|
|
| Juarez, Mexico |  Review on October 16, 2017: |
mexicoAmigo
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
We are at the end of the visa road, and I relied on this site and its users for a long time, the information we got here was so helpful so I hope the details I will put here will be helpful for the next people too.
Start from the beginning - I am a USC, living in Mexico City, filing DCF (Direct Consular Filing) for my wife. Since I was a Mexico City resident (just moved from Mexico to the US this week, this is why we filed the I130 and visa), I qualified to file at the consulate. Fellow user Jorge wrote an excellent guide on filing DCF: http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php?title=DCF_Mexico
The only thing I would add about the I130 submission, is that I added a lot in terms of documents they asked for – I added many proofs of our address, many of my bank statements, about 40 photos of us (20 together and 20 alone as recommended by our lawyer, I printed them off facebook so you could see the time and dates and the comments). Since I was proving my residency as a USC in Mexico, I brought many work stubs and letters from my employer. I added a letter from my US employer indicating they were repatriating me. We had all of our documents officially translated. My point is – THEY TOOK EVERYTHING. Every additional document, every translation (even of a silly aeromexico Club Premier membership), everything. I don’t think it’s all necessary but we went in very prepared and we were approved in ONE day. So basically, bring too much even if you think it’s not necessary, if you think it will help your case.
After filing the I130 and receiving NOA1 by email (took 1 day), I called 2-3 times a week to the Consulate to ask if the case number was ready yet by getting to an agent at the DS260 option: +52 01 656 344 3003, options 2, then 3, then 2, then 1. I also used the public inquiry form from the Embassy website to ask about my case: https://mx.usembassy.gov/public-inquiry-form-immigrant-visas-residents/ Ultimately, I received an email response with the case number, and I received the physical letter one month after the case was assigned. Once I had the case number, I was able to schedule a visa interview. Good piece of advice that I got here: Keep checking back to see if days open up. Our original interview was for Nov but I was able to find one for Sep 29 by checking a couple times a day.
We were able to do the biometrics and medical in Mexico City, so this was the experience of my wife at these appointments:
Medical: Standard medical history questionnaire, asked to urinate in a cup and drew blood prior to seeing the doctor. The doctor checked for any tattoos (she has a couple from her youth and told why she got them, seems like they are looking for gang-related tattoos) and asked if she did drugs. She is an ex-smoker and so she asked if they would do a lung x ray and they did, later they gave her a CD with her lung images (Clean ïŠ ) . She was not able to find her vaccinations record so she had to get about 3 or 4 of them, the total cost was about $410 for the medical and the xrays.
Biometrics: Very fast. Ten min. Given her appointment sheet back with a small blue paper stapled to it – don’t lose the blue paper.
Ciudad Juarez: What an ugly town. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Select about 300m from the consulate. We arrived Fri Sep 28 in the afternoon with our appointment Fri Sep 29 at 9:45am. The 28th we checked all the papers and documents again, then went across the street to the mall and we went to a Trampoline Park in the mall, paid about 250 pesos for 45 minutes, it was silly but helped us get rid of our stress.
Papers and documents OTHER than the required ones: This was the EXACT OPPOSITE of our experience in Mexico City. I went overkill. I printed savings accounts, updated proof of relationship, letters from future landlord, her university proof….they didn’t take any of it. For taxes all they took was my entire 2016 return PLUS my 2014, 2015, and 2016 W2s. They did not take bank account statements, photos, nothing…Our case was a simple one, I think. My employer is relocating me to the US and I work for a big multinational company, it’s both of our first marriage, no kids, we live together in Mexico, etc.
Interview Day: She went in at 9am and they let her right in. It did seem like she could have gone earlier and it wouldn’t have been a problem. Can’t take anything in other than documents, basically. I went and sat in the starbucks across the street to wait. There are 2 steps: 1, documents check. 2, interview. About 1.5 hours later, I saw her walking out…. She came out with a blue slip that meant she was missing something, my heart stopped. As it turned out, since we filed DCF, we did not have the chance to pay for the DS 260 fee prior – we had to do it that day at the embassy. She had my credit card, and since it had my name on it, they wouldn’t allow her to pay. So she had to come out and get me. I went inside, paid for the fee, then she was allowed to go back in line. However, she sort of missed her place in line during while I paid. As she tells it, the interviews were just taking awhile because they seemed to be more complicated cases and she had to wait. She was next to a man who had come to the US at age 8, and remained undocumented until the present day – he was about 40 years old with an American wife and two children and he was quite nervous. But, he was approved, and so was my wife! All they asked my wife was: 1. How did you meet? 2. Why did you get married (we got married in May 2017)? 3. Where is your husband? And then, “congratulations, you are approved!â€. She said the woman attending her was very kind. Interview took two min.
We went back to Mexico City to wait for the visa. We were approved Friday Sep 29 and it arrived via DHL to Mexico City on Thursday Oct 5. Entered the US on Friday October 13 to LAX, the entry took three minutes, the border officer just leafed through all the pages, didn’t ask any questions, and said “Welcome home!â€.
Thank you to everyone on this site for your help. Please message if you have any questions!
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #22684