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| Honduras |  Review on November 15, 2013: |
stb133
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
We arrived at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa at around 6 AM.
There are two lines. The one line is to the left of the building under an awning and that is for tourist visas and the other line was to the right of the building sloping downhill and that is for resident visas (that includes K1). The wait wasn't very long until they came by to see our interview letter and put a check mark at the top. We then waited a little bit longer and they let us into the building.
Upon entering the building you need to remove your shoes, belts, and anything that would set off the metal detector. I recommend not wearing shoes that are difficult to put on/take off as this will delay you every time you enter and exit. We were led into a large waiting room where they had us just sit down in the order we entered.
A woman who works there went over some basics about what was going to happen. This conversation was completely in Spanish so I don't have a verbatim retelling of that but it was just explaining the various windows. There were four windows and we lined up by rows to go to the windows to present some documents.
They asked some general questions and then sent us over to have fingerprints taken; the fingerprints did not take long at all and we were told to sit down again. We sat down for awhile and we were called up again. At this point we gave them the forms that are listed on the instructions the embassy sent to you. They asked more general questions and sent me (the US citizen) over to pay the $240 fee. I went over and presented the fee in US dollars so I would not have to worry about the exact number of lempiras. I received a receipt and went back to the window with my fiancée.
This is where we hit a snag. We have all the documents that we needed according to all the websites I read. They told me they needed me to do the DS160 online. I told them the website told me that K1 didn't need to do that, they had to do the DS156 and DS156K. They asked for the website (travel.state.gov) and checked it and it did indeed say that but we were told that they were wrong and we still needed it. They instructed us that we could go to this place down the block and get it done. At this point we were frustrated so we left the embassy and went to this place where there was a computer, scanner, and printer. A guy there filled out the form and charged us 400 lempiras for doing it. We were shocked at the price but we saw it as a penalty for not doing the form just in case.
We reentered the embassy and gave them a copy of the form we filled out and they told us that everything was good and that we needed to sit down and wait to be called into another room to do the actual interview. I was a bit confused because I thought they had conducted the interview while we were handing over the paperwork because they asked questions that we saw on lists of sample questions.
It should be noted at this point that we brought my finacée's mom with us because my fiancée is under 21 and we read that if you were under 21 you would need your parent there with you. This was not true at all. We did need something because of being under 21 but we will get to this later.
It wasn't a very long wait before we got called back to the interview itself. We sat down and we had to raise our right hand and promise to tell the truth. We did and they asked just a few questions total:
Where did my fiancée learn English, What is my job title, What does someone with my job title actually do, How did you meet, How long have you known each other, How many times have I visited, When did we meet.
They were rather simple questions compared to the 200+ questions we had been studying so we wouldn't get tripped up. The interview took only about 5 minutes before she told us we were approved and gave us a green card to return at 2:45 PM that day to pick up our visa.
We left with smiles on our face and went back to the hotel since it was only around 10-10:30 AM. We relaxed a little and then returned to the Embassy around 2 PM to stand in line. There is no reason to get there super early. Getting there at 2:30 PM would be just as good. They only let one person in per family so my fiancée went in alone.
I sat outside waiting for her to come out while watching all the other people coming out with their envelopes. At around 3:45 she came outside empty handed. They had forgotten to do some fingerprints for her so she had to do them and because they needed processed they couldn't issue the visa that day. We went back to the hotel a little sad but we planned on returning the next day (Thursday).
We returned and waited again and once again came out empty handed. They said they do not issue K1 visas on Thursdays and they don't issue any visas at all on Friday so we had to return the next week.
They were closed on Monday due to a holiday but we were told to call Tuesday before we travelled the 5 hours back to Teg to make sure it was ready. We called on Tuesday and they said yes it was ready and they think they just heard my fiancée's name being called. We travelled on Wednesday back to Teg and finally received our visa.
Everything was set for her to leave with me except for the permission for her to leave the country since she was considered a minor. We had to pay a lawyer to draft and notarize a document (800 lempiras) saying that her mom gave her permission to leave. We also had to get a "potestad" saying her dad did not have any custody of her.
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about the process.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13241