Rio de Janeiro - DQed & Waiting for Interview Letter

[JLVS22BR 98]

On 2/17/2023 at 5:06 PM, chrisbonatto said:

We're curious to hear what they asked on your interview =)))

Hi @chrisbonatto, hi everyone!
 

Sorry for taking this long to come back here and share with you in details how was our interview. I’ll do a brief recap for those who stop by and read this for the first time.
 

I applied for an EB2-NIW on June 10^th 2021. On June 17^th I received the I-140 confirmation, and 6 months later in January 19^th 2022 the petition was approved by USCIS. Texas Service Center processed my application, and unfortunately, I was one of the cases where the petition got stuck at the TSC and took an eternity to be forwarded to NVC. My attorney had to raise multiple services requests, and my case only moved forward after the Ombudsman intervention. Almost 6 months after approved, my case was forwarded to NVC on July 5^th 2022, and on July 21^st I received my welcome letter from NVC.
 

I paid for the NVC taxes on that same day, and in the following week me and my wife filled our DS-260 forms. Since it’s a paper filled case, we had to send our documents through mail to NVC, which was done by my attorney in August 3^rd. A couple weeks later, on August 18^th, I received a checklist from NVC (aka RFE) regarding our birth certificates. It’s been only a couple years since birth certificates were standardized here in Brazil, and we guess that because of the differences between mine and my wife they asked for another one. We updated our documents and sent them again on August 25^th. Then on September 19^th I finally received from NVC the Documentary Qualified (aka DQ) e-mail.
 

It took over 3 months to receive on December 29^th the Interview Letter for an appointment at the Rio Consulate on February 15^th 2023. We did our medical exams in Brasilia on January 18^th and went to the ASC (aka CASV) in Rio on February 14^th (just one day before the interview). We choose a hotel that was two blocks away from the Consulate (it’s called Windsor Asturias) and that proved to be the best choice that we could have done regarding where to stay. Since our interview was really early in the morning (7:20 a.m.) and it’s advised to be there at least 15 minutes before the scheduled time, we could start our day with no rush (we had breakfast, dressed up, and walked the two blocks with all the peace of mind). You can’t enter the consulate with any electronic devices, and staying that close from the consulate means that we didn’t have to ask for a uber or a cab, and more importantly we didn’t have to leave our cellphones with the keepers outside on the street (we just left them at the hotel).
 

But now, let's get down to business! Interview day and at 6:50 (ish) a.m. we arrived at the consulate. There was a small line for non-immigrant visas, but the security guard asked us to stay there until someone from upstairs come down to let the immigrant visa applicants to come up. A lady came down, scanned the back of our passports (they put a sticker on them when you go to the ASC/CASV) and welcomed us in. We went through security and then were asked to take the stairs and go right to the immigrant visa section. When we got there, a young man handed out to us a form that asks some basic questions, like applicant/petitioner names, current and future addresses, case number, etc. He also handed out a paper listing which documents they needed and also in which order, and asked to put those documents accordingly inside each passport. At this moment we noticed that they were not strictly following the interview scheduled times, but were putting people in line based in the order that we handed back the documents. Since we were the first to complete this part, he put our documents and two different folders (one for each person), handed them back to us and asked for us to sit in the first couple chairs of the first row in the room, and said that as soon as someone called “next” on the booth we could go.
 

After 15 minutes someone called us and we went to the booth. It was a Brazilian officer, not the consul yet, but certainly a higher ranked employee than the first one that just organized our documents in order. She had a cart behind hear full of cases, probably all the cases to be interviewed that day, but strangely my case wasn’t there. She spent a lot of time trying to find our case, but since she was not finding it, she asked a colleague to continue the search while she started with us only checking the data on her computer. She probably did that to not delay any longer, and a couple minutes later they brought my case to her. At this moment, she asked us to confirm our names, parents’ names, dobs, and finally she replaced the police and birth certificates in the process with the updated ones that we brought to the interview. The old ones (sent to NVC several months before) she just handed back to us. She was pretty straightforward all the time, but when answering about my parents’ names she made a small joke that lightened up the mood a little bit (I must confess that as calm as I was trying to be I was still a little nervous). She kept our passports and original certificates, and told us to wait for the Consul to call us.
 

