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| Juarez, Mexico |  Review on May 23, 2016: |
MariaR323
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I'll start off with saying that I think we were the "poster child" for system delays and computer crashes. Next, our interview experience was most likely influenced by the fact that we are a lesbian couple and my fiancée having 2 kids already. Not to mention, the consular officer that she had was having what looked like a bad day she said and had just been arguing and denied the person before Karla (my fiancée).
I'll preface by saying we had a problem with our initial case number issued by NVC when our case was transferred to the Juarez consulate. It was like "stuck" in limbo and wouldn't update, Karla had to go to Juarez a couple days before and ask for the invitation letter, which triggered them to research our case hadn't updated and they ended up assigning a different case number and gave her the invitation letter.
The medical experience was a mission all on it's own. We were there Friday 7am and didn't get results until Monday 2pm. They had a system crash on Friday and most of the data input was erased, we went back Sat and nothing, Mon morning, nothing and when they gave us the results on Monday afternoon, case number was a dummy case number like CDJ123456789... which I caught and they took another hour just to correct it to our correct case number.
Consular Day: First of all, have in hand to walk in with the invitation letter, passport, DS-160 and medical results. Then you go in and it's a lot of waiting too depending on how many people are there. At another window they ask for birth certificates. Here because of our case number switcheroo they asked her for copies of the USCIS approval notice and the NVC letter that confirms they transferred your case to CDJ with the (original) case number. At this point Karla explained the whole thing about NVC issued one case number and when she got the invitation letter from CDJ they assigned a differenent case number. So she had to go back and sit and wait for them to like put in all these details or something.
Then she got called to the actual "interview" window. Here the consular officer started looking at her case file and literally flipped and looked thru every single page, line by line, every single detail. She asked her things like where I work, what I do for work, where I was born, how did we meet, how long have we been together, how is the relationship between me and her 2 kids, did she meet my family. She asked her like 3 different times during the whole thing what I did for work... maybe to see if she caught her saying something different - who knows lol! The kids got asked to state their names only. Here also we got asked if we had proof the dad had no problem with the kids going to the U.S., thankfully Karla took her court papers where they indicate Karla has full custody and the dad knows and gives all rights to Karla for passports, Visas, travel, etc. The officer kept a copy of that too.
She went thru all the pictures I sent, reading all the little descriptions I wrote, 79 pics all together! She asked her for the I-134. I had prepared that little packet with a clip where I had the I-134 on top, then my employer letter (oh she actually ran her finger across it to make sure the signature was an original "wet" signature from HR), then last 3 mos. paystubs, then 2015 tax return with W-2, and here I also included 2014 IRS transcript and 2013 IRS transcript. She looked thru it all and just said something like "oh, ok, good" and kept it all. Then she asked her for their tourist visas and also asked questions like have they ever overstayed their tourist permit and last time they went to the U.S., she kept the tourist visas to the side. This is where Karla said "Ya chinge" hahaha!!
Then she asked her the last question, what is Maria's mom's name? She answered and the officer said "Ok, everything looks in order, your visa is approved."
Although I do believe Karla took some heat just because we are a lesbian couple and her having 2 kids... I know they were just doing their job in the end. It was a grueling 3 hours inside the consulate for her... but she made it out!
Love wins! 
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #19582