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| South Africa |  Review on August 15, 2007: |
bodypumpkaren
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
We had our interview on Monday, August 13, 2007, and it went off without a hitch. To this point, all my dealings with the Johannesburg Consulate have been stellar. They are very serious and formal, however extremely nice and helpful when you have a question. We filed directly via the consulate as I (the American) moved to South Africa to be with and marry Darren. So, we have been to the Joburg consulate on many occasions for a variety of matters. As a matter of fact, the only negative thing I could say about the consulate is that their security force isn't the brightest and do not have the best grasp of the English language. You may only enter the embassy one at a time and on the day of our interview after I had gone in, one of the guards asked Darren if I was his wife. To wich Darren replied yes. The guard then asked if I was American. When Darren said yes, the Guard asked what was wrong with South African women. It is a good thing I wasn't standing there.
But, I digress...
Darren's visa interview was scheduled for 9 am, but I had read many posts on VJ that said go early, so we arrived at 7:30. There was a queue outside already, but they were all for non-immigrant visas. We went straight in and were told to have a seat at window 7 and they would begin helping us at 8 am. We were first in line and at about 20 after 8 they called us up to the window and asked for our appt letter. Then we were told to have a seat. About 30 mins after that our case worker called us back up to the window. He told me to have a seat as he only wanted to speak to Darren. One by one the case worker asked Darren for each of our prepared documents. Once Darren had turned everthing over, he was told to pay the IV Bill and then again take a seat. About an hour after that, another consular officer called Darren to a different window where she began the interview. She questioned him for about 10 minutes. She asked lots of open ended questions such as why does he love me, why did we get married, where did we get married, what were his plans when he got to the states, etc. They basically just had a conversation. According to Darren it wasn't bad at all. The consular officer asked to see the original for my letter of employment and then told him that his visa was approved and he could come back the next day to pick it up! We wished everyone else waiting good luck and went home to celebrate! I wasn't asked any questions at all and looking back on it, we wonder if the interviewing officer even knew I was there as we were sitting around the corner from her window. Either way, it is all over!!
Good luck to all and I hope your experiences are as good as ours were!
~Karen Odendaal
bodypumpkaren@yahoo.com
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #1911