Not allowed to attend K-1 interview?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

For the K-1 there is never an interview of the petitioner. It doesn't matter if you go, sit in the room or ot, you will not be interviewed. Maybe no one will.

I'm sorry to disagree with the excellent Gary, but the foregoing statements cannot be flatly made. It's gladdening to hear that interviews in Kiev have apparently been easy, but interviews elsewhere can be quite the opposite. In fact, the U.S. consulate in Ecuador ORDERS U.S. citizens to appear for interviews (if the citizens did not attend the foreigner's FIRST INTERVIEW), and these "interviews" are really Stokes interrogations. Furthermore, even when asked, the consulate has directly denied that the presence of the U.S. citizen is necessary or desirable at the first interview.

Tbone:

I will stand corrected. I am certainly not an expert of all consulates. Generally I use the guides and personal experience, and there generally is not a requirement for the petitioner to be at the interview at all. Sounds like Ecudor is difficult to deal with. I can say I have not heard the same about Bulgaria.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hello from Bulgaria. I don't know if that would help at all but when i was having an interview in October (denied tourist visa) there was this couple in the embassy and they were together at the interview. At the embassy in Bulgaria first you go trough passport check, security check and then you are let into the consular office (i am assuming that's what they ment by letting you in for the interview). Then you go to a clerk (bulgarian guy it was) who reviews your documents at first before they are passed to the consular officer. I didn't see much before i left but yes they were asking questions to the girl (bulgarian) and her fiancee was just staying there next to her. the interview is right there with the rest of the aplicants so you don't have much privacy. Our cases are very similar (i was denied a tourist visa too) and i am really hoping this won't be a problem but again we shall see.

Good luck in your journey

It is pretty much standard practice to deny tourist visas from eastern European countries. My wife (fiancee) was denied by the USA and Italy prior to our K-1 petition. If it is denied for general purposes (you are a Ukrainan, etc.) it has no effect on the K-1 process and it is not necessary to wait to petition the K-1.

[Lupy 0]

Hello from Bulgaria. I don't know if that would help at all but when i was having an interview in October (denied tourist visa) there was this couple in the embassy and they were together at the interview. At the embassy in Bulgaria first you go trough passport check, security check and then you are let into the consular office (i am assuming that's what they ment by letting you in for the interview). Then you go to a clerk (bulgarian guy it was) who reviews your documents at first before they are passed to the consular officer. I didn't see much before i left but yes they were asking questions to the girl (bulgarian) and her fiancee was just staying there next to her. the interview is right there with the rest of the aplicants so you don't have much privacy. Our cases are very similar (i was denied a tourist visa too) and i am really hoping this won't be a problem but again we shall see.

Good luck in your journey

Thank you very much for the first hand information. I will keep everyone posted on how this goes. I'm actually sending in my I-129F today! It's actually sort of a gigantic packet (we couldn't help ourselves, as we didn't want to leave anything out).

Thanks again for everyone's input!