|
|
| Korea |  Review on May 4, 2018: |
J&B
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Our appointment was at 7:45 AM on May 1, 2018. I went with my fiance because we both work and live together in Seoul where we scheduled our appointment. We arrived at 7:30AM and there was already a long line of people. Please take note that there are two lines. One for non-immigrant visas and the other for American citizens and immigrant visa applicants.The longer line you might encounter down the wall towards the fire station in the background is not the line you want to be in. (Because the K1 visa is a non-immigrant one with the intent to immigrate it gets treated as an immigrant visa by the embassy.) We lined up and we presented our passports along with the letter of appointment at a window outside the consular office, got checked off a list, and told to enter the embassy for a security check. The Seoul Embassy has a one cell phone - one set of keys per person rule. My fiance had a backpack with him and they allowed him to carry it inside after putting it through a scanning machine. Once that was done, we got told to proceed to the second floor. Once there, we got checked in. The check in consisted of the Korean officer taking my passport and putting some stickers on it, giving it back to me and telling me to proceed to the third floor where the immigrant visa section is located. There were probably 20 people there already even though we had such an early appointment. We got called up to the windows three times over the course of our time at the embassy. The first time a Korean consular officer took all of the relevant documents. The second time another Korean officer took my fingerprints and swore me in. The third time was the interview. The American counselor was really super nice. She did stare a lot at her screen to ask me questions. (Side note: Most of the questions she asked, in the beginning, was verifiable based on my i-129F application and she was checking that I was consistent in the story of how we met.) She asked me about how we met and when I said online she wanted to know which site/app it was on. She also asked us how long we have been together and where in Korea we both lived. After I established that we both live in Seoul she asked what we do for a living in Seoul. She asked what our wedding plans were and if we have an engagement story. Because we had made definite wedding plans, I told her we had a date, venue, etc picked out. She also asked when we are planning to leave Korea and I told her an exact date. We had already bought tickets even though it is discouraged so we wanted to be completely transparent about the plans we had made about our lives. She then asked to see pictures and I supplied all the pics we sent with the original i-129F application and some pictures, including the engagement pics, we took since we filed the i-129F. (A note on pictures. If you plan on bringing bulky photobooks then the bigger the book, the less like it is to fit through the receptacle they use to feed documents to the other side of the glass where the consular officer is. Because I had a tourist visa in my older passport, the moment she told me that she is going to cancel it, I knew she was going to approve us. She also asked us where we are moving to and why we're moving to that specific place and we told her that my fiance has family that lives there. My fiance also explained that his sister has offered us free accommodation in their detached guesthouse on their property for the first year. I emphasized how lucky we were to have this incredible safety net. My fiance was allowed to stand next to me the whole time. I also have to advise on our financial situation. My fiance had been living and working outside of the US for the last five years or so and we read on VJ that we then would need an additional joint sponsor. We got one and got all the necessary documents plus their own separate i-134 form. The first Korean consul that took our documents, looked at what my fiance earns and told us that even though that money is earned outside of the US it still counts and we didn't need a joint sponsor. We asked her if she is sure and she said yes. We got handed back the documents for the joint sponsor and decided to keep them at the top of our document pile in case the American consul during the interview had questions about how we would support ourselves. She did ask those questions and we just told her we both will find work as soon as possible. For me, it will be illegal to work until I get employment authorization, but my fiance will start looking for a job ASAP. She accepted it that way. I have to caution that our experience might be very specific to Seoul. A lot of Americans come here to teach English and make good money. I think she accepted that we will live off our savings until then. From start to finish, our appointment took 1 hour 45 minutes. There is a sign in the embassy that reminds us that usually, the whole appointment will last two hours. That is actually pretty good based on what I have read here on VJ.
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23745