We went back to our chair, and probably 10 minutes later the consul called us. We were waiting for her to greet us so we could know if we had to answer in English or Portuguese. Oddly, she didn’t say hi or good morning, and went straight to ask us to take the oath (in Portuguese). After that, the first question that she made was which were my intentions on moving to the United States. Before I could finish my answer, she then asked me what was my field of expertise. After that, she asked if me or my wife ever had overstayed our time in the US. Then she also asked to both of us if we ever had problems with the police here or in the US. We answered a unison “no”, then she asked for us to read our fingerprints. Finally, she just said “visa approved”, and that was it! My wife thinks that she was kind of rude with us, but I just think that for some reason her day started off bad and she was short of patience, but nothing else. We had a great experience, and in less than two hours we were back to the Hotel, happier than ever and ready to enjoy a day at the wonderful beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
 

Later in that same day, I checked the CEAC and saw that our visas were issued. On Friday (2 days later) I’ve received the e-mail with the tracking code saying that our passports were mailed back to us. I guess they will probably arrive tomorrow! We bought our tickets, and in this very same day a month from now we’ll be finally heading to the United States after this 3-year bumpy and thrilling immigration journey.
 

As an anxious person, I know exactly how it feels this endless wait. There are so many things at stake. Me and my wife have been planning for this moment to arrive for years! We sold our house and our cars, we’ve been saving money like hell, and had to give up countless things in order to get as ready as possible. You give and give your best but the lack of updates makes hard to keep the hopes high throughout the time. But as my attorney always said to me: you must trust the process. Some people get their case figured out a couple months before, others a couple months later, but your day will come and all this distress will be left behind.
 

If you guys have any questions, please let me know. I wish you all the best!

Edited February 21, 2023 by JLVS22BR
Typo.

[chrisbonatto 22]

4 minutes ago, JLVS22BR said:

Hi @chrisbonatto, hi everyone!
 

Sorry for taking this long to come back here and share with you in details how was our interview. I’ll do a brief recap for those who stop by and read this for the first time.
 

I applied for an EB2-NIW on June 10^th 2021. On June 17^th I received the I-140 confirmation, and 6 months later in January 19^th 2022 the petition was approved by USCIS. Texas Service Center processed my application, and unfortunately, I was one of the cases where the petition got stuck at the TSC and took an eternity to be forwarded to NVC. My attorney had to raise multiple services requests, and my case only moved forward after the Ombudsman intervention. Almost 6 months after approved, my case was forwarded to NVC on July 5^th 2022, and on July 21^st I received my welcome letter from NVC.
 

I paid for the NVC taxes on that same day, and in the following week me and my wife filled our DS-260 forms. Since it’s a paper filled case, we had to send our documents through mail to NVC, which was done by my attorney in August 3^rd. A couple weeks later, on August 18^th, I received a checklist from NVC (aka RFE) regarding our birth certificates. It’s been only a couple years since birth certificates were standardized here in Brazil, and we guess that because of the differences between mine and my wife they asked for another one. We updated our documents and sent them again on August 25^th. Then on September 19^th I finally received from NVC the Documentary Qualified (aka DQ) e-mail.
 

It took over 3 months to receive on December 29^th the Interview Letter for an appointment at the Rio Consulate on February 15^th 2023. We did our medical exams in Brasilia on January 18^th and went to the ASC (aka CASV) in Rio on February 14^th (just one day before the interview). We choose a hotel that was two blocks away from the Consulate (it’s called Windsor Asturias) and that proved to be the best choice that we could have done regarding where to stay. Since our interview was really early in the morning (7:20 a.m.) and it’s advised to be there at least 15 minutes before the scheduled time, we could start our day with no rush (we had breakfast, dressed up, and walked the two blocks with all the peace of mind). You can’t enter the consulate with any electronic devices, and staying that close from the consulate means that we didn’t have to ask for a uber or a cab, and more importantly we didn’t have to leave our cellphones with the keepers outside on the street (we just left them at the hotel).
 

