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| France |  Review on August 24, 2013: |
FrenchieKaty
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Hi everybody,
before reading my review, know that I have my journey described on my blog as well as my medical exam and the interview in both French and English available on my blog, here: http://franceminnesota.wordpress.com/
Now, here's the interview review I wrote. Enjoy!
Tuesday, 6, 2013
The big day has arrived, I had a terrible night of sleep imagining all kinds of scenarios each one more horrible than the next. I woke up around 8:00am because of the stress, I was able to go back to sleep a while after until 10:00am; my appointment was at 1:00pm.
I have time to quickly look at my emails, my fiancé wrote to me, he wants me to call him even though it is the middle of the night for him. I call him, we talk for a few minutes, we cannot realize that it is happening today, the moment we have been waitin for, for so long. I have to get ready. I try to eat breakfast as I am not going to be able to eat anything before later but, with all the stress I am not very hungry.
The day before, I had spent most of my time figuring out what to wear so I just had to get dressed. Even if it may not change anything, it’s important to dress really nice because you never know who you will talk to and even if you have a great file, at the end, the decision is made by someone who is going to judge you within a few minutes. Before leaving the house, I check my fiancé’s birth date. During the night I was unable to remember the exact year and if they ask me about it, I would rather answer with a confident tone. After all this, I finally leave the house at 11:40am, luckily, it is not too warm outside. I get on the tramway and then on the suburban train (RER E) that was already there. After a few minutes, an announcement lets us know that the doors are stuck- so lucky… Ten minutes later, everybody gets off the train, there is probably another announcement I did not hear. I follow the crowd that is going on the other side, then, we indeed hear a voice telling us that another train is coming. I finally arrive at the consulate at 12:50pm, it looks like the security was reinforced for the occasion. After a few minutes of reflection on the sidewalk in front, I decide to penetrate the place. The first guard asks for my passport and my appointment paper, I am surprised he is not asking for my “mandat-compte” (postal money order). I walk to the next security check point where there is absolutely nobody but me and the security guards. The two guards look and weight my purse, they ask me if I have any electrical device, I do not. They do not speak in very good French, one of them looks a bit Indian (from India). They were nice, I think that they want me to get rid of my water bottle, I have sip of it and as I am about to put it in the trash they tell me it is okay, I can keep it. I did not understand what happened at the moment but, now, I think they made me drink a sip to make sure it was water and nothing else. I push the super heavy door to enter the main room. A young lady (alo probably from India) asks me which kind of visa I am applying for, then, she gives me a ticket with a number on it, A103. I sit, there are approximately ten other people inside. The fans cool us off and make my contact lenses dry, I grab my book but barely read. The numbers on the screens display the letters “B”, “D” but no “A”.
Ten minutes later, my number appears, I am apparently the first immigration visa here. I go to the assigned counter where a French lady, in her fifties, asks for my appointment paper and my passport then she tells me I can sit down and wait. I decide to go to the bathroom, when I get back my number is posted again. This time, another French lady of the same age range asks me if my fiancé has already been married, if he has kids and if he still lives “in Minnesota or Saint Paul, you know”. She reminds me that, once I am there, we only have 90 days to get married and I need to check online after my Adjustement of Status if I can get the authorization to travel because it does not always work. I already know that I just need to fill in some papers to get the authorization, it is the same exact thing to be able to work. They do not seem to know more than we do. Then, she asks for the sealed envelope from the medical exam, the two copies of the form DS-156, one copy for the DS-157 and DS-156K. I did not write my date of departure on the paper but she tells me I need to put something, even if it is a wrong date, she then tells me to write my fiancé’s name on a line, of course I get it wrong but she says that it is okay and put blanco on it. On the same page, she says to me that the Consule (the person who interrogates you at the end and who approves, or not ,your visa) needs to make me sign at the bottom of this page otherwise everything will be delayed. She asks for my French police record, I tell her that I even made one for the United States (it is not required), she takes it too, hopefully it will make the background check go faster! Then, she asks for the financial support documents, the Affidavit of Support and other proof (pay stubs, W2, housing, income, tax…) everything that could show to them that my fiancé as enough money to support me. I was a bit worried about it because my fiancé had just changed jobs, right after we had filled in the Affidavit of Support. I explain everything to the lady and she reassures me saying that life is like that and that it happens, that they had difficult cases during the crisis, there is nothing to worry about. Finally, she goes through the entire file, giving me back a lot of useless things, explaining that the file will be send with the Chronopost envelope I brought, which was for 1kg, so we do not need to put extra documents that are useless. It is a bit awkward because she keeps saying things like “ You’ll see in the United States you’ll need to pay for this and this, you have to pay for everything there!” or “Congratulations! You are not a smoker because, you know they don’t like smokers there!”. I want to tell her that I already went to the United States and that I pretty much know all that already but I prefer not to say anything and I just smile. Her remarks have a bitter taste. Like when she says ” Congratulations! You went to the Grand Canyon!” . Then, finally, she adds something about how small we are in the universe and I tell myself that she probably does not mean to be unpleasant, she also gives a few compliments to me about the fact that I am quite ready. I have copies of a lot of documents, everything and even more, I had written my address on the envelope, she admits that a lot of people are not that well prepared so they “like us more” (us, the prepared ones !). She aslso asks me what I am currently doing, I tell her that I have just finished my studies, she then asks if I want to work once in the United States or rather study, work! Finally, she tells me to use the sanitizer in order to take my fingerprints. I have to do my left hand one more time as she realizes (me too!) I had frostbites on my ring finger (thank you Minnesota!). Once it is done, she tells me I can go sit down and that they will call my number in a little while.
