CR-1/IR-1 Colombia Club

[Mononoke28 135]

CONGRATULATIONSSSSSSSSS!!! I've been thinking about you and your wife all morning.

woohooo!!!!

Thanks for the report George!!!!

[jediknight 0]

george and leidy, good luck with the visa pickup. my wife and i hope you get it without any problems. i´ve already talked to george about this but the day we went to pick up our visa there were some interesting things that happened.

first, ALL the appts are at 4pm. there were some people who thought what was written on their slips were other times. there was one lady that was convinced the CO told her 4:50 and on her slip the 0 liked like a 5, but i´m telling you all that by that time the doors are closed and they won´t let any one in. in fact, my wife and i got there at 3:30, waited 15 minutes before they let people in. they only let the beneficiary in, so there were a bunch of us waiting outside. eveyone was in before 4pm and by about 4:10 they had closed the doors. a few late comers had to request to be let in at the window but by 4:20 they weren´t letting more people in, so get there early because these late comers didn´t make it in.

my wife said that once they were inside, they were given some information about SS, the brown envelope and a service where you can get airfare for a lesser price. a guy came out with 2 boxes full of envelopes. there was a list of names read outloud, people lined up and were given their papers. my wife received a brown envelope with her passport and visa attached to one of the pages in the passport and we were given back lot of the documents that we had submitted, marriage/birth certf, etc.

everyone was told to sit down and review the information to make sure everything was correct. my wife reviewed every singe line and was one of the last ones out. in the meantime i saw women coming out in crying because their visas were not ready. at this point i was concerned because my wife was one of the first in and she still hadn´t come out. well, it turns out the delay was because she was going over the papers given to her, now this is where it gets ugly.

i saw many girls coming out in tears, some i recognized from the day of our interview, some i had never seen. after my wife came out she filled me in on the details. it turns out that not everyone is given their visa when they goto pick it up. the girls i had never seen before had returned 2, 3, 4 times before. there was one girl who has been waiting 3 weeks for it. they were told that there were problems with the system or printer, blah, blah, blah. now this is the interesting part. when my wife came out, we stayed a bit longer outside because we were keeping an eye on an older couples grandson. they were still inside and hadn´t come out and we didn´t want to leave the kid alone. we waited about 5 minutes and then the grandmother came out. she said that when their name wasn´t called for the visa, they decided to wait and try to get some answers from someone, anyone. other people whose names weren´t called were told to return the next day. these people left right away and were the ones i saw coming out in tears.

the grandmother said that her husband was still inside because someone was trying to help them and see if they could get the system to print out their visa. during that wait, another guy came out with a 3rd box of evelopes. she said that it appeared like it had just come out of the oven, meaning they were hot off the presses but by this time when they read out names, everyone had gone. so if this happens to you, DONT leave!! stick around ask to speak to someone, don´t take their bs that they don´t have it. while it is entirely possible that you may not get the visa that afternoon, their is a chance if you stick around.

one of the girls that was there the same day as our interview came out without her visa and left. about 15 minutes later we saw her and her husband coming back, luggage in tow. clearly this couple was sure of getting their visa and flying the same afternoon. the husband was understandably pissed off and was trying to get back into the compounds, no luck. it was 5pm and the doors were shut for a long time now. the couple grabbed their luggage and left to see if their was another entrance. a few minutes later the wife comes back in tears because in all of the comotion, she had lost her cedula and white appt slip...miercoles!! now she is really screwed, no id, no slip, no passport, a flight that evening and a husband that is pissed. we don´t know what happened to them.

some advice to all the gringos here, don´t think that because you are a US citizen that you can demand to be seen or heard, it may make things worse. there was one woman, a US citizen who was petitioning her husbands son. they had the interview that morning and were returning in the afternoon to hand in some documents that she didn´t have in the morning. she tried the I´m an american routine but they wouldn´t let her in because she didn´t have the white appt slip. her colombian husband, who spoke both languages, then came over and CALMLY spoke to the guards, explained the situation and then they were let in, so people stay calm.

good luck to all

JK

[jediknight 0]

lucho!! i´m glad things went smoothly for wendy at the POE. good luck to you both!!

JK

[jediknight 0]

by the way, another suggestion if it can be helped, don´t buy your spouses ticket to the states until you have the visa in your hand. i know this can pose a problem but if you can, wait.

JK

[Mononoke28 135]

Good report as always JK. Loved the details since that is the biggest concern I have, not getting the visa the day we're supposed to pick it up.

Thanks!

[lucho562 0]

JK,

Good info. I guess the 2 day wait cant even get around the printer problems either. Good thing we didnt have any problems at all with picking up the visa. I purchased our return tickets before hand. Glad that didnt come bite me in the ####### later on.

[lucho562 0]

JK,

Back in the states yet?

[jediknight 0]

i also bought mine ahead of time but only because we are staying in colombia for a few more weeks and are not pressed for time. also, i used my avianca plus miles to buy my wifes ticket, only paid the taxed which was like $45.

JK

[cartagena2112 0]

Hi everybody,

We went to pick up our VISA yesterday (Monday) at 3pm. (Prior Thursday interview.)

There was a problem with her still having her passport. (The interview officer made a mistake

by returning it to her.) And she did not get her visa until last, around 5:30pm.

So....

Make sure the interviewing officer keeps the passport after the interview. The embassy

needs to keep them to process the actual insertion on the VISA in the passport.

Cheers!

George

[lucho562 0]

Congratulations George. Glad to hear the passport didnt end up being a big problem.

[Mononoke28 135]

Oh man, I'm still at the NVC. Those freaks are way to slow!!!

So Lucho, when's the weddin'

[lucho562 0]

Oh man, I'm still at the NVC. Those freaks are way to slow!!!

So Lucho, when's the weddin'

Yo,

We are probably just going to end up getting married at the old court house in town. Any day now, i'm trying to avoid the price hike that begins at the end of the month. Our 'real' wedding will be in Colombia next year.

Oh, the benefits of getting married......taxes

[jediknight 0]

george, its great that mistake didn´t set you back and you were able to make your trip. did leidy say if others did or didnt get their visas?

lucho, i´m still in barranquilla. we just spent a few days at the hotel el prado for our anniversary. it was part of the wedding package, a weekend for the 1 yr. anniversary. we won´t be flying to the states until aug so in the meantime we´re visiting family and saying goodbye.

hang in there diana, your time will come soon and you´ll be extremely prepared.

later guys

JK

[lucho562 0]

Steve,

Forgot to tell you. I showed Wendy your photo of you and your wife and she didnt recall seeing her at the Dra's office or the labratory.

Diana,

Your time will come soon. And you seem to be very prepared, I know you will succeed.

[Mononoke28 135]

Thanks guys.

And Lucho... you need to send us wedding pictures and please try to make it somewhat romantic... shoot.