But now, let's get down to business! Interview day and at 6:50 (ish) a.m. we arrived at the consulate. There was a small line for non-immigrant visas, but the security guard asked us to stay there until someone from upstairs come down to let the immigrant visa applicants to come up. A lady came down, scanned the back of our passports (they put a sticker on them when you go to the ASC/CASV) and welcomed us in. We went through security and then were asked to take the stairs and go right to the immigrant visa section. When we got there, a young man handed out to us a form that asks some basic questions, like applicant/petitioner names, current and future addresses, case number, etc. He also handed out a paper listing which documents they needed and also in which order, and asked to put those documents accordingly inside each passport. At this moment we noticed that they were not strictly following the interview scheduled times, but were putting people in line based in the order that we handed back the documents. Since we were the first to complete this part, he put our documents and two different folders (one for each person), handed them back to us and asked for us to sit in the first couple chairs of the first row in the room, and said that as soon as someone called “next” on the booth we could go.
 

After 15 minutes someone called us and we went to the booth. It was a Brazilian officer, not the consul yet, but certainly a higher ranked employee than the first one that just organized our documents in order. She had a cart behind hear full of cases, probably all the cases to be interviewed that day, but strangely my case wasn’t there. She spent a lot of time trying to find our case, but since she was not finding it, she asked a colleague to continue the search while she started with us only checking the data on her computer. She probably did that to not delay any longer, and a couple minutes later they brought my case to her. At this moment, she asked us to confirm our names, parents’ names, dobs, and finally she replaced the police and birth certificates in the process with the updated ones that we brought to the interview. The old ones (sent to NVC several months before) she just handed back to us. She was pretty straightforward all the time, but when answering about my parents’ names she made a small joke that lightened up the mood a little bit (I must confess that as calm as I was trying to be I was still a little nervous). She kept our passports and original certificates, and told us to wait for the Consul to call us.
 

We went back to our chair, and probably 10 minutes later the consul called us. We were waiting for her to greet us so we could know if we had to answer in English or Portuguese. Oddly, she didn’t say hi or good morning, and went straight to ask us to take the oath (in Portuguese). After that, the first question that she made was which were my intentions on moving to the United States. Before I could finish my answer, she then asked me what was my field of expertise. After that, she asked if me or my wife ever had overstayed our time in the US. Then she also asked to both of us if we ever had problems with the police here or in the US. We answered a unison “no”, then she asked for us to read our fingerprints. Finally, she just said “visa approved”, and that was it! My wife thinks that she was kind of rude with us, but I just think that for some reason her day started off bad and she was short of patience, but nothing else. We had a great experience, and in less than two hours we were back to the Hotel, happier than ever and ready to enjoy a day at the wonderful beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
 

Later in that same day, I checked the CEAC and saw that our visas were issued. On Friday (2 days later) I’ve received the e-mail with the tracking code saying that our passports were mailed back to us. I guess they will probably arrive tomorrow! We bought our tickets, and in this very same day a month from now we’ll be finally heading to the United States after this 3-year bumpy and thrilling immigration journey.
 

As an anxious person, I know exactly how it feels this endless wait. There are so many things at stake. Me and my wife have been planning for this moment to arrive for years! We sold our house and our cars, we’ve been saving money like hell, and had to give up countless things in order to get as ready as possible. You give and give your best but the lack of updates makes hard to keep the hopes high throughout the time. But as my attorney always said to me: you must trust the process. Some people get their case figured out a couple months before, others a couple months later, but your day will come and all this distress will be left behind.
 

If you guys have any questions, please let me know. I wish you all the best!

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us @JLVS22BR!

The details make even the reader to feel a bit anxious with you regarding the consul and the lady not finding your file!

 

Happy that everything worked out for you and your wife, and I hope that you have a great life in the US!

[sophie22 29]

9 minutes ago, JLVS22BR said:

Hi @chrisbonatto, hi everyone!
 

Sorry for taking this long to come back here and share with you in details how was our interview. I’ll do a brief recap for those who stop by and read this for the first time.
 

I applied for an EB2-NIW on June 10^th 2021. On June 17^th I received the I-140 confirmation, and 6 months later in January 19^th 2022 the petition was approved by USCIS. Texas Service Center processed my application, and unfortunately, I was one of the cases where the petition got stuck at the TSC and took an eternity to be forwarded to NVC. My attorney had to raise multiple services requests, and my case only moved forward after the Ombudsman intervention. Almost 6 months after approved, my case was forwarded to NVC on July 5^th 2022, and on July 21^st I received my welcome letter from NVC.
 

