Problem with English

[ryna 132]

It depends on the consulate. The consulate in HCMC, Vietnam, often requests the same sort of letter from the petitioner, but they refer to it as a "timeline of relationship", and VJ members with fiancees/spouses in Vietnam just call it the "timeline". We haven't invented an acronym like "TOR" for it.

Spend time in the regional forum for idiosyncrasies about the consulate where your fiancee will interview.

There is a new member whose fiancee's interview went down in flames in Cambodia for this very reason. Lack of a common language is a very strong reason for denial, especially in high fraud countries. The consulates don't seem to realize that this is the 21st century, and people with little common language knowledge can communicate effectively over the internet.

In any case, many consulates don't allow the petitioner to attend the interview, so the chances of the consulate actually seeing first hand how the petitioner and beneficiary handle both languages is practically nil. If the beneficiary has a big pile of evidence that they communicate frequently, then the common language question probably won't be an issue. If you are permitted to attend the interview in Columbia, and if you plan on doing so, then one of you should get busy trying to learn the other's language as much as possible.

Colombia does allow me to attend so I definitely will attend her interview.

We speak 2-3 hrs/day (when I'm home in the U.S.) and practically every waking moment when I'm here in Colombia. On top of that, if I print them out, we have enough email correspondence to kill a small forest - all in Spanish. I can read it very well, write it fairly well, speak it fairly well but I only hear it marginally well, depending on the speaker. I can speak semi-fluently with her, her family and friends, and can usually understand them on the first try, not to say that I don't ask them to repeats themselves at times.

Honestly, I don't think it should be a problem for us if they just listen to us communicate with each other but a general conversation/interview situation with a CO who speaks Spanish like an auctioneer would be big trouble for me.

In any event, I think I'll be printing out a few dozen emails spread out over the course of our relationship specifically to show that we communicate regularly and well. And, I'll have a basic relationship timeline at the ready. I'll definitely be paying more attention to Colombia-specific consulate issues as our interview date (hopefully) approaches..

Thanks