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| Nigeria |  Review on October 17, 2016: |
ijay
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I’m so grateful to God and to visa journey, which was of enormous help to me throughout this visa process. In return, I too wish to share my interview experience at the Lagos U.S embassy.
I had my interview on 11th Oct. I reside in Abuja, so I came into Lagos on Sunday, two days before my interview date. The roads were so bad that I spent almost the whole day on the road; it was so annoying but these are the challenges when you're out to get something done.
The day before the interview, I lodged at a near by hotel to the embassy, which was relatively affordable. By 4am I woke up out of anxiety, though my alarm was set for 5am. I took my bath and started getting prepared; I left the hotel at exactly 5:21am. I left my phone with the receptionist because I already had an idea about phones not being allowed inside the embassy. I got a taxi immediately I left the hotel and I got to the embassy around 5:30am.
PRE-ENTRY CHECK IN: Check-in started by 6am, they divided the lines into immigrant and non-immigrant; I joined the immigrant visa line. I was the third person for the line up cos my appointment was 6:30am. They gave preference to those that had earlier appointment to be at the lead. The consulate workers that work with the embassy gave us instruction to have the following documents handy and available for review: International passport, DS-160 confirmation page, interview appointment letter, and the GTBank visa payment receipt. We were also instructed to open our medical report envelopes, which were sealed. No sealed envelopes are allowed inside the embassy.
CHECK-IN STAGE: So when it got to my turn, I checked in first stage, they collected my appointment letter, checked my DS-160 and Gtbank visa fee receipt, and I was then given a number. Then I went through a door to another building. I got screened and a lady asked for the following documents: Original and photocopy of birth certificate (I also submitted by at-birth issued certificate along with the long form population affidavit of birth), police report, and affidavit of support. I noticed that the collected documents are added to your original documents that were filed with your initial I-129f petition and handed over to the CO that will be conducting your interview.
INTERVIEW STAGE: The interview is conducted in the same space with the people that are waiting to be interviewed, so everyone can hear your interview discussions, questions, and answers. As I was seated waiting for my turn, I observed one interviewer who was very pleasant, professional, and straight to the point in her interview technique. She appeared to approve almost everyone she interviewed. Then there was the slender Caucasian lady at Window 15, whose interviewing approach was more of a shake down, hostile, intimidating, combative, and straight up grill the pants off of you. I silently wished that I would get the more pleasant interviewer. My number was called, and it was the crazy lady at window 15.
Now the story starts,......the White lady looked at my documents and didn’t ask any questions, everything was fine I guess, thanks to my fiancee's extremely diligent approach in documenting and filing the petition, with the help of visa journey. She then brought out my birth certificate that was attached to my population age declaration and said:
CO: This document can't be a real birth certificate; it’s over 25yrs and looks like new
Me: Yes! It’s been in a file in my house for a long time and moreover I am a careful person
CO: You’re not making sense
Me: silent…I didn't say anything cos I don't know what to say again
She left with the birth certificate to verify and came back. Then she starts going through our case file again and she saw the large volume of chat documents submitted by my fiancee.
CO: Why do you guys have so many chats, don’t you have a job? What kind of work do you do to have time for this volume of chats?
Me: I’m an engineer and basically my work is more of supervising.
CO: That doesn’t make any sense……
Me: I kept Silent again….but kept a confident appearance
CO: What does your fiancée do?
Me: I answered
CO: How did you meet her?
Me: I met her through my sister?
CO: and why all of a sudden you want to marry her? You mean that throughout your 34 years of life, you didn’t have anyone serious?
Me: Yes....I didn't have any serious someone in my life until my sister told me about her.
CO: That doesn’t make sense…..How does your sister know her?
Me: They were friends in Nigeria and classmates in the same secondary school.
CO: When last did you see her
Me: Told her the month and year
CO: Exactly when? Be precise
Me: told her exact date and number of days per visit.
CO: Do you have any recent photo from her last visit?
Me: I said yes.... I proceeded to bring them out. I placed my heavy file before me with the photo's on top.
CO: …took one look at the large pile of pictures I was about to hand to her and said “Never mindâ€...(she brought out a photo that was filed in the petition).
CO: Where is this? (in a hostile voice, asking about a picture we took at the airport)
Me: told her
CO: and where are you travelling to?
Me: travelling to my home state
CO: Where is that?
Me: told her
CO: what’s the name of the airport?
Me: told her
CO: where is the airport located exactly?
Me: told her
She gave me back all my chats my fiancée submitted and the affidavit of support submitted and said i don't need all these, and looked into her system to observe something and stamped my file, kept back my passport behind and gave me to two white paper to pick up my visa in 10 working days....I said thank you and left with smiles and fulfillment.
I wish each and every one of you good luck. Be confident in explaining yourself out. Maintain a calm composure despite the situation,and speak clearly. Above all...pray pray pray. Good luck guys.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #20665