APPROVED in BOGOTA 2/21/07

[cali52506 0]

Hi Everyone,

My husband and I had our visa interview on Wednesday 2/21/07 and we were approved!!!!

Our appointment was at 7:00am and we arrived at the embassy at 6:15am. There were already about 15-20 people ahead of us. However how early you arrive really doesn't matter because once you get inside the following happened:

1.) you form a line and then you are given a folder and your name is taken down. In this folder you are told to place everything in the exact order listed. Which is the same order that is listed on the interview letter you get from the embassy. We had placed everything in this order the night prior so we were prepared.

2.) Then after 15 minutes your name is called, if your folder is ready you are asked to go to a window. You submit your papers and the lady behind the window checks that everything is in order and then asks you to wait that your name will be called from window 1-9 which are for immigrant and fiance visas.

3.) My husbands name was called once to window 2 where they took his fingerprints. Then he was asked to wait again for the interview.

LITERALLY THE LONGEST WAIT EVER!!!!!!!!!! there were couples that were called first that submitted their documents way after us. So they do not call people in any specific order of arrival. Thats why I say it doesn't matter how early you get there. If your appointment is at 7:00am be there by 630am which is when they start to let people into the embassy.

4.) We were interviewed around 12:30pm, my husbands name was called to window 8.

THE INTERVIEW:

I stood right next to my husband at the window, the officer asked my husband how we met, how long we have known eachother, the date of our marriage, and how we were introduced. How many times I had been to Colombia? He then looked at all our pictures (which were few about 60 pics) we had about 10 emails and I also printed our MSN chats. I have been to Colombia about 4 times this year, with this past visit it was 5 times i had traveled to see my husband. They already knew this however.

He looked at all our evidence slowly, read almost all the emails carefully....(this was very stressful) then he asked to speak to me. My husband passed me the telephone he asked me how we were introduced? I answered through a mutual friend and then just said " OK your visa is approved we are closed tomorrow so come back Friday at 4pm to pick up" We were soooo excited everything went well.

We went back friday at 4pm to pick up the visa.

One thing we noticed is that all the couples that were their together were approved. The ones that where there alone were not. Actually we saw all the couples there again on Friday picking up their visas, none of the people that were there alone were approved.So it really pays to be there with your spouse or fiance.

WHERE TO STAY:

We stayed at the Hotel - Casa San Rafael.....Avenida..La Esperanza La Misma Diag.22B No. 43B-23 Tel# 268-6858 Barrio Quintaparedes - Bogota D.C. Colombia. the rate was 85,000 pesos. Walking distance to the embassy. Not a big luxury hotel, but small and at a good price. We kind of looked around with the taxi driver before we made a decision...there was another hotel about 10 houses down which charged 150,000 pesos a night. It was actually smaller and more expensive....Hotel Almarius (not recommended at all).

Anyway getting ready for husbands arrival in two weeks, he still has to quit his job and finalize some details but hope to start our new lives soon together, our wait will finally be over. Best of luck to everyone that continues their journey...please feel free to contact me with any questions. THANKS AGAIN !!!!!!!

[SoL. 0]

Congrats!!

[bora bora 1]

Woo hoo - Congratulations!!

[rUsSeLL&fAyE 0]

best wishes!!!

[Bill y Bella 0]

Congratulations!

And also thanks for the information. I am curious about your language situation. Do you speak Spanish or does your husband speak English? Was the interview in English or Spanish?

Thanks!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Congratulations! Good luck on your new lives together!

Looks like you have also generously given future filers going through Bogotá a huge heads up on getting approval. Awesome!

[florida-photo 0]

Thanks for the review of your experiences in Bogota! This will be helpful to me and several others who will be going through the Bogota embassy in March and April. Also congratulations on the visa!! It looks like I will probably be in Bogota in April for my wife's CR1 interview. Thanks again!

Mark

[Looking4Wife 0]

Congratulations!

And thanks for the very infomative and helpful report. We are currently waiting to get an interview date from the embassy, so your report is much appreciated.

[Mike and Adriana 0]

The interview can be in either. The CO who interviewed us was definitely a gringo, but he spoke managable Spanish. My wife knows some English, but could not carry on a conversation in English...so the brief encounter was in Spanish. Obviously, if the CO wanted to talk to you (the petitioner), he/she would do so in English.

