experienced candidate, perhaps 20-25 percent. Start with college, including how the candidate selected his or her institution and major. Explore areas of academic achievement, interest, and challenge. Include extra-curricular activities. If the candidate is a new Ph.D. or a postdoctoral scientist, request a fifteen-minute review of graduate (and postdoctoral) research. This is a challenge but can go smoothly if the candidate truly owns the research. Be politely firm about limiting the presentation's time. This is an opportunity to measure the candidate's output, creativity, independence, drive, maturity, and, sometimes, the direct applicability of the work to a current job opening.
3. Outside activities. Productive people have scant free time. How they spend it can reveal their deep-seated values. These may include desire for advancement, autonomy, balanced life, challenge, security, and service to some important goal. An interviewer who devotes 10 percent of the time to explore outside activities and their meaning to the candidate can often gauge how the candidate's values are aligned with the employer's.
4. Self-assessment. Now test your impressions of the candidate. Ask the candidate to state three leading strengths and, for each, give an example of how that strength led to a success. As you listen, check what you hear against your impressions. Next, ask what specifically the candidate is doing for self-improvement, to advance to a higher level of performance. Investing 8-10 percent of the interview this way can reveal much about the candidate's maturity and ambition. Conclude your part of the interview by asking if the candidate wants to bring up anything else. If so, cover it quickly. Then ask, as your last question, what the candidate wants to do next in a job and what he or she wants from it. Now invite the candidate to present questions to you.
5. Candidate's questions. Candidates want jobs where they can succeed and employers where they can be happy and fulfill their goals. Their questions are important to them. Allot 10-15 percent of the time to address them. If, at this point, you are trying to attract the candidate, give truthful and enthusiastic answers to persuade him or her to come for a site interview. Otherwise, give truthful but matter-of-fact answers. Every candidate deserves respect and should feel treated fairly. If they don't work for you, they will likely work for a supplier, customer, or competitor. You want their good will, no matter what.
6. Conclusion. Briefly explain what comes next in the review process and when to expect a reply. Thank them for investing their time with you, then hang up. Finally, complete your interview report while the information and impressions are fresh.

The telephone interview is an invaluable tool to the recruitment process. The primary advantage of telephone interviewing is cost-effectiveness: you can screen a wide pool of candidates and select the right few to invite back for a site interview. Another advantage is timeliness, when you are trying to fill immediate openings. While the telephone interview lacks the benefits of seeing candidates in person and assessing them visually, by listening carefully you can still make confident predictions of future performance from your evaluations

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Job Interview Body Language - 6 Things You Can Say To Get The Job Without Speaking a Word

Job interviews are your opportunity to communicate to the prospective employer why they should hire you. During a face to face job interview, you want your spoken words to match your unspoken words. And gestures and facial expressions can say a lot. Your overall presentation, which includes your body mannerisms, can be just as important as the verbal answers you give during your face to face job interview.
If you want your body to say:

1. "I am interested..." Lean forward a little with your head slightly tilted when the interviewer is speaking, particularly about the company, the job description and duties. This can show the interviewer that you are 'physically' listening and interested in what is being said. This is also an opportunity to show you know the importance of your listening skills and using your 2 ears over your 1 mouth.

2. "I am comfortable..." Have a genuine smile. A fake, plastered on smile just won't do. Imagine how good you will feel your first day on the job or after receiving your first check. That is the smile you want to convey during your face to face job interview.

3. "I am trustworthy..." Maintain good eye contact. It is an opportunity to establish trust with the job interviewer. But, be careful to avoid intense eye contact. Instead, aim to maintain eye contact about 75% of the time.

4. "I am happy for this opportunity and I appreciate your time..." Give a firm hand shake at the start of the interview and at the end of the interview, if your culture allows. Think of your handshake as a piece of uncooked spaghetti, as opposed to a wet noodle.

5. "I am alive and energetic..." Use hand gestures to express yourself . But only to bring home certain points or for emphasis. Don't overdo it. You don't want to look like a spastic chicken.

6. "I am confident, prepared and alert..." Sit up straight with your shoulders back . Do not sit with your arms folded across your chest or with your hands. Instead you want to exhibit a an 'open' posture. Sit still and do not fidget. You do not want to make your interviewer sea-sick.

Your self- awareness of your job interview body language can be uncovered through the practice of your nonverbal communication skills prior to your next job interview. You can practice in the mirror, with a friend or family member or video tape yourself to see how you will really come across to the job interviewer.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Second Job Interview Preparation

It's becoming increasingly common to have a second job interview these days and sometimes even a third or fourth!

Since it can be very costly to train new hires, companies want to prevent wasting money on employees who are less than suitable for the position. They prefer taking more time in the selection process than hiring the wrong person!

Many companies will put prospective employees through as many as three interviews routinely, reducing the number of applicants in each round, down to as few as two or three jobseekers for the final round of interviews.

For government positions, this may be far more complex, consisting of as many as 7 interviews!
The first round will be a very typical sort of interview. Applicants who do not meet the criteria of the employer will not being asked back for the second job interview.

The second round of interviews and all interviews which follow will examine the qualifications of applicants in more depth, with the following areas being assessed.
o Intellectual capacity - the intelligence of the applicant will be evaluated, generally by using aptitude tests which are relevant to the position.
o Personality or psychological summary - This is meant to assess the professionalism and suitability of the applicant for the position.
o Motivation - the determination of the candidate needs to be evaluated.
o Management ability - this is to determine the capabilities of the candidate to cope with the workload of other employees and their ability to delegate.
These are the criteria which will you will usually be evaluated on in multiple interviews. Fortunately, you can prepare for most of these ahead of time.