I paid for the NVC taxes on that same day, and in the following week me and my wife filled our DS-260 forms. Since it’s a paper filled case, we had to send our documents through mail to NVC, which was done by my attorney in August 3^rd. A couple weeks later, on August 18^th, I received a checklist from NVC (aka RFE) regarding our birth certificates. It’s been only a couple years since birth certificates were standardized here in Brazil, and we guess that because of the differences between mine and my wife they asked for another one. We updated our documents and sent them again on August 25^th. Then on September 19^th I finally received from NVC the Documentary Qualified (aka DQ) e-mail.
 

It took over 3 months to receive on December 29^th the Interview Letter for an appointment at the Rio Consulate on February 15^th 2023. We did our medical exams in Brasilia on January 18^th and went to the ASC (aka CASV) in Rio on February 14^th (just one day before the interview). We choose a hotel that was two blocks away from the Consulate (it’s called Windsor Asturias) and that proved to be the best choice that we could have done regarding where to stay. Since our interview was really early in the morning (7:20 a.m.) and it’s advised to be there at least 15 minutes before the scheduled time, we could start our day with no rush (we had breakfast, dressed up, and walked the two blocks with all the peace of mind). You can’t enter the consulate with any electronic devices, and staying that close from the consulate means that we didn’t have to ask for a uber or a cab, and more importantly we didn’t have to leave our cellphones with the keepers outside on the street (we just left them at the hotel).
 

But now, let's get down to business! Interview day and at 6:50 (ish) a.m. we arrived at the consulate. There was a small line for non-immigrant visas, but the security guard asked us to stay there until someone from upstairs come down to let the immigrant visa applicants to come up. A lady came down, scanned the back of our passports (they put a sticker on them when you go to the ASC/CASV) and welcomed us in. We went through security and then were asked to take the stairs and go right to the immigrant visa section. When we got there, a young man handed out to us a form that asks some basic questions, like applicant/petitioner names, current and future addresses, case number, etc. He also handed out a paper listing which documents they needed and also in which order, and asked to put those documents accordingly inside each passport. At this moment we noticed that they were not strictly following the interview scheduled times, but were putting people in line based in the order that we handed back the documents. Since we were the first to complete this part, he put our documents and two different folders (one for each person), handed them back to us and asked for us to sit in the first couple chairs of the first row in the room, and said that as soon as someone called “next” on the booth we could go.
 

After 15 minutes someone called us and we went to the booth. It was a Brazilian officer, not the consul yet, but certainly a higher ranked employee than the first one that just organized our documents in order. She had a cart behind hear full of cases, probably all the cases to be interviewed that day, but strangely my case wasn’t there. She spent a lot of time trying to find our case, but since she was not finding it, she asked a colleague to continue the search while she started with us only checking the data on her computer. She probably did that to not delay any longer, and a couple minutes later they brought my case to her. At this moment, she asked us to confirm our names, parents’ names, dobs, and finally she replaced the police and birth certificates in the process with the updated ones that we brought to the interview. The old ones (sent to NVC several months before) she just handed back to us. She was pretty straightforward all the time, but when answering about my parents’ names she made a small joke that lightened up the mood a little bit (I must confess that as calm as I was trying to be I was still a little nervous). She kept our passports and original certificates, and told us to wait for the Consul to call us.
 

We went back to our chair, and probably 10 minutes later the consul called us. We were waiting for her to greet us so we could know if we had to answer in English or Portuguese. Oddly, she didn’t say hi or good morning, and went straight to ask us to take the oath (in Portuguese). After that, the first question that she made was which were my intentions on moving to the United States. Before I could finish my answer, she then asked me what was my field of expertise. After that, she asked if me or my wife ever had overstayed our time in the US. Then she also asked to both of us if we ever had problems with the police here or in the US. We answered a unison “no”, then she asked for us to read our fingerprints. Finally, she just said “visa approved”, and that was it! My wife thinks that she was kind of rude with us, but I just think that for some reason her day started off bad and she was short of patience, but nothing else. We had a great experience, and in less than two hours we were back to the Hotel, happier than ever and ready to enjoy a day at the wonderful beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
 

Later in that same day, I checked the CEAC and saw that our visas were issued. On Friday (2 days later) I’ve received the e-mail with the tracking code saying that our passports were mailed back to us. I guess they will probably arrive tomorrow! We bought our tickets, and in this very same day a month from now we’ll be finally heading to the United States after this 3-year bumpy and thrilling immigration journey.
 

