What are your opinions? Should Petitioner attend interview?

[K&D 0]

For those of you that have not had an interview: Are you planning on going to the interview? For those that have had the interview: Did it help that you were there? Or did it not make a difference? And why? We are not sure what we should do. Our interview is in Rio de Janeiro at the end of March. It will be really expensive for me to go and hard to get time off work. Please, let me know what your experience has been.

[rob11715 6]

I had the same question. After doing some searches on the topic I discovered that it depends on the embassy. Many do not even allow the petitioner at the interview, while others do. For those that do, some people have written that they believe it made a favorable difference being there. My wife and I decided that she will go by herself to her interview. We can save a lot of money and I can instead take the time off from work when she arrives in the US.

Hopefully someone who has gone through the interview process in Brazil will be able to give you some information about the Rio de Janeiro consulate.

[sorchaine 10]

When my fiancé (now husband) had his interview at Rio they had 9 K1 interviews to do. He said they had about half with the petitioner and half without. I was unable to make it for his interview, but it didn't hurt us in the least. It actually had no bearing whatsoever on his interview. Basically my husband's interview consisted of 4 questions and that was it. The ones he was asked were:

How did you meet your fiancée? (Gave a short answer, asked if he would like more background and complete history, he said it was not needed.)

Your fiancée came twice to Brazil right? (Short answer, from X month to X month and X month to X month.)

What does your fiancée do for a living? (Short answer, just told the place.)

What do you plan to do when you arrive in the US? (he did a more complete and long answer, by the middle of it the officer was done writing and was looking at his computer.)

After this he was given back some of the papers that he had submitted, such as his original birth certificate and was instructed to speak to another lady to get a green slip and then went on to pay the shipping fee for the passport. The interview took about 4-5 minutes and no extra evidence that we brought was checked at all. We did submit evidence when I had originally submitted the I-129F, such as photos, copies of airline information from my two trips there, emails (maybe 4-5), cell phone records (from the most recent month), and a few other things. Nothing too much, just a few samples of each item listed on the guides that we had. For the interview I had sent him the originals of the evidence I submitted with the petition and then more recent evidence such as more recent emails and cell phone records, just in case it was needed.

Edited February 26, 2011 by sorchaine

[menina 50]

When my fiancé (now husband) had his interview at Rio they had 9 K1 interviews to do. He said they had about half with the petitioner and half without. I was unable to make it for his interview, but it didn't hurt us in the least. It actually had no bearing whatsoever on his interview. Basically my husband's interview consisted of 4 questions and that was it. The ones he was asked were:

How did you meet your fiancée? (Gave a short answer, asked if he would like more background and complete history, he said it was not needed.)

Your fiancée came twice to Brazil right? (Short answer, from X month to X month and X month to X month.)

What does your fiancée do for a living? (Short answer, just told the place.)

What do you plan to do when you arrive in the US? (he did a more complete and long answer, by the middle of it the officer was done writing and was looking at his computer.)

After this he was given back some of the papers that he had submitted, such as his original birth certificate and was instructed to speak to another lady to get a green slip and then went on to pay the shipping fee for the passport. The interview took about 4-5 minutes and no extra evidence that we brought was checked at all. We did submit evidence when I had originally submitted the I-129F, such as photos, copies of airline information from my two trips there, emails (maybe 4-5), cell phone records (from the most recent month), and a few other things. Nothing too much, just a few samples of each item listed on the guides that we had. For the interview I had sent him the originals of the evidence I submitted with the petition and then more recent evidence such as more recent emails and cell phone records, just in case it was needed.

Our experience was very similar to sorchaine's. I also was not able to attend the interview, and it was no problem at all. Good luck to you and your fiance!

[K&D 0]

Thanks for the replies! I've been really worried about not being able to attend the interview. I feel better now!

[robs&matt 0]

I had my interview in Nov/ 2010 in Rio de Janeiro and my fiance could not be there. It wasn't a problem at all. My interview didn't take 5 minutes. Don't worry about it. Good luck!

[elchacha 0]

Our interview is March 22nd and I plan on being there. I know I don't have to be, but I'm since I can be... I will be! Plus I wanna see my tax $ at work. Also, I want that feeling of accomplishment when we walk out the door. Get that monkey off our back, if you will.