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| South Africa |  Review on April 26, 2018: |
Amotree
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
This is my review of the U.S. Consular Section in Sandton, Johannesburg, by David D.
Disclaimer: This essay is a review provided for informational and narrative purposes only. It is not an instruction document and is not under any circumstances intended to construe advice. While the author has taken care to remember events as they occurred, accuracy of this essay cannot be guaranteed.
My K-1 visa appointment was scheduled for Tuesday, March 27th, 2018, at 13:30.
Following information from previous reviews on this site, I first went to Doppio Zero in Sandton City Mall and dropped off a big bag containing my laptop, asking for it to be returned to me when I came back. This was easy to do and the staff were very friendly. Then I went to the consular section, arriving at 12:40, because I had heard that they only open at 1pm, and that I should be near the front of the queue. There is only shade for about 6 people to wait; the rest will be waiting in the sun.
This proved accurate. I managed to be 3rd position. At 1pm, the security guards asked us to form two lines, US Citizens and Immigrants, and for everyone to turn their phones off. I was 2nd in line in the immigrants line. Then they let in all the US citizens. After a few minutes, they let in the immigrants one by one. While I was in the line they asked me my name. I didn’t need to show them any papers; all they needed was my name.
When I was let in, the security guards asked me if I had a laptop. Since I didn’t, they next asked me to take out my phone. They kept my phone in a box on the side, gave me a numbered tag, sent my bag through an X-ray machine, and asked me to step through a metal detector.
After the metal detector they said I still had cables in my bag. I had forgotten to remove my earphones and my laptop charger cable, so I gave those to them to put in their side box.
After this, they said I should make my way to the consulate building. I followed the marked garden path to the consulate.
Inside the consulate building, there is another metal detector. I opened the door and they said come through the detector, so I did. Then I got to the reception desk and was asked for my passport, and to write down my case number on a sheet. They handed me an information page about how my passport would later be posted to my home address in Cape Town. After that, they said go to the waiting area, and gave me a card with the number ‘2’. Only three of us had visa appointments that afternoon. From what the other applicants told me, one was a tourist visa and one was also a K1 visa.
Within 10 minutes, I was called to one of the windows, and asked to give electronic fingerprints, and to hand in documents. I had a ring binder prepared with everything. This is what I remember being asked for:
• My passport
• Proof of payment of consular appointment if I had already paid online (I had)
• Unabridged Birth Certificate and paper copy (the original was later returned)
• Documents showing financial support (I had an i-134 from my fiancée and one from her dad, with these, I included tax forms from both, proof of citizenship from both, proof of employment from my fiancée, certified bank statements of account from both, and stock certificates from her dad).
• Documentary proof of meeting in the last two years (I included a letter of continued intent of marriage signed by my fiancée and I, five recent photographs, dated, airplane tickets showing recent travel, and receipts from grocery stores in the city I visited her in). All of these were later returned to me.
• My police clearance certificate original (they did not want the copy). Surprisingly, this one was not returned to me.
I was then asked if I wanted to show anything else. So I ran through my file, and ended up handing over 2x 2†by 2†(5cm by 5cm) passport photographs (surprisingly I was not asked for these), and the original i-129F petition prepared by my fiancée, in a 52-page-containing envelope.
I was not required to hand over my appointment letter, DS160 form, NOA2 petition acceptance letter, medical appointment letter, chest X-ray, vaccination records, copies of air tickets from my parents proving that they are planning to travel to the US for our wedding, or any of the photocopies of any of the pages I had brought. The lone copied page I was asked for was the Unabridged Birth Certificate.
Overall, the document hand-over process took 15 minutes. It was easy, performed professionally, and painless. The officer taking my pages (middle-aged man) was very easy to communicate with, and highly responsive. I would definitely recommend having an organised ring-binder file, or similar, to make finding your documents clear and easy. I imagine that the order in which they may ask for your documents will be different, so just have everything clearly labelled. I found that having Post-It notes on my sheets helped to organise them.
After the document hand-over, I was informed that my interview would be soon, and I should go back to the waiting area.
In about 15 minutes, my number was called, and I went to window 6 for my interview. I was asked to give electronic fingerprints again. A different officer (younger lady) was at the window and she was very easy to communicate with. She first asked if I would tell the truth in the interview and I said that I would. She asked where and when I met my fiancée, when we plan on getting married, when I had last visited the United States, and where I would stay on arrival at the US. I gave basic answers, elaborating where requested to do so. There may have been a few other questions, but the interview was far more like a conversation and not at all like an interrogation. Not long afterwards, she told me that everything was in order, she would issue me my K-1 visa, and that she would cancel my B-2 visa so there was no confusion about which one I would be entering the U.S. with. I asked if the visa could be issued any sooner as I was anxious to be with my fiancée and baby son. She said that it usually doesn’t take 2 weeks as stated, but quicker.
However, they would have to send it to the DHL centre in Sandton, and I would not be allowed to pick it up at the consulate. As of Friday 30th March, I haven’t received any message from DHL and it’s the Easter weekend so they won’t be open until Tuesday. This means that the visa will be posted to my home address in Cape Town as I will be leaving Johannesburg tomorrow.
I feel that the staff there make a genuine effort to be human beings and not unfeeling robots, and they make a good impression of their country, the US. Not every embassy and consulate manages to be this way, so I was impressed with this one. The whole process only took about 50 minutes. From other reviews I’ve read, this was especially quick, probably because the consulate was rather empty. No time was wasted during my visit there.
As I was crossing the road after my exit, another man who had been interviewed exited the consulate, positively whooping for joy because he, too, had been successful in being granted a K-1 visa. Later, I met the third interview candidate in Doppio Zero, and she had also achieved what she had gone there to do.
As such, I happily award Johannesburg US Consulate in Sandton with the full five-star rating. Well done to them!
Epilogue
Having prepaid for postage, I received my US K-1 visa in the mail from DHL, early in the morning on April 4th, 2018, at my home in Cape Town. The date of issue printed on the visa was March 29th, so they had actually finished it very quickly, but the Easter weekend (March 30 – April 2) prevented quicker postage.
I arrived in the US on April 5th, 2018, and after having to wait 45 minutes in the secondary Border Protection processing room at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, having submitted the brown envelope the Consulate had posted to me on April 4th, I was admitted into the country under K-1 status!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23698