South African K1 Visa applicants

[HOORAY7 165]

10 hours ago, amaraimee said:

Ahh that's so neat! As people kept passing by her boys asked "are they american?" haha it was cute. I'm so happy for you guys! It's such a hard process and it's nice to FINALLY have a breath of fresh air! The I-134 wasn't a problem, thankfully

That is funny, I will have to ask her about that, lol!!  Glad your's work out and there were no issues!!  I agree, such a hard process and we feel a big weight off our shoulders and your's now too!!  Best wishes to your continued journey!!

[HOORAY7 165]

6 hours ago, LuFlolady said:

I am so happy for you thank you for the detailed events of kerran's day I cant wait until my fiancé and I are at this point.... again CONGGRATS and im glad u are sticking around to help us out!

Absolutely i'm sticking around!  I want to see  you all reach our point and know it will happen!!  You are very welcome, I hope it provides some help!  I'm here for all of you!  Keep the faith and best wishes to you and everyone! Talk to you soon!

[amaraimee 109]

We were approved yesterday! Here's more detail for those that wanted to know

Our experience was similar to @HOORAY7's, it went pretty smooth!

 

We arrived to the Consulate around 12:15, our appointment was at 1:30. The consulate is directly across the street from Sandton City (a big shopping center), he told us we could either go across and hangout and come back right at 1:30 or we could sit on the benches and wait. There were 2 families in front of us. We waited and the time came for us to line up for the specific type of visa. We got into the line for K visas and waited as they came by to check our my fiance's name off of a list. The woman who came by asked me if I was going to go in with him and I said "can I?!?" and she kind of laughed and said "yes, you can!". We waited in line right up until 1:30 or so but once it came time for us to go through the door to security, we were told no laptops were allowed inside, so the security guy let me run across the street to Sandton City where Dopio Zero keeps laptops specifically for people who can't bring them into the consulate. I thought that was pretty cool. By the time I got back to the consulate, my fiance and I were last in line and we went in.

At security, they ask you to turn your phone off. They take your phone and every kind of electronic and keep it in a bin and give you a number. They took our flash drive, headphones, everything. They asked us to sip our water to make sure that's what it was, too. Once we got inside, there was a man checking the beneficiaries passport, he gave them a small paper with instructions to pickup their passport if the visa was approved, along with a number to be called by, ours was 11. 

Once we got past that man, we had to go back outside on the benches to wait, it was a courtyard type of thing. There were many people there for the K-1 that day and there weren't enough seats for everyone. There were 2 other couples outside with us. The same man came out and told us all to come in, there was now room for us. We sat down a hallway away from the interview counters since that's where the extra chairs were. They called us by number, we waited until about 3:00 to be called up. When they called number 11, I went up to the window with my fiance. They asked for our documents and a copy of each, I can't remember exactly since I was shocked I literally got to attend the entire interview with him (I had read you had to wait outside), but I believe it was birth certificate, passport, police certificates, proof of relationship, affadavit of support and supporting evidence, that's all I remember. She looked over our documents, took his fingerprints and had us sit back down. It was about 30-40 minutes later that they called us up for the interview. 

The woman doing the interview was pretty nice, and laid back. She asked if I was in South Africa as a volunteer for the Peace Corps and when I said "no" she said "That's good, because everyone before you was and I didn't approve any of them", and I thought oh great, this should be fun... haha. She looked through the photos we had, and handed all of our proofs and original documents back to us. As she did she smiled and said, "how romantic" I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic but she was smiling so I believe she meant it! She then asked ME if I work in America, I said "yes" she asked what I do, and I told her. She said "that's good work". I take care of disabled adults. She then asked my fiance a few questions. She asked when we first met, how we met, what he was doing living in Ireland for almost 2 years, When the wedding will be, and where he will be living once he comes to the USA. Everything seemed to be fine! She then asked me how old I was, I replied with 20, she asked my fiance and told her 23. She said "you want to get married this young?" She was smiling as she asked this, we both smiled and shook our heads up and down, she smiled more and said "ok". she then told us everything seems good and that the visa is approved! Then she went on to tell us it'll be a max of 2 weeks to get it back, we asked if he could get it quick because we're both stuck here until he gets his passport (he's coming home with me), and she said it's usually before 2 weeks and not usually longer, so we're hoping they'll take it into consideration and hurry it up for us. We asked her "is that it?" and she said "that's it!" 