Congratulations!

And also thanks for the information. I am curious about your language situation. Do you speak Spanish or does your husband speak English? Was the interview in English or Spanish?

Thanks!

[Mike and Adriana 0]

Congratulations!

There are a couple of points I'd like to add based on our experience in January. See embedded comments below.

1.) you form a line and then you are given a folder and your name is taken down. In this folder you are told to place everything in the exact order listed. Which is the same order that is listed on the interview letter you get from the embassy. We had placed everything in this order the night prior so we were prepared.

The order in which you name is taken is the order in which you lined up outside (more or less). While it is true that this does not dictate the interview order, it DOES dictate the order in which your documents are reviewed (which is the first step after your initial briefing and the distribution of empty folders).

2.) Then after 15 minutes your name is called, if your folder is ready you are asked to go to a window. You submit your papers and the lady behind the window checks that everything is in order and then asks you to wait that your name will be called from window 1-9 which are for immigrant and fiance visas.

I think you got rather lucky. We arrived at the embass at 6:10 a.m. and there were already several folks ahead of us. As such, there were several folks ahead of us on the list to have documents reviewed. From my recollection, it was almost an hour before my wife's name got called and then we stood in line at one of the booths for another 30 minutes or so before the clerk reviewed our documents for order and completeness.

There are nine windows that theoretically service K-1s, K-3s, and IR-1/CR-1s. However, the day we were there, only about 4 of the windows were staffed.

3.) My husbands name was called once to window 2 where they took his fingerprints. Then he was asked to wait again for the interview.

Keep in mind that fingerprinting is only done for the IR-1/CR-1s. K-1s and K-3s will not be fingerprinted until AOS.

THE INTERVIEW:

I stood right next to my husband at the window, the officer asked my husband how we met, how long we have known eachother, the date of our marriage, and how we were introduced. How many times I had been to Colombia? He then looked at all our pictures (which were few about 60 pics) we had about 10 emails and I also printed our MSN chats. I have been to Colombia about 4 times this year, with this past visit it was 5 times i had traveled to see my husband. They already knew this however.

He looked at all our evidence slowly, read almost all the emails carefully....(this was very stressful) then he asked to speak to me. My husband passed me the telephone he asked me how we were introduced? I answered through a mutual friend and then just said " OK your visa is approved we are closed tomorrow so come back Friday at 4pm to pick up"

We had a similar experience as far as the documentation went. We had included pictures, e-mails, airline reservations/boarding passes, etc. WITH our I-129F. We watched the CO review all of the pictures and documents carefully before he called us to the window. Once he called my wife to the window, he was apparently satisfied as he granted her a visa without any questions at all.

One thing we noticed is that all the couples that were their together were approved. The ones that where there alone were not. Actually we saw all the couples there again on Friday picking up their visas, none of the people that were there alone were approved.So it really pays to be there with your spouse or fiance.

The day I was there with my wife....there was not a Gringo in sight...I was it. Based on my review of that day's interview schedule, there were only two K-3s, a handful of IR-1/CR-1, and many, many K-1s. There were a lot of rejections (primarily K-1s from what I could tell), but a few approvals in addition to ours. So, I agree that it pays to have the spouse or fiance present, if at all possible.

[cali52506 0]

Congratulations!

And also thanks for the information. I am curious about your language situation. Do you speak Spanish or does your husband speak English? Was the interview in English or Spanish?

Thanks!

Hi, actually I speak english and spanish well, my parents are from Cali Colombia. My husband only speaks spanish though. So his interview was conducted in spanish first. though the guy had a really heavy gringo accent and was a bit hard to understand in Spanish. When I got on the phone with him he spoke to me in spanish and I just answered in English. and then he just finished the interview in English with me.

[bora bora 1]

Interesting - I'm curious how ours will go. I've heard that there are COs in Rio that do not speak Portuguese very well.

I'll be attending the interview w/ my fiance - who does not speak English. It's obviously better to be in Portuguese for this reason, and so we can show how we communicate.

But I've heard that I (the USC) can be interviewed as well - that's fine with me. I just hope that if that's the case my fiance does not feel left out.

[Detty2809 0]

Congratulations~~~