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| Switzerland |  Review on October 11, 2013: |
HelloHallo
Rating:  | Review Topic: General Review
Our situation:
Married 1.5 years, I (the US citizen) was living here in Switzerland since we got married. We started the process in the beginning of April 2013 and our interview was October 8th. It was originally Oct 1 but we rescheduled for the next week.
We read all of the reviews on this page and found that our experience was quite similar. We arrived (after traveling from Zurich) and parked a bit too far... so it was quite a walk. Then we got past security and had our documents examined and a few questions asked. The woman handling our documents was not very friendly and seemingly more concerned about her "security" than anything else in the world.
Our AOS (Affidavit of Support) had a few very minor issues/mistakes, and USCIS requested that we bring a new, corrected copy with us to the interview rather than send it back to USCIS and delay the process more. We did so and prepared a whole new AOS and brought it with us but nobody EVER mentioned it or requested it at any point in time so I suppose they didn't think it was worth looking at. This was pretty strange, since there were issues with signatures and specific numbers. I guess it wasn't a big deal... but it kind of shows that little errors and small details can easily get looked over. If I could redo this process, I would probably mention the AOS to the person who took/looked over our documents just to verify that they didn't need it just to be 100% sure.
After they collected our documents (and neglected to collect our corrected AOS) we waited for about 20 minutes for our interview. There were about 3 or 4 parties also waiting for their interview ahead of us, and there were initially 2 interviewers but by the time we got up there it was just 1 (the other probably left for lunch at this point).
I accompanied my husband up to the interview counter which is done through a bullet proof glass, but the interviewer asked that I sit down so I did. She asked a few questions regarding our relationship and our marriage, but it was quite informal and again she was not very friendly. After the questions were asked, she told my husband that we "would be contacted" when our visa was issued.
We went home, and the entire process lasted maybe 2 hours total.
We were never contacted whatsoever about our visa being issued, however, it arrived in the mail on October 11, 2013 - just a few days after the interview.
There are two options to receive your visa: come the next day and pick it up (or Monday if the interview was on Friday), or bring a stamped and labeled VERY LARGE envelope and they will send it to you with that. It will come in a few days.
Overall, our experience was speedy and informal but it wasn't exactly the friendliest environment. That's okay... in the end we received our visa without any further issues at all, and didn't have to have a second interview or have to prove anything else. We are going to the US now! javascript:emoticon(' ')
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #12990