Colombia Club

[Jay1234 2]

Great news!!! Catherine and I just returned from the interview (okay, that plus a nap), and her K1 was approved in a very few minutes! We fly to Texas on Thursday.

I want to thank everyone for some very helpful information over the last few months.

In a few days I will write more detailed comments on the experiences. It appeared that the vast majority of visas were approved, but I did see one denial...

One thing I will share is there was a sign posted saying the consular section would be closed to the general public on 5/24. I do not know if this means anything for those with interviews on that day, but I would at least take it into account for picking up a visa (i.e., after interview travel plans).

Off to celebrate with Catherine´s prima. I will update later!!!!

[HAL 9000 96]

Congrats Jay and all those recent approvals... you must be very excited!

I also have great news... our interview is on Monday, June 4. Coincidentially, I called the Dept of State this morning to get the cool news while my fiancee received Packet 4 in the mail as well. I'll be flying into El Dorado on the 29th and return on the 12th of June. Then I assume she will meet up with me in Miami as our meeting point... sometime between July 4 and the 12th. I just started a Cingular Family talk plan and got her a new phone that she'll use to dial me the minute she lands in Miami as we won't see each other for the Ohare flight until she clears Customs.

Have a great evening to the all of you

[tommyesq73 0]

HEllo...just a few questions...about 1)medical interview 2) interview at embassy..

1)I've read that only the beneficiary can enter the medical and laboratory exam.. Do they have waiting rooms or should i just stay back at the apartment?

2)I plan on being at the embassy with my fiancee to show support. What types of questions should we expect besides just providing the documentary proof requested of us?

Thanks.

[TonyS 0]

Hello

For the lab exam you will have to wait outside. In my experience, it took a hour and I waited at a cafe next door. The medical exam had a waiting/reception area...it took only about a hour. Read the old threads and you will see the typical questions. Most of the "Colombia Club" interview went very well and were very short. Typical questions for a good interview are:

1. How did you meet?

2. When did you meet?

3. How many times have he/her ( American ) been to Colombia?

HEllo...just a few questions...about 1)medical interview 2) interview at embassy..

1)I've read that only the beneficiary can enter the medical and laboratory exam.. Do they have waiting rooms or should i just stay back at the apartment?

2)I plan on being at the embassy with my fiancee to show support. What types of questions should we expect besides just providing the documentary proof requested of us?

Thanks.

[lucho562 0]

Angagd3, Congrats!!!!

I'm also in L.A....I hope I will have success at the interview as well!!

[parkpapa 0]

Congrats Jay and all those recent approvals... you must be very excited!

I also have great news... our interview is on Monday, June 4. Coincidentially, I called the Dept of State this morning to get the cool news while my fiancee received Packet 4 in the mail as well. I'll be flying into El Dorado on the 29th and return on the 12th of June. Then I assume she will meet up with me in Miami as our meeting point... sometime between July 4 and the 12th. I just started a Cingular Family talk plan and got her a new phone that she'll use to dial me the minute she lands in Miami as we won't see each other for the Ohare flight until she clears Customs.

Have a great evening to the all of you

Congrats on your interview date. I'm curious who you called to get that date because the embassy's website is not updating the interview listing and they are also not accepting calls. We've submitted our packet 3 this month, and I was suprised to see that they would already be scheduling interviews prior to the middle of the month. If there's somewhere I could call, it would sure help me out as my daughter is getting married in June also, and I need to be scheduling travel for both events as soon as possible.

[Mike and Adriana 0]

If you live outside of Bogota and can't wait for the packet 4 to arrive, then you have two options as I see it. "You" can call the Department of State in the U.S. or you or your fiancee can send your question to the embassy (via fax) and see if they reply. I suspect there is a greater likelihood of getting the information from the DoS. I would only contact the embassy IF you believe packet 4 is lost and you want to request a duplicate.

The mid-month cut-off date is exactly that....a cut-off date. The embassy does not wait until that date to schedule all of the interviews. It schedules them every day. The closer you are to the cut-off date, the closer your interview date will be to the end of the month. For example, we submitted our packet 3 around December 13 and got an interview date of January 19. I assume the folks who will get a date in early June, 2007 are the folks who missed the April cut-off date by a few days.

Congrats on your interview date. I'm curious who you called to get that date because the embassy's website is not updating the interview listing and they are also not accepting calls. We've submitted our packet 3 this month, and I was suprised to see that they would already be scheduling interviews prior to the middle of the month. If there's somewhere I could call, it would sure help me out as my daughter is getting married in June also, and I need to be scheduling travel for both events as soon as possible.

