Honduran Embassy Never Sent Pre-Interview Info, Then Denied My Fiancée Entry Into K1 Interview

[stegsaurus 1]

Hi everyone,

 

At the end of August 2024, we booked our K1 interview for Thursday, October 17 at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Honduras uses a pre-interview system where you must attend a separate interview to have your documents reviewed, then you are asked the questions at the main interview. The only "official" mention of this is on the Tegucigalpa Embassy page here; my fiancée was also aware from WhatsApp groups we're in. It's not mentioned on the new visa provider website for Honduras, which we migrated our account to after they changed it in mid-September.

 

From everything we've seen and researched, the embassy will email you about your pre-interview at whatever time they choose; it could be weeks before or a few days before. You do not pick your own pre-interview date. However, neither of us were ever contacted with information about the pre-interview. We both contacted the embassy via phone, as well as via email, multiple times to ask. I called on October 7, and was told that they didn't have any information about the pre-interview. They said she should show up for the scheduled interview if we didn't hear about the pre-interview, so that's what she did.

 

None of our other attempts at contacting the embassy about the pre-interview resulted in more information. We both checked our email regularly (including spam) and saw nothing concerning her pre-interview. I have noticed that the case number does not appear on our account page linked above -- I attempted to add this, but the box is grayed out so I cannot. I wonder if this could be what led to the pre-interview information not being sent out.

-----

 

After waiting for hours at the embassy on October 17, my fiancée was told that she was not able to enter for her interview because she had not completed the pre-interview. She explained the above but they still wouldn't let her in. I immediately called the Honduran number for the US Embassy (because the US number was no help) and was told that this issue was not our fault; there must have been an administrative mix-up. Several other K1 interviewees that my fiancée met at the embassy on Oct 17 also had the same experience: not being allowed to enter after not receiving any contact about their pre-interview.

 

I was then told on the phone that I needed to contact tggiv@state.gov, from which I would receive instructions to reschedule her interview. I followed those instructions and was led to the reschedule option on the visa provider website, which I linked above. However, I've tried to schedule another appointment 6+ times over the last day, and every time I get a "System is busy. Please try again later." message. 

I'm not sure what other countries do pre-interviews, so I wanted to ask if anyone has dealt with a pre-interview and what it was like for you. I am beyond furious to the point where I cannot see straight -- this system of "we'll contact you, but if we don't, then you're screwed and have to reschedule" is ridiculous. It is absurd that we followed the directions we were told and she wasn't allowed in on Thursday, even though she had everything she needed (including proof she had emailed to ask about this and never got a straight answer). I am going to be beside myself if we have to get back in line and wait months more for an appointment when it's the embassy's screw-up that caused this.