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| Sydney, Australia |  Review on February 1, 2014: |
willandnaz
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
The process began exactly like we've read in many of these other reviews - we arrived a little before 9am for a 9:30 interview. Our case is a little more uncommon as my fiancee (the US citizen) joined me for the whole process. If your fiance(e) happens to be in the country for your own interview, they can join you as long as you email the consulate first asking for permission.
The first room was security, where they confiscated everything but the relevant paperwork. We were quickly shown into another elevator where a lady checked our passports, crossed our names off a list, and let us through a security door.
The final room was kind of like waiting for a bank teller - everyone took a number and sat, where there was seven applicable booths for visa applicants. We noticed that many of the interviews were taking quite a long time. We'd read reviews here that said Australia was so relaxed that many interviews last five minutes or less. So that obviously unnerved us a bit, not to mention the wait time was also much longer than we had read. We think it was about an hour before we were called up. As the other reviews say, the first call-up is just to provide relevant paperwork, receipt of visa payment and your passport, all very routine and nothing to complain about.
We sat down for about twenty more minutes before being called up to the interview. The man seemed quite friendly and asked that I take an oath swearing to the truth of my answers. Then he remarked that it's not every day someone gets to swear in front of the United States government for their fiancee. This relaxed us and we thought we had nothing to worry about.
His initial questions were similar to those we'd read here. We were so nervous that we can't remember the exact order and we're quite sure we've left a few out, but here are some we definitely remember:
- Describe your relationship, starting from when you first met.
- What do you do for a living?
- What are you going to do when you arrive in the US?
- Have you been to the US before?
- Where will you stay when you arrive? (we're staying with my fiancee's family until we find work and make enough to move out and he seemed to strongly disapprove, hence next question)
- Have you even looked at places for rent yet? (we had)
- What are you going to do for your honeymoon?
He was smiling for the most part, but he came off as quite sceptical to us, which was worrying. We couldn't see a reason for him to be sceptical - we have one of the most well-documented and genuine relationships imaginable, and even though we were nervous, our answers definitely showed the authenticity. Then, very surprisingly, he asked that my fiancee sit down while he asked me some questions. After we finished the questioning, I had to sit down while he did the same thing with my fiancee. This was obviously a test to check our stories were concurrent, but it was frightening because we were worried we'd accidentally contradict each other at some point. But anyway, the questions he separately asked us were:
-How did you/your fiance propose?
-What are you planning to wear to the wedding?
-What are your wedding colours going to be?
-Has he/she purchased the suit/dress yet?
-What's the event going to be like?
-What do you have in common?
-What toothpaste does she use? (at this point I flatly admitted I have no idea, even though we use the same one)
-What did he/she have for breakfast? (I responded that she only had a bite of my granola as she doesn't eat much when she's nervous, leading him to
-Why is she nervous?
Then we were called back together again, where he asked further questions:
-Do you have any criminal record?
-Who is the co-sponsor in relation to you? (a very trustworthy family friend of over twenty years)
-What does she do?
-Why aren't your parents the co-sponsors? (this was directed at my fiancee and was asked quite pointedly)
-What do your parents do? (also directed at fiancee)
Then, without warning, he turned his microphone off and spoke to a colleague who was out of view. It seemed like he was conferring with his colleague about our case, and we were going out of our heads at this point. We had no red flags, we've lived together for almost a year, and a co-sponsor who made three times over the poverty line. He continued speaking to his colleague for about two minutes or more before turning his microphone back on. He didn't say anything to us, but rather went back through our file as if he was looking for something to call us out on. Eventually, he went to the front of the file to fill out some paperwork before telling me, to some great relief, that I'd been granted my visa. All in all we were in the building for a bit over two hours.
We know it's a serious process and the officer should be very discerning, and we also know that it's not his job to comfort us. That being said, the officer seemed eager to have a reason to reject us and we really do think that if we weren't such an open and shut case, he'd have pursued something with which to reject us. We don't know why he seemed so disapproving, other than our ages (19 and 23), the fact that I'll be staying with my fiancee's family for a couple months, or the fact that my fiancee lives here and doesn't have a job waiting for her in the US. But we've read about countless cases that meet these same criteria and the applicants encountered no problems at all as a result. We met every requirement and don't really understand why we were given a harder time than others seem to have been given. He actually seemed like a nice guy, and often smiled at some of the stories we told, but he still came across very harshly in his manner of questioning. That being said, we were approved so we couldn't say it wasn't a fair process. And my visa arrived in the mail only three days later on Friday the 31st even though I live interstate, so we're grateful for how efficient the processing was.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13774