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| Moscow, Russia |  Review on July 27, 2015: |
naire37
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Pros: 5 minutes of talking to actual consul, no tricky questions, kind, open, professional people, easy to follow process.
Cons: 2 hours worth of waiting in a somewhat tightly packed space with not even a water fountain (water was available to buy on the first floor, but you were told to remain in the waiting space as you would not hear being called otherwise).
Overall: a breeze.
We came in 20 minutes in advance and breezed through the initial checks (passports, interview confirmation letter, etc), gave the cell phone for keeping at the enterance. An administrator girl even joked around with us, calling Anton "bride" (in Russia K1 is commonly referred to as "the bride visa", even some of the documents just stated "bride", not "bride / groom"). Easy to follow dots glued to the floor, and an identification number by which they call you - the whole process was very well thought out.
The only time I freaked out was when the consul assistant was gathering documents from us (OMG, what if I forgot something?) - but we had plenty.
After you submit all the documents (translations and photocopies, and the foreign travel passport), you wait to be called for actual interview.
They gave us 2 difference brochures on domestic abuse to read, Anton joked that it was probably because he shaved poorly that morning. I prayed that he would not make such jokes during the interview, and he did take it seriously then. If there is 1 piece of advice I can give, it's this: whatever your consul tells you, at least act like you take it seriously, and show respect.
When they called us in to a separate room to talk, I asked if I could accompany him, and they said yes (yay! That means I can kick him under chair if anything goes wrong! or vice versa!). The consul spoke good Russian, so we talked in both languages: he spoke Russian to Anton, and English to me.
Questions asked: how long did we know each other, where did we meet (he checked the chat room web-site!), how did we decide to get together, where do I work, could he see some of our pictures, and, interestingly enough, how did I immigrate to US myself (that was 15 years ago and I was still a kid). It barely took 5 minutes before he said visa is approved and we should receive it shortly! It almost looked like he's made up his mind before even seeing us, and just asked the questions for the record, to check if our answers corresponded to info he already had.
Best of luck to anybody else who has interviews in Russia! Giving this a 4 just for the amount of waiting and strict restrictions on cell phone that you have to surrender once you enter the Embassy anyhow.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #17423