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| Guangzhou, China |  Review on October 11, 2013: |
jscene
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Consulate would not allow me to attend interview with Fiance, despite being clearly listed on department of state website that i would be able to attend. This led to a misunderstanding which i could have resolved instantaneously had i been present. Fiance took my passport to interview and requested they page me to attend, the consular told her "that won't be necessary" and moved on quickly.
The first examiner, documents, did not recognize my tax return as it had a cover page on it(i file my taxes online and had included the summary pages on the front). She didn't take the time to look a few pages in and see that it was in fact a legitimate 1040A, despite my fiance's insistence. She marked the documents as missing the tax return and passed them onto the examiner. This examiner was a local.
The interviewer, american, took the document check at its word and did not look more deeply at the documents either, and again insisted that "this is not a tax return", again despite my fiance's insistence that it was and he needed to look at it more closely.
They gave her a letter that as far as i can gather said her visa was approved pending i submit my tax forms. However i have my doubts this will be the last bump in the road. We resubmitted the tax forms the next day with expected arrival 2 days later. Who knows how long it will take to process the rest of the information and submit the visa.
It is very disappointing that i traveled all the way to china to attend the interview and the consulate does not even follow the stated procedure of the state department and allow me to attend. Furthermore that leading to a situation that is delaying the visa, that i could have resolved in 2 seconds had i present, makes this additionally frustrating. I took time off work, which i didn't have, as did my fiance. I traveled to china, then we traveled together from shanghai to guangzhou to attend the interview. It was expensive and highly inconvenient for both of us, but we complied as its required by the procedure, which is understandable. However to be held up by a technicality after going to such lengths is infuriating. If they call her back fro another interview, it will be very difficult for her and i most likely will not be able to make the trip back.
relative to the tax return it is astounding that the IRS is pushing everyone to move to digital filing, yet the consulate is still looking for documents based on the way a paper/mail submission would look. the efficiency of the system as a whole is mind blowing.
I have suspicions that with the government shutdown and case overload of the system, this was in actuality a way to push processing of our case off to another day.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #12987