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| Sydney, Australia |  Review on March 30, 2017: |
JimmyJane
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Hi all!
I had my interview for the K1 visa at the Sydney consulate on January 24.
I had been moseying along trying to gather all the documents needed under the impression that when I was granted an interview date, it would not be for weeks and weeks...I think I wound up being notified of my interview date 10 days prior to it! So despite being what I had assumed was diligent in getting organised, I felt totally unprepared. I did not have the originals of any of my fiance's original financial documents or forms, nor his personal documents like birth certificate, and plus I had to schedule the medical, get vaccinations due to my doctor having lost all my childhood records, and was calling Canada in the middle of every night to find out what had happened with my police certificate I believed I required from there (working holiday programs- seemed like a great idea at the time!).
I debated whether to ask for later interview date, but decided to go ahead with Jan 24 as at least the officer would advise me of exactly what was missing that I would still need to gather- I resigned myself to getting the little slip that basically says "try again", and instead got scanned copies of all my fiance's documents and went with what I had.
On the reception level, a woman checked my documents to make sure I had everything on the checklist- and technically I had something in those categories at least!- then you leave your phone and any other belongings aside from documents and purse, and are escorted up to the level that has the bank of teller windows. The wait was not crazy long, but about 20min or so until I was called up to a window where an officer silently went through all my documents, sliding many back under the window as they were not needed. Most of these were my fiance's financial records- seemed they really only liked his tax returns and letter from employer. This was all bundled into the file they had on me, and I was told to take a seat and wait for my number to be called.
This wait was a fair bit longer- perhaps about an hour- and you hear everyone else's cases at the windows as a number of the officers are on speaker. The reassuring part was everyone was being handled nicely and many were given a slip meaning they were required to submit further documents (most had made the error of getting a state police certificate, rather than from the Australian Federal Police- don't make that mistake!) but it didn't seem to be a big issue. One person was leaving in two days for a visit to the States and they said they could have the visa in her passport and back to her the next day.
When it was my turn, I had a nice officer who asked how my fiance and I had met, asked when we saw each other last, asked if I had lived anywhere for longer than 12 months- when I said UK and Canada on the working holiday visa he waved it off and said no police certificate required for that (do NOT take that as an all-clear obviously, but I was ridiculously relieved as I still had no idea when my Canadian one was coming), and then advised my visa was approved and would be sent within a week.
Post-script to this easy process was two weeks later and no passport and "status unknown" on the consulate site for my case/passport number meant I started stressing. The consulate email did not work- they would send an automated reply that it had to be directed to the immigrant visa email address, but that one also sent automated messages telling you how to check the progress (which was showing as "status unknown"). I eventually called the consulate helpline- which is a call centre- and they advised to email the immigrant visa department in Sydney again and if I did not have an answer in 48hrs I should call again. 48hrs later I called again as I'd had no luck with the email, and they escalated the case, as their records showed the Sydney office had a week turnaround time so I should have received my passport... The next day- Valentine's Day- I received an email stating it was issued and on its way. The following day it arrived! I suspect it was sitting on a desk somewhere in a pile...so while I understand the advice of being patient, sometimes it does pay to chase!
Many thanks for all the help I received on here during this process- on to the next part now!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #21615