Our Interview Experience

[meant2b2009 0]

Hi everyone, today we had our CR1 interview and we were approved!!! We arrived at the costa rican consulate at approx. 11:45am. We had to wait on the left side entrance of the building in a line of about 30 other people waiting for similar visas. There might have been 3 other couples like us waiting to do CR1.

Once it was 12pm, they started to let people in 1 at a time to go through a security check point, similar to that at an airport. They will take any electronic devices that you have IE: cell phone, camera, ipod etc.. and they will give you a key to claim it on your way out. They will take it while you are in the consulate. Once we passed security, we walked through a courtyard passing by a food stand (good to know that it is there for later) and rows of people sitting in chairs outside waiting for their tourist visas. Since we were immigrating into the u.s (well my husband) we went inside of another building with airconditiong!! and waited in there. There were 4 rows of blue chairs infront of a wall of teller like windows. Before entering the second building, we were given a ticket similar to one that you are given at a grocery store when waiting for them to service you at the deli counter. our number was "G702". We were told to take a seat and wait for our number to be called. At each checkpoint prior to this, they asked for my husbands full name and checked him off of a list to make sure that we were scheduled that day. We waited approx. 50 minutes until our number was called. I think it was because the people ahead of had a complicated case. A woman was trying to immigrate 2 of her sons, and they she didn´t have any of her joint sponsers information with her. How do I know this? Because you hear everything that everyone is saying while you wait. there is no privacy, you are literally standing at a teller window with speakers for everyone waiting to hear. Once they left, our number was finally called. We walked up to the window and a very nice woman was sitting behind the glass window. This is a pre-screening. My husband carried the small suitcase full of our 3 binders of evidence, 1 was a binder of all information that they should already have, the 2nd binder was evidence of our ongoing relationship, basically anything they dont have yet to date, and the 3rd binder was me taking all of my financials and making another I864 binder just incase. We also had additional pictures and additional documents certified, just incase. it is always better to be over prepared then not prepared and told no.. we were focusing on an approval all the way! So, there we were, with our suitcase standing infront of the lady. She walked away from the window and came back with 2 large legal size folders of all of our paperwork. No binders! They took all of our papers out of the binders and organized it into 2 HUGE piles in folders. Whatever, I thought. If that is easier for them, that´s fine with us. So she started sifting through all of the paper and asking questions. First, she asked my husband, what is your name, how old are you, where did you meet, who came up to whom first, and my husband answered that he came up to me first, and i said, well ofcourse, he had to come up to me first, I wasnt going to go up to him.. even though i was staring at him all night. she laughedc. then she asked me who I was with the night we met, and i told her friends. she then asked me if i am still working at my current job. then that was it. she told us to take a seat and wait for our name to be called for fingerprints. no more numbers. at this point it was around 1:40pm. My husbands name was called just a few minutes after that for finger prints. he was then asked to take 2 more passport photos because the ones we had were a little bright. they are very picky with their passport pictures. it costs 5 usd. they have a service right there and it took only a few minutes. so we were fine. then, we waited, and waited.. and looked around, and played thumb wars for a bit, then we looked through our papers, then we watched a little t.v, and all of a sudden, a man was sitting waiting to renew his passport, and a bunch of immigration police came in asking him to stand up and they took him handcuffed out of the building. it was horrible! We were a little scared... shortly after that, FINALLY our name was called for the actual interview. this time it was with a young man. at first, he looked at us, and said, hold on 1 minute, please take a seat. we were a bit confused.. when he called us back up, he said, he was confused because we had filed for 2 petitions, the I130 and the I129F. I said, we are only doing the I130!! and he said, yes, i know. then he began to sift through our paperwork again like the lady, and he said, let´s do this and get right to the point, he looked at my husband and started to ask questions: 1-i can see you have traveled a lot to the us, were you ever in the united states illegally? No my husband said, i traveled a lot for work. 2-were you married before? 3-do you have any children? 4-are you going to petition for them to immigrate? then he looked at me and started to ask me questions: 1-were you married before? 2-do you have any children? 3-do you live alone, have any dependents? 4-what do you do, do you still work at that company? Then after that, he gave my husband the DS230 and asked him do you swear that everything you have said is the truth? at this point, I was grabbing my husbands arm so tightly and my eyes began to water because I knew we were almost there.. my husband yes, and signed the paper. Then he looked at us and said, ok, when you come to pick up your visa we will return the papers to you. I just need to find out when you can come and pick up the visa. My husband then said to the man, wait, sir I need to hear those magic words please! and he looked at us, and said, oh, YOU HAVE BEEN APPROVED. we laughed and couldnt stop laughing, we were so happy. we didnt even need to open the suitcase of evidence that we brought with us, i think it was because we were so prepared with everything they already had. he came back to the window and told my husband he can pick up the visa this coming tuesday at 3pm. WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! WE DID IT!!! and you can too, if you are prepared upfront, it will make everything else easier for you.. thank you to everyone who has helped us along the way, without this site, and everyone´s support, it would not have been as easy for us. special thanks to Sachinky, Pushbrk, DreamnJordan, the famous LingChe, and everyone else who has been giving us support and positive feedback on our page. thanks again and we will keep you all informed of the upcoming events: POE, what happens at the airport when you arrive, getting your SSN, and the ROC, changing of status.. speak to you all soon!!!

[RyannTanya 2]

Yay! Congratulation.

[Summer75 16]

Wowwww, excelent review! Congratulations!!

[TheMatrix 6]

Congratulations! You really were prepared for anything they could have thrown at you!

You must be so excited! However, that is no excuse for not using paragraphs!

I kid, I kid!

[S&ET 2]

Congratulations!

[carolynhotstuff 252]

Congrats to both of you!

[Raluca805 1]

Congratulations to you!! I am happy for you !! :dance:

[dan_ling 6]

Congratulations This is one of the most detailed reviews I have read, I hope you have a safe journey back home!

[thongd4me 69]

Great review.

I am also a firm believer in front-loading.

You never know what they may want.

[Mithmeoi 29]

That's great! Congrats to you both!

[Alan-and-Ira 1]

Congrats on your approval!!!

[USUY2010 4]

Congrats!!! Now relax and enjoy!

[OBX 51]

What a great detailed review. Congratulations!

[Liz_Allan 0]

Congrats, glad you are all done and now in each others' arms!!

One quick question.....

When you went to the interview, you took the $350 fee for the K-1 visa...

What other expenses did you have while you were there at the embassy, if any?

We want to be sure to bring enough $$, just in case there are any additional expenses.

I have read somewhere that others have had to re-do their passport pics while there, maybe there is something else that we're not aware of that could come up?

Thanks so much for the detailed review, great job!

[tokyo.lovers 6]

congrats!