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| Frankfurt, Germany |  Review on June 30, 2007: |
hamburgapples
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
After picking up my fiance in the Harz Mtns we drove into Frankfurt and found our hotel, the Hotel Alleenhof (http://www.hotel-alleenhof.de/en/home.html) which we booked for 60Euro. The room was actually 2 rooms, with 2 stovetop burners, a sink, fridge and microwave as well as sofa, table and TV in one and 2 single beds (that could be pushed together) and tv in the other. This 60Euro included breakfast but not the parking which we ended up paying for anyway for only 5Euro per night.
We had breakfast @ 7AM the morning of our "interview" and then caught a cab (6.5 Euro) the short distance to the Consulate getting there at 7:45AM.
Once there I was agahst at the long line that came away from the building out near the street and then wrapped around into the parkinglot . Uggg! I spotted the security gaurd (who was from the US) and asked if we could bypass this line as I was an American Citizen. He first said that she couldn't enter without an appointment and when I said that she did have an appointment he asked "immigrant visa or non-immigrant". I said non-immigrant and he said that while she was supposed to get in the longer line... HE didn't mind if we skirted it to the shorter one (only one other person in it). Great! Well when we tryed walking up we were stopped by another person who was kind of sorting out the crowd. He then asked immigrant or non-immigrant and when we replied non-immigrant he sent us back around. Ugg.
Within 15 minutes this same man was making rounds in the longer line asking for interview letters. When he got to us he looked confused for a moment and then gave us a big smile and said "Oh, this is for an Immigrant Visa. Sorry about sending you here, you can go ahead to the other line". We were a bit confused but went ahead and were into the security check building within 10 minutes.
After confiscating the keys our rental car (I guess because of the remote lock built in) we where sent out and towards the Consolate building. Once inside a man directed us to window 22 (wich was labled "Immigrant") where we showed the appointment letter. Next we waited for our number to be called about 15 minutes and proceded to a window where a woman took Steffi's passport and gave her a blue checklist of items to have prepared as well as an envelope to self address and put the stamps on for the next window as well as the order in which to hand them over. (FYI, for us that was 1. Her Birth Certificate, 2. Police Record, 3. I-134 and evidence supporting this). We then waited another 10 mins before being called back to another window where a young man very quickly zoomed through the aforementioned items, had her fill in my name at the bottom of one of the forms we had already sent in (I forget if it was the 230 or 156 or 157..) and informed her to make sure she signed it when with the Consular. He also explained to Steffi what the process would be once she arrived in the United States and that she would have to apply for AOS once married. He said that they had all the documents that they needed so it so there should be no problem.
We again took our seats and waited another 10 or so minutes for our number to be called again for our "interview".
I must break from this for a moment to explain why I have put the word interview in quotes. For anyone out there who has been to a large DMV in the US (Department of Motor Vehicles) with all of it's many service windows and electronic ticket signs (bing... E203.. bing.. W506.. bing T140.. ECT.) this is what the inside of the Consolate looks like. And when you go for your actual "interview" it is not in some seperate room but up at one of these many windows with the glass seperating you from the "Consular" (which in our case was a 25 to 35 year old looking young man).
Ok back to the "interview". Once at the final window the young man smiled and looked at me and said, "ah, you must be the lucky man". He then asked how long ago we met (And we both stumbled on the year.. 2005 or 2006??? uh.. 2005... ya.) and where we met... (Argentina.. short visit) and how / where we got to know each other better. He asked what Steffi did for work and if she wanted to continue teaching in the US (she said that she didn't know and that it didn't really matter.. IE she'd do whatever). He asked what I did and finaly when we planned to get married to she answered that we didn't know. He told us that we had to do so within 90 days... Yes, we know. Somewhere during these questions he had her sign the form. He then said ok, we should have this in the mail on Monday, Good luck to you both!
When he said, "good luck" we both kind of asked.. That's it?? Yes, have a nice day.  This "inteview took place as I said through glass and in a waiting room and took no more than 7 or maybe 10 minutes in all. Infact the whole thing took a couple of minutes under 1.5 hours. As you can imagine, a weight is lifted the short walk and street car ride back to the hotel went by in a bit of a haze.
A last little note:
When checking into the hotel, the woman told us that during September and some of August nearly all of the rooms within a 50km radius of the center of Frankfurt are booked due to Conventions going on during this time.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #1747