As an anxious person, I know exactly how it feels this endless wait. There are so many things at stake. Me and my wife have been planning for this moment to arrive for years! We sold our house and our cars, we’ve been saving money like hell, and had to give up countless things in order to get as ready as possible. You give and give your best but the lack of updates makes hard to keep the hopes high throughout the time. But as my attorney always said to me: you must trust the process. Some people get their case figured out a couple months before, others a couple months later, but your day will come and all this distress will be left behind.
 

If you guys have any questions, please let me know. I wish you all the best!

This is great news, congratulations!

[RVS 18]

2 hours ago, JLVS22BR said:

Hi @chrisbonatto, hi everyone!
 

Sorry for taking this long to come back here and share with you in details how was our interview. I’ll do a brief recap for those who stop by and read this for the first time.
 

I applied for an EB2-NIW on June 10^th 2021. On June 17^th I received the I-140 confirmation, and 6 months later in January 19^th 2022 the petition was approved by USCIS. Texas Service Center processed my application, and unfortunately, I was one of the cases where the petition got stuck at the TSC and took an eternity to be forwarded to NVC. My attorney had to raise multiple services requests, and my case only moved forward after the Ombudsman intervention. Almost 6 months after approved, my case was forwarded to NVC on July 5^th 2022, and on July 21^st I received my welcome letter from NVC.
 

I paid for the NVC taxes on that same day, and in the following week me and my wife filled our DS-260 forms. Since it’s a paper filled case, we had to send our documents through mail to NVC, which was done by my attorney in August 3^rd. A couple weeks later, on August 18^th, I received a checklist from NVC (aka RFE) regarding our birth certificates. It’s been only a couple years since birth certificates were standardized here in Brazil, and we guess that because of the differences between mine and my wife they asked for another one. We updated our documents and sent them again on August 25^th. Then on September 19^th I finally received from NVC the Documentary Qualified (aka DQ) e-mail.
 

It took over 3 months to receive on December 29^th the Interview Letter for an appointment at the Rio Consulate on February 15^th 2023. We did our medical exams in Brasilia on January 18^th and went to the ASC (aka CASV) in Rio on February 14^th (just one day before the interview). We choose a hotel that was two blocks away from the Consulate (it’s called Windsor Asturias) and that proved to be the best choice that we could have done regarding where to stay. Since our interview was really early in the morning (7:20 a.m.) and it’s advised to be there at least 15 minutes before the scheduled time, we could start our day with no rush (we had breakfast, dressed up, and walked the two blocks with all the peace of mind). You can’t enter the consulate with any electronic devices, and staying that close from the consulate means that we didn’t have to ask for a uber or a cab, and more importantly we didn’t have to leave our cellphones with the keepers outside on the street (we just left them at the hotel).
 

But now, let's get down to business! Interview day and at 6:50 (ish) a.m. we arrived at the consulate. There was a small line for non-immigrant visas, but the security guard asked us to stay there until someone from upstairs come down to let the immigrant visa applicants to come up. A lady came down, scanned the back of our passports (they put a sticker on them when you go to the ASC/CASV) and welcomed us in. We went through security and then were asked to take the stairs and go right to the immigrant visa section. When we got there, a young man handed out to us a form that asks some basic questions, like applicant/petitioner names, current and future addresses, case number, etc. He also handed out a paper listing which documents they needed and also in which order, and asked to put those documents accordingly inside each passport. At this moment we noticed that they were not strictly following the interview scheduled times, but were putting people in line based in the order that we handed back the documents. Since we were the first to complete this part, he put our documents and two different folders (one for each person), handed them back to us and asked for us to sit in the first couple chairs of the first row in the room, and said that as soon as someone called “next” on the booth we could go.
 