I had swore to myself that I would bring a watch, of course, I totally forgot about it, I cannot tell for how long I have been waiting but I would say about 45 minutes. While I am waiting, a young man that I have seen because he was the number right after mine, was sent by the same lady who interrogated me to ask me about the military document we have to provide ( in France it is mandatory that you spend one day on a military base hearing about everything, it is called the JAPD and frankly, it was the longest day of my life.) I show to him the papers I have but I cannot remember how I got them. My number is posted a few minutes later, I walk toward the counter where a young lady who seems nice takes my file and starts to talk to me in an incomprehensible French , she has got an American accent and does not speak loud enough whereas I am standing behind a window in a noisy environment. As she is raising her hand,I deduce that she wants me to take the pledge by raising my right hand, that everything I am about to declare is the truth. I almost raise my left hand to copy her (yeah, she was in front of me!).
Not a single smile and a dirty look, she asks me if I have ever been married, if I have kids and abruptly asks me to tell her about my fiancé in a bad French syntax, huh, I just tell her the most simple things about him: date of birth, name and job. I feel that my voice is hesitating and I do not like that. Suddenly, it just goes out, I tell her that we can do it in English if she prefers to. I feel like I should not have said that but I cannot understand anything. She does not say anything and continues in English. She asks how long we have been together for in the United States, I respond that we have met right at the beginning and that we are together since then but this does not seem to be the right answer to her so I tell her the exact months, nothing, same dirty look. She tries to be more precise “when you were in the United States!” And me: “Well, we met at the beginning, at the end of September and got together, then I went back home for three weeks and came back for the summer and now we are still together!” hard to say if this is the answer she is waiting for, I do not think so but she then changed subject. She gives me some pictures back after having looked at them with her haughty look. I can see her staring at the picture of me in the medical file, suddenly, she asks me what the age difference is between me and my fiancé, I tell her “fourteen years”. I see her looking at his picture now, comparing our physical appearances, it is quite stressful. She finally says “Congratulations, you will receive your visa within seven to ten days”(it usually takes fourteen days to receive it) she says all that without one smile! Unbelievable! I leave, relieved, I head back to the front sidewalk and right there, my brain sends me a signal : “Do not forget that the Consule has to make you sign this paper before you leave. otherwise, it will take longer “ I can’t believe it!
Remember: in order to get in I have to show my appointment letter and my passport but I left my passport in there so they can put the visa sticker on it. I will never be able to get in again but I have to give it a try otherwise I will have to wait even more to be with my fiancé. I talk to the first guard and explain that the person inside forgot to make me sign a really important document he then asks me the kind of visa it concerns and decides to let me try after I have told him it was an immigrant visa keep in mind this is not really an immigrant visa but the whole process makes me immigrate so they call it an immigration visa). I ask him if he thinks that they will let me in, he does not know. I have to wait as there are more people than earlier, I cannot take it! I walk in and I recognize only one of the security guys. I explain the situation to him and ask him if he recognizes me, he does not seem to care too much, checks my bag quickly and lets me in! The consulate is now crowded, I walk toward the last booth I was at and see a lady. I tell her that I am sorry to bother her and explain the situation, describing the woman whom I talked to earlier she finds her for me. She walks toward the window and tells me with a contemptuous tone: Your interview is over, you can leave! Oh gosh, that one! I repeat, in a pretty clear way that I was told that I HAVE TO sign this thing before leaving the embassy, while looking at her in the eye. She asks me to wait for a few minutes. I wonder if my number is going to be called or not I need to be on the lookout and I am right because a few minutes later I think I hear my last name but It is more like a whisper so I am not sure but I go check the booth and I was right! There she is, calling my name with her shrew tone. She says “You were right”, here, at that exact moment, I want to explode but I do not say one word, I signed, I feel relieved. That kind of event is typical of a bureaucracy that tries to make you feel like an idiot until they realize that they actually are the idiots.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #12619