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| Juarez, Mexico |  Review on January 6, 2016: |
Emily & Joy
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I am writing this review on behalf of my fiance. Sadly I could not be there with him due to mainly financial reasons.
In retrospect, we could have done a way better job at scheduling everything, but it all worked out in the end. I hope that this review will be of help to someone like these reviews were for me when we first started this process.
We bought the ticket for Saturday instead of Sunday because it was way cheaper to fly on Saturday, but had we known that we would also have to pay for a hotel, I would have definitely booked for Sunday.
Day 1 - Sat 1/2
My fiance is from Cuernavaca so he had to take a bus to Mexico City. He got into Juarez by 6pm and had to take a taxi to his hotel. He says the taxi was $350 pesos.
We had originally started planning everything with the thought that he would be able to stay with a distant family member in Juarez, but that ended up falling through at the last minute, so I was scrambling right after Christmas to find a good hotel for him to stay at. I wanted to book at hotel Ibis, but all of the rooms were booked. The other hotels right next to the consulate were looking pretty expensive, so I booked a room at Hotel Flamingo.
This hotel is much closer to the border, about 15-20 minutes from the consulate area. They were pretty fairly priced, had free breakfast, and offered free shuttles.
Day 2 - Sun 1/3
This was the most boring day for him. Nothing much to do, no where really to go. He says he was freaked out by Juarez because it is a ghost town. No one walking around anywhere.
Day 3 - Mon 1/4
Today it finally gets a little bit more interesting. We scheduled both his medical appointment and ASC appointment for today.
We chose Servicios Medicos de la Frontera. His appointment was at 8:30am. I know he arrived a little bit early. He says they took everyone back in groups of like 15 people or so. He got x-rays, blood drawn, physical exam, etc. I think it took like 2.5 hours or so. He was told to come back at 4pm to pick up the results from his medical.
This gave him plenty of time to head over for his ASC appointment. Good thing, too, because when he got to the ASC, he realized that he was missing his DS-160 confirmation. I had totally forgotten that he needed to have it for the ASC, and it was back in his hotel room. The people at the ASC told him that he could go to the cyber cafe to print out what he need, but turns out the DS-160 confirmation was the only thing we printed out directly from the page and did not make copies of.
He had to go all the way back to his hotel to grab that form. Thankfully, the shuttle people were apparently pretty cool because he was able to convince someone to give him a ride back to the hotel and back for free.
After he grabbed that confirmation, everything for the ASC went smoothly.
He went back to the servicios medicos to get his results at 4pm. He told me that there were over 300 people waiting for results. He was apparently number 145 and it took 2 hours or more of waiting until he got the results. I could tell he was tired and kind of irritated when he finally got back to the hotel. We also miscalculated the cost of the medical appointment. We thought it was going to be around 3500 pesos but it was more like 3900.
Day 4 - Tues 1/5
Interview day!!!!
His interview was at 7:15 but he was there like 40 minutes early. He says they had everybody line up, and they took back groups. He says he first went to a window where they asked him for his form i-134 and asked what my phone number was. Then, he says they gave him a number/color and he had to go sit in a different set of chairs. He says he waited for his turn and when he was called up, he was asked for his birth certificate and several questions including:
How did you and your fiance meet?
Have you ever been to the United States?
Do you have any tattoos?
Did you bring your fiance with you today?
He says that the guy was really nice and told him that he'd been to Cuernavaca before back in '99 and it was really cool. Then, Joy says that the guy smacked the papers down on the table and said "Your visa has been approved". Woooooooo!!!
He gave him DHL tracking info and also a paper about husbands and wives getting divorced and said that he hopes that he never needs to use it. (which he won't fyi)
Joy says he was walking out of the consulate by 7:50. It took less than hour!!! I was so surprised because from all the reviews it seems like everyone's took like 2-3 hours.
Now I am going to Mexico in 2 weeks to spend time his family before he moves here with me permanently!! weeeeeee!! I am so excited that this whole process is over. On to the next  Feel free to reach out to me if any of you have questions for me and Joy. I know how it feels to be waiting for answers and being anxious of the unknown. I wish you all the best of luck.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #18673