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| Frankfurt, Germany |  Review on April 2, 2007: |
Mary G.
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Hi Everyone,
My husband's interview in Frankfurt went great. We stayed at the Friedeberger Warte Hotel (wonderful!) on Homburger Strasse, a street that runs parallel to the street where the embassy/consulate is located. It was a quick 5-10 minute walk to the Consulate, where we arrived at a little after 7am. There was only one line this morning (typically, we've read, there's one for immigrant visas and one for non-immigrant visa), and we were fairly close to the front. A man came outside shortly before 7:30 and gave instructions, but said nothing about immigrant visa applicants. So when we got to the counter outside the security building to get our appointment number, we did not have my husband's passport ready. We had his appointment letter, but the man shouted a few times, you need to show me your passport, even though it only took us about 15 seconds to pull it out of our big accordion file folder. (He was the only one who was remotely rude.) After getting our appointment number, we stood in a short line and waited to be sent inside for the security check. It's similar to American airport security checks (remove your belt, nothing in your pockets, etc.), except that we did not have to remove our shoes.
Once we got inside the big hall, we were told by a man working there to head to counter 22 (the cashier's counter) to pay for the visa. We did this (deciding to pay with my US credit card, since the exchange rate was bad had we paid in Euros), and shortly thereafter got called to an adjacent counter where my husband had to hand in his completed DS-230 II and the photo for his green card. We also were given an envelope and asked to place a 4.25 Euro stamp on it, which we had ready having known from former VJ's reports that we would need it, and to write the address where the visa should be sent.
After that, we sat down for a bit before getting called to another window (all the counters were in the same general vicinity) to present our paperwork. Many of the things we had prepared were not needed. They did not ask to see an original or our marriage certificate, for example, nor did they want to see my husband's certificate that he completed his civil service. We also did not have to present copies of our passports, nor did they even want to see my passport the entire time. The biggest surprise in presenting our documents was that the woman was only interested in seeing the most recent bank statement for each of our accounts (we'd printed out statements from the last twelve months) for the I-864. I had made a spreadsheet with a list of all our assets, and she simply asked that I put the most recent statement from each account in the order they were listed on the spreadsheet.
I should mention that we're not sure we even needed assets to qualify. I've been unemployed since September of 2006, but earned over $30,000 in 2006 in the United States. Also, I had a job contract for a new job that begins in the States in July of 2007. I'd formerly emailed the Consulate and asked them whether this was enough to qualify, even though my current income is $0, and they had said it was. However, since we'd already prepared our application with asset information, we left it in there. In any case, we were only asked questions about the documents we included (example: Is this a job contract for you (me, the sponsor)?). That was it. Simple.
Then we sat down for a few more minutes and waited for the interview. We got called up pretty quickly. The man, who was very friendly, asked my husband how we'd met and asked me what subject I'm getting my Ph.D. in. Then he fingerprinted Daniel (joking that his fingerprints were beautiful) and said we would get our visa in about five days.
We were out of there in less than an hour and a half.
Thanks again to all of you for your assistance and support! We really appreciate it.
And best of luck to all of you still waiting!
Mary 
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #1450