MovieChat Forums > Green Card (1991) Discussion > The INS questioning

The INS questioning

posted 19 years ago by decolady
24 replies | jump to latest

The only thing I DIDN't like about this movie was when Bronte and George were separated and drilled with questions about each other, in order to "prove" that they knew each other because they were married.

I'm sorry, but I've known my husband for 6 years. We've lived together for two years, and have been married for one. He would NEVER know what kind of cold cream I used!!!! (which is NONE, by the way) I change products all the time. What kind of questions were those anyway??? And so WHAT if he said "I can't remember the answer to that" and the INS guy says "but...you remembered what to say for the other questions?" why did George panic??? why CAN'T he say "i don't know, or I don't remember" there are not very many husbands that would know stuff like that. I mean, SERIOSLY..."When is your wife's cycle??" jesus!!!

aside from that, I absolutely LOVE this movie.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bkvf_de 18 years ago

INS didnt do that sort of questioning when I married my husband, who is German. We had worried that it would be like the movie but it wasnt at all. The only thing they asked is how we met. We had only known each other a year so INS could have been a lot more suspicious than they were. I think the movie'S INS scene was exagerated quite a bit for effect.

[–] mousetress 18 years ago

What bothered me was that they lied to the INS & it was such obvious stuff, yet the agents never caught them in it - like the fact that Georges wasn't in Africa on safari. Wouldn't that be in his passport!?

And I totally agree that not knowing what brand cream your spouse uses was a dumb rationale for "catching" them in a "green card scam."

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] decolady 17 years ago

good point, dukegammal!

[–] Merlinfeather 18 years ago

I always thought that they picked up on the 'I don't remember the answer to that', implying that he'd memorised a list of answers. Normal married couples wouldn't know everything, and the very fact that he only got the one answer wrong is, in itself, suspect.

[–] Entgegengelaufen 18 years ago

I love this film , it's truly a delight.

I just cannot believe that there would even be any questioning like that , at all. I felt so sorry for the characters because the audience knows , before they go so far as to profess it to one another , that they love each other.
The questioning just irks me , the fact that they would keep two people apart , who love each other , because the husband forgot brands, dates , etc. Ridiculous. I would hope that they don't really question people like that. It seems so draconian.

"I detest cheap sentiment." - Margo Channing (All About Eve)

[–] mpdc_jonathan 18 years ago

It has been quite a few years now, but I am married to a foreign national. I met my wife during college and later after graduation she continued to work in this country on various visa's. It was then that we married. After her initial green card expired we were called down to INS for an interview similar to the movie.

Well maybe similar isn't the correct word. I remember watching the film on VHS a few days before going for the interview and I remember thinking, "what are they nuts, I don't know half of the crap they were asking (and by that time we had been married for a couple of years and dated for another one.)

Now I did bring about two photo albums along (I love to take pictures) and I think we also brought a copies of our checking account and such but the questions for me were nothing like what was protrayed in the film. More like, "is this correct?" on the various paper work (each different form requires a payment in excess of $100) that we filled out.

I kept expecting someone to ask me what type of face cream my wife used and I was fully expecting to tell them I didn't have the faintest clue. Even though I am not usually the chick flick type of person I will usually watch Green Card just because I saw the film just before going to one of those types of interviews.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] huggebear 18 years ago

The INS agents did not ask about what kind of cold cream Bronte used, or what her cycle was. The question that actually tripped George up was, "Where did you go for your honeymoon?" which is something your average married couple would definitely remember. But what really sealed their fate was when he said, "That's the only answer I keep forgetting."

[–] Isis5 18 years ago

No it wasn't about their honeymoon, the question was about her face cream "Monticello" and George replied "Monaco" then "No Montecarlo" then he said "that is the answer I keep forgetting".

[–] witchnicky-1 12 years ago

So THAT's what he says in the original!!

In the Italian dub he just says "I can never remember that", which makes no sense, as he could just have added something like "when she leaves me some shopping".

I still think that even the original line shouldn't have been so bad for Georges: what kind of loving husband doesn't try to learn every detail about his wife in order to stay with her??!! It's the questions themselves that force couples to study... -.-"

[–] decolady 17 years ago

well maybe you saw a sanitized version where mentioning a woman's cycle isn't "family friendly", but i assure you i've seen this flick about 10 times and they DO ask that question.

http://www.myspace.com/decolady

[–] liesl78 16 years ago

I thought the questioning was unreal. My husband and I married after dating for only 9 months and we thought the INS would be suspicious. They weren't. We've never been questioned anything like that and they didn't come to our house either - I wish they would have so they know our marriage is legit. We've been married almost 7 years now.