After 15 minutes someone called us and we went to the booth. It was a Brazilian officer, not the consul yet, but certainly a higher ranked employee than the first one that just organized our documents in order. She had a cart behind hear full of cases, probably all the cases to be interviewed that day, but strangely my case wasn’t there. She spent a lot of time trying to find our case, but since she was not finding it, she asked a colleague to continue the search while she started with us only checking the data on her computer. She probably did that to not delay any longer, and a couple minutes later they brought my case to her. At this moment, she asked us to confirm our names, parents’ names, dobs, and finally she replaced the police and birth certificates in the process with the updated ones that we brought to the interview. The old ones (sent to NVC several months before) she just handed back to us. She was pretty straightforward all the time, but when answering about my parents’ names she made a small joke that lightened up the mood a little bit (I must confess that as calm as I was trying to be I was still a little nervous). She kept our passports and original certificates, and told us to wait for the Consul to call us.
 

We went back to our chair, and probably 10 minutes later the consul called us. We were waiting for her to greet us so we could know if we had to answer in English or Portuguese. Oddly, she didn’t say hi or good morning, and went straight to ask us to take the oath (in Portuguese). After that, the first question that she made was which were my intentions on moving to the United States. Before I could finish my answer, she then asked me what was my field of expertise. After that, she asked if me or my wife ever had overstayed our time in the US. Then she also asked to both of us if we ever had problems with the police here or in the US. We answered a unison “no”, then she asked for us to read our fingerprints. Finally, she just said “visa approved”, and that was it! My wife thinks that she was kind of rude with us, but I just think that for some reason her day started off bad and she was short of patience, but nothing else. We had a great experience, and in less than two hours we were back to the Hotel, happier than ever and ready to enjoy a day at the wonderful beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
 

Later in that same day, I checked the CEAC and saw that our visas were issued. On Friday (2 days later) I’ve received the e-mail with the tracking code saying that our passports were mailed back to us. I guess they will probably arrive tomorrow! We bought our tickets, and in this very same day a month from now we’ll be finally heading to the United States after this 3-year bumpy and thrilling immigration journey.
 

As an anxious person, I know exactly how it feels this endless wait. There are so many things at stake. Me and my wife have been planning for this moment to arrive for years! We sold our house and our cars, we’ve been saving money like hell, and had to give up countless things in order to get as ready as possible. You give and give your best but the lack of updates makes hard to keep the hopes high throughout the time. But as my attorney always said to me: you must trust the process. Some people get their case figured out a couple months before, others a couple months later, but your day will come and all this distress will be left behind.
 

If you guys have any questions, please let me know. I wish you all the best!

Congrats. Thank you very much for your for all the details. The information that you have provided is priceless. thank you! Good luck and have a nice trip.

[crsbr 9]

3 hours ago, JLVS22BR said:

Hi @chrisbonatto, hi everyone!
 

Sorry for taking this long to come back here and share with you in details how was our interview. I’ll do a brief recap for those who stop by and read this for the first time.
 

I applied for an EB2-NIW on June 10^th 2021. On June 17^th I received the I-140 confirmation, and 6 months later in January 19^th 2022 the petition was approved by USCIS. Texas Service Center processed my application, and unfortunately, I was one of the cases where the petition got stuck at the TSC and took an eternity to be forwarded to NVC. My attorney had to raise multiple services requests, and my case only moved forward after the Ombudsman intervention. Almost 6 months after approved, my case was forwarded to NVC on July 5^th 2022, and on July 21^st I received my welcome letter from NVC.
 

I paid for the NVC taxes on that same day, and in the following week me and my wife filled our DS-260 forms. Since it’s a paper filled case, we had to send our documents through mail to NVC, which was done by my attorney in August 3^rd. A couple weeks later, on August 18^th, I received a checklist from NVC (aka RFE) regarding our birth certificates. It’s been only a couple years since birth certificates were standardized here in Brazil, and we guess that because of the differences between mine and my wife they asked for another one. We updated our documents and sent them again on August 25^th. Then on September 19^th I finally received from NVC the Documentary Qualified (aka DQ) e-mail.
 

