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| Israel |  Review on November 11, 2015: |
mollenne
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My fiance and I had an unconventional interview experience, but we earned an “approval” so this story has a happy ending. Here are the details:
We arrived for his appointment on Nov. 4 about an hour early, and I waited with him in the line outside until it was time for him to go inside. I was not allowed inside the Consulate even though I asked nicely and previously emailed them for permission, which was also denied.
It took 4 hours before my fiance came out of the building. The clerk asked him for some preliminary documents: his birth certificate, Form #807 (honorable army discharge), the I-134, my latest tax transcript (I had the previous 3 years but he only needed the most recent), a recent W2 (we had several), along with a few others. We organized our documents in a three-ring binder with the documents in page protectors (do not punch holes in your documents, use page protectors!) and the clerk complimented my fiance on how organized his documents were.
My fiance sat and waited for his name to be called for the interview with the CO. When it was his turn, the CO was not able to access it file in their worldwide database (apparently it was locked, which also does allow for using fingerprint scanning either). My fiance politely insisted to wait to see if they could get it unlocked. He sat back down and other K1 applicants were interviewed, their files were not locked. They kept trying for 4 hours to unlock his database record, finally the CO politely insisted he at least step out to get some lunch and she said she would call him on his mobile by 2:00pm or he can come back the next day. She was very kind to him and very apologetic.
My fiance met me outside and we waited for about another hour and half, then decided to try to go back inside (it was 1:30 by this point, she had not called him yet). At this point, there was nobody else in line to go up to the outside window where you are supposed to check in. The lady in the window called the CO on the phone and then gave us BOTH permission to enter, they had the computer working and his file was unlocked. I brought my U.S. passport with me and I am glad I did.
We went through the security checkpoints and a security guard escorted us to the main interview waiting room. We were the only applicants there, it was completely empty. The other CO’s must have been on a lunch break. It is a very large rectangular room, with about 18 window/booths along one side. We waited a few minutes more and the CO who was working with my fiance previously and having the computer problems then called BOTH our names and she was very apologetic about the computer issues and thanked us for our patience. My fiance took an oath of honesty, she took his fingerprints, and then she asked us 3-4 questions, which we each answered in our own words: “How long have you known each other?” / “Have you met each other’s families and what do they think of your relationship?” / “What do you plan on doing when you arrive in the U.S.?”
Finally, she did ask my fiance about the DUI traffic offense he had from 9 year ago (nobody killed or hurt, he was not arrested, it is on his traffic record and not his criminal record in Israel), but we could tell she was reading from his answer that he gave on the DS-160 (list any previous offenses and/or crimes, the circumstances, and the outcome whether you were arrested or not). He verified that yes, this was a one-time occurrence and an isolated incident. His license was suspended for 11 months and he paid a fine of 2,000 shekels. We were prepared with his court records (originally in Hebrew) and they had also been certified translated by our lawyer into English. She said she did not need them in this case, but I am VERY glad we had them.
She smiled and said “Thank you, that’s all the verification I need. Of course, you are approved!”. She told us the visa just needs to be put inside my fiance’s passport (they kept it) and the US tourist visa he had would be cancelled in its place. She told us it should be ready in about a week or so.
She was like an angel sent from heaven. She was truly one of the nicest people I have ever met. When she told us we were approved, my fiance and I both started crying out of happiness, and she said we were making her cry too (I could tell she had tears in her eyes also). Being organized and patient and not cutting corners will ensure success. Everyone that we encountered at the US Consulate in Jerusalem was exceptionally nice, especially the CO that worked with us.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #18329