[parkpapa 0]

If you live outside of Bogota and can't wait for the packet 4 to arrive, then you have two options as I see it. "You" can call the Department of State in the U.S. or you or your fiancee can send your question to the embassy (via fax) and see if they reply. I suspect there is a greater likelihood of getting the information from the DoS. I would only contact the embassy IF you believe packet 4 is lost and you want to request a duplicate.

The mid-month cut-off date is exactly that....a cut-off date. The embassy does not wait until that date to schedule all of the interviews. It schedules them every day. The closer you are to the cut-off date, the closer your interview date will be to the end of the month. For example, we submitted our packet 3 around December 13 and got an interview date of January 19. I assume the folks who will get a date in early June, 2007 are the folks who missed the April cut-off date by a few days.

Congrats on your interview date. I'm curious who you called to get that date because the embassy's website is not updating the interview listing and they are also not accepting calls. We've submitted our packet 3 this month, and I was suprised to see that they would already be scheduling interviews prior to the middle of the month. If there's somewhere I could call, it would sure help me out as my daughter is getting married in June also, and I need to be scheduling travel for both events as soon as possible.

Thanks for the advice, Mike! I called DoS, and after going through the phone tree five or six times, I realized I only needed to press "0" to get a live person. Lorena's interview date is June 6!!!!!!!!!

[lucho562 0]

Hello!!!

My fiance just got her police certificate. Just to verify, is it a small green booklet?

[jediknight 0]

yes, on the outside it says certificado judicial, there's a copy of it here

http://www.visajourney.com/gallery/thumbna...y&uid=29596

JK

[lucho562 0]

yes, on the outside it says certificado judicial, there's a copy of it here

http://www.visajourney.com/gallery/thumbna...y&uid=29596

JK

Thanks JK, thats it!!

Ok, now just waiting on migratorio cert.

[HAL 9000 96]

Exactly so dear folks, the information is there to be found... We missed the May cut-off by a day. As a result, our interview was scheduled pretty early on.

My girl supposedly already has the Certificado Judicial, so its only a matter of collecting the final round of documents. Tax stuff is on its way, final bit of evidence is being put together, and it should be about time to get the Migratorio from DAS. A word of advice on the Migratorio; Do it in Bogotá. The original 3 week estimate given 4 weeks ago in Bucaramanga is still not complete and its starting to tick me off. I'll have to "ask" a friend of ours over there that has a friend in DAS to hurry it up.

[TonyS 0]

Good to hear! I'm happy for all recent approvals!

Great news!!! Catherine and I just returned from the interview (okay, that plus a nap), and her K1 was approved in a very few minutes! We fly to Texas on Thursday.

I want to thank everyone for some very helpful information over the last few months.

In a few days I will write more detailed comments on the experiences. It appeared that the vast majority of visas were approved, but I did see one denial...

One thing I will share is there was a sign posted saying the consular section would be closed to the general public on 5/24. I do not know if this means anything for those with interviews on that day, but I would at least take it into account for picking up a visa (i.e., after interview travel plans).

Off to celebrate with Catherine´s prima. I will update later!!!!

[parkpapa 0]

I've been going through older messages in this thread and came across a discussion about the prices of flights to Bogota. Being from the center of the country, and KC not being a major hub for American Airlines, prices do vary a lot - both by carrier and by date. From KC, for example, Delta is almost always the cheapest, though sometimes Continental runs a sale or something (I frankly prefer Continental). But, from everything I read, if you want the best prices to fly your loved one to Miami (only Miami), then you need to check out LAN.com. I'm looking for tickets right now for my wife and her two sons. LAN will be roughly 60% the price of Avianca and maybe 50% the price of AA.

I have almost always booked through expedia.com, but for my upcoming flight I found a much better deal through orbitz.com. In any case, it pays to shop around.

[HAL 9000 96]

Would you be road tripping back to KC from MIA? That ought to be pretty fun! I was actually thinking that same idea but to Chicago... only no time for it. Lucky me I have the habit of collecting AA Miles... That will pay for the BOG-MIA-ORD trip for her and the ORD-MIA-ORD trip for me in July as well as already having paid with only 30K miles for the interview trip... May 29 thru June 12 (ORD-BOG-ORD via MIA)...

You may try getting to a hub like Dallas/Houston depending on your airline of choice.

I'll take a look at LAN but lately with some of the search engines it doesn't come close to AA when doing any BOG-MIA segments.