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| Guatemala |  Review on July 27, 2013: |
Tian and Sory
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Others have explained the process on the interview day, so I’m not going to go into that. Overall things went through easily and we were thrilled when we left the embassy! The interviewer was friendly and easy going and the whole interview took like 10 minutes. We weren’t asked for any additional relationship evidence or even questioned about our relationship. The whole interview was pretty much just the C.O. going over our paperwork and asking us to confirm the info on it.
ADVICE/ORIENTATION FOR THE APPLICATION PROCESS:
1. Use Direct Consular Filing if you can. Since we had both been living in Guatemala for over 6 months and I (the USC) was legally residing in Guatemala (ie; not here as a tourist) we were able to use this option. The whole process from application to interview and approval only took 3.5 months! The lady at the window where we originally turned in our petition said that it would take 6-8 months, but that was completely false. Some people had advised us to get her a tourist visa instead and then apply for adjustment of status in the states, but I’m so glad we didn’t. This option was fast, way cheaper, and she entered as a resident (not need to adjust status, etc.)
2. Be aware that the operators of the customer service line (502-2470-0888) have no idea what’s going on with your visa petition (even if they won’t admit it). In our case, after receiving our I-130 approval notice via email from USCIS, we kept calling that number to figure out when we could move on the next steps in the process. All they could say was “Give it about 3 months and call back.” As it turns out, even once we received our interview date, they weren’t aware of it or even that our I-130 had been approved. In summary, they are a completely different entity from the embassy, USCIS, and other organizations that are actually reviewing your case. They have no access to even see what’s been approved, what hasn’t, when your interview date is, etc.! They are 100% useless, except for taking note of where you want the visa sent.
3. Don’t listen to ridiculous rumors from anyone. About 2 days before our interview, a friend told me that the visa was super hard to get and that another couple had been turned down several times, wasted tons of money in application fees, and were never able to get it. That made me a little uneasy, but he was completely wrong. The truth is, as long as your relationship is legit, your financial status is adequate, and your wife/husband hasn’t done any of the things that disqualify her/him from immigrating, it’s basically your right to bring her/him to the states and they can’t turn you down. I found out later that the couple this friend of ours was telling us about did actually get approved. I think they were turned down earlier, but for a tourist visa (which is a completely different thing.)
4. Be very organized and aim for overkill on all of the requirements. In our case, the C.O. was really impressed with how prepared and organized we were. We had a plan and backup plan for pretty much everything. The only backup plan we had to use was on the sponsorship front (see below).
5. SPONSORSHIP: The only thing that dragged our interview out was that the C.O. wasn’t aware that I, as the sponsor, could supplement my deficient income with assets (bank accounts, etc.) When I informed him of this, he checked with his supervisor and found out that I was right. However, I needed to provide a bank statement. We had shuffled our money from several different accounts into one account last minute, and then brought in a printed screenshot of our online account balance (since we couldn’t get a statement reflecting our current balance until the end of the month.) He said that they would accept bank statements, but not just a screenshot, so we had to go with our backup plan. We submitted an I-864 co-sponsorship that my aunt had filled out for us just in case. Also, they completely ignored our Quetzal accounts in calculating our assets, so make sure any bank statements you turn in are for dollar accounts. Depending on your situation, you might need several times the amount you’re missing from income to compensate with assets (google “I-864 instructions” for details.)
6. Be aware of the steps in the DCF process: submit I-130 at embassy > wait about a month for the I-130 approval notice to arrive by email > wait a little over a month more for your packet to arrive via snail-mail from the embassy (with instructions on how to prepare for the interview). That’s it! All documents aside from the ones you submitted initially with the I-130 are turned in on the interview day. So it’s basically a 2 step process: I-130 plus accompanying documents & interview plus accompanying documents. Bring your DS-230, I-864 (could be more than one if there’s a co-sponsor,) medical exam results, etc. to the interview.
7. Don’t stress out. I saw plenty of people turned away on their interview day, but none were outright denied the visa. The worst they did was ask them to come back with the documents they were missing or with more evidence proving X, Y, or Z. As long as you’re legit and you meet the requirements, it’s a done deal. In fact, I even saw several people who had been undocumented in the states or done other things that might disqualify them, who were granted waivers and given the visa!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #12418