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| South Africa |  Review on March 30, 2019: |
pretendthisisfun
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
So, we stayed at an AirBNB within walking distance from the consulate and Sandton City. For those traveling outside of Johannesburg, I recommend this because you will have everything you need right there. To the interview, you cannot park or drop off at the consulate. You must park at Sandton Ciry and cross the street. For us, it didn’t matter that we were one of the first in line and sitting on the bench. The lady came out at exactly one on and said...â€if you are here as an immagrant form a que here...†which was on the other side of the rope from us, so the people who came in five minutes from one wound up at the front of the line. So if you do get there early enough to get a bench, be ready to move to the front of the line on the other side of the ropes. The side where the benches are is a que for citizen matters only Once we were lined up, they asked for names to verify we were in system. They took about five in the building at a time. Once inside, you go through security. Make sure your phones are turned off before you go inside and no laptops are allowed. You follow painted footsteps to a second building where there are snacks and drinks. The seats were full, so the gentleman had us sit on benches in the courtyard and called us in when space was available. We were given a card with a number in the second building. They called our number to a window. There was four or five windows where they verify you have documents and four or five windows where they interview. First window they verified the documents. I recommend being over prepared. I saw several people have to reschedule for missing documents. You waited a year to be at this window. It’s on you if you don’t know what documents you neeed and have them in hand at this point. It was a South African at the first window. She asked for our receipt, DS160 confirmation, I-135 with support, and any proof of relationship evidence to be added. And the photos. Then she did fingerprints and she joked about date we last seen each other being today since I was there with my fiancé. She said it looks like you have everything you need. All I can say is that you have all the documents you need. She gave a copy of the IMBRA forms and told my fiancé to memorize the numbers. We sat down and waited maybe 10-15 minutes before being called to the second window. We swore the oath, validated fingerprints, and she asked basic questions: When and how did you meet, where or what site did you meet on the Internet. Have you met families, how long has this been planned, did you receive a copy of the IMBRA forms, and said filing a domestic violence complaint does not affect your immigration status. She then said “Congratulations, I will be approving you later today. You should receive your visa in about a week.†And that was that. A year of stress and waiting and buildiup was over in less than an hour. As we walked out to get my phone, the guard at the first door said Congratulations, I can tell by your faces you were approved.†I said I’m sure you only see one of two reactions as people walk through here. So now the final wait starts. We had an excellent experience. But we also were extremely well prepared thanks to the information on this site. I feel really badly for people who invest so much time, money, and energy in this process to be turned away to reschedule due to not having the proper documents when resources like this are available. If you are reading this...you are already far ahead of everyone else. It was shocking to me how many of the people there seemed to not know what was expected of them and digging through files and still coming up short. Just know at this Consulate, if you have to reschedule, you’ll be waiting another three months at least. Be ready. And good luck!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #25899