|
|
| France |  Review on October 2, 2019: |
jesslieb
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I can't get over how unprofessional my interview at the american consulate was.
The first step is to go a first booth, where they check documents before the interview.
They only asked for my passport, pictures, my marriage certificate, my birth certificate and my DS 260 confirmation page (which is about 1/10 of all the documents I had brought, not to mention copies and translations. But I can't really complain about this)
The lady I talked to didn't like my marriage certificate from Denmark. She didn't say it to my face but she talked about it with her colleague, saying how those weddings were Las Vegas style, and how this document was not super reliable.
Then she told me my birth certificate was too old. They needed one dating from less than 6 months. I was surprised because I have never read this anywhere. It's not mentioned on the official interview checklist PDF for exemple. What was mentioned though, is that they needed the original documents submitted at the time of the application. So it's the birth certificate I brought with me.
She said it was too old because “many things could have happened sinceâ€. And that if I had a more recent one, it would mention the fact that i'm married.
I didn't argue with her, but this sounds wrong to me. I've asked other birth certificate since my wedding and they never mentioned my marriage. Because it's a birth certificate!
She told me I would need to upload it online for them to review it.
Second step was the real interview. Honestly I was wondering if it was another pre-interview thing because I didn't expect this setting at all.
Just booths with glass windows, next to one another, with no privacy at all, in the same room as 50 people.
Luckily he didn't ask any private questions. Actually, he only asked me about my address, my spouse state of birth, the green card mailing address and where we met.
Maybe it's always like this, but he also didn't seem to know anything about our case. Some very evident stuff, like the fact that we're a same-sex couple.
He asked for pictures but I had put them in a binder, under plastic sheets. I couldn't physically hand it to him because the space under the glass window was so small! When he saw I was taking out the folder from my bag he just moved on to another question. I kept the binder in my hands for a while. I tried to ask him about the pictures again but he ignored it and asked another question instead. So I placed the binder back in my bag without having shown him anything.
He handed me back my original files in a folder covered with scribbles.
He told me my case was approved and told me goodbye. But before leaving I asked him again about my birth certificate that didn't do. He asked to see my original documents again and disappeared for while.
He came back and said “ yeah, just like my colleague told you, you need to send it though mailâ€.
“But your colleague told me to upload itâ€.
This time he gave me a document stating I wasn't approved, unless I could provide a missing document. (He just ticked the document needed out of a list which, by the way, still not mentions it needs to be dated from less than 6 months)
Then he realized he probably shouldn't have given me that old folder with scribbles, so he took it back, handing me back my documents in a mess, with my passport pictures falling down everywhere.
Clearly the interviewer had been working there for less than a week because the whole thing was so messy. He forgot to switch back on the microphones each time he left and came back to his booth ( so like 10 times) and I had to tell him I couldn't hear him each time.
So, I feel like I shouldn't complain too much, because in a way, it went okay and I just need to provide one document. But the whole experience was rather unpleasant. I was given contradictory informations. I had to insist in order to get extremely important info for my case. I was told I was approved, then not.
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #27186