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| Ghana |  Review on December 20, 2013: |
reneegh724
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Hello all my fellow VJ Ghana members! A little background on our relationship before I give the review-- We met in mid- August 2012 through a mutual friend I was living with here in Ghana. I hate to sound corny but he, I knew, was THE ONE for me after spending a few weeks with him. I booked another ticket to Ghana and in December 2012 went back and spent about 5 weeks with him. Went again in May for 6 weeks, I filed the 129F upon my return home. Am currently in Ghana now, arrived about a week before the interview. I came the 6th of December, interview was on Monday the 16th. This will be a VERY detailed and long review, the detailed ones in the past I have read have helped me/us out SOOOOOO much, I want to do the same for others 
Ok, so here goes:
We arrived at the embassy at 630am and waited with the other visa applicants in the grassy roundabout area opposite the embassy. At 655am they began to signal for us to cross the road and stand in line. IV applicants on the right NIV applicants on the left. Ghanaian nationals in the NIV line began to quickly enter and the IV applicants were given personal attention- our documents were glanced over, the appointment letter was taken from us and then after that we were able to go to the first security man. As I was with him and knew from other VJ reviews, there could be a problem for me entering because the embassy does not open its doors to US citizens until 830. I begged and so did my fiance, for me to be able to go in with him but to no avail, they would not let me enter. I waited with a few other citizens until about 810 when I begged once more for entry and with a smile he said ok This was just in time!!! I ran through the airport-like security point and then ran to the consular section and immediately spotted my fiance. He said he had already paid the fee, handed his documents to the Ghanaian FSS and was only asked by her "Are these all of your documents?" He replied yes and she said to have a seat and that was when I walked in. Within 5 minutes we were called to window 5, we both went up. The nice young lady asked me "Are you Renee?" I said yes, with a big smile. She then said "Go ahead and have a seat, we will be done here in a few minutes." So I sat, nervous nervous nervous nervous!!!!!! About 5 minutes later my fiance called me up and I went and she said to us "I believe your relationship is very real and I am approving this visa. Come back this Friday, December 20, to pick it up at 730am." I said thank you with a big smile on my face when she handed us that magical blue paper...
Here was our evidence: I had a printout of whatsapp conversations with screen shots, screenshots of all of our skype calls and texts, screenshots of all of our skype video chats, his MTN call records (they can only go back 3 months just fyi..) with my mobile phone number screenshot and house phone number bill from TWC. And then close to 100 pictures- about 1/4 of those being us chatting on video skype.
So.. as for the questions asked, my fiance said it was more like a conversation with a new friend than an interview. I organized our pictures from oldest to most recent so the CO started from the beginning- When did you meet? How did you meet? Who introduced you? Where is the girl from that introduced you? How many times did she come to Ghana? What was she doing in ghana? who are the other people in these pictures? What were they doing in Ghana? Where was this picture taken? Why did Renee come the second time? When did Renee come the second time? When did Renee come the third time and why? (She could see by my pictures I not only came to see him the third time but a friend and I raised money in the US to get his nephew a hernia surgery in the north in his village) She asked him a lot of questions about that- the hernia was very severe and stuck out very far, from where I was sitting waiting I could see my fiance demonstrated with his hands and stomach showing her how bad it was. After he explained about the surgery the last question she asked was "When did Renee arrive in Ghana this time? and he said 6 December, on last Friday." And that's when she told him to signal me.
He said she did not look at our documents one single time. ONLY the pictures. But unlike many other couples I have had the opportunity to see him about 4 months over the past year and a half, so our relationship has been based on us seeing each other in person. For those of you who are mainly online I would HIGHLY SUGGEST you bring more paper evidence than we did. Bring a ton, like bags of pages of chats and stuff like that. If your relationship is based mostly in person time with your spouse/fiance bring pictures and be prepared to tell a story. I know every CO is different and ours was extremely nice but what was on our side was my visiting him quite a bit. He said it was very laid back and she was kind to him the whole time while asking him questions.
He just picked up his passport/visa and other State Dept/immigration docs about an hour ago. The wait was about 45 mins he said.
THANK YOU so much to all previous VJ members who have helped us along this fretful, frustrating journey!!! And special thanks to those who have posted detailed, specific reviews-- we were prepared for everything because of this
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13505