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| Switzerland |  Review on January 22, 2008: |
Manuela
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I arrived at ~9:30am for my 10am interview. You can show your interview invitation letter to the security agent, and they will let you skip the line (just as it says in the invitation letter: do not wait in line). You can't take any bags (not even clear plastic ones) or electronic devices into the building, so make sure you can carry all of your things with 2 hands.
Inside you give your passport to the person in the window and they'll ask for your appointment time, while another security agent asks you to go through the metal detector. You'll also get hand-scanned. Everybody is really friendly.
You then get asked to sit down to your right, there's a little area with some chairs, and it was packed! They have a really small tv mounted on the wall, and I spotted a box with toys if you bring kids with you, and there were also some magazines to read available. You wait until they call your name and the window number, mine was window number 6 (immigrant visa window), which is right to the side of the waiting area, so everybody sitting there got to see and listen what I answered 
The man at the window first asked if he could speak in English, and I answered that yes of course he could!
You give that person at the window all of the documents you brought, including proof of payment, photos, medical envelope, and they'll go through the forms and check for some things. They asked me if I had a proof that my fiancé works for the I-134, so I handed them the company letter that I have and that was fine. I had no tax returns btw. They will give you the originals back if you have copies, but since I've had at least two originals of each thing I just told them to keep the originals.
The only questions I got asked there was "when do you intend to travel" and "So, your works right?". The person also made me sign the ds-156.
I was then told to sit down, and the man apologized that I would have to wait a bit, since the consulate was very busy today, and they'd call me up for fingerprints and stuff close to lunch. (It was barely 10 am then).
After I sat there for 2 hours, and most everybody had left by now, I got called to window 3 where I got asked to sign the ds-156k and they took my fingerprints (all 10 of them). I expected some questions then, but no questions were asked, and the guy there told me to go back to the waiting area and wait for the other guy to call me up again.
I barely sat down when the guy at window 6 beckoned me over. He said that everything looked fine with the visa, asked me if I had my fingerprints taken and told me that I could either pick up the visa or have them send it to me. I asked if that was all, and he smiled and said yes! I told him that I'd appreciate it if they sent it to me, since I don't live exactly close to Bern. He said they'll send it out in a day or two, and that it would be sent B-Post, which is slowpoke mail in Switzerland. I wasn't in a hurry so that was okay for me.
A week later, I had my visa in the mailbox, along with the big brown envelope that you aren't allowed to open!  Everybody was really nice and friendly in Bern!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #2377