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| South Africa |  Review on March 23, 2018: |
amaraimee
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
We arrived to the Consulate around 12:15, our appointment was at 1:30. The consulate is directly across the street from Sandton City (a big shopping center), he told us we could either go across and hangout and come back right at 1:30 or we could sit on the benches and wait. There were 2 families in front of us. We waited and the time came for us to line up for the specific type of visa. We got into the line for K visas and waited as they came by to check our my fiance's name off of a list. The woman who came by asked me if I was going to go in with him and I said "can I?!?" and she kind of laughed and said "yes, you can!". We waited in line right up until 1:30 or so but once it came time for us to go through the door to security, we were told no laptops were allowed inside, so the security guy let me run across the street to Sandton City where Dopio Zero keeps laptops specifically for people who can't bring them into the consulate. I thought that was pretty cool. By the time I got back to the consulate, my fiance and I were last in line and we went in.
At security, they ask you to turn your phone off. They take your phone and every kind of electronic and keep it in a bin and give you a number. They took our flash drive, headphones, everything. They asked us to sip our water to make sure that's what it was, too. Once we got inside, there was a man checking the beneficiaries passport, he gave them a small paper with instructions to pickup their passport if the visa was approved, along with a number to be called by, ours was 11.
Once we got past that man, we had to go back outside on the benches to wait, it was a courtyard type of thing. There were many people there for the K-1 that day and there weren't enough seats for everyone. There were 2 other couples outside with us. The same man came out and told us all to come in, there was now room for us. We sat down a hallway away from the interview counters since that's where the extra chairs were. They called us by number, we waited until about 3:00 to be called up. When they called number 11, I went up to the window with my fiance. They asked for our documents and a copy of each, I can't remember exactly since I was shocked I literally got to attend the entire interview with him (I had read you had to wait outside), but I believe it was birth certificate, passport, police certificates, proof of relationship, affadavit of support and supporting evidence, that's all I remember. She looked over our documents, took his fingerprints and had us sit back down. It was about 30-40 minutes later that they called us up for the interview.
The woman doing the interview was pretty nice, and laid back. She asked if I was in South Africa as a volunteer for the Peace Corps and when I said "no" she said "That's good, because everyone before you was and I didn't approve any of them", and I thought oh great, this should be fun... haha. She looked through the photos we had, and handed all of our proofs and original documents back to us. As she did she smiled and said, "how romantic" I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic but she was smiling so I believe she meant it! She then asked ME if I work in America, I said "yes" she asked what I do, and I told her. She said "that's good work". I take care of disabled adults. She then asked my fiance a few questions. She asked when we first met, how we met, what he was doing living in Ireland for almost 2 years, When the wedding will be, and where he will be living once he comes to the USA. Everything seemed to be fine! She then asked me how old I was, I replied with 20, she asked my fiance and told her 23. She said "you want to get married this young?" She was smiling as she asked this, we both smiled and shook our heads up and down, she smiled more and said "ok". she then told us everything seems good and that the visa is approved! Then she went on to tell us it'll be a max of 2 weeks to get it back, we asked if he could get it quick because we're both stuck here until he gets his passport (he's coming home with me), and she said it's usually before 2 weeks and not usually longer, so we're hoping they'll take it into consideration and hurry it up for us. We asked her "is that it?" and she said "that's it!"
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23497