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| Sweden |  Review on December 16, 2016: |
juzifrut
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Arrived in Stockholm 14th of December. Our interview was the 15th of December. I had both my daughters with me. Age 12 and 14, I was told to bring them both even though it says everywhere than children under the age of 14 does not need to attend the interview.
We stayed at a hotel/hostel close to the embassy. STF Gärdet, highly recommended. It was cheap and cozy!
Our interview was at 8:30am the next morning. We walked from the hotel to the embassy. It was freezing cold but a. Ice walk. It's just across the field from the hotel. Took us about 30 min to walk because it was very icy. Got to the embassy and there was no one in line for immigrants. We stood in the right place. The line for non-immigrants was long, but not too long.
After a few minutes the guard at the embassy told everyone to stay in the same line so we had to move to the back of the non-immigrant line. Blah. But the line moved pretty fast so it wasn't too bad. I was stressing a little bit because the time was closing in on 8:30.
We finally got called up at both my daughters and me went up. We had to show our passports, take our jackets off and show the bottom of our shoes. Then he asked us to turn our cell phones off before he let us in. We went through security, checked in our phones and then we were told to follow the yellow line up to the embassy. When we got in a guard aproached us and asked what we were there for. I told him immigration and he told us to walk up to window 7.
At window 7 a very nice lady took my papers. She asked for the DS-160, our passports, Divorce records, birth certificates, police certificate, I-134 and all other financial evidence. I gave her my fiancé's tax return, payslips and letter of employment. I also gave her my bank statements to show my own assets. She asked how much I had and I told her and she said that it would be alright then. Big relief, but this was just the first stop... I was very worried about the financial side because my fiancé doesn't quite meet the poverty guideline. Then she asked for proof of relationship. I gave her Skype logs and other chat logs and a whole bunch of pictures. I told her I had personal letters and the receipt from the engagement ring, but she said she didn't need it. Then she asked for our passport photos and told us to go sit down and wait for our interview.
T was a surprisingly small room with about 7-8 small windows where all the interviews were conducted. I had imagined it would be so much bigger and more formal, almost like an interrogation. But it was very informal. I was very calm at this point. Like my emotions had shut down. I felt neither nervous or anxious or worried or confident. I was just ok actually. Up to this day I've been extremely stressed out and nervous. But not at that point.
The lady that gathered my papers called me up to the window again and asked me to fill out my name and address on two large envelopes. When I handed it to her she asked me did you guys really meet on a karaoke app? I laughed and I said yes. She laughed a little bit too.
Then more waiting. I can't really tell you how long because it seemed like forever. But there's no clock in there and our phones and watches was taken in security.
Finally we got called up to window 4. A man sitting there asked for my fingerprints and my oldest daughters fingerprints. My youngest did not need to give fingerprints but asked for mine again instead. Then he read us a statements and we had to confirm if the statement was true. It was pretty much about swearing to have filed a thruthful application. Both me and my oldest daughter had to raise our right hand and confirm it was true. Then he asked me where we met, how we met, where he lives and if I liked his town, where he works and what he does, what I was planning on doing there (as soon as I mentioned that I've worked for Fedex for 9 years he was ohhh ok). He asked if I went to see him and if he had been in my country and the last time I saw him. Then he asked the kids what they thought of it all all and what they thought if him. Then he said well congratulations on doing a good job filing your application. You are approved! And that was that! I asked if my youngest daughter could travel after me with her father and they said that's no problem as long as it's within the validity of the medical exam. I'm a little unsure what that means because I find contradicting statements on how long it's valid for. But seems like we all need to be in the US by may 2017. The interview itself took maybe 5 minutes! And we were out the door at 10am. So all in all we spent 1,5 hours in there. I'm so happy and relieved!! And we didn't the whole process with no immigration lawyer. I'm glad we did.
(updated on December 16, 2016)
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #21049