Going to Ghana for my wife's interview was TOTALLY worth it

[KwameNeAkua 0]

First of all, I'd like to thank God for the visa approval. Secondly, thanks a lot to all the VJ members who posted their interview experiences here; those were of immense help to us.

Going to Ghana (for the second time in 2 months) was a difficult decision to make considering the fact that I'd be missing over a week of work & graduate school, and the possibility of being asked by the CO to take a seat without being questioned. But I'm glad I took the bold decision because my absence might've cost my wife the visa approval at her 1st interview two days ago.

My wife was scheduled for the interview at 9:30am. When we got to the embassy at 8:30am, I had no problem with security; I only had to present my American passport and it was "Go on sir". My wife and I entered the building and gave the interview letter to the receptionist. We then waited till 10:00am before she was called to the 2nd window to submit her documents. I had to come to the window as well to answer a few questions regarding some of the documents. The man (a Ghanaian) then told us we had so many documents so it would take him a while to enter them into the system before calling my wife again for finger-printing. After she was called for finger-printing about 45 minutes later, we had to wait till 1:15pm before my wife was finally called by a CO for the interview. I did see the CO pick up our folder around 12:30pm and reviewing the "gargantuan" folder alone took her 45 minutes. She was a very friendly young woman who smiled throughout the interview.

When my wife and I got to the window, the first question was, "Sir, are u Kwame, her husband?" After I answered, her next comment was, "I'd like to interview you both and if you don't mind ma'am, can you take a seat at the right end of the room as I interview your husband?" All I thought was, "Wow, I, the petitioner, being interviewed first?" That was a huge surprise considering the fact that some petitioners who were seated next to us were sent back to their seats and not interviewed at all by the other COs when their spouses were called.

The CO asked me about 8 questions, most of which were in a form of discussion rather than interrogation. I guess our big folder did all the answering before we got to the window. Lol. After my interview, she asked me to call my wife. When my wife got there, she asked her only 4 of the 8 questions, and that was it. Then later that evening, I left for the airport for my journey back to the US wearing a big smile.

I'm glad I filed my 2011 taxes & as "married, filing jointly" before leaving for Ghana. I took along tax transcripts for 2008, 2009, & 2010, but since the 2011 transcripts were not available according to IRS, I took a copy of the 1040 I submitted to IRS and the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) document IRS sent to my wife. The CO asked why I didn't bring along 2011 transcripts and I had to explain. She asked when last I contacted the IRS for it and I told her I went to the IRS office where I lived a day before leaving for Ghana but only 2008 - 2010 transcripts were available. She didn't ask any further questions and accepted the 2011 1040 with the ITIN document from IRS (stupid me.....I didn't think 2011 taxes would be necessary so I didn't even make copies. Now I have no tax papers for 2011 and most importantly, the original ITIN document is gone. The CO returned many documents to us and out of excitement from the approval, I didn't bother to check if the ITIN document was among it. Oh well, the most important thing is we got approved. Everything else is a secondary issue. )

IMPORTANT: I saw a lady being rescheduled for another interview just cuz her husband (here in the US) submitted the old birth certificate for her to NVC. Even though it was & is still accepted by NVC, the CO told her the embassy required the new (green) one, probably cuz it has a seal and also computerized. Thanks to a comment here on VJ, I asked my wife to get the new one before the interview since I also submitted the old (red) one for her.

Overall, our petition took about 8 & 1/2 months from the day I submitted the I-130 to the day of visa approval. My petition was NOT expedited. Thanks to the numerous complaints VJ members made to their congressmen and congresswomen, we didn't have to embark on the long frustrating and depressive waiting period.

[tan&tuyet 15]

Congrats on the visa wishing you two lovebirds a happy life together in the USA. My wife did the same thing too at her interview she brought a lot of files but the CO didn't even looked at any of it. She just ask my wife two questions lol

[Darnell 8,478]

re: taxes and itin document:

at the POE, a CBP supervisor can open the packet. She'll need to ASK FOR IT, and ASK for the tax documents to be COPIED, then the originals given to her.