There were so many things we were both worried about!! His police certificate was dated before our engagement, we were worried that since we planned getting engaged and doing the visa before we were actually engaged that it would cause problems, but it didn't seem to be an issue. I also posted earlier about a concern I had regarding my I-134 but that wasn't an issue either. The officer seemed to be pleased that we had all of our documents because she told us that everyone before us that wasn't approved was because they were missing their Affadavit of support. To be fair, the actual interview letter doesn't state to bring that, but for how prepared we were, I had multiple copies of everything! I'm so so so happy that step is over, I can't wait for all of you to be in the same position! Good luck to everyone, your time is coming!!! Please message me with any questions.

[amaraimee 109]

@Amar & Aimee

[Vintage girl 146]

2 hours ago, amaraimee said:

We were approved yesterday! Here's more detail for those that wanted to know

Our experience was similar to @HOORAY7's, it went pretty smooth!

 

We arrived to the Consulate around 12:15, our appointment was at 1:30. The consulate is directly across the street from Sandton City (a big shopping center), he told us we could either go across and hangout and come back right at 1:30 or we could sit on the benches and wait. There were 2 families in front of us. We waited and the time came for us to line up for the specific type of visa. We got into the line for K visas and waited as they came by to check our my fiance's name off of a list. The woman who came by asked me if I was going to go in with him and I said "can I?!?" and she kind of laughed and said "yes, you can!". We waited in line right up until 1:30 or so but once it came time for us to go through the door to security, we were told no laptops were allowed inside, so the security guy let me run across the street to Sandton City where Dopio Zero keeps laptops specifically for people who can't bring them into the consulate. I thought that was pretty cool. By the time I got back to the consulate, my fiance and I were last in line and we went in.

At security, they ask you to turn your phone off. They take your phone and every kind of electronic and keep it in a bin and give you a number. They took our flash drive, headphones, everything. They asked us to sip our water to make sure that's what it was, too. Once we got inside, there was a man checking the beneficiaries passport, he gave them a small paper with instructions to pickup their passport if the visa was approved, along with a number to be called by, ours was 11. 

Once we got past that man, we had to go back outside on the benches to wait, it was a courtyard type of thing. There were many people there for the K-1 that day and there weren't enough seats for everyone. There were 2 other couples outside with us. The same man came out and told us all to come in, there was now room for us. We sat down a hallway away from the interview counters since that's where the extra chairs were. They called us by number, we waited until about 3:00 to be called up. When they called number 11, I went up to the window with my fiance. They asked for our documents and a copy of each, I can't remember exactly since I was shocked I literally got to attend the entire interview with him (I had read you had to wait outside), but I believe it was birth certificate, passport, police certificates, proof of relationship, affadavit of support and supporting evidence, that's all I remember. She looked over our documents, took his fingerprints and had us sit back down. It was about 30-40 minutes later that they called us up for the interview. 

The woman doing the interview was pretty nice, and laid back. She asked if I was in South Africa as a volunteer for the Peace Corps and when I said "no" she said "That's good, because everyone before you was and I didn't approve any of them", and I thought oh great, this should be fun... haha. She looked through the photos we had, and handed all of our proofs and original documents back to us. As she did she smiled and said, "how romantic" I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic but she was smiling so I believe she meant it! She then asked ME if I work in America, I said "yes" she asked what I do, and I told her. She said "that's good work". I take care of disabled adults. She then asked my fiance a few questions. She asked when we first met, how we met, what he was doing living in Ireland for almost 2 years, When the wedding will be, and where he will be living once he comes to the USA. Everything seemed to be fine! She then asked me how old I was, I replied with 20, she asked my fiance and told her 23. She said "you want to get married this young?" She was smiling as she asked this, we both smiled and shook our heads up and down, she smiled more and said "ok". she then told us everything seems good and that the visa is approved! Then she went on to tell us it'll be a max of 2 weeks to get it back, we asked if he could get it quick because we're both stuck here until he gets his passport (he's coming home with me), and she said it's usually before 2 weeks and not usually longer, so we're hoping they'll take it into consideration and hurry it up for us. We asked her "is that it?" and she said "that's it!" 

