Mumbai Interview Experience

[lak&ajm 0]

Hi everyone! I finally spoke to my fiancé and got the details of his experience. Before I go into all the details I wanted to give a brief synopsis of our relationship. My fiancé originally came to the States in 2000 where he attended the university in my city. We met right before classes started. We had this "connection". We were not close friends or anything, but did see each other periodically at certain functions and just thoughout town. We always remembered each other.

He graduated and life went on.....ultimately he came back to my town to go back to school again in the fall of 2004. We met up again in January 2005. This time we did stay connected and became friends. That of course developed into more than friendship (as everyone can probably tell). Ultimately though he was done with school and it was time to go back home to India. As much as we both wanted him to stay here, going back was the right thing to do at the time.....our relationship continued and deepend.....and finally he asked me to marry him....and the journey began!!

Ok....finally here is his interview story:

He arrived around 6:30 am and there were already a few people in line. At 7:15 a lady came out and separated everyone into two different lines - an immigrant line and a non-immigrant line. The immigrant line was let in first. They were told to remove electronic items - they are not allowed in at all. As a man was looking though his documents he noticed he was wearing a digital watch. This was considered an electronic device. He was told to give it to someone outside or just get rid of it. His dad had accompanied him, but he could not find him outside. He saw someone collecting the trash, so instead of just throwing it away he gave it to him. Isn't that just crazy??? A digital watch is considered an electronic device!!

He had to get back in line then. Just about as soon as he got back inside his name was called to come to booth 15. Here was an Indian who asked him these questions:

What is her name?

How did you meet?

What is her date of birth?

This was about it at this time. Overall not too many questions were asked. This person looked at his documents and noticed the police clearance certificate from the passport office was missing. My fiancé explained why (look at this link for more info on why he did not have one - at the bottom of page 1 http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;#entry624787). He was told he would need this. They could issue him a letter that should help.

He then went back to the waiting area until he was called for his interview. He was not called until 1:45 pm and then went to lucky window 13! There were two people there, the American CO and an Indian. The CO was very nice and I do not believe the Indian ever spoke.

He was asked the same overall questions:

How did you meet?

He asked basic stuff about me...

He asked about my daughter - was she born out-of-wedlock?

Do you have any pictures of the two of you? - Yes he did and pulled them out. One was of us and our friends' daughter who was 10 months old at the time of the picture. He did ask about her, but my fiancé just explained that was his friend's daughter.

How come it took so long for both of you to get married? I am 42 and he will be 35 this month.

After this he stated he did not see anything out of the ordinary - all of the information appears to be valid and he didn't see any problems. He also said all my fiancé had to do was pay the fees, complete the fingerprinting and get the PCC.

It was now around 2 pm. He asked if he could go get the bank draft and deposit it and was told yes - just show the letter at the entrance and they will let you in. He went to the bank, got the draft and came back. The lady at the entrance would not let him back in. She told him you had to be back by 2 pm. He said there was no way he could have done that since his interview was over at 2 pm. He told her she could talk to the gentleman who interviewed him inside if she did not believe him. She relented and let him in.

He had to wait for another 45 minutes - was called in for fingerprinting, deposited his money and asked if there was anything else. He did then ask for the letter to get his PCC from the passport office. He also asked about the sealed envelope. They told him this would be sent to him once his PCC and passport were sent back to the consulate.

At this point he left. Once he got outside he received a phone call on his cell phone (that his dad had been holding for him). It was the consulate asking him to come back and get his passport. They did not initially give it to him when he was still in there. When he got there he was stopped by the guard. He told him he was called by the consulate to come back and get his passport. The guard checked this out and let him in. He picked up his passport and letter and finally left the consulate at 4 pm - he was the last person to leave. By this time he said he had a splitting headache!! - and it's no wonder!!

With his passport situation, Mumbai (where his original passport was issued) would not be able to issue the PCC because it is not his city of residence, but he should be able to get this in his hometown of Pune. The consulate did ask him to e-mail them about the status of this.

He was not ask to show any of our "Evidence of Relationship". I had included copies of about 20 or so e-mails, a printout showing all of the e-mails I sent (over 900 I think at that time) and the ones I received from him (around 400 - 500), some chats and telephone records for at least for the past few months. I also sent a notarized letter from my mom and my daughter stating they approve and support this marriage. He had the same type of letter from his parents. I also wanted to try and "prove" that I never married my daughter's father so I also sent copies of our child support agreement where it said this child might be born out of wedlock. None of this was needed though. All the CO asked to see were some pictures of the two of us together.

Now we just have to wait until the Pune passport office can issue the PCC. They stated it should take 15 days (3 weeks). Hopefully he will be lucky and get this sooner. It does help to know some of the right people. But we know he was approved and right now that is all that counts!! And it is a good thing that he was not planning on coming immediately - although I wish he was!!

I want to thank everyone again for this wonderful place. During all this time I have researched and read and read and read some more. Especially every time I would find someone going through India (especially Mumbai) I would read with more interest. I knew their experience would hopefully help us. I know this post is EXTREMELY long, but I hope what I have shared can also help someone else.

Good luck to everyone!!

Lori

[AR0520 0]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and a very detailed info. Best wishes for the future ahead.

Regards,

A&R

[Tim&Poonam 0]

Thanks for posting. Best of Luck to you !

[rizthomson 3]

Congraaaaaaats .............thank you for posting the interview experience...

May LORD bless your family life together......

riz

[Jigi 0]

hi

Very Nice Post

Jigi