|
|
| Chile |  Review on June 8, 2015: |
sn0skier
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
This is a tough review, because they were quite nice and helpful people, and i don't think my experience is common, but they were a bit disorganized with my case. The first thing that was weird is that I went on a Monday April 27th, and my case had already arrived but I had not been notified. Granted I didn't give them a lot of time, and actually I went to ask some other questions, but it was weird that it was there and they hadn't notified me, though they said that it had only arrived recently. That day I received an interview appointment for a month out, which I was happy enough with, but I asked and they said they didn't have any availability sooner. However, when I went back that Wednesday to ask some questions I casually asked if they could do it any sooner, and the lady was easily able to give me an appointment that was a week away. Again, I shouldn't complain about getting an interview so soon and if this were an isolated event I wouldn't think it was disorganization--I would be happy that a last second spot freed up--however, one week is not unreasonable for this embassy so its certainly possible the earlier appointment was available before.
When i received that 2nd visa appointment I was told that they didn't have our DS-260 nor the correct police certificate. After I gave her the DS-260 confirmation number they were able to find it in there system, and unable to tell me why they were not able to before. I followed her instructions to get the new police certificate, because she said it was different then the one we had which she thought we had printed out online (I knew we had not printed it online, but figured it was a different certificate then the one we had). Turns out the one we had was the correct one, so when I went to get the one she asked for I was very confused and spent a ton of time at the Civil Registry trying to figure out what document she was looking for. The only difference between the online version and the version you need is the name on the signature, so the lady at the embassy just assumed we had the wrong one, because most people do, and I guess she didn't feel like looking up which was the correct signature to have. Luckily before I spent too much time printing new copies and compiling all our original documentation, she informed us that we didn't need to bring any extra documentation besides these things mentioned above.
The Doctor we worked with was also very unorganized, though this could be because she was sick for a few days, because she was in the middle of a secretary transition, and/or because we needed the exam fairly quickly. We originally made the appointment for a month out but she was able to change it when we got the earlier interview date to a week out. However, because of delays the exam didn't happen until three days after it was scheduled for, and twice we were not informed that she would have to reschedule us until we arrived at the office. After another delay we finally got the packet from her on the day of the interview, though we were told we could submit the packet after the interview if we needed to.
In the interview they were polite enough, but again, very disorganized. There was a group of about 6 couples, and we were the 5th in line. There are actually two interviews with two different people, and both of them go in the order you arrive, however, we didn't know if this was necessarily true, so when they skipped us on the second interview we didn't think much of it. However, 10 minutes after the last couple had finished and we still hadn't been called we began to get concerned. We were told be the reception that everything was fine and we had to wait. Another 10 minutes and we asked if there was anything else we could do and she said that we could ring the buzzer they have at the window where the second interviews had been taking place. We rang it and no one came. ANOTHER 10 minutes later, we went to a separate window that was open where they were doing some other process and and I asked what was going on. They found the lady that had done our first interview and she was surprised we had not been interviewed yet, so she went and got the guy who had been doing the second interviews. He told us that our file had been "misplaced." Considering that my AOS was lost at the NVC, people seem good at "misplacing" our documents. We had the second interview and were told we were approved and that we would hear from them by email in 5-10 business days when my wife's visa was ready. After 9 business days (I thought it was 10 but forgot about a US holiday) I went back and was told to go home, because the 10 business days weren't up yet. After 13 business days I went to check and was told that the 5-10 was an estimate and that they were waiting on some other government organization, but that it should be ready in a day or two. After 18 business days I went to check what was going on again and this time they had it, though they had never notified us.
Total trips to the embassy and doctor's office? 13. Total emails received from the Embassy? 1 (an appointment reminder, and yes we checked our junk mail). Good thing I live in Santiago.
Anyway, it's all done now.
So excited.
(updated on June 8, 2015)
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #17007