There were so many things we were both worried about!! His police certificate was dated before our engagement, we were worried that since we planned getting engaged and doing the visa before we were actually engaged that it would cause problems, but it didn't seem to be an issue. I also posted earlier about a concern I had regarding my I-134 but that wasn't an issue either. The officer seemed to be pleased that we had all of our documents because she told us that everyone before us that wasn't approved was because they were missing their Affadavit of support. To be fair, the actual interview letter doesn't state to bring that, but for how prepared we were, I had multiple copies of everything! I'm so so so happy that step is over, I can't wait for all of you to be in the same position! Good luck to everyone, your time is coming!!! Please message me with any questions.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell me how long did you guys wait for the NOA2 and what was the waiting period between NVC and Embassy? Was the interview dates available easy? 

[amaraimee 109]

5 minutes ago, Vintage girl said:

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell me how long did you guys wait for the NOA2 and what was the waiting period between NVC and Embassy? Was the interview dates available easy? 

You can look at my timeline to find out how long we waited from submitting our petition to scheduling our interview! When scheduling the interview, we were only given the earliest date available. I believe you can change it later on, I'm not quite sure.

[LuFlolady 881]

10 hours ago, HOORAY7 said:

Absolutely i'm sticking around!  I want to see  you all reach our point and know it will happen!!  You are very welcome, I hope it provides some help!  I'm here for all of you!  Keep the faith and best wishes to you and everyone! Talk to you soon!

Do you know how much the visa fee was and how much is the medical?

[LuFlolady 881]

5 hours ago, amaraimee said:

We were approved yesterday! Here's more detail for those that wanted to know

Our experience was similar to @HOORAY7's, it went pretty smooth!

 

We arrived to the Consulate around 12:15, our appointment was at 1:30. The consulate is directly across the street from Sandton City (a big shopping center), he told us we could either go across and hangout and come back right at 1:30 or we could sit on the benches and wait. There were 2 families in front of us. We waited and the time came for us to line up for the specific type of visa. We got into the line for K visas and waited as they came by to check our my fiance's name off of a list. The woman who came by asked me if I was going to go in with him and I said "can I?!?" and she kind of laughed and said "yes, you can!". We waited in line right up until 1:30 or so but once it came time for us to go through the door to security, we were told no laptops were allowed inside, so the security guy let me run across the street to Sandton City where Dopio Zero keeps laptops specifically for people who can't bring them into the consulate. I thought that was pretty cool. By the time I got back to the consulate, my fiance and I were last in line and we went in.

At security, they ask you to turn your phone off. They take your phone and every kind of electronic and keep it in a bin and give you a number. They took our flash drive, headphones, everything. They asked us to sip our water to make sure that's what it was, too. Once we got inside, there was a man checking the beneficiaries passport, he gave them a small paper with instructions to pickup their passport if the visa was approved, along with a number to be called by, ours was 11. 

Once we got past that man, we had to go back outside on the benches to wait, it was a courtyard type of thing. There were many people there for the K-1 that day and there weren't enough seats for everyone. There were 2 other couples outside with us. The same man came out and told us all to come in, there was now room for us. We sat down a hallway away from the interview counters since that's where the extra chairs were. They called us by number, we waited until about 3:00 to be called up. When they called number 11, I went up to the window with my fiance. They asked for our documents and a copy of each, I can't remember exactly since I was shocked I literally got to attend the entire interview with him (I had read you had to wait outside), but I believe it was birth certificate, passport, police certificates, proof of relationship, affadavit of support and supporting evidence, that's all I remember. She looked over our documents, took his fingerprints and had us sit back down. It was about 30-40 minutes later that they called us up for the interview. 

