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| Juarez, Mexico |  Review on August 8, 2007: |
YolyPetra
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
(este recuento sigue en espanol, despues de ingles) 
Also, feel free to write me if you've any questions!
Overall, things went smoother than we had expected. Like everyone says, just be prepared for A LOT of waiting, fees and a city that is not so great for tourists.
We had never received our interview packet from Juarez, but through email they told us they had sent it back in May. We were told we could come to Juarez any day before our interview for a copy. So Monday morning about 7:15 we went to stand in line at the visa info window. They officially open at 8, but started recieving people at about 7:45. Luckily the line was in the shade, because it was really hot out. While we were waiting, Valentin ran accross the street and got his pics taken (150 pesos). I was the only gringa in sight which surprised me- although later on I did spot several other Americans. We got to the little window at 10. The guy was not particularily friendly, but professional and gave us our paper right away.
We ran down the street to the Medico. We had checked them out earlier and Servicios Medicos seemed more organized than Internacional, so we went there. It was full. We gave them our appt. letter and Vale's passport and sat down. It was about 10:15. At 12:00 they finally called him with a group of other people in and took his blood. Then we went upstairs to wait some more. They said it had been unusually busy that day. At 12:45 they took his x-rays and at 1:00 called him for his physical. They recorded his weight, height and blood pressure and then sent him to a room to undress and wait for the doc. He says there was no reason for them to make them get undressed. He sat naked in this little airconditioned room for over 5 minutes waiting, he thought they forgot him. They just checked his throat and abdominals and asked him if he'd taken drugs, if he was an alcoholic, if he smoked, if he took medicines, had had surgery or was allergic. A guy he met later said he thought they got undressed to see if they had tattoos, because the guy did and they sent him to be checked out by the Psych.
Anyways, he was finally out by 2:00. We went to pay the Visa fee at the bank, and then went to eat (Vale hadn't eaten all day because they say not to eat before the medico). We've eaten a lot of really yucky food here in juarez... we have not been too lucky with our choice of restaurants!
We went back at 3:00 at got the results.
Tuesday we were in the interview line at 7:15-7:30. At about 8:15 Vale was let in the building and I went back to the hotel (we stayed at Holiday Inn Lincoln). He says the Mexicanos working in security were very rude and agitated. Then he went and stood in line to leave his appt. letter and take his number. He sat down and waited over 2 hours. Then they called his number, took his papers (application, medico, and just a letter of job offer from my employer, nothing else). He sat back down and waited another 20 minutes, they called him for fingerprints, and then went to building B to wait for the interview. This hall was gigantic, full of chairs and people waiting. There were about 13 interview windows and 2 cashiers.
At 2 he was called to the window for his interview (window 22). He says the lady was maybe in her 60's, Gringa, very sweet, smiling and with very red cheeks.
She had him swear he would tell the truth, and then only asked him:
What is your name?
Where were you born?
What is the name of you fianceé?
Where is she now? (She laughed when he said I was waiting at the hotel)
Do you have children?
That was all! She didn't ask for any of the evidence we had prepared. She told him to go sit down and wait for his visa. He said he wanted to kiss her he was so happy! She said he'd have to wait 2 hours more for the visa, so he could go get something to eat (in the Consulate)if he wanted.
He called me then, it was about 2:30, and he was back at the hotel a little after 4!
And now Vale will tell the same story in his own words:
Paciencia mucha paciencia!!!!
Este tramite fue mucho mas sencillo de como uno lo imagina cuando cominza a aplicar, reunir todos los documentos cartas formas y pruebas es algo que aveces se vuelve complicado y un tanto estresante. Pero lo mejor viene cuando llegas a ciudad Juarez pues es la ultima etapa pero podria decirles que es la etapa de fuego.
Nunca nos llego el paquete K1 a nuestra casa en guanajuato, estuvimos muy preocupados, asi que mi prometida mando un correo a el consulado y ahi nos dieron instrucciones de venir a Cd. Juarez y pedir un duplicado en la ventanilla de informacion. Hay bastante gente en la fila y uno pasa bastante tiempo en ella, llegamos cerca de las 7:15 a.m. y saliimos de ahi a las 10:00, ibamos nerviosos que nos dijeran que aun no tienen nada para nosotros pero todo paso bien. Despues nos fuimos a la clinica Servicios Medicos, pues la otra parecia muy desorganizada. No hagan caso de las gentes que les ofrecen ayuda en la calle, hay varios que te dicen ir a otro lado para hacerlo mas rapido. Entramos a la clinica cerca de las 10:15, dejamos la carta de invitacion y pasaporte en la recepcion y esperamos ( el lunes habia mas gente de lo normal, pero las enfermeras dicen que los lunes siempre es asi). Esperamos ahi hasta las 12 pm hasta que me hablaron para tomar muestras de mi sangre. Luego los hombres nos mandan al segundo piso para los rayos x y examen fisico. Ahi esperamos cerca de 45 min. hasta que nos volvieron a hablar para tomar rayos x y como a los 15 minutos fuimos llamados otra vez para el examen fisico. Me tomaron peso, estatura y presion. Despues me hicieron un pequeno examen de la vista y me metieron a un cubiculo donde me hicieron desnudarme totalmente. Creo que fui olvidado ahi unos minutos pues fui el ultimo en salir de ahi. Senti raro estar desnudo pues no checan mucho slamnte presionaron mi estomago y revisaron mi boca mientras me hacian preguntas. Despues de esto pagas en caja y regresas como en una hora por tus resultados, a los cuales no tienes acceso de la informacion.
Al dia siguiente(y mas pesado) llegamos a la fila a las 7:15 y habia bastante gente, pero senti que avanzabamos mas rapido. entre una hora despues y en la entrada no permiten celulares ni aparatos electronicos. Los guardias no son muy amables y quieren que hagas todo rapido. Entras a un patio donde hay bastantes sillas, entregas tu carta de invitacion y te dan un turno(aprendete el numero o guarda bien el ticket). Pasas en este patio cerca de dos horas hasta que entras a una sala donde te van llamando segun tu turno, no tienen ningun orden van llamando los numeros salteados. Llego mi turno y me pidieron mis formas, acta de nacimiento, comprobante de pago y me pidieron un comprobante de el trabajo de mi prometida, despues firme las formas donde me indicaron. Te mandan sentarte otra vez y te vuelven a hablar (ahora si por tu nombre) para registrar tus huellas digitales, esto es todo en esta sala pues de ahi te mandan a la sala B a la entrevista final. Aqui deben de tener mucha paciencia y pensar en que es lo ultimo que haran antes de obtener tu visa, ahi espere bastante tiempo antes de que me hablaran. Es una sala grande donde esta toda la gente, hay 13 ventanillas, aveces los turnos pasan lentos y no todas las ventanillas estan en servicio. Me di cuenta que aveces algunos consules hacen muchas preguntas y otros son muy breves. En mi caso me toco una consul bien amable y muy breve, me hizo 5 preguntas (como me llamo?, donde naci? , Como se llama mi prometida? y Donde se encuentra ella ahora? Tienes hijos?) fue todo. no me pidio ningun documento. Recomiendo ir preparado con todas las pruebas suficientes pues me di cuenta que otros consules pedian varias cosas. Espere dos horas mas en lo que me dieron mi visa pero al final el estress desaparecio y estaba feliz. Dentro del consulado hay telefonos de tarjeta, desde ahi me comunique con mi prometida para anunciarle que este trabajo en equipo resulto todo un exito, muy buena suerte amigos, YA TENEMOS NUESTRA VISA!!!!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #1883