Cameroon Embassy

[cschwa 0]

Hello,

My wife's K3 visa interview at the Cameroonian embassy was on February 27th. This posting is long overdue but I was in Cameroon with no access to the internet. Arrived home a few weeks ago but we're still trying to adjust. I'll just write everything that I think will be helpful to future couples going through this particular embassy.

My wife and I arrived at the embassy about 30 minutes before they opened. They called everyone's name and let my wife and I into the area outside the embassy. Once we were sitting outside they called my wife's name to enter the embassy but refused to let me inside. So me being at the embassy did nothing. In fact, it never even came up during the interview that I was in the country.

My wife went into the embassy with a huge pile of paper for her K3 visa. The documents were seperated into three stacks; support documents, evidence, and CR1/K3 packets. Then I divided the packets into sections (such as pictures of traditional wedding, phone records, pictures of civil wedding). My wife told me that they called her to the window and quickly searched through the documents. They looked at the pictures closest. For a marriage to be legal in Cameroon you have to go through a traditional wedding (it is on the marriage certificate). They were definately searching for the pictures of our traditional wedding. She said the lady was very surprised to see so many documents of support. They asked her six questions:

1. Why are you going to America? To meet my husband.

2. Who is your husband? His name is Christopher.

3. Where did you see him? I saw him in Cameroon when he came for his research.

4. What was his research about? Anthropology.

5. Anthropology to become a what? To become an anthropologist.

6. When and where were you people married? We got married on the 3rd of June 2005 and it was at Kumbo high court.

Then they told her to give her passport and come back on Thursday. At this point I walked into the embassy to use the bathroom and she was sitting with a huge smile on her face. I knew she had got it!!! She came out and ran up to me and we just started shouting. She went back on Thursday and they gave her the passport with the visa in it.

I'm still a student so my father and mother acted as my cosponsors. So, they seemed to accept cosponsors for the K3 visa.

For anyone else going through this country I had a few problems along the way. First, no house numbers or official street names in the village my wife lived in. Looking back now I think the embassy probably understands this problem. Try to list a P.O. box of someone for the mail and then put a physical address the best you can. For us, the road is not officially named but people know it as the road to Shisong hospital. We just put Road to the hospital. Then her quarter has an official name but she does not have a house number. We just counted the houses before hers and put the number down. It became compound #4.

After we recieved the visa we flew about four days later. Since we have been back it has been quite an adjustment for her. She hates American food and will only eat plantains, coco yams, fu fu, fish, and certain cuts of meat. It is very funny since she was so excited to be eating American food. Luckily we have quite a few west African markets in Seattle so she won't go hungry. She has two cousins in Seattle and so many friends which has helped her so much. Still, it has been difficult for her to adjust to people not stopping by every five minutes (it is very boring for her at times). But everything so far has been going great.

So that's about it. Thanks everyone for all the help along the way. I know we still have so much to complete.

Chris

[felshen 0]

Congratulations!!! My husband too was interviewed and approved in Febuary although we went through Nigeria. He is in the adjustment precess as well ( he's been here since the 8th). good luck with the rest of your journey.

[iceyspots 0]

Hey awesome job congrats on your visa

Kinda weird about the addresses there!

[ForeverAmen 0]

Congratulations! I am so happy for you

[k_quandary 0]

Congratulations!!!!

K.

p.s. my hubby didn't like a lot of American food at first, but I think over time he has adjusted and now he's like "let's order pizza."

[chispas 0]

Congrats. A friend of mine told me there were some Banso people living in Seattle, so maybe she'll run into them some day. The greatest part is that you two were able to travel together and that can be a logistical nightmare with the embassies. Before you know it, the American food will creep in and she won't even know that she's started to adjust. Congrats again to both of you.