It took over 3 months to receive on December 29^th the Interview Letter for an appointment at the Rio Consulate on February 15^th 2023. We did our medical exams in Brasilia on January 18^th and went to the ASC (aka CASV) in Rio on February 14^th (just one day before the interview). We choose a hotel that was two blocks away from the Consulate (it’s called Windsor Asturias) and that proved to be the best choice that we could have done regarding where to stay. Since our interview was really early in the morning (7:20 a.m.) and it’s advised to be there at least 15 minutes before the scheduled time, we could start our day with no rush (we had breakfast, dressed up, and walked the two blocks with all the peace of mind). You can’t enter the consulate with any electronic devices, and staying that close from the consulate means that we didn’t have to ask for a uber or a cab, and more importantly we didn’t have to leave our cellphones with the keepers outside on the street (we just left them at the hotel).
 

But now, let's get down to business! Interview day and at 6:50 (ish) a.m. we arrived at the consulate. There was a small line for non-immigrant visas, but the security guard asked us to stay there until someone from upstairs come down to let the immigrant visa applicants to come up. A lady came down, scanned the back of our passports (they put a sticker on them when you go to the ASC/CASV) and welcomed us in. We went through security and then were asked to take the stairs and go right to the immigrant visa section. When we got there, a young man handed out to us a form that asks some basic questions, like applicant/petitioner names, current and future addresses, case number, etc. He also handed out a paper listing which documents they needed and also in which order, and asked to put those documents accordingly inside each passport. At this moment we noticed that they were not strictly following the interview scheduled times, but were putting people in line based in the order that we handed back the documents. Since we were the first to complete this part, he put our documents and two different folders (one for each person), handed them back to us and asked for us to sit in the first couple chairs of the first row in the room, and said that as soon as someone called “next” on the booth we could go.
 

After 15 minutes someone called us and we went to the booth. It was a Brazilian officer, not the consul yet, but certainly a higher ranked employee than the first one that just organized our documents in order. She had a cart behind hear full of cases, probably all the cases to be interviewed that day, but strangely my case wasn’t there. She spent a lot of time trying to find our case, but since she was not finding it, she asked a colleague to continue the search while she started with us only checking the data on her computer. She probably did that to not delay any longer, and a couple minutes later they brought my case to her. At this moment, she asked us to confirm our names, parents’ names, dobs, and finally she replaced the police and birth certificates in the process with the updated ones that we brought to the interview. The old ones (sent to NVC several months before) she just handed back to us. She was pretty straightforward all the time, but when answering about my parents’ names she made a small joke that lightened up the mood a little bit (I must confess that as calm as I was trying to be I was still a little nervous). She kept our passports and original certificates, and told us to wait for the Consul to call us.
 

We went back to our chair, and probably 10 minutes later the consul called us. We were waiting for her to greet us so we could know if we had to answer in English or Portuguese. Oddly, she didn’t say hi or good morning, and went straight to ask us to take the oath (in Portuguese). After that, the first question that she made was which were my intentions on moving to the United States. Before I could finish my answer, she then asked me what was my field of expertise. After that, she asked if me or my wife ever had overstayed our time in the US. Then she also asked to both of us if we ever had problems with the police here or in the US. We answered a unison “no”, then she asked for us to read our fingerprints. Finally, she just said “visa approved”, and that was it! My wife thinks that she was kind of rude with us, but I just think that for some reason her day started off bad and she was short of patience, but nothing else. We had a great experience, and in less than two hours we were back to the Hotel, happier than ever and ready to enjoy a day at the wonderful beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
 

Later in that same day, I checked the CEAC and saw that our visas were issued. On Friday (2 days later) I’ve received the e-mail with the tracking code saying that our passports were mailed back to us. I guess they will probably arrive tomorrow! We bought our tickets, and in this very same day a month from now we’ll be finally heading to the United States after this 3-year bumpy and thrilling immigration journey.
 

As an anxious person, I know exactly how it feels this endless wait. There are so many things at stake. Me and my wife have been planning for this moment to arrive for years! We sold our house and our cars, we’ve been saving money like hell, and had to give up countless things in order to get as ready as possible. You give and give your best but the lack of updates makes hard to keep the hopes high throughout the time. But as my attorney always said to me: you must trust the process. Some people get their case figured out a couple months before, others a couple months later, but your day will come and all this distress will be left behind.
 

If you guys have any questions, please let me know. I wish you all the best!

We don’t know how many times we have to say thank you for all the information and details you have shared @JLVS22BR (by the way not only now).

