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K-1 Visa Approved - Managua, Nicaragua Consulate

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Nicaragua
Timeline

Hello to all you fellow K-1 visa journeyers. This post is meant to be words of encouragement for all of you, as well as specific advice for those of you who are interviewing in Managua, Nicaragua. After a long process with many odds stacked up against us, we were APPROVED!!!

Terry and I began our visa journey when we submitted our petition in May 2011. See our timeline for more specific dates between that and our interview, which was scheduled on November 18th 2011 (about 6 months later). A week before the interview, I was reading forum posts here on visa journey, and I realized that many said that being at the interview with your fiancee/e made could be the difference between getting approved or not. I was struck by how obvious this seemed, while USCIS nor the State Department had never said anything about both parties being present. When I thought about it though, I realized that - the interviewer is mostly looking to see if the relationship is real - so of course it is extraordinarily beneficial for them to see you two together. I was fortunate enough to be able to book a last-minute ticket from Colorado to Managua using airline miles, so I went to the interview. I am not sure if we would not have been approved if I had not been there, but I do think that it provided a MAJOR advantage. I don't think the interviewers would have been nearly as nice if I hadn't been there (I watched them interact with other visa applicants who were by themselves). Also, they gave Terry forms to fill out in English, and he would not have been able to do it without me there to help him.

So here is how the process went:

  • We arrived at the US embassy at about 7:00 in the morning, before they opened. A guard was outside taking names down on a list, so we got to be one of the first on to the list to enter. Once the consulate opened at 7:30, we were invited to open the medical envelope so the guard could see the contents, and then stand in a short line to get through security. They do indeed have you leave EVERYTHING at the security checkpoint (no food, water, cell phones, chapstick, etc allowed inside - but don't worry, there is a drinking fountain in the waiting room!).
  • Once we were inside, we were given a number and asked to be seated in a room with about 50 chairs, all facing the interview windows (there are about 8 of them). Due to this set up, there is no privacy whatsoever - you are standing up, speaking through thick glass to the interviewer, to whom you pass your documents under the window. We watched as other applicants were accepted and denied.
  • When we were first called up (about 40 minutes later), we were called up by our number. The interviewer, a friendly Nicaraguan woman, took our documents, scanned the passport photos (MAKE SURE YOU BRING OFFICIAL PASSPORT PHOTOS - the face must be big enough, and they must not be to dark!), she entered various pieces of information from them into the computer, asked us questions (like how/when/where did we meet? & How long after we met did we start a relationship?), and then she asked us to pay at the cashier window and bring the receipt back. She also had Terry fill out another form, similar to the ones we filled out to begin the process - pretty simple, but only in English. She then asked us to take a seat, and listen for Terry's name. She kept our documents and evidence with her.
  • About 45 minutes later we were called up to a different window. This time the interviewer was an American woman - fairly young, bleach blonde with tattoos on her wrist!. She was very nice, but also had a very serious tone. She asked us all the same questions that the Nicaraguan interviewer did. She also carefully thumbed through the evidence that we had brought - she seemed mostly interested the photos and cards (we had a series of email exchanges available to read, letters from friends, letters from my employers, bus tickets from trips we've taken together, tourist cards and plane tickets from my visits to him, etc).
  • Another bit of information she scrutinized were the deportation documentation from Terry's deportation from the US in 2006. I had filed for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to have his documents released to me - which stated that he had a 5 year bar against his re-admission to the United States. That five years had just passed in October. The interview looked carefully at all of these documents.
  • Finally, she told us that they needed just one more form but that we "shouldn't worry". Perhaps it was only because Terry had been deported before, but she told us we had to go get a form from "migracion" - its a form that states when Terry had entered and exited Nicaragua. Apparently they use this form to see if he has attempted to enter the US again since his deportation.
  • We left immediately and went straight for the migracion office, hoping to be able to return later that day with the necessary document (for this, you can walk-in - no appointment needed). The place we went to get the form was a mad house, and after waiting around for about 45 minutes Terry was told that he should come back a week later for the form! We were hugely disappointed because I had to leave before we'd be able to get the form. I left Nicaragua a couple of days later without knowing whether or not we would be approved!
  • A week later, Terry went to pick up the migration form and returned to the consulate with it in hand. Terry says that after looking at the document she asked, "Where is your fiancee, why isn't she here?" He told her I had to go back to Colorado because I had to work. She then said, "Well that's to bad... its unfortunate she's not here to hear the good news: YOUR APPROVED!"
  • Terry thanked her profusely and gave her his passport which he could go pick up a week later at BANCENTRO with his Visa stamped in it, which he did.
  • As I write this, I am waiting for his plane to arrive in Colorado. Hopefully he passes the immigration point smoothly today. We are so excited!!

