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| France |  Review on September 24, 2014: |
smaring
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Ana and her daughter, Maria, got an early morning flight on Ryanair, from Lisbon, for 30€ a ticket. Damn good thing they checked in online and printed the boarding passes, otherwise it is 70€ to do it at the airport. As expected, it was a crappy airline, but serviced the purpose. They arrived at BVA, north of Paris, and handed the bus driver the 17€ tickets to Porte Maillot in Paris. The bus left 10 mins later and they were at Pershing Parking about 45 mins later. To their surprise, the La Poste on Av de la Grande Armee was permanently closed. The La Poste behind the Disney store on des Champs Elysees was open, but did not have a Chronopost envelope more than 0.5kg. So, they continued on to the La Poste behind the embassy. They picked up the 2kg European Chronopost envelope for 58€ (eeek! :O). The people there knew EXACTLY what was needed, and one of them even spoke Portuguese. They arrived to the entrance about 20 mins before the 1:00pm appointment. The guys outside in the tent checked the passports against a list of people expected for interviews that day and then directed them to the security checkpoint inside the building. The men inside checked the bags, they walked through a scanner, and their cell phones were held in exchange for an identifying lanyard for later retrieval upon exiting the building. There were a couple men that spoke Portuguese at the security station as well. At the first window, a lady checked the passports and the package 4 appointment letter and then handed them a number, A105. Apparently the numbers start at A100, implying they were the 5th ones in the building for interviews that day, which seemed apparent from the people waiting. So, getting there 30 mins early might be a good idea. About 10 mins later another lady called them to a window. She also spoke Portuguese. She asked Ana if she paid the fees online, but Ana said "no". The lady said "oh, but that is the ONLY way to pay it now", and explained how I had emailed inquiring about how and where to pay and was told that a cash payment at the embassy was OK. The lady said "oh ... you are the ones that emailed ... and you don't have your medical report". I emailed about that too. She said not to worry, and immediately directed them to another window to pay the fees in cash and come right back to the same window. She got the impression they were making an exception for us regarding a cash payment because of the confusion regarding the recent changes, the website misdirection, and what package 4 stated regarding it. She then asked for all the items we were supposed to have. She also asked for something that was NOT stated as a requirement. The sponsor form for the K-1 is the I-134. It DOES NOT call for last year's 1040 tax return of the sponsor. The longer sponsor form, the I-864, DOES ask for it, but that is for other processes. Luckily I sent my tax return because they DID ask for it! That was a HUGE WOW. After providing everything, the lady asked if they needed a Portuguese translation for the interview. Ana declined, and the lady asked them to have a seat and somebody would call them for the interview. 10 mins later, they were called to another window. That lady asked things like:
When and where did you meet? When did you get engaged? Who are the people in one of the pictures? She then asked Maria if she had met or talked to me. She asked if she knew what I did for work. Maria said "not really, but I know where he works", which she did ... and that was about it. The lady said everything looked fine, "welcome to the United States". and that as soon as they get the medical report in the mail they will send back the visas and the sealed package for customs in the Chronopost in 10 working days. It was about 2:30pm when they walked out of the embassy. The "taxi stand" sign had been taken down from Concorde Plaza, for renovations happening to a hotel, and it took about 10 mins to flag down an available taxi. It took about an hour to get to Orly airport and cost around 40€. There was plenty of time to catch the 5:15pm Transavia flight back to Lisbon at 45€ each. That airline was much better than Ryanair.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #15268