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| Guatemala |  Review on March 9, 2017: |
timeforeverything
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
We arrived for our 7:20am appointment around 6:45am and then waited for them to start calling for the 7:20am appointments. There were about 30 people that were there for the 7:15am appointments, it seemed like they were the fiancé visas and people petitioning for relatives other than spouses.
At 7:20 they reviewed my husband’s medical packet and appointment letter. I was really surprised because it seemed we were the only ones doing Direct Consular Filing for a spouse. We passed through security, and then went into the embassy building to wait for them to call our number. When our number was called the woman requested the basic documents (marriage cert, birth cert, police records, I-864, etc.). We then sat down and waited to be called for the interview. We were able to sit next to the line of windows were the interviews take place, so we heard a lot of people going through the interviews. It was nice to hear people being approved and a few people who were not approved it was because of missing documents. There were 3 people doing interviews, all men, and they were all pleasant from what we saw/heard.
When we were called, we were greeted and the man asked if we preferred English or Spanish, we chose English. He opened our file, asked us what our plans were. We told him who we planned to live with and why we wanted to move to the US (for our kid’s education). He asked if my husband had any visas, and if he had any ever been in the states without papers, if he had ever lived in the US. We showed him my husband’s other passport and ESTA visa. He also asked if we had children (we had our youngest with us), and he told us he had their consular report of birth abroad in the file. And that was it! No one requested proof of our relationship, proof of intent to move to the US. No tricky questions at all. We were in shock as to how easy it was, after worrying about it so much!
Make sure you have all the documentation they COULD ask for, be super over prepared just in case. Bring patience and a good attitude. I think our situation was so easy because both of our kids were born in Guatemala, registered their Report of Birth Abroad at the embassy with my husband listed as the father, and so the embassy already had record of our relationship. We were out and approved at 9:30am, so it wasn’t that bad.
We started the Direct Consular Filing for Spouse in Aug 2016 and got approved for the visa in March 2017. We dragged our feet because we weren’t in a hurry. I think it can be done in 3 months if you try.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #21482