K1 Visa interview, required to come for a second time

[linacakes 0]

Hello everyone so yesterday i had my interview in the embassy of Skopje which went rather unexpected. I got interviewed for around 20-30 minutes getting asked with all sorts of questions. I was well prepared and i went there confident in myself even though the stress of the interview was obviously there, first i had to submit my documents and was told to wait, at that time i was still having all my documents in hand the service guy just kinda arranged them for me, then i got called in the window number 9 to submit the documents and got asked very basic questions like how did I met my fiance and other stuff. Then i was told to wait. Overall I didn't wait much since i was one of the first who got inside the embassy after being called again for the actual interview, the american consular seemed like a nice guy at first, I swore that i will only tell the truth and was told to pick up the phone and so the interview started.

The first minutes were about basic questions usually, i told him how my fiance and I met through a specific hobby of ours (which was editing) and basically answering questions about her family, our joint sponsor, what we did during the time she visited me, where we went and more. Which i answered all of them. After that he was putting something on his computer when i asked 'I'm sorry, i have all the chat logs, photos and additonal proof with me, Do you want to take a look at them?' He replied with 'No, its not necessary right now' which i found weird. Then he went to ask things that I really did not expect and he seemed rather judgmental that we met through this certain hobby of ours asking me what exactly is editing which i explained and he'd ask questions about my fiancees family like the age of her brother and their names. After that he asked about her parents and i told him that her father is deceased and he went to ask questions about when he died, where, and how, which i didn't expect him to ask but since I knew all of those i replied with confidence. He'd ask a lot of things I didn't really heard about in previous interviews like the names of the siblings of my parents, since when my fiancee had moved in her home she currently lives in etc. Then he asked about why do I want to go and live to the USA, why wont she live here with me if we want to be together so bad. I followed and said that we both decided to live there, as we want our new life to be there because of several reasons, my fiancee wanting to live in america in the first place and not in my country, her being a student aswell, i told him how her mother proposed to me to come and live with them in her house but he still would just kinda ask with judgment in his face and a slight smile asking that 'Yeah i get but why this and why that, she can just come with a plane tomorrow and start living with you' Which after i answered the same question was rather feeling weird from the way he'd ask and not accept the answer i gave him in the first place. After that he went on and wrote in the refusal form that i need to get additonal documents like photos and chat logs, that's when it started to get strange since he refused the first time around to check my proofs, he told me I'm not fully/entirely convinced yet so I need you to bring us chat logs and photos which i replied to with ' I have them all here' and he said okay give them to me, I gave them chat logs with more than a hundred screenshots since the time we started talking 2014-2016, gave him several of our skype video calls and around 60+ photographs we took from the time my fiance came to visit me, and last additonal information like our gifts we gave each other, letter she sent in 2015, tickets of her visit, videos we edited for each other, our new room in her home with her and her mother had worked on recently, conversations of me with her family (mother and brother) and much more which of course, he didn't even look at. After i gave him those he like scratched with his pen the area he wrote that photos and chat logs are necessary (but still it was visible he wrote 'pics' and 'chat conversations which makes all this even more confusing', then he asked me how can i get some proof that you guys did edited together etc. I showed him in the additonal information that I took a screenshot of videos we uploaded on Youtube mentioning each other (both of me and her). That was the only proof he decided to look at.

Earlier in the interview i had mentioned how we met in 2014 (which was on facebook, due to the fact we both were in the same community) and he asked can i somehow find the friend request i had sent her in 2014, and i said yes i can find it but we already have lots of messages from 2014 in our proof, he just went on to write in his letter 'friend request on fb' as additonal information that is required for me to bring in my next appointment. After he wrote that he said when you have this you can simply email the embassy for another appointment, I said do i have to attend a second interview which he replied with 'yes'. It was just kinda frustrating because all the hours we spent in gathering proof weren't even looked at and we got basically asked to bring more next time.

Both me and my fiancee were absolutely sad and depressed from what happened, we were sure everything is going to be alright since everything in our relationship is legit. We managed to find my friend request in the option 'events' on facebook from 2014 the same day, i went on to let the embassy know just few hours later that i do have it (which i sent also as attached files) and explained them my experience there and to hope that they will take all our proof into consideration and take a look at it, they replied with that they don't review information online (due to the fact i attached the screenshots of our friend request and much more in the email i sent them) they said ur next appointment will be in 15th november, which is not even two weeks from now, in 10:30 AM and that the information will be reviewed there.