The woman doing the interview was pretty nice, and laid back. She asked if I was in South Africa as a volunteer for the Peace Corps and when I said "no" she said "That's good, because everyone before you was and I didn't approve any of them", and I thought oh great, this should be fun... haha. She looked through the photos we had, and handed all of our proofs and original documents back to us. As she did she smiled and said, "how romantic" I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic but she was smiling so I believe she meant it! She then asked ME if I work in America, I said "yes" she asked what I do, and I told her. She said "that's good work". I take care of disabled adults. She then asked my fiance a few questions. She asked when we first met, how we met, what he was doing living in Ireland for almost 2 years, When the wedding will be, and where he will be living once he comes to the USA. Everything seemed to be fine! She then asked me how old I was, I replied with 20, she asked my fiance and told her 23. She said "you want to get married this young?" She was smiling as she asked this, we both smiled and shook our heads up and down, she smiled more and said "ok". she then told us everything seems good and that the visa is approved! Then she went on to tell us it'll be a max of 2 weeks to get it back, we asked if he could get it quick because we're both stuck here until he gets his passport (he's coming home with me), and she said it's usually before 2 weeks and not usually longer, so we're hoping they'll take it into consideration and hurry it up for us. We asked her "is that it?" and she said "that's it!" 

There were so many things we were both worried about!! His police certificate was dated before our engagement, we were worried that since we planned getting engaged and doing the visa before we were actually engaged that it would cause problems, but it didn't seem to be an issue. I also posted earlier about a concern I had regarding my I-134 but that wasn't an issue either. The officer seemed to be pleased that we had all of our documents because she told us that everyone before us that wasn't approved was because they were missing their Affadavit of support. To be fair, the actual interview letter doesn't state to bring that, but for how prepared we were, I had multiple copies of everything! I'm so so so happy that step is over, I can't wait for all of you to be in the same position! Good luck to everyone, your time is coming!!! Please message me with any questions.

thank you for sharing! Glad to hear you can go inside with your fiance

[HOORAY7 165]

5 hours ago, amaraimee said:

We were approved yesterday! Here's more detail for those that wanted to know

Our experience was similar to @HOORAY7's, it went pretty smooth!

 

We arrived to the Consulate around 12:15, our appointment was at 1:30. The consulate is directly across the street from Sandton City (a big shopping center), he told us we could either go across and hangout and come back right at 1:30 or we could sit on the benches and wait. There were 2 families in front of us. We waited and the time came for us to line up for the specific type of visa. We got into the line for K visas and waited as they came by to check our my fiance's name off of a list. The woman who came by asked me if I was going to go in with him and I said "can I?!?" and she kind of laughed and said "yes, you can!". We waited in line right up until 1:30 or so but once it came time for us to go through the door to security, we were told no laptops were allowed inside, so the security guy let me run across the street to Sandton City where Dopio Zero keeps laptops specifically for people who can't bring them into the consulate. I thought that was pretty cool. By the time I got back to the consulate, my fiance and I were last in line and we went in.

At security, they ask you to turn your phone off. They take your phone and every kind of electronic and keep it in a bin and give you a number. They took our flash drive, headphones, everything. They asked us to sip our water to make sure that's what it was, too. Once we got inside, there was a man checking the beneficiaries passport, he gave them a small paper with instructions to pickup their passport if the visa was approved, along with a number to be called by, ours was 11. 

Once we got past that man, we had to go back outside on the benches to wait, it was a courtyard type of thing. There were many people there for the K-1 that day and there weren't enough seats for everyone. There were 2 other couples outside with us. The same man came out and told us all to come in, there was now room for us. We sat down a hallway away from the interview counters since that's where the extra chairs were. They called us by number, we waited until about 3:00 to be called up. When they called number 11, I went up to the window with my fiance. They asked for our documents and a copy of each, I can't remember exactly since I was shocked I literally got to attend the entire interview with him (I had read you had to wait outside), but I believe it was birth certificate, passport, police certificates, proof of relationship, affadavit of support and supporting evidence, that's all I remember. She looked over our documents, took his fingerprints and had us sit back down. It was about 30-40 minutes later that they called us up for the interview. 

