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|  Review on December 19, 2015: |
JaynieLynn
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I went to Havana to attend the interview with my fiancee. This Embassy is inundated with people every day, and crowd control and communication are serious problems. We stayed at a casa particular literally at the end of the block, within sight of the Embassy. We walked to the Embassy at 6:00 a.m. and were told to meet at at a small park which is located west of the building. Our appointment was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. The park was full of people, hundreds, at that early time. Finally at about 7, two women wearing red vests came and spoke to the crowd but with the noisy streets and crowd, it was impossible to hear their instructions. They did not use any type of loudspeaker or PA system. My Cuban fiancee spoke to other people and we figured out where to go...the women separated the crowd into two groups: Definite and Indefinite Visas. The Definite (permanent) Visa people were herded to the north side of the street. My fiancee told one of the red-vest women that I was there, a US citizen. She took my passport and filled out a visitor's pass and promised to give it to me later. Then later each of the women read names from a list to their respective groups. Those who she called could then line up across the street, on the same side of the street as the Embassy. And there they waited and waited. Finally after at least one hour, workers led the people to another queue directly in front of the Embassy. Then after more waiting, our red-vested women returned and read more names. We were called at the end of this batch so we lined up across the street, and waited and waited. Finally at 11:30 someone led us to the queue in front of the Embassy. There we waited longer, at least one more hour. Finally they allowed people to enter a guard shack where we emptied pockets and passed through a metal detector. Then we were told to wait in a room that was still not part of the actual Embassy building. Here the red-vested woman told us to get a laminated list from the front desk and put our documents in the correct order. Her instructions were never clear and we could hardly hear her voice so we put our documents in order and waited, and waited. We noticed people leaving and then more groups entering, and we waited for someone to call our name or tell us what to do next. We waited for more than an hour and moved closer to the entrance until finally another visa applicant told us that as soon as we finished putting our docs in order, we needed to give our docs to the red-vest woman who left and returned periodically. When she finally returned, we told her that we were K-1 and waiting a long time. She took our docs and my fiancee's Cuban passport and led us outside and upstairs to another waiting area. She told us to sit on a bench and wait, and she gave our docs to one of six women working behind glass windows. This room had several windows that reminded us of movie theater ticket windows. We waited and waited, finally at 1:45, my fiancee's name was called. We both approached window #4 and the woman had our original K-1 petition plus a mountain of other documents in a big file. She verified that all of our fees were paid and then took my fiancee's fingerprints. She spoke both Spanish and English. She asked for our latest evidence of relationship and said we could only give a little bit so choose the most important evidence. We were not prepared for this and fumbled a little bit because she wanted the evidence at that moment, not later. I gave most recent phone records, proof of money transfers, a few printed emails, snapshots of my social media showing off my Cuban fiancee, a few handwritten letters and cards, and about 10 photos of us together a few months ago. She put a posty-note for the consular officer on top of our file..it read that we have more evidence, if needed. She gave us a number, 95 and we returned to the bench and waited. After about 30 minutes, a red-vest woman came and called several names, us included. She led us back outside, up the stairs and into the Embassy, finally! There was another metal detector and an airport-type scanner on which we placed our packet of documents. The security guard cleared us and we went into a waiting area, and waited! This room was filled with at least 100 seated people. There was a wall with 5 more ladies behind windows and on the opposite wall were 2 offices and another window. The chairs face these offices and the window #8 where a tall North American man was working. The workers called numbers but they were not in sequential order. We turned back and saw a great line of people going to the wall of windows. We figured out that these were applicants for tourist visas. In front of us in the offices and single window were applicants for family reunification, spouse, and fiancee visas. The man in #8 was very polite and denied more visas than he approved so the waiting people who watched became incredibly nervous. The stress and nervousness in this place was palpable. We waited and waited and finally noticed that the workers were no longer bringing in new people, the crowd was finally shrinking. Apparently they interviewed all the tourist visa applicants because by 3:00 those windows were empty and the workers went to their desks in the big adjoining office. The Cuban business day ends at 4:30 in the afternoon. We were there so long that we watched Embassy workers carry their handbags and lunch boxes and go home. We were the last number called, lonesome 95! The interview lasted about 10 minutes and consisted of questions about how we met, who we each live with, our occupations, etc. We were interviewed separately inside one of the offices behind closed doors. Afterward the consular officer said our visa was APPROVED and gave my fiancee a document and instructed him to return the following week to pick up his visa. He returned to the Embassy as instructed and was told that the visa was not ready. Apparently we needed to wait until the status website said "Issued." We almost had a heart-attack when our status changed from "Ready" (as in, ready for interview) to the dreaded "Administrative Processing." But today the status says "Issued" so we are thrilled! The only problem now is the document says they give out visas only on certain days of the month. It's not easy to understand and it is impossible to reach anyone at the Embassy by phone.
Our biggest complaints are lack of clear instruction, terrible wait times and lack of communication. The whole system needs a good overhaul. But we won't dwell on it because we are extremely thankful our visa was approved.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #18597