 

As you know at this point that we are (DQ and waiting for IL) any piece of information is relevant for handling anxiety and making plans.

 

We hope you and your wife all the best and a blessed life in US. 🙏🏼

[JLVS22BR 98]

Hi everyone! I really appreciate the kind words. Thanks for all the support along the way! Our immigration packages arrived yesterday, basically a week after our interview. I guess that if wasn't for the Carnaval holidays, it would have arrived by monday. Ever since I started reading about immigration I've heard about it, but to be honest I've never seen one before, so here goes! It's one big package, containing one sealed envelope for each visa holder, and a plastic bag containing the passports left at the consulate. There is a piece of paper attached to each envelope with information about the person to whom it belongs.

[crsbr 9]

1 hour ago, JLVS22BR said:

Hi everyone! I really appreciate the kind words. Thanks for all the support along the way! Our immigration packages arrived yesterday, basically a week after our interview. I guess that if wasn't for the Carnaval holidays, it would have arrived by monday. Ever since I started reading about immigration I've heard about it, but to be honest I've never seen one before, so here goes! It's one big package, containing one sealed envelope for each visa holder, and a plastic bag containing the passports left at the consulate. There is a piece of paper attached to each envelope with information about the person to whom it belongs.

Thank you again @JLVS22BR I did that research too and I believe everyone here also keep trying to find informations about each detail.

Congratulations for your attention and kindness with others that you are showing on this action! 🙏🏻

 

All the best for you and your wife in US!

 

 

[RVS 18]

5 hours ago, JLVS22BR said:

Hi everyone! I really appreciate the kind words. Thanks for all the support along the way! Our immigration packages arrived yesterday, basically a week after our interview. I guess that if wasn't for the Carnaval holidays, it would have arrived by monday. Ever since I started reading about immigration I've heard about it, but to be honest I've never seen one before, so here goes! It's one big package, containing one sealed envelope for each visa holder, and a plastic bag containing the passports left at the consulate. There is a piece of paper attached to each envelope with information about the person to whom it belongs.

Congrats @JLVS22BR, thank you again for the info. This picture is just amazing.

Have you booked your flight?

[RVS 18]

On 2/24/2023 at 2:09 PM, RVS said:

Congrats @JLVS22BR, thank you again for the info. This picture is just amazing.

Have you booked your flight?

@JLVS22BR please, Did you notice any other EB-2 or EB-3 interview on the same day of yours?

[chrisbonatto 22]

Just to let you guys know that yesterday I received another 60 days notice. So today I'm on day 121 since DQ for EB2.

[RVS 18]

24 minutes ago, chrisbonatto said:

Just to let you guys know that yesterday I received another 60 days notice. So today I'm on day 121 since DQ for EB2.

@chrisbonatto there are another cases that 7 to 8 days after the first or second 60 days notice email, they receive an email scheduling the interview. So You are very close to receive it👍👊

[JLVS22BR 98]

On 2/24/2023 at 2:09 PM, RVS said:

Congrats @JLVS22BR, thank you again for the info. This picture is just amazing.

Have you booked your flight?

Hi @RVS, yes we're going on the 21st of March! 🙌

[JLVS22BR 98]

On 2/25/2023 at 3:41 PM, RVS said:

@JLVS22BR please, Did you notice any other EB-2 or EB-3 interview on the same day of yours?

I tried to make conversation but people were so retracted that it just didn't work. But if I had to guess, everybody that morning was applying for an EB. Not only because of the "profile" of the people and families who were there, but I also have heard that consulates try to schedule the whole day for a single type of visa interviews since it makes more fluid the work of the staff.

[RVS 18]

58 minutes ago, JLVS22BR said:

Hi @RVS, yes we're going on the 21st of March! 🙌

That's great👏👍 Have a good and safe trip

Edited February 27, 2023 by RVS

[RVS 18]

49 minutes ago, JLVS22BR said:

I tried to make conversation but people were so retracted that it just didn't work. But if I had to guess, everybody that morning was applying for an EB. Not only because of the "profile" of the people and families who were there, but I also have heard that consulates try to schedule the whole day for a single type of visa interviews since it makes more fluid the work of the staff.

So, Do you have an idea of how many interviews at that day?