I want to give a few words of encouragement to those of you who are in this process and are worried about the various factors that might play against you. I was so worried the whole time that we would not get approved because of many things I thought would stand in our way... a few of those were:

  • The fact that I have relatively low income ($20K per year when we started, up to $30K per year by the time we went to the interview - barely enough to sponsor a fiance)
  • The fact that Terry had been deported before for crossing illegally five years ago and being in the US for just two days before being discovered.
  • The fact that I had no money to spend on a lawyer - we did the ENTIRE process ourselves (with advice from friends)

So if you are up against any of the above challenges, just know, that it IS possible!!!! You can do it, and you will. Your love will not be divided by the strong arm of US Immigration laws. Good luck to you!!!

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Nicaragua
Timeline

Congratulations! and thanks so much for your story!! :)

*Our K-1 Journey*

*11/7/11 - Sent I-129F Packet

*11/10/11 - Packet delivered to Dallas Lockbox

*11/16/11 - NOA1 Text/Email & Check Cashed

*11/19/11 - NOA1 Hardcopy Received (Notice Date 11/14/11)

*03/28/12 - NOA2 Text/Email (Notice Date 03/27/12)

*04/02/12 - NVC Recieved Package

*04/04/12 - NVC Sent Package to Embassy

*04/17/12 - Embassy emailed Packet 4 to me

*04/21/12 - USPS Interview Binder to Carlos

*04/26/12 - Carlos Medical Exam

*04/27/12 - Carlos receive Interview Binder from me

*05/04/12 - Carlos Interview 8:00 AM (Has to return with two more documents)

*05/14/12 - Carlos return to embassy with missing documents - VISA APPROVED

*05/18/12 - Carlos picks up VISA at Embassy

*05/19/12 - POE MIAMI

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ecuador
Timeline

This will help others who are interviewing in Managua, si man, and it reinforces the wisdom that it's often crucial for the petitioner to be there for the FIRST interview. Congratulations, si man!

06-04-2007 = TSC stamps postal return-receipt for I-129f.

06-11-2007 = NOA1 date (unknown to me).

07-20-2007 = Phoned Immigration Officer; got WAC#; where's NOA1?

09-25-2007 = Touch (first-ever).

09-28-2007 = NOA1, 23 days after their 45-day promise to send it (grrrr).

10-20 & 11-14-2007 = Phoned ImmOffs; "still pending."

12-11-2007 = 180 days; file is "between workstations, may be early Jan."; touches 12/11 & 12/12.

12-18-2007 = Call; file is with Division 9 ofcr. (bckgrnd check); e-prompt to shake it; touch.

12-19-2007 = NOA2 by e-mail & web, dated 12-18-07 (187 days; 201 per VJ); in mail 12/24/07.

01-09-2008 = File from USCIS to NVC, 1-4-08; NVC creates file, 1/15/08; to consulate 1/16/08.

01-23-2008 = Consulate gets file; outdated Packet 4 mailed to fiancee 1/27/08; rec'd 3/3/08.

04-29-2008 = Fiancee's 4-min. consular interview, 8:30 a.m.; much evidence brought but not allowed to be presented (consul: "More proof! Second interview! Bring your fiance!").

05-05-2008 = Infuriating $12 call to non-English-speaking consulate appointment-setter.

05-06-2008 = Better $12 call to English-speaker; "joint" interview date 6/30/08 (my selection).

06-30-2008 = Stokes Interrogations w/Ecuadorian (not USC); "wait 2 weeks; we'll mail her."

07-2008 = Daily calls to DOS: "currently processing"; 8/05 = Phoned consulate, got Section Chief; wrote him.

08-07-08 = E-mail from consulate, promising to issue visa "as soon as we get her passport" (on 8/12, per DHL).

08-27-08 = Phoned consulate (they "couldn't find" our file); visa DHL'd 8/28; in hand 9/1; through POE on 10/9 with NO hassles(!).

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  • 2 months later...

Congrats.. I am happy that you are finally through with this process.. I filed for i130 for my spouse and step child on february 15th and is patiently waiting to have her by my side, we have a 18 month old baby girl who is here with me in the US, and I just need my wife next to me, I hope we share the same luck as you did.. as I am worried that my wife may be denied because she overstayed her C1 visa by four months...

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  • 1 year later...
Filed: Other Country: Nicaragua
Timeline

Thanks for the info. On the off chance you are still reading these replies, I would like to ask a few more questions about Managua. I will have my interview there in the next month or so.

Congratulations!

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