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| France |  Review on July 20, 2014: |
sandraperry
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Well, since 2012 all Immigrant Visas aren't dealt on the USA Embassy in Portugal, you have to make extra arrangements to go to Paris, France. (An extra charge on all this also expensive process).
But It ended up being a nice stay as I had my father as my trip companion and this was his first long flight and first time in Paris. I got to show him lot of places, and remember the last time I had been in Paris with my Husband.
So I was very nervous. I barely slept the night before the flight to Paris, and the night before the interview, I was struggling with insomnia.(I stayed 2 days in Paris).
To get to the Embassy I advise to take line 12 of the Metro, and get out on the Concorde, as the embassy is right on the corner of the subway station, though in the end we decided to walk to the Embassy after breakfast.
And then it came the 17th, We decided to make a picnic on the gardens in front of the Embassy. When we arrived,there were a lot of people already on the tent before the security check, and was only 11 am. I looked at my father and started to get nervous. So early and so many people! I ended up figuring out that those were for earlier/different appointments. As we finished eating (I barely ate, just a couple cookies and drink water, Paris was super hot, like 39ºC in the shadow) we decided to go see if we could go in, it was around midday, but the guards said no, only around 12:45.
We ended up going for a walk in the gardens, and came back around 12:30. My Father only speaks Portuguese, so all the time I had to translate what others were saying, to him. So one of the guards, was Portuguese,so he knew we were Portuguese, due to that fact (I believe) he called us and said we could go in, the minute we arrived on the second time. It wasn't the time he told us we could go in, and he started talking to my father in Portuguese, while i was speaking french to the other guard.
Then we get to the security check, where we were "robbed" of our backpacks. They literally took everything from my fathers,cellphone, mini flashlight, food and such. But again, there was another Portuguese guard and when he looked at my passport he said: "E viv'ó Porto carago!" a very Portuguese expression. He was very welcoming and chatty and he was the one with my backpack, and he allowed me to take some cookies inside and water. He had this awesome mustache too.
No food, no electronics (telephone and such) no nothing.
Inside I got my A ticket and it was time to wait. The waiting room is surrounded by 20 windows, where the representatives are. Window nº 20 is for payments.
And the room was always full of people waiting patiently for their time. A lot of B tickets.
From the A tickets, later I would find out that there were 5 people there that day. And another Portuguese lady, from her accent she was from Azores (Portuguese islands), apparently her interview had been the week before, but was demanded to come back that day, due to computer problems. I got even more nervous: "oh noes! what if the problem continues?!"
I was the first one to be called, this went in 3 processes:
1st window - The lady asked for my letter and my ticket, then she informed me that my husband had payed the fee,there for I could go sit down and wait for someone to call for me. Others after me were sent to the nº 20 window and had money with them, so that is why I assume that it was the Treasury/payment place.
My father pointed out that during this part of the process another lady was behind taking notice of everything I was saying. Later I found out why.
2nd window - The lady that was there, was the one that had been "spying" on the 1st window. I started speaking with her in french, then proceeded in English and for my surprise out of the bloom she replied to me in Portuguese: "I noticed you are a polyglot but we may continue in Portuguese".
So because I am Portuguese the Embassy provided me with a Portuguese speaker employee to help me before the interview. She was very nice and very help full, she even gave me some extra explanations, because I was making her lots of questions. She had the all file with her and was collecting all the things needed/lacking on the file. One remark: I had to be the one telling her I had a paper from the AOS, that I was checked listed to bring it into the embassy, she was surprised. She said they had no knowledge of it. But I had it right there, handed her the checklist and the I864a of my mother-in-law. And she was like: "well the truth is because your joint sponsor had enough money, we did not add the rest of the household to your husband's".
Basically she was doing the CO job, she was getting this sheet filled with certain indications, like family relations between sponsors, main sponsors jobs, etc.
Then she got the envelope and the letter from the doctor and told me to wait.
last and most important:
3rd window - the Consular Officer. She was all business with me, first thing was right hand up and swear to tell the truth the all truth and nothing but the truth. And the questions begun immediately (maybe i was unlucky because i was the first and she had more time with me, or was just her doing her job) see questions asked at the end:
Basically she asked many questions, one after the other, barely giving me time to think or to complete my answer. And she made me feel real bad when I told her that I was older than my husband, that was the only time she stopped looked at me and literally was making the math to see if when i had met my husband he was 21. That was when i started to feel really bad and as if I was being interrogated because i was a pedophile or something.
Then she made really bad faces with my answers: for example I told her i got married in the US because when we were planning to get marry we contacted the Lisbon us embassy and they told us that we should get married in Gibraltar because it would be a easier process and when she asked me why i have been for a year without seeing my husband I told her because the Paris embassy told me that me travelling to the us during Christmas could be consider as an intention to illegally immigrate because i had the IV process going on...
Technically I was feeling like i was not going to get to be approved when in the middle of a question that i was answering, she was actually looking at pictures of us in Paris, she stopped, did not let me finish, closed the file looked at me smiled and said congratulations you are approved and said something else.
I was in shock: I only heard Approved and blah blah blah. And she left.
I completely felt in discredit.
But yesterday, i finally reacted like i was supposed to, i went to CEAC during my job and it showed the Visa had been Issued. I cried like a baby.
Booked a flight, and finally this is over.
Over all it wasn't that bad, but the interview was really traumatizing for me, that is the main reason why I'll give it a 3.
Questions asked:
- How did you met?
- How do you meet someone through friends?
- Have you met in person?
- How did your husband get to live with you in Portugal?
- How old are you both?
- Was he 21 when you met?
- Have you visit the us?
- Who's the joint sponsor?
- What's is his job?
- Where did you married?
- Why you married in the US?
- Is this your first marriage?
- Where did you bought the wedding rings?
- Did you parents went to the wedding?
- when was the last time you've been together?
- Why haven't you seen your husband for a year?
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #14870