I felt good that our appointment wasn't too far away but i was still confused about many things that were unanswered, i followed with another email asking if i need to pay the embassy 265$ dollars again, and what do i need to submit since in the letter he gave us which he basically just said 'facebook friend request' with 'Pics' and 'chat logs' being scratched from the consular himself. They replied saying I do not need to pay any additonal fee, as for the required documents from the embassy they said based on their information i need to submit skype chats and photos of us to the extend possible... which we thought we provided a lot in the first place.. basically almost every photo we took with each other during the whole month we stayed together and almost every love message we could find was given to them.

That's basically it, did anyone went through a situation that's similar or give us any help we can put in use for our 2nd time around? because we thought we were prepared but apparently we weren't. All we hope is they will take a look at all the proof we submitted and worked on which if they don't (because if they did i doubt they'd ask for more) would basically mean we're forced to send barely 1/10 of our proof that's left excluding everything we gave to the embassy already, which they are holding together with all our other documents except my passport.

We read something similar in one of the Skopje embassy reviews where a couple had to go through almost the same and that they think it's just a normal procedure in Skopje to refuse them the first time and let them come again.

[JFH 12,191]

I'm very sorry to hear this but it's not necessarily over yet. Did they keep your passport? It's good they want to see you again very quickly.

Now, I have no experience of the Skopje embassy (or of any embassy) but based on my very limited experience of this processs here is what stood out to me. How many times did she visit and for how long? Is there a big age gap between you (I'm guessing not because you both sound quite young based on your hobbies and that she is a student). Your English is very good (assuming you wrote that post yourself) so communication between you should be no problem. However, you said you included "every love message". That's what struck me. They don't need pages and pages of "I love you" and other flirtations. They need to see that you are a genuine couple who talk about genuine couple things. This is probably why he asked so many detailed questions about her family to see how well you really know each other. If she only had one short visit and all the chat logs that you supplied were just little love messages then I can see the problem. Show that you talk about future plans (not just "we are going to get married") but things about jobs, finances, and so on. Show that you talk about your families to each other. Gifts can be a red flag too - it can look like you are paying her to get you a green card. Were these gifts material things or gifts of money? Photos - too many can be harmful, I think. 60 photos from a short visit could look staged. Were they all taken on the same day and just the two of you? Any photos of her with your friends and family?

Also meant to ask if you have made previous attempts to get any sort of US visa? Even just a tourist visa?

[C-ma'am 684]

**Post moved from K1 Process to Progress Reports.

[linacakes 0]

I'm very sorry to hear this but it's not necessarily over yet. Did they keep your passport? It's good they want to see you again very quickly.

Now, I have no experience of the Skopje embassy (or of any embassy) but based on my very limited experience of this processs here is what stood out to me. How many times did she visit and for how long? Is there a big age gap between you (I'm guessing not because you both sound quite young based on your hobbies and that she is a student). Your English is very good (assuming you wrote that post yourself) so communication between you should be no problem. However, you said you included "every love message". That's what struck me. They don't need pages and pages of "I love you" and other flirtations. They need to see that you are a genuine couple who talk about genuine couple things. This is probably why he asked so many detailed questions about her family to see how well you really know each other. If she only had one short visit and all the chat logs that you supplied were just little love messages then I can see the problem. Show that you talk about future plans (not just "we are going to get married") but things about jobs, finances, and so on. Show that you talk about your families to each other. Gifts can be a red flag too - it can look like you are paying her to get you a green card. Were these gifts material things or gifts of money? Photos - too many can be harmful, I think. 60 photos from a short visit could look staged. Were they all taken on the same day and just the two of you? Any photos of her with your friends and family?

Also meant to ask if you have made previous attempts to get any sort of US visa? Even just a tourist visa?

Thanks a lot for your response!

To answer your questions: She visited me once but we stayed for a whole month together and no there isn't any age gap. Well in the screenshots of where we provided our messages there are many showing not just that, us wishing birthdays to each other and anniversaries and also much more not only 'flirtations'. But good point I'll make sure to send more random conversations between us two. I also think you missed the fact that they literally didn't take a look at any of those, not photos, not chat logs or anything until the consular said that I need to make a new appointment to submit additonal proof. We had proof of our skype chats together with both of our families, as mentioned, they probably did not look at those. I dont see how gifts like love letters and birthday/anniversary gifts can be a red flag. And no we have photos of us in many scenarios including in my house, with my family and much more.

No i have not made any previous attempts to get any sort of US visa. Thank you again for ur response

Edited November 4, 2016 by linacakes