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| Juarez, Mexico |  Review on December 19, 2013: |
jensenes
Rating:  | Review Topic: General Review
My fiancee had her interview on Friday, December 13. Originally, her daughter was going to stay with her parents in Mexico and join us at a later date. However, something came up last minute so her daughter had to join us. I had already submitted the DS 160, scheduled the interview, and booked the flights to join her in Juarez. I called the airlines and added her daughter to the flights, and I also called the embassy to make sure everything would still work out. They said it would. I went ahead and filled out a DS 160 for her daughter as well. Even though it was too late to schedule an interview for her daughter the same day as her, the embassy told me everything would be ok. The other thing I was worried about was the timetable for the medical results. We arrived in Juarez Tuesday night. At 6:00am Wednesday we went for her medical. It is very cold in Juarez this time of year. They had the family member wait in a tent in the back with 2 space heaters. Not exactly pleasant. There were a couple other Americans there that spoke English though, so we just bullshitted for a couple hours. The entire process took about 3 to 3.5 hours. Her and her daughter both received medical exams and it cost me like 360 dollars. We returned at 2:00pm that day to receive the results for my fiancee. The results for her daughter could be picked up Friday morning at 6:00am. I had the ASC scheduled for Thursday at 1:40pm. They did the ASC for her and her daughter. I think it took about an hour. By far the quickest of the procedures. Friday morning we got up at like 4:30am. We headed for the medical at 5:30. It took about a half hour or so to get her daughter's results. Then we headed for her interview, which was scheduled for 7:15 Friday morning. We arrived about 6:30 I think. We waited for a while until she went into the embassy about an hour later. I had to stay outside. I was sick of waiting and I figured it would be a long time anyway. We stayed at the Quality Inn which is really close to everything. Free continental breakfast every morning. Really a nice hotel. The breakfast is just yogurt, fruit, cereal, toast, milk, coffee, and orange juice. But hell, it's free. Can't complain. The only thing I didn't like was that the WiFi signal was either very weak or non existant in our room on the 6th floor. I went into the lobby to get good reception on my phone and laptop. Anyway, I went back to the hotel and took a nap. I slept for 3 hours and they still hadn't returned. So I walked down to the Consulate. I waited for another couple hours until they came out. I think it was about 1:30pm. 6 HOURS LATER. The interview itself took about 10 minutes. The rest she said was all waiting. They asked her a few questions, said hi to her daughter and that was it. Her and her daugher were approved. Great. I had read a lot of reviews and picked the DHL location here in Juarez. I figured we would easily have her visa by Wednesday, December 18, based on the time frames of other people. In order to save literally hundreds and hundreds of dollars, I booked the flights home ahead of time. We would taxi to the border, go through, and taxi to the El Paso airport was the plan. Big mistake. Here it is Thursday, December 19, and the DHL hasn't received her visas. We keep checking the website for the Waybill number and...nothing. This is very frustrating. I will update again when we actually get the visas.
Juarez might be a dangerous city, but we certainly didn't see anything. The area around the consulate is very safe. There are a bunch of hotels within walking distance. There is also a HUGE mall. It looks almost brand new. We walked around during the day and a little after dark. There is a convenience store that is open 24 hours and a bunch of other small local restaurants and some chains (Wendy's, McDonald's, Starbucks). There is a really good sushi place in the mall. Very reasonable prices and great food. Also, La Diana had awesome food. A little on the expensive side, but the place is really nice and the food was great. The US Consulate has armed guards in the area at all times. The most frustrating part of this whole process is the waiting. It certainly seems like things could be done to make it more efficient.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13501