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| Skopje, Macedonia |  Review on February 3, 2015: |
Okay
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I had my interview today at the embassy in Skopje and I was told to come back and pick the visa up tomorrow at 4:30 PM. My husband and I met on Facebook in 2012 and he is 29 years older than me. The first time we met in person we got married.
Reading this forum and the experiences of some of the members, I found out these two circumstances might be `red flags`, so I brought everything I could possibly think of as evidence of our bona fide marriage. Letters, cards, bank-transactions, flight tickets from his visits, pictures, 1.500 pages of Facebook chats, 50 pages of print-screens from Skype, around 50 pages of Skype logs copied in a Word document, Viber communication (around 100 pages), all the gifts he had sent me (yes I went in there with boxes of Valentine`s day candy LOL), tickets from the postal office from the cards and packages I had sent him, affidavit from one friend that our marriage is real, receipts from our holiday in Greece, all the civil documents with translations, proof of my husband putting me as beneficiary on his life insurance, lease of the bigger apartment we got over there since we got married and so on.
I have to stress out I am aware this is more than the necessary proof of bona-fide marriage, but as I said before, I did not want to leave any space for our age gap to come between our true love. My husband is the best person I have ever met and I love him to the Moon and back, 3 times.
Anyways, I had the interview at 8 AM. First I got there the security told me to stand in a line. There were around 15 more people (some of them were families of a husband, a wife and 2 kids for example). At 5 minutes till 8, the security started reading our names from a list. When he got to me, he asked that I give him my passport. He walked with me inside of the embassy where I was asked to take off my jacket, my watch, and to leave out any CD-s, USB, or any other electronic devices. The security stored them and gave me a number to pick them up on the way out.
They gave me instructions to walk up the stairs and turn left, and so I entered the consular department of the embassy. It is actually a big room with few windows where officers sit, and across them there are chairs (a waiting room) where those who apply for visa sit and wait.
One Macedonian lady asked me for the civil documents, and I also gave her all of my supporting documents, except the copies of our chats and the gifts. She placed them in order and made sure all the documents were there.
After that she told me to take a seat and wait for my name to be called.
While waiting, I realized that the representatives of the consulate talk to the applicants on a microphone. Their questions as well as the answers of those asking for a visa can be heard in the entire room, but that should not be a problem, since the representatives are very professional, and in my opinion even nice. To me they were very nice and I could not believe it, since I had previously read their job is not to put happy couples together.
Their questions were pretty factual and straightforward and their behavior very professional. They ARE NOT mean at all. My name was called after 1 hour of waiting. Got to the window and a Macedonian male representative asked me how my husband and I met. I said `We met on Facebook in 2012`. He asked me `After how much time you decided to get married?`. I said after about a month. He asked `How did he find you on Facebook?`. I answered that we had mutual friends and explained the connection of both of us to those friends. He asked `When did you get married`. I said the date. He asked me on which address my husband lives. I answered the address and added we got a bigger place because we got married. He asked `For how many days did your husband stay over here when he first came to visit you`. I said for 12 days. He asked `Did he come to see you after the wedding`. I said `Yes`. How much time did he stay then? `I said for 2 weeks, that is all the vacation he has`. The representative said `Yes it is hard`. He asked me if this was my first marriage. I said `yes`. Do you have any kids? I said no, but my husband and I will have  he-he. And the Macedonian representative told me to take a seat. After around 45 minutes my name was called. I was asked for fingerprints of all 10 fingers (I know I go in details I am a journalist LOL).
After that I was asked to go on my place and the representative that worked on my fingerprints told me I will have an interview with the consul soon.
I waited back for some time (I think half an hour but on this one I am not sure since the waiting became normal) and the consul said my name. I walked to the window with a mountain of chats printed on paper. It was at least 30 centimeters stack of paper. He asked me to raise my hand and I swore that I will tell only the truth. After I did that, he said `You can pick up the phone`.
The consul was very professional. I could not sense not one bit of judgement in his voice. His tone of voice neutral, his face neutral towards friendly, he was taking care of the facts and asked me some questions about where my husband lives (whether it is a house or apartment), and what happened to his house. He asked me where we went on vacation. He wanted to know where my husband works and on which position. After I answered the questions he looked at our pictures and didn`t even ask for the chats. I was told to come and pick up my visa tomorrow at 4 PM.
I started crying out of excitement. I could not hold it anymore. All of that stress and waiting and pain I felt while missing my husband`s touch and all of that hardship through the long-distance relationship was gone. The consul said ` I hope you are at least happy`. I think people don`t usually cry after they get the visa. I told him I am very happy and thanked him.
I am Macedonian and never in my life have I seen such a professional and correct, punctual service. This embassy is great and I would just suggest to you all, just go in there, be yourself and tell them the truth. Do not try to make up stories. Just tell them the truth. They are trained to recognize the truth and they are outstanding at that!
My husband and I will finally be together I am so happy and so so so excited for our new life together! Forever!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #16091