I went with my wife to her IR1 visa interview today, and it was approved easily and quickly. Here's our story:
Arriving at the Consulate & the Line
Our appointment was scheduled at 8:15 am this morning. We arrived at the consulate at around 7 am. There were others already waiting across the street, and our driver dropped us off there. A helpful lady guided us to sit on some free stools, telling us that the consulate would open in 30 minutes. So we bought a coffee and water, but we didn't get a chance to finish those before we all crossed the street over to the consulate.
General advice: Getting to the consulate super early won't help you all that much. Just get there at around 7-ish, which is early enough to cross the street with the herd and get an early place in line.
We lined up as the security guards were loudly barking orders. They were checking passports, appointment letters, and DS-260 confirmation pages before admitting people inside. The security folks may seem rude, but don't take it personally - they're just doing their jobs. Oddly enough, they were deferential to me (as a USC) saying "yes sir", "thank you sir". My concerns about not being allowed to enter with my wife due to covid restrictions were completely unfounded. As a USC, you can (and should) accompany your spouse to the interview.
After waiting about 20 minutes in line outside, we passed through security to get inside. They allowed us to carry bags containing their evidence, just needed to turn in our phones in exchange for a numbered token to get them back on our way out later. After passing through security, we lined up again to take a number. The line to take numbers took another 20 minutes. As a foreigner, I had to wait by the interview windows. There was only one other foreigner there besides myself.
Interesting observation #1: Another Vietnamese guy sat next to me, and he had an 8-inch stack of official-looking documents from his entire family. On top of his stack, was a blue slip, presumably a 221g from a previous interview. He was extremely organized, with all his paperwork labeled, colored, and explained with post-it notes. I thought "oh sh--" because I thought I was organized well enough, but his organization skills were next level.
The Document Check
After another half an hour, we got called up to hand in our original documents.
They didn't ask for copies or updated I-864s or anything like that. But we had a little bit of a misunderstanding, of which is my own fault.
I included our child's Vietnamese birth certificate because I thought the instructions said we were supposed to. So the young document girl (who was Vietnamese) asked for our child's Vietnamese passport and the two visa 5x5 photographs. I didn't have them with us, and the 3 of us looked at each other like ... ...
Then I quickly realized that because the BC was Vietnamese, the document girl might have thought we were also applying for her visa as well. I explained that our daughter is a USC and handed her a copy of her U.S. passport biodata page. She said "oh ok, so then we don't need her BC" and handed it back. *Whew*
Advice for parents: If your child is a USC after already doing a CRBA, you do not need to bring her passport, birth certificate, and visa photos. A photocopy of his/her passport biodata page will suffice. And if you have small children, don't bring them to the interview. This is not a place for kids. Bringing them will only add another layer of stress to an already stressful situation, particularly if your little one is the spirited type, like ours is.
All in all, the document check took us only a couple of minutes. It would have taken even less than a minute had we avoided the misunderstanding over our kid's BC.
Interesting observation #2: We saw people spent 10-15 long minutes just doing the document check, which is likely a bad sign because they might have been missing something or are also very disorganized, which may also lead to a 221g. If you've done the I-130 and NVC stages right by submitting all the required docs at CEAC, your document check should be quick. Bottom line - the shorter your document check is, the more likely you will get a positive outcome in your visa interview.
The Interview
The waiting was the worst part, as many other reviews said. Luckily, it wasn't a hot morning.
As the number screen got closer and closer to our assigned number, our pulse quickened and we were taking intentional deep breaths. I kept assuring my wife that "it's only a conversation" and that everything will be alright, but I wasn't so assured myself. I was worried about it being so close to the tax filing deadline that they might ask us (me and the joint sponsor) to redo our I-864s.
It didn't help that we saw another woman crying because she was a nervous wreck. Another couple/family spent nearly 30 minutes at an interview window getting grilled more than a Texas Monthly BBQ Fest. When they were done, the woman was also crying because she got a 221g that required detailed family trees and a whole bunch of difficult-to-obtain documents from both U.S. and Vietnam.
However, it did help us personally that we sat close to a TV screen hanging from the ceiling. It was playing some stuff about the history of the Vietnam War and repairing US-Vietnam relations afterward. Not particularly interesting, but it helped get our minds off from the looming interview.
After another half hour or a bit longer than that, we were finally called. We went up to the desk, met a lady about the same age as me (she could almost have been my classmate in high school), and a Vietnamese translator. They both smiled when we came up. There was a strict mask policy, but it was easy to tell that they were friendly and smiling behind their masks. The initial smile really put my wife at ease, as it did me.
I appreciated that the interview window had a countertop where I could lay out all of our supporting documents and evidence. The lady asked my wife only 3 questions, the first two were very easy, and the last one was kind of a trick question, but my wife handled it beautifully. On the first question, my wife wasn't sure she heard it right, so the translator helped. But that wasn't a problem at all. Just more like a conversation.
The Questions
1. Where did you meet?
2. Where was your child born?
3. How many times did your husband visit you in Vietnam?
Like I said, our documents and profile made it very obvious that I stayed in Vietnam with my wife all along, so it wasn't really a relevant question to ask. It might have been intended to trip my wife up, but she said "Actually, he's been living with me here since we got married."
2 seconds later, the nice lady said "visa approved" and stamped a piece of paper. They explained that we'd get her passport back in the mail along with a package to bring to the U.S., and slipped us back all of our original docs except her passport. They didn't ask to see any of our photos, evidence, financials, even it being so close to the tax filing deadline. We could have just brought our original documents plus a photocopy of our kid's passport.
It also felt like the interviewer already had her mind made up about our case even before she saw us, and that all we had to do was show up.
Interesting observation #3: We saw several stacks of papers piled 3 feet high on some desks behind the interviewers. Each stack was labeled "FRAUD". No narrative needed here.
General advice: Provided you had all your ducks in a row before, and you front-loaded the I-130 and NVC stages, the interview is the easy part. Don't be too nervous. Look at it as a cocktail conversation about how you met and your lives together. This is of course, assuming that your relationship is genuine and that you have the evidence to back it up.
Thank you VJ for your support along our journey from the I-130 to the visa interview (despite my pesky questions)! I know it's just the beginning of our overall journey, but VJ has been an excellent resource unlike any other on the internet!
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1:20 am April 8, 2022