Article Source: ezinearticles.com

Interview Preparation - How to Create Your Unique Brand

Almost every article - or career coach - will tell you that in order to do well in an interview - and to ultimately get the job offer, you must "Be Prepared." But what if you don't know how to prepare?
- "What does prepared look like?"
- "How do I know what they are going to ask?"
- "How can I make them I hire me?"
- "What if I'm not REALLY qualified or able to do this job?"
These are common concerns and questions - but where do you find the answers?
Tough Job Market
You are more than aware that you are in a tough job market and that you will have to do something to make yourself stand out from the rest of the crowd. You realize that you are competing against the odds.
The question is, "How can you make yourself stand out when there are so many other candidates looking at the same job?"
The answer is: "BRAND YOURSELF."
Branding
This is what companies do when they want to sell something - they use whatever methods necessary to tell the customers who they are, what they do and how they do it - they "brand" the product.
"How do I brand myself? I'm not a product?"
This is one of the main secrets of successful preparation. Begin to think of yourself as a product. What this means is that you have to discover What Makes You Unique - and to begin thinking of yourself like a product.
Effective branding used in the interview is the same as in business. It is telling the customer (in this case the interviewer) who you are; what you can do and have done in he past (your unique qualities); and why they should buy (hire you).
Call For An Interview
Let's assume that you have an outstanding resume and that you make it to the top of the stack of resumes of people to be called for an interview.
First of all, Congratulations on getting this far.
The problem is that You - and maybe nine or ten other equally qualified people for the position will receive that same call.
Because companies have so many candidates to choose from they are interviewing more people so that they can select the "best." Are you the best? You had better be prepared to prove that you are the best by letting the interviewer know what makes you unique and what you can do for them, what you will bring to the position.
When you are lucky enough to be invited to an interview it is essential that you be ready to sell yourself - to let the interviewer know what makes you unique - what makes you a "remember-able" person? What added value you can bring to the position?
In other words, why YOU are the best person for the job?
Your goal is to leave behind an impression of you and your "brand."
Preparation
By doing some basic preparation, you can determine your uniqueness and where you should focus your attention. You can discover your "brand."
The first step in this process is to identify the points you have to offer - the combination that makes you Unique.
This should be a combination of your education, experience and any special training or certifications you may have, as well as your area of expertise, your strengths, and your personal traits.
You can put your statement together by listing all of these qualities and then summarizing them into a concise statement to present to the employer when any of the standard questions come up.
- "Tell me about yourself."
- "What makes you unique?"
- "What can you bring to this position that the other candidates can or can't?
- "What are you strengths?"
- "Tell me something about you that will make me remember you after you leave the interview."

You can develop the answers to these questions by using "5 points" to use during the interview. If you use your five fingers to keep focused you can jog your memory if you forget what you were going to say due to being nervous.

Point #1 - Your education and years of experience. (More experienced persons will talk mainly about experience and not education.)

Point #2 - Your area of expertise - or what you know a lot about. (For less experienced people you will have to rely on classes or courses you've taken).

Point #3 - Your strength - this is usually a trait that you can use in any job. In other words, a general trait. (Communication, Relating to Others, Analytical Problem Solving, Determination, Adaptability).

Point #4 - Your work ethic or work style (This is what coworkers would say to describe you).

Point #5 - Something interesting about you (A hobby, something that you volunteer to do, a sport or arts interest. If you can think of something that relates to the job you are applying for that would be a plus).
By summarizing what you have to offer in a methodical way, you will be less apt to wander or forget what you intended to say.

Regardless of the method you use - you should be prepared. It will make a difference in the way that you present yourself and in your being able to talk openly - without being modest about what you have to offer. You will be able to tell the interviewer why they should hire YOU - and what makes you unique.
In fact, preparation will help you in ALL your interactions - social, business, and your day-to-day life. The more you know yourself and are will to talk openly about yourself the more comfortable you will be in talking about yourself - to anybody.

Article Source: ezinearticles.com

Samples of Thank You Letters of Appreciation - No Need to Struggle With Your Thank Yous

Samples of thank you letters of appreciation can help when you're wanting to write an appreciation letter or a thank you note, and you find it hard to express on paper what you're feeling inside.
Perhaps your friend, family member, employee, teacher or colleague has achieved a great accomplishment and you would like to let them know how much they are appreciated for a job well done.
Other reasons for writing thank you letters of appreciation are:
Interview Follow-up
Volunteers
Personal Favors
Recommendations
Sympathy
Helpful deeds or advice
Maybe you've received a financial gift or a substantial contribution of some kind and you would like to show your gratitude, but you need to see samples of thank you letters of appreciation in order to help you express outwardly the thoughts within your mind and heart.
The following are good samples of thank you letters of appreciation:
"Dear Mrs. Mason:
We would like to express our appreciation for your incredible service as a member of the Local YMCA. The contributions you have made to our local branch over the past year have been invaluable to us.
We wish you much success in all your endeavors.
Sincerely,
Mary Jones, Administrator"
Another example of a thank you letter of appreciation would be:
"Dear Uncle Jonathan:
Just a note to let you know how much we are grateful for your lovely card. Your thoughtfulness towards us at this time of sadness in our life has been so comforting.
You will hear from us again once we've gotten through all of this.
With all our love,
John and Samantha"
Basic guidelines for writing appreciation letters are to be always concise, sincere and warm. In other words state what you are appreciative for and briefly state the reason why. Write your appreciation letter within a few days of receiving whatever deed of kindness occurred. Remember, personal notes should be handwritten and business letters should be typed on letterhead stationary.
If you search online, you're sure to find great samples of thank you letters of appreciation for your own personal or business needs - just make sure the interpretation is your own, and that you convey what is real and sincere.

Article Source:EzineArticles.com