January Interview at US Embassy Manila

[beng_and_carl 0]

HEAR YEAH! HEAR YEAH!!! Sharing with you our VJ Family the Mike and Beth's Interview experience last January 3, 2007. They have some problem with their internet connection at the hotel where they are staying at so sis beth asked to post this one for all of us to share. enjoy!

CONGRATS mike and beth!!! Wooohhhooo!!! dance:

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Embassy Interview Experience

US Embassy Manila:

6:00am we lined up at the embassy entrance and fell into the line for K1, K3 and other immigrant visas. We had about 50 people in front of us. After the guard checked our appointment letter and my passport we moved to a seating area just outside the embassy. 10 to 15 minutes later we were finally past the metal detector and pat-down search and in the embassy. We followed the blue arrows to the immigrant visa area where we were seated on the far side of the room since we were 7:30am appointment. The near side was filled with 6:30am appointments already seated. 7:16am we received our ticket number 7046. We went back to our seat, waited a while until her name was called for finger scanning. Back to our seat to wait some more until our number flashed for pre-screening.

Pre-Screening:

Nice Filipina pre-screener. We greeted her with good morning and happy New Year and she was smiling… Asked for one copy each of NBI, Cenomar, NSO Birth certificate, original I-134 affidavit of support (this was already submitted with our application, she soon realized that), employment verification letter, 1040’s, and proof of relationship (pictures together, emails, phone bills, remittance stubs) She didn’t ask for: my work pay stubs, W2, travel itineraries from previous trips to PI, my passport pages with stamps, plane tickets or any other of the large amount of stuff we brought with us. She asked a few questions… Are you Mr. ______ and are you Ms. _______ of course we answered yes. She asked how we met (we were introduced by a friend). When were we introduced? When did we first meet in person? How many times I have visited PI? What date did I enter PI for my current visit. She asked both of us if we had ever been married before, if any children (no to all questions). She then asked me “so she is 12 years younger than you?” of course I said yes (duh!). She then said that was all she needed and said we could have a seat until our number is called for interview.

Interview:

After a 2 hour wait our number was flashed for interview, at window 31. We were seated just outside the cubicle to wait for the current applicant to finish. When she exited we went inside. The consul greeted us, told us to have a seat, how are you doing all while smiling….. He then looked at our application and said “I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you are Mr. _______?” That’s me I said, “Good, because this would be much more difficult if you weren’t” hahahaha more smiles (I feel more relaxed about this now). He made us raise our right hands and state that the information given in this interview and the documents in front of him are all true. Then he asked Beth a total of 4 questions and the last question was for both of us….

How did the two of you meet? (introduced by a friend)

How does your friend know him? (her fiancé is best friends with him)

When were you two introduced? (June 2006)

After you were introduced, tell me what happened? (we emailed, called, sent txt messages, and chatted on the internet)

After a long pause while he flipped through all the paper work and made some notes on some pages he asked us, “Ok, do either of you know of any reason why I should not approve this visa?” We both said no and with a smile he said “Congratulations you are approved.”

He returned our pictures and proof of relationship evidence and asked if we had any more questions at which time I asked for visa pickup. I said we already have plane tickets for Jan 11th (8 days from interview) and if possible we would like to pickup the visa since we will be staying right across the street. He immediately said sure and took our phone number down on a slip of paper. He said he could not guarantee we would get it right away, on rare occasions things can get held up, but there should be no problems and we should make our flight. He said he only had one person before who was delayed because of some computer problems and that person had to wait for 2 weeks. We thanked him and went back to our seats for releasing. A few minutes later we were called to window 37 for releasing. They gave us the pink slip for visa pick-up. We skipped the Delbros window.

At 12:00pm we exited the embassy.

Mike and Beth: also let the vj folks know, we didn't see anyone leave a consul without a smile!

[beng_and_carl 0]

correction: January 3, 2008 was their interview date. hehe...

[jayzar 1]

CONGRATS BHENG AND CARL!

what a smooth interview you two had!

anyways my name is jyz ... Im of the same batch as Ate Rina's but were rescheduled due to medical.

hope I can make "habol" pa, and get my interview this january!

thanks for sharing!

-jyz

[Roserick 0]

It makes me feel relieved that they don't give a hard time on K1 interview..

Makes me feel that IR/CR Interview will smoother than the K1's

Congrats and Good Luck on your Journey!!

[Tim & Cai 15]

Being and CArl.

Thank you for posting that for Mike and Beth. It is encouraging. I know you two will do just as well.

[coolbreeze 0]

Joy called and told me she was approved at 3:00am here, yesterday .

glad that part is over, now to the next step of the journey....getting married and AOS....

hope everyone gets approved and none goes on AR

[kits_24_faith 0]

For those that had their interviews already.. can you please share the questions that you guys were asked and how many? I heard that depending on the consul you can get asked a lot and some just ask little.

[beng_and_carl 0]

my friend, cocoa/mylene from WOF, who was interviewed yesterday, jan 4, 2008 was asked by the following questions:

1. dates of her fiance's visits

2. what did they do during his visits?

