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| Mumbai, India |  Review on April 11, 2018: |
Amit&Julie
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I am the US Citizen petitioner writing this review. My fiance and I arrived at the consulate at about 6:45AM. There were a TON of people on the sidewalk of the Trident Hotel across the street from the consulate; they were non-immigrant visa applicants. There was a shorter line of people along the outside wall of the consulate (immigrant visa applicants, including K1). We were last to get in this line (even at 6:45am!) and last of the immigrant visa applicants to enter the consulate. I was allowed inside with my US passport because I was the petitioner. Yay!
After security check, we walked through a courtyard and then into the main building. After initial questioning by an Indian employee and document intake at window 1 on the far left, my fiance got a slip of paper with his token number and sat down with me in the chairs that face the interview windows. We waited for a while. It appeared that the American COs were doing interviews at windows 11-17, the ones on the far right. They have these weird kinda dome-shaped microphones and/or speakers above where the applicant stands at the window; I'm guessing this is so only the applicant hears what the officer is asking.
At about 9:30, my fiance's token number and a window number were displayed on the overhead monitors for him to go up. This was for the actual interview. I went up to the window with him, and the consular officer, a tall white American man, asked me to sit down until he called me back up.
My fiance used a Hindi translator. (*) These were the questions asked of him by the CO (not necessarily in this order):
1) How did you and your fiance meet?
2) Where do your fiance's parents live?
3) Where did your fiance go to college?
4) Your passport has stamps from 2 countries. Why did you go to these places?
5) So you went to the second country with your fiance. Do you have any pictures from that trip?
6) Who is this person with you two in this picture?
7) What are your plans for the wedding?
8) Has your fiance ever been married or engaged before?
9) Does she have any kids?
Then the officer had my fiance sit down and called me up to be questioned alone. He asked/told me:
10) I'm concerned there might be a language barrier. Can you explain to me in Hindi how you and your fiance met? (**)
11) That's a strange way to meet someone. [I gave additional explanation.]
12) Where do your parents live?
13) Where did you go to college?
14) What does your fiance like to do for fun?
15) What are your plans for the wedding?
16) Have you ever been married or engaged before?
17) Do you have any kids?
Then he called my fiance back up and said I could stay at the window. He asked my fiance one more question:
18) Why did you apply for a tourist visa to visit the US in early 2017? My fiance answered, and the officer commented that that's a long way to go to visit a friend. My fiance explained a little more.
The officer typed on his computer a LOT while I held my breath. Eventually, he said the K1 visa was approved and that we have to get married within 90 days of his entering the country. He said it would take 5-7 days for the passport with the visa to be ready for pickup. He gave my fiance a white slip of paper.
All in all, it was a good experience--a huge relief and one of the happiest days of my life!  I'm really glad I attended the interview in Mumbai and would strongly recommend this to others in mixed-race or otherwise non-traditional relationships.
(*) My fiance knows English but was not comfortable having the interview in it, in case he misunderstood or misspoke. I was concerned about him using a translator based on old India posts on this site, but the translator did not harass him or do anything else inappropriate. HOWEVER, there was one highly important detail in my fiance's answer to Question 1 which we think was initially lost in translation. The translator apparently didn't know the exact English equivalent of a proper noun my fiance said in Hindi. Thankfully, this was clarified in one of the photos that the officer happened to look at for Question 5, and further clarified by my answers to Questions 10 and 11.
(**) I'm honestly not sure if he asked me this because A) my fiance interviewing in Hindi led him to think that Hindi is the ONLY language he knows, or B) the officer actually read the affidavit in my original I-129F petition, in which I mentioned that I have been learning Hindi for a long time, and he just wanted to test me. If A) was the case, then other mixed-language couples may want to proceed with caution when selecting an interview language. If B), then good for him, reading my original file and making me prove what I wrote! Either way, haan ji, main gori hoon aur mujhe Hindi aati hai. ;P
Assorted notes:
- The Trident hotel across from the consulate was a very convenient and stress-free (although expensive) place to stay. Their breakfast buffet is $22 but was really good and had lots of options.
- There's a Sbarro at the gas station just west of the Trident where we got a cheap and surprisingly delicious pizza lunch. Maybe it was because I was so happy, but that was a memorable slice of pie!
- Like us, most of the other immigrant applicants had accordion folders with all of their documents and evidence. Make sure you come prepared and organized!
- When they were taking everybody's initial documents, they asked if anyone needed translators for South Indian languages. I think that included Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam, maybe others also.
- I think there was a vending machine near the restrooms.
- There was a little play table with toys for small children to entertain themselves.
- The other American officers I saw doing immigrant visa interviews were a shorter white man and a middle-aged lady with blond-ish hair.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23622