Got the VISA, US Embassy in Tokyo, share our story

[Trymester3 6]

So…we got the Visa. Now to seek Resident Status!!! I want to give a serious thanks to all of you who helped to answer all of my questions, even the ones that seemed common sense. The interview was on Nov. 18, 2013. I know that I was fortunate because my fiancée is Japanese and the US Embassy in Tokyo is pretty easy compared to other countries, but let me walk you through the day.

1 Day before our Interview:

-I am looking through the checklists (the one that I found online, and the one sent to her by the US Embassy). We notice that we are missing the confirmation number that was emailed after completing the DS160. She is saying that we won’t need it, and she doesn’t remember filling it out. I’m telling her that both checklists require it. Long story short, we decide we will go to the interview without it and leave it in fate’s hands as every other document is collected and perfect.

Interview Day

6am- I decide we need to at least attempt to do the DS160, and at the risk of messing everything up, since we were supposed to do the DS 160 early on in the process, we start doing it. (Luckily, we already had 95% of the information since all of the forms eventually seem to ask the same basic personal information questions.) We get it done, run to an Internet café, she prints out the email with the confirmation number. Then we realize we won’t make it on time taking the train, so we take a taxi (we never take taxis). We arrive to the Embassy 2 minutes before the scheduled interview time. 2 officers are on-site checking our belongings and passports (please bring your passport or else they may deny you access into the embassy). The older officer said that I wasn’t allowed to enter, then my fiancée told me I wasn’t allowed to enter, then I calmly told her that I had read online that I was allowed to enter, so she checked with the other slightly younger officer and he corrected the senior officer (I mean, they were both old and probably tenured, but the older of the 2 was the one that was about to mistakenly deny me access). We go through another security checkpoint. Then we receive our number and are waiting. There is a water filter, vending machines with drinks, and even a little passport photo station in case you need a last minute photo (that’s really convenient).

I mention to the teller when we first get called up that we needed to correct some information on one of the forms (we had missed one of the dates that she had previously visited the US, and needed to write it in with pen). When we asked, I kind of had to walk my girl through this and the teller was a little upset and told me “Oh, she should really be filling that out by herself” (so please make sure that you guys are 100% sure of any corrections you need to make and have already thought it through thoroughly beforehand so she can do it by herself..

We wait for 20-30 more minutes and get called to a little window. The lady there is super bubbly and happy (kind of like you expect a Japanese convenience store worker to be). The one we had was a chubby Caucasian, most-likely American white woman. She spoke mostly to my girl, but asked me a few questions. My girl opted to be interviewed in English. She had to raise her hand up and swear to tell the truth. I feel as if the whole interview took a max 4 minutes. Since we’ve been together about 8 years and did a long-distance thing, and had visited each other FREQUENTLY, I think it was easy to give us the visa. One interesting unexpected question the interviewer asked was “And you guys haven’t been seeing anyone else during these 8 years?” Other than that, everything else went routinely.

Less than a week later, she received her passport in Osaka with the Visa in it. Thank You guys again.

I'll try to give back and try to answer any questions you may have. Let me know.