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| Ankara, Turkey |  Review on January 25, 2014: |
Cheryl-Hossein
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Our experience in Ankara was well-organized and better than we imagined. Even before the interview, they responded to emails within 24 hours.
We arrived at the embassy at about 8:25am for his 8:40am appointment. There were already a couple of dozen people there, but most were for non-immigrant visas. He was second in line for immigrant visas. Since I was not allowed to go into the embassy, I watched as long as I could as he went through security. We knew this could be a long process so we planned to meet at a coffee shop on Ataturk Bulvari across the street from the embassy. Three hours later he walked into the cafe.
They asked him many questions: how did we meet, when did we first realize that we wanted to get married, what was my work, where did we plan to live, what kind of work did he plan to do in the US, had we met each others parents, family or friends, my parent's names, what did I like to do in my free time, favorite foods, if I had any pets and their names, what did he like most about me. He was a little worried about doing the interview in English, but did so good and even ended up translating for other Farsi-speakers who were there.
However, they did not like the translation of the official documents we had and asked that we get a new translation and return the next day -- and they wanted to interview me also! [We used languageoasis.com for our translations, which many people here on VJ recommended, but the Ankara embassy did not accept.]
We returned to the embassy the next day at 9:00am with our new translations. It was much different this time. We were the only people in the waiting room. They called me to one window and him to another. They asked me most of the same questions above and compared our answers. In less than 10 minutes, the supervisor said, "I can approve this visa today," and handed the pick-up instructions to Hossein and kept his passport. We were so happy because from everything I read here, we expected him to be in administrative processing at least for a short time. Even though you can not go into the first embassy interview, I would suggest trying to come to Ankara for the interview. What was a little mistake in paperwork ended up as a quick approval.
Please email me if you have any questions about the process.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13710