US Embassy in Ghana - CR1/IR1 Experience

[Three 6]

On 2/11/2021 at 6:12 PM, QTy said:

Hello everyone, recently U.S embassy Ghana postponed some visa interviews. Did this affect scheduled spouse visa interviews? Are they still scheduling spouse visa interviews? 

Hello everyone.. so my CR1 interview was scheduled for today and It came on as scheduled, wasn’t canceled. By Gods grace it was approved. I wish everyone well and pray we’re reunited with our family soon. 

[LBX 44]

7 minutes ago, Three said:

Hello everyone.. so my CR1 interview was scheduled for today and It came on as scheduled, wasn’t canceled. By Gods grace it was approved. I wish everyone well and pray we’re reunited with our family soon. 

Congratulations! Can you tell us some of the questions asked?

[Three 6]

8 minutes ago, LBX said:

Congratulations! Can you tell us some of the questions asked?

Thank u.. sure 

So who’s filing for me? What’s his name? How did we meet? When did we get married? Where does he live? What job does he do? What work do I do? Have I bn married before? Do we have kids? That’s it basically 

[LBX 44]

19 minutes ago, Three said:

Thank u.. sure 

So who’s filing for me? What’s his name? How did we meet? When did we get married? Where does he live? What job does he do? What work do I do? Have I bn married before? Do we have kids? That’s it basically 

Much appreciated. Have a safe trip to the US. 🙏🏼

[unique5589 10]

1 hour ago, Three said:

Thank u.. sure 

So who’s filing for me? What’s his name? How did we meet? When did we get married? Where does he live? What job does he do? What work do I do? Have I bn married before? Do we have kids? That’s it basically 

Great!

[unique5589 10]

How's everyone doing so far? 

 

I'm fine but becoming frustrated and impatient with this process. There are days when I reflect on when I had the chances to visit my husband but didn't due to prior obligations. I understand that no one knew this virus and quarantine would turn out to be so devastating for so many of us, but I do regret not visiting my husband when I had the opportunities to do so. I won't be able to leave the US until later this year, which means I won't see my husband physically until toward the end of this year, and that's very psychologically and emotionally damaging! As mentioned before, I requested an interview expedite about a month ago. The embassy denied my request. I will try again soon.

[LBX 44]

5 hours ago, unique5589 said:

How's everyone doing so far? 

 

I'm fine but becoming frustrated and impatient with this process. There are days when I reflect on when I had the chances to visit my husband but didn't due to prior obligations. I understand that no one knew this virus and quarantine would turn out to be so devastating for so many of us, but I do regret not visiting my husband when I had the opportunities to do so. I won't be able to leave the US until later this year, which means I won't see my husband physically until toward the end of this year, and that's very psychologically and emotionally damaging! As mentioned before, I requested an interview expedite about a month ago. The embassy denied my request. I will try again soon.

Take heart. We will all get to the finish line eventually.  🙏🏼

[knmuffin 15]

On 3/2/2021 at 3:09 PM, unique5589 said:

How's everyone doing so far? 

 

I'm fine but becoming frustrated and impatient with this process. There are days when I reflect on when I had the chances to visit my husband but didn't due to prior obligations. I understand that no one knew this virus and quarantine would turn out to be so devastating for so many of us, but I do regret not visiting my husband when I had the opportunities to do so. I won't be able to leave the US until later this year, which means I won't see my husband physically until toward the end of this year, and that's very psychologically and emotionally damaging! As mentioned before, I requested an interview expedite about a month ago. The embassy denied my request. I will try again soon.

I feel you- I actually just got approved from work to head to Ghana for a month. I'm spending an arm and a leg to make this work, and I'm worried to travel during COVID, but I haven't seen my spouse in more than one year and it's just too much now. I am hoping the email to schedule an interview will come while I'm there so we can properly celebrate, and so I can leave Ghana knowing we'll be together permanently soon! I have faith things will turn out well!

Edited March 4, 2021 by knmuffin

[unique5589 10]

1 minute ago, knmuffin said:

I feel you- I actually just got approved from work to head to Ghana for a month. I'm spending an arm and a leg to make this work, and I'm worried to travel during COVID, but I haven't seen my spouse in more than one year and it's just too much now. I am hoping the email to schedule an interview will come while I'm there so we can properly celebrate, and so I can leave Ghana knowing we'll be together permanently soon! I have faith things will turn out well!

Safe travels!

 

I haven't visited my husband since December 2017.

[unique5589 10]

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[LBX 44]

Approved!!

My wife and I are so grateful to the VJ site and it's members for their support and encouragement.  She is currently too excited to post so I am posting her interview experience here and on our timeline also:

 

Overall, a pleasant experience.  Everyone was nice and friendly, but the interview was still very thorough.

 

The initial lady collected the following documents:
-  Passport
- Passport pictures
- Police reports

 

The interview lasted about 30 mins despite the fact I was asked many questions.  
I kept my answers short and clarified just a couple of points to the CO. 

 

Interview question:

 

1. How did you meet your husband?
2. How did your relationship progress from there?
3. How much older is your husband than you?
(A lot questions surrounded my husband because of the age gap between us.)
4. When did you say you met?
5. So you have known your husband for 8 years and married for the last 2 years. How come it took you both that long to get married?
6. Can I see your wedding pictures?
7. How many people were at each of your traditional and white weddings? 
8. Do you have any other pictures of your relationship? (Yes)
9. Can I see all of the pictures you have?  
(I had about 200 pictures in collages - she went through every picture while she kept asking more questions)
10. I see you have travelled outside Ghana.  What countries?
11. Have you lived abroad and if so for how long?
12. Have you ever been arrested before?
13. Where is your husband now? (He dropped me off for the interview?)
14. When did he come back to Ghana? (He hasn't left since we got married in 2019).
15, How come? 
16.  When does he plan to return to the US? 
17. Where does your husband live in the US.
18. Does he have property in the US?
19. Do you know that your husband recently retired? (Yes).
20. Can I see his financial records? 
(Submitted copy of I-864 and his updated 2021 bank and investment statements - he used assets as additional financial backing)?
21, How many children do you and your husband have together? (She asked for their birth certs) 
22. Did your children have any DNA testing done for their CRBA? (No. None was requested.)

