Colombia Club

[lucho562 0]

Congrats Bill!!!!!

[Mononoke28 135]

Congratulations Bill!!!

Diana

[Andres and Diana 0]

CONGRATULATIONS!! Im soooo happy for you Bill! Please do go out and Celebrate!

[NArocks 13]

Great news Bill.

[santamartachicago 0]

:dance: :dance: :dance: OMG!!! We've been approved!!!!!!!!! I did the RFE trick and vioala!! Min (the immigration officer) helped pushed it through for me!! OMG!!! I cant believe it!!! Now What?????? I'm drawing a blank with what I am supposed to do at this point...I just cant believe it!!!! :dance: :dance: :dance:

Congratulations!

Now your approved petition will go to the NVC where they will assign your a case # and then send it to the embassy.

You need to start reading (if you haven't done so already) the instructions on what how to get packet 3 faxed to the embassy in order to get packet 4 faster and not have them lose your paperwork.

Your fiancée can also start looking into getting all other documents ready, Registro Civil de Nacimiento, Partida de Bautismo, Certificado Judicial & Carta Migratoria.

Meanwhile you can start gathering your tax documents, letter of employment and paystubs or have your co-sponsor do so if you're using one.

Good luck!

Diana

CONGRATS ANDRES & DIANA...I wish God Blessing for you both now and forever more.

GOD BLESS!!!

[santamartachicago 0]

Good news! We were approved. The interview was a breeze. I will post the details later. I am trying to book flights now.

Thanks to everyone who wished us luck!

That is wonderful news...Congratulations!!!

I pray God continue to shower you both with his love, blessings, and grace.

Outstanding news

GOD BLESS

[Osita 0]

Congratulations

Good news! We were approved. The interview was a breeze. I will post the details later. I am trying to book flights now.

Thanks to everyone who wished us luck!

[margara&john 0]

Congratulations

Good news! We were approved. The interview was a breeze. I will post the details later. I am trying to book flights now.

Thanks to everyone who wished us luck!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

[CamyCar 0]

Great things keep happening at Colombia Club!

Congrats Diana. I am sure you and Andres are flying high tonight! Everything is lightening speed from here on in, so tighten your seatbelt. I am very happy for you.

Bill and Bella, great job. I knew it would be a breeze for you. You have always been well prepared. We are happy for you and look forward to your complete report!

Cameron & Carina

[faith11 0]

CONGRATULATIONS BILL AND BELLA

[Bill y Bella 0]

Here is the summary of the interview today.

• We arrived at about 6:30. There were a lot of people in line 1 but only about 20 in line 3 which is where the K1´s line up.
• Shortly after we arrived two embassy employees (who spoke english only) worked their way down the line.
• The first one seemed to be affiliated with Domesa (the delivery service the embassy uses to deliver the visas). He added a sticker to the passports and gave us the Domesa forms to be used later.
• The next employee inspected the interview letter and applied green stickers to our shirts. From this point all of our stops were identified with green signs.
• At 7:00 we were allowed to pass through the first gate. We waited inside the gate for just a few minutes and then we were sent through a security check point where they screened bags etc. If you have something they don´t want you to have such a cell phone with a camera you can check it there and pick it up on your way out.
• After that we continued down the sidewalk to the next checkpoint where they looked at the passports again.
• Next we came to the gate for the interior covered embassy courtyard where all the interviews take place. You will never actually enter a building throughout the entire process. As we passed through that gate we were directed to an area where we got in line at booth 40 (which is actually more of a cart than a booth) to receive the folder for our documents. They asked for the appointment letter again before they gave us the folder. The folder has the order of documents attached which is slightly different than the one that is provided in package 3 and package 4. Since we were applying for 3 visas (Bella and 2 kids) we were given 3 folders. We were told to enter all the required documents other than proof of relationship in the folder without any clips holding the pages together. They also said not to insert any extra copies which confused me because the I-134 evidence requires duplicates. I put the duplicates in the folder anyway. After we asked, we were told that the DS-223 & DS-156 should not be signed until we were told to do so. We had not signed ours so I don´t know if it is a problem if they have already been signed or not.
• At 7:45 Bella was called to window 30 (picture a ticket window with a solid pane of glass and a telephone for communicating). Here a clerk that Bella described as ¨serious¨ inspected the documents, had her sign the forms, asked a few minor questions such as how long have you known him?, how do you know him? and what is my work? Next she returned the documents that she did not want. I was surprised to get all the DS-230´s back but at least they did not ask for any documents that we did not have.
• This process took about 15 minutes for them to review our 3 document folders.
• Next we were told to wait near windows 1, 2 & 3 for Bella´s name to be called.
• At about 8:50 they started calling people up to be fingerprinted. Bella was called at 9:00.
• At 9:25 Bella was the first one called for an interview. I was heading for the cafeteria with the kids when her name was called so I had to hurry back. When I got there Bella was already at the window and I was told that the officer (female) wanted me to stand near Bella which is what I did.
• Bella was asked the following questions in Spanish:

• Do you swear to tell the truth?
• How many times have you been to the US?
• How may times has Bill been to Colombia?
• Does he know your family?

• After that she asked to see the proof of evidence. She looked at it for about 30 seconds and then said that we were approved. She never asked to speak to me but did give me a wave and a smile.
• The entire interview lasted no more than 5 minutes.
• The next stop was the Domesa booth to make arrangements for the visa delivery. Before you get into the line find a Domesa employee that will be outside the booth and have them check your forms. If everything is OK you can then get into line to pay for the delivery.
• We were all finished and out of the embassy by around 10:00.

A couple of tips and observations:

1. We were one of the few couples there with kids but it did not create any problems. Actually I think it helped us. They jumped us to the head of the line entering the embassy and I am sure that me being seen holding the baby did not hurt the interview process any.
2. You can use the waitng time to go ahead and fill out the Domesa form they will give you at the beginning of the process. To do this you will need the beneficiary´s passport number which you will no longer have by the time you get to the Domesa booth. Fill out the forms before you turn in your documents or write down the passport number. There are instruction sheets for filling out the forms on the tables near the Domesa booth.
3. By the way, it seems that the number in a Colombian passport that is called the passport number is not the passport number. Why am I not surprised? There is a small unidentified number in red that is near the bottom of a page at the front of the passport. This is the number they want on the DS-156 as well as the Domesa forms.
4. They are not kidding when they say it is cold while you are waiting. I had gone outside at about 5:30 this morning to check the temperature and I thought that we were dressed warmly enough. However, it must be about 10 degrees cooler in the embassy courtyard so the baby got Bella´s sweater, the boy and Bella huddled under my coat and guess who was freezing?

That is all I can think of right now. Bella and I appreciate all the congratualtions and we hope everyone´s interview goes as smoothly as ours. Edited March 1, 2008 by Bill y Bella

[CamyCar 0]

Thanks Bill for the excellent recap. It will be helpful to all. Congratulations, and I hope it is noon and you have a headache from the celebration when you read this!! Jajajajajja

Cameron and Carina

[Agentes 0]

Congratulations and thanks for taking the time for the write up. That was a great!

[HAL 9000 96]

Wow Bill that was very descriptive. It took me back to our interview

Just don't forget to get that CLUB COLOMBIA for all of us je je!

[buck501 0]

Congrats Bill!!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember freezing too! LOL>LOL. Same thing, I gave my coat up to Paola.