But, of course he had to blow the interview. They couldn't end up together - not in the US anyway. Can you imagine the backlash? People would say it's stimulating arranged marriages/illegal immigration, and stuff like that...

[–] fiveoaks 16 years ago

The INS was initially suspicious because he married at the point where his tourist visa expired. The suspicion escalated when they seemed nervous and awkward telling about how they met.

The request to use the bathroom wasn't intended to catch him not knowing the layout of the apartment - it was so that the INS could look in the medicine cabinet behind a closed and locked door to determine if there were two toothbrushes, male toiletries, shaving supplies etc. George knew the jig was up as soon as he asked, so not knowing the location wasn't the only problem with the request.

[–] witchnicky-1 12 years ago

They don't. Georges asks Bronte while they're studying... In case they ask. But in the end, they don't.

Which is silly, really, because of all things, that's probably the ONE thing a newly wedded husband would know: the week he can't have sex with his wife. =p

[–] havvailonna 17 years ago

They have to go for the questioning because they acted very suspicious during the first visit. The problem wasn't that he forgot the answer, but that he said he'd been trying to remember it. Even then he could have just said that he was nervous about the questioning and tryed to bone up a little and it probably would have been alright, so i agree that is annoying, but on the other hand I know lots of people who would panic in much less stressful situations.

[–] lipsynch70 16 years ago

I married my first husband in the 80s (he was from Russia) and we had to go through Canada to do his INS paperwork. By that time, he was already here illegally, his Visa had expired. There were many differences in the immigration laws back then I remember. Our interview asked several personal questions, so to me the film wasn't that far fetched. Maybe because it was in Canada--don't know.

[–] Corvallis40 15 years ago

What got them into the INS office to begin with was the fact that George didn't know where the bathroom was in the apartment. That made the marriage suspect, so the agent was already looking for a problem. When George didn't know the face cream (not sure of many husbands who would), he slipped and said that he kept forgetting it. The agent seized on that with the comment that he REMEMBERED the other answers. Instead of saying that he was nervous and wanted to know the answers so that he could stay with his wife, George basically gave the impression, "You got me....the jig is up." The agent then had grounds to try and deport him.

[–] rosarypliers 15 years ago

The whole thing was doomed from the start. Probably both parties did not take into account that the honest character of the marriage would be questioned by the INS. They should have made up the story about how they met in beforehand, just incase. And they should have used the short time they had before the INS people arrived to "fix the appartment". They could even look at the bathroom without explicitly demanding it (as they did in the movie) so it would be wise to place Georges' shaving supplies there. (We don't know if that guy owned a tooth brush, but he was always clean shaven, so he must have possessed something to shave with)...If the laundry hamper is in the bathroom, either empty it completely or throw in some male clothes.
If, for some reason, they would want to see the master bedroom, make it look like it was being used by two people, i.e. put some books or an alarm clock on both nightstands...
Of course, you always know better AFTERWARDS.
The INS people became suspicious for a good reason (Georges couldn't even remember the name of his wife) but the second interview was ridiculously detailed. Indeed, many married people don't know all that about their significant others. Of course, some do (some husbands even buy toiletries for their wives...) but it would be outrageous to claim that the many others who don't are living in a sham marriage.

[–] lipsynch70 15 years ago

Again, in the 1980's, when my husband and I were questioned we were asked detailed questions. Not that any single answer will give you away--it's an interrogation of sorts I guess.

[–] Captain_Bob 12 years ago

Although I agree the Immigration agents were way too anal and nosey (what kind of face cream? How the F should I know? When is her menstration? None of your F ing business) the blame for the failed Green Card test comes down mostly to Georges. He got too paranoid and offered up way too much fabricated information, like the "how we met" story with all the "parcels". Better to just keep it minimal and not embellish everything like that. He made many bad judgements on how to deal with those INS goons, like when he didn't know where the bathroom was he could have just told the guy "it's down the hall help yourself" without creating the revealing moment of not knowing exactly which door it was. Clumsy over-acting almost guaranteed they got caught.

[–] jefgg 10 years ago

It's a movie, not a documentary. And it's an "old" movie from 1990. INS questioning has probably changed a lot in 24 years.