3. why are you on that dating website?

4. why did you choose your fiance among all men from the website?

5. do you still chat/talk with some men on that website?

that's all.

hope everything will be easy and fine for all of us!

God bless us all!!!

Edited January 5, 2008 by beng_and_carl

[rjp44 1]

Medical complete, now just the interview and CFO remain.

[Stibnite 0]

Arlyn and I were approved January 3!

We got to chat with Mike and Beth while there, including a number of others we've met online.

It was an easy experience.

Officer was very impressed with the documents presented and how precise of order they were in.

Questions asked were:

(To Both of us) Who organized these documents?

I answered: I did.

(To Arlyn) How did you meet?

We explained.

(To Arlyn) Does Adam have any children from his previous marriage?

We answered.

(To Arlyn) When did you first begin your communications?

We answered.

(To Arlyn) How long did you work in China?

She answered.

(To Adam) How many times have you been to the Philippines?

I answered.

Then, I started asking him questions about his trip to the Philippines.

He then goes into a dialogue about his trips to the Philippines and his vacation last month. He states that he saw fireworks from above when returning to Manila on New Years, etc. He was extremely friendly and conversational.

Now that we're all done questioning each other, he grabs the paperwork and comments on its extraordinary neatness again, and says, "There are certainly no problems here; you're approved! Congratulations. You've both earned it!"

That was it. We thanked him and wished him a wonderful New Years and went outside to present our return tickets so we could schedule the Visa Pick-Up and we went out to celebrate for the rest of the evening.

The interview is NOTHING to stress over AT ALL.

My suggestion is to be yourself and relax. The people in the Manila embassy are courteous and are not going to reject you unless you are simply not providing proper documentation.

Out of the 52 K1 Interviews done on January 3, 51 were approved and one was placed in AR due to lack of paperwork and evidence from using a poor attorney.

That's a pretty good turnout if you ask me.

God bless, and we wish you all the best of success on your future interviews!

[rjp44 1]

Arlyn and I were approved January 3!

We got to chat with Mike and Beth while there, including a number of others we've met online.

It was an easy experience.

Officer was very impressed with the documents presented and how precise of order they were in.

Questions asked were:

(To Both of us) Who organized these documents?

I answered: I did.

(To Arlyn) How did you meet?

We explained.

(To Arlyn) Does Adam have any children from his previous marriage?

We answered.

(To Arlyn) When did you first begin your communications?

We answered.

(To Arlyn) How long did you work in China?

She answered.

(To Adam) How many times have you been to the Philippines?

I answered.

Then, I started asking him questions about his trip to the Philippines.

He then goes into a dialogue about his trips to the Philippines and his vacation last month. He states that he saw fireworks from above when returning to Manila on New Years, etc. He was extremely friendly and conversational.

Now that we're all done questioning each other, he grabs the paperwork and comments on its extraordinary neatness again, and says, "There are certainly no problems here; you're approved! Congratulations. You've both earned it!"

That was it. We thanked him and wished him a wonderful New Years and went outside to present our return tickets so we could schedule the Visa Pick-Up and we went out to celebrate for the rest of the evening.

The interview is NOTHING to stress over AT ALL.

My suggestion is to be yourself and relax. The people in the Manila embassy are courteous and are not going to reject you unless you are simply not providing proper documentation.

Out of the 52 K1 Interviews done on January 3, 51 were approved and one was placed in AR due to lack of paperwork and evidence from using a poor attorney.

That's a pretty good turnout if you ask me.

God bless, and we wish you all the best of success on your future interviews!

Congratulations. And I think using VJ is far superior to the majority of lawyers.....heck, with what I've learned, I should become an immigration lawyer LOL.

[Tim & Cai 15]

You would do better then most of them out there hehehe

[Bill B 0]

Congratulations to all of you who were approved this month. My fiancee's interview is Monday. Even though you feel totally prepared the butterflies are still fluttering in my stomach. The journey sure takes a lot out of you, but as many have said that have gone before us, "it is all worth it." Good luck to the rest of you January folks. God Bless and Happy New Year.

[Mike and Elisa 0]

correction: January 3, 2008 was their interview date. hehe...

Hi Begn and Carl,

Congratulations. Elisa also had her interview on Jan 3 and was approved. Now we're waiting for the embassy to print the visa.

Does anyone know how long we can expect to wait for the embassy to hand the visa off to Delbros?

I just got off the phone with Grace at the embassy a few minutes ago, but she just gave me the standard dogma about the process taking a week.

Edited January 7, 2008 by Mike and Elisa

[cjthel 0]

correction: January 3, 2008 was their interview date. hehe...

Hi Begn and Carl,

Congratulations. Elisa also had her interview on Jan 3 and was approved. Now we're waiting for the embassy to print the visa.

Does anyone know how long we can expect to wait for the embassy to hand the visa off to Delbros?

I just got off the phone with Grace at the embassy a few minutes ago, but she just gave me the standard dogma about the process taking a week.

Congratulations!!! Now the journey towards lifetime commitment as husband and wife begins... God bless you!!!