Nothing is automatic, she'll have to wait , and may have to train up a CBP supervisor a bit.

Good Luck !

[evoria 19]

That sounds like the experiences I had. I beleive not going to the interview in Ghana as the petitioner is a big risk. Someone asked if they should go the other day and I suggested that he go, other said they had no problem. But from what I saw it is very imporatant to be there, it sends a big signal to the CO. I also beleive having a lot of well orginized pertinent (and some probably not as pertinent) documents are also necessary. Nothing is filler, take it all. I also had no problem getting in with my passport, I am not sure why some do and some do not.

Anyway Congratulations. Finding this site was the best thing that happend to me other than meeting my huband. This site saved me a couple of thousand dollars on a lawyer.

[patient2010 93]

congrats!

[ghanalover 7]

congrats my husband has his interview may 2nd what were some of the questions they asked u. I think im going to go to his interview I was kind of confused on spending that much money so fast. Congratsssss

[ghanalover 7]

when does she pick up her visa

[KwameNeAkua 0]

when does she pick up her visa

She picks up the visa on March 30th. I thought it would be a month & half from day of approval, but I guessed wrong.

[KwameNeAkua 0]

congrats my husband has his interview may 2nd what were some of the questions they asked u. I think im going to go to his interview I was kind of confused on spending that much money so fast. Congratsssss

Thanks.

I saved the list of interview questions someone compiled here on VJ so my wife could prepare. However, like I stated in my previous post, the questions were more of discussion rather than interrogation form. Here they are:

1) Did u come to Ghana so u could attend this interview with ur wife?

2) How long have u been here and when are u going back to the US?

3) I see u filed for joint taxes for 2011 but the transcript isn't available; when did u last contact the IRS for it?

4) How did u meet ur spouse and when was it?

5) I can see u had a very big wedding; what did u do after the wedding?

6) How long have u been in pharmacy sch?

7) U have a really high income for a full-time student? How do u make that money?

8) I see in the medical report that ur wife is pregnant. Congrats.....how far is she?

Edited March 11, 2012 by KwameNeAkua

[futuremrsyawson 0]

Congradulations! I just want to clarify, that your ghanaian wife needed to provide a "new" birth certificate on interview day? And what "extra" stuff did you have in your packet? I really want to over do it so that there are a limited amount of questions like your interview. I plan on attending the interview with my fiance because he was denied on his first interview in 2009. I don't want to take any chances.

[KwameNeAkua 0]

Congradulations! I just want to clarify, that your ghanaian wife needed to provide a "new" birth certificate on interview day? And what "extra" stuff did you have in your packet? I really want to over do it so that there are a limited amount of questions like your interview. I plan on attending the interview with my fiance because he was denied on his first interview in 2009. I don't want to take any chances.

Thanks. My wife only had the old type birth certificate. That one is red in color and handwritten. The new type is green, typed, and saved electronically by the government so copies could be requested at any time. Therefore, the embassy finds the new type more authentic than the old one. My wife didn't have to apply for a totally new birth certificate; she only had to present the old type so she could obtain the new type with exactly the same info on the old type. I asked her to get that done after I read on VJ that the embassy in Ghana preferred the new type. By then, I had already submitted the old type to NVC and it had been accepted. So if u didn't submit the new type from ur applicant to NVC, then ask him or her to get the new type as well so u can take that with u to the embassy.

These were the documents we took: 2008, 2009, & 2010 tax transcripts, 2011 1040 w/ ITIN document received from IRS, proof of my wife's employment (due to the joint taxes we filed for 2011............just in case the CO asked), AT&T phone calls & texts records from July, 2010 (when we came in contact) to February, 2012, Vodafon call & text records from my wife, emails from Aug 2010 to Feb 2012, western union receipts, lots of pics (first time meeting in person, traditional marriage, wedding, honeymoon, Christmas 2011), all my boarding passes to Ghana since we met, our passport stamps from trips to Johannesburg, SA, & Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, my wife's new type birth certificate, photocopies of all original documents sent to NVC, and a few other documents I can't think of right now.

[Leatherneck 693]

Good job - Congratulations!