 

Then came the magic word:

 

"Congratulations!" -  I can't find a reason to deny you. I wish you and your husband all the best in the US"

 

She kept my passport and handed me a Domestic Violence document to read and instructions to collect my passport.

 

Documents she did not ask for but that I carried along:
1. Tax transcript (but she did look through my husbands I-864).
2. My husband's divorce papers.
3. My husband's citizenship papers and passports.
4. Call logs, whatsapp messages, Travel logs. 

[unique5589 10]

3 minutes ago, LBX said:

Approved!!

My wife and I are so grateful to the VJ site and it's members for their support and encouragement.  She is currently too excited to post so I am posting her interview experience here and on our timeline also:

 

Overall, a pleasant experience.  Everyone was nice and friendly, but the interview was still very thorough.

 

The initial lady collected the following documents:
-  Passport
- Passport pictures
- Police reports

 

The interview lasted about 30 mins despite the fact I was asked many questions.  
I kept my answers short and clarified just a couple of points to the CO. 

 

Interview question:

 

1. How did you meet your husband?
2. How did your relationship progress from there?
3. How much older is your husband than you?
(A lot questions surrounded my husband because of the age gap between us.)
4. When did you say you met?
5. So you have known your husband for 8 years and married for the last 2 years. How come it took you both that long to get married?
6. Can I see your wedding pictures?
7. How many people were at each of your traditional and white weddings? 
8. Do you have any other pictures of your relationship? (Yes)
9. Can I see all of the pictures you have?  
(I had about 200 pictures in collages - she went through every picture while she kept asking more questions)
10. I see you have travelled outside Ghana.  What countries?
11. Have you lived abroad and if so for how long?
12. Have you ever been arrested before?
13. Where is your husband now? (He dropped me off for the interview?)
14. When did he come back to Ghana? (He hasn't left since we got married in 2019).
15, How come? 
16.  When does he plan to return to the US? 
17. Where does your husband live in the US.
18. Does he have property in the US?
19. Do you know that your husband recently retired? (Yes).
20. Can I see his financial records? 
(Submitted copy of I-864 and his updated 2021 bank and investment statements - he used assets as additional financial backing)?
21, How many children do you and your husband have together? (She asked for their birth certs) 
22. Did your children have any DNA testing done for their CRBA? (No. None was requested.)

 

Then came the magic word:

 

"Congratulations!" -  I can't find a reason to deny you. I wish you and your husband all the best in the US"

 

She kept my passport and handed me a Domestic Violence document to read and instructions to collect my passport.

 

Documents she did not ask for but that I carried along:
1. Tax transcript (but she did look through my husbands I-864).
2. My husband's divorce papers.
3. My husband's citizenship papers and passports.
4. Call logs, whatsapp messages, Travel logs. 

This is the most thorough interview I’ve seen for a visa of your type.

 

Congratulations! 

[LBX 44]

2 minutes ago, unique5589 said:

This is the most thorough interview I’ve seen for a visa of your type.

 

Congratulations! 

Thank you.  I was expecting it to be thorough especially because of the age difference with my wife and the fact that I recently retired.  So I made sure my wife had tons of evidence for support our relationship and how I planned to support our family.  Even with that, I was still a bit worried.  We did do several test runs at home to simulate what we thought her experience would be.  And we used a lot of questions we found on VJ.  So she came well prepared.  In the end it paid off.  We are grateful to our VJ family and wish everyone success.

[unique5589 10]

2 hours ago, LBX said:

Thank you.  I was expecting it to be thorough especially because of the age difference with my wife and the fact that I recently retired.  So I made sure my wife had tons of evidence for support our relationship and how I planned to support our family.  Even with that, I was still a bit worried.  We did do several test runs at home to simulate what we thought her experience would be.  And we used a lot of questions we found on VJ.  So she came well prepared.  In the end it paid off.  We are grateful to our VJ family and wish everyone success.

You're welcome. This has been such a difficult journey for a lot of us. I'm glad that the embassy was compassionate and granted you an expedite interview. 

 

I requested an expedite about two months ago. It was unfortunately denied. I sent in another request last week for the same reason. Hopefully I will hear positive news in the coming weeks, as I'm in the service and will be stationed outside of the USA. I need my base to sponsor my husband which is dependent on my husband getting a USA visa, at least that's what is written in my present orders. Some of the terminology is specific to the military, so if anyone doesn't understand a term, please let me know.

[LBX 44]

1 hour ago, unique5589 said:

You're welcome. This has been such a difficult journey for a lot of us. I'm glad that the embassy was compassionate and granted you an expedite interview. 

 

I requested an expedite about two months ago. It was unfortunately denied. I sent in another request last week for the same reason. Hopefully I will hear positive news in the coming weeks, as I'm in the service and will be stationed outside of the USA. I need my base to sponsor my husband which is dependent on my husband getting a USA visa, at least that's what is written in my present orders. Some of the terminology is specific to the military, so if anyone doesn't understand a term, please let me know.

Will be praying for you.