The woman doing the interview was pretty nice, and laid back. She asked if I was in South Africa as a volunteer for the Peace Corps and when I said "no" she said "That's good, because everyone before you was and I didn't approve any of them", and I thought oh great, this should be fun... haha. She looked through the photos we had, and handed all of our proofs and original documents back to us. As she did she smiled and said, "how romantic" I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic but she was smiling so I believe she meant it! She then asked ME if I work in America, I said "yes" she asked what I do, and I told her. She said "that's good work". I take care of disabled adults. She then asked my fiance a few questions. She asked when we first met, how we met, what he was doing living in Ireland for almost 2 years, When the wedding will be, and where he will be living once he comes to the USA. Everything seemed to be fine! She then asked me how old I was, I replied with 20, she asked my fiance and told her 23. She said "you want to get married this young?" She was smiling as she asked this, we both smiled and shook our heads up and down, she smiled more and said "ok". she then told us everything seems good and that the visa is approved! Then she went on to tell us it'll be a max of 2 weeks to get it back, we asked if he could get it quick because we're both stuck here until he gets his passport (he's coming home with me), and she said it's usually before 2 weeks and not usually longer, so we're hoping they'll take it into consideration and hurry it up for us. We asked her "is that it?" and she said "that's it!" 

There were so many things we were both worried about!! His police certificate was dated before our engagement, we were worried that since we planned getting engaged and doing the visa before we were actually engaged that it would cause problems, but it didn't seem to be an issue. I also posted earlier about a concern I had regarding my I-134 but that wasn't an issue either. The officer seemed to be pleased that we had all of our documents because she told us that everyone before us that wasn't approved was because they were missing their Affadavit of support. To be fair, the actual interview letter doesn't state to bring that, but for how prepared we were, I had multiple copies of everything! I'm so so so happy that step is over, I can't wait for all of you to be in the same position! Good luck to everyone, your time is coming!!! Please message me with any questions.

Great details to pass along @amaraimee!!  Congrats again!!

[HOORAY7 165]

54 minutes ago, LuFlolady said:

Do you know how much the visa fee was and how much is the medical?

The Visa fee is $265 US dollars

The medical will be a bit different depending on what is done, but roughly 3000ZAR to 4000ZAR

[HOORAY7 165]

2 hours ago, amaraimee said:

You can look at my timeline to find out how long we waited from submitting our petition to scheduling our interview! When scheduling the interview, we were only given the earliest date available. I believe you can change it later on, I'm not quite sure.

@Vintage girl our timeline from USCIS to NVC to get our NOA2 was 30 days, not sure why, but it was 30 days. Our NVC to Embassy time was approximately 1 week, once NVC sends it, it was fast for us.  As amaraimee stated you can schedule your interview on that website I provided in an earlier post, if you need it, let us know, but in order to change an existing interview date you will have to cancel the existing interview date; which can be a risk.  You will see calendars for the interview and the open dates, remember they only do interviews the last 2 weeks of every month and only on Tues and Thursday's.  

[LuFlolady 881]

3 hours ago, HOORAY7 said:

The Visa fee is $265 US dollars

The medical will be a bit different depending on what is done, but roughly 3000ZAR to 4000ZAR

thank you!

[LuFlolady 881]

3 hours ago, HOORAY7 said:

@Vintage girl our timeline from USCIS to NVC to get our NOA2 was 30 days, not sure why, but it was 30 days. Our NVC to Embassy time was approximately 1 week, once NVC sends it, it was fast for us.  As amaraimee stated you can schedule your interview on that website I provided in an earlier post, if you need it, let us know, but in order to change an existing interview date you will have to cancel the existing interview date; which can be a risk.  You will see calendars for the interview and the open dates, remember they only do interviews the last 2 weeks of every month and only on Tues and Thursday's.  

Can you tell me if on your I-134 was it a wet signature or a copy because my fiance keeps saying i should scan the document to him..but I keep saying no it has to be a wet signature....

[amaraimee 109]

3 minutes ago, LuFlolady said:

Can you tell me if on your I-134 was it a wet signature or a copy because my fiance keeps saying i should scan the document to him..but I keep saying no it has to be a wet signature....

My copy of the I-134 was a wet signature, but that was because I personally filled it out myself and brought it with me to my fiances interview. Depending on when your actual interview is, maybe you could send the documents to him through the mail.

[LuFlolady 881]

Just now, amaraimee said:

My copy of the I-134 was a wet signature, but that was because I personally filled it out myself and brought it with me to my fiances interview. Depending on when your actual interview is, maybe you could send the documents to him through the mail.

thank you!