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| France |  Review on July 2, 2014: |
CBCB
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I arrived at the embassy at 12:45 pm for an appointment at 1pm. After an easy security check (with funny relaxing guards), I got inside the building.
First stop is the "tickets lady". Depending on the type of visa you are applying for, she will give you a B-numbers ticket (for non-immigrant), a A-numbers ticket (for immigrant) or a C-numbers ticket (I am not sure for whom this category applies to, work maybe?).
After getting my A-ticket, I got to sit in the big squared waiting room for about 40 minutes before being called at a desk. 3 walls of the room are covered by 20 windows with numbers ; 2 TVs tell you which ticket is being called at which desk. There isn't a lot of privacy when you talk to the officers through speakerphones...
It was done in 30s : the lady (French speaker) stabbed my ticket and told me my husband already paid the visa fees so I could go back to my chair and wait. I am glad he did pay in advance as I saw a man having to do it on-site, on the rush, and it didn't seem like a pleasant experience!
About 50 min later (2:20pm), I was called back at the same desk (same lady). She took my fingerprints, gave me back all of our original documents submitted during the I130 and the IV/AOS stages, took my chronopost envelop and my medical envelop, asked if I had more recent civil documents / photo ID and if I wanted to submit additional new documents for the consul to review. She also verified some contact information and asked when I was planning to leave. She didn't seem too happy by my reply (despite being advised not to make concrete plans, we did book an exchangeable-refundable ticket for the end of July because the summer airfares were going crazy ) but she said nothing...
I sat back and about 20min later (2:40pm), I was called at another window to talk with the consul, a young American woman. She was cordial and professional, tried to make me comfortable. She made me swear to tell the truth and that the info submitted were all true. She took one of my hand fingerprints again.
Then the interview did not go at all as I expected.. I imagined a few specific questions about us, our story, our families and jobs. But no. She started with casual data / info questions :
- how old I was and how old was my husband.
- Stated that we were applying for a CR1 and not a IR1 which I confirmed giving our wedding date.
- Asked where did the marriage take place.
Then she seemed ready to go into serious business. She said "SO!... Tell me your story, how did you meet, how did your lives crossed paths".
After listening, she looked at the photos we submitted, gave them back to me without a word, typed a few things on the computer, turned toward me and said "Congratulations! The interview went well, your case has been approved".
I packed and left. And that was it. One question!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #14745