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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on April 24, 2008: |
Vani
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Sorry if it's too long to read. I will be as precise as possible to help all of you who are in this process  If I made any mistakes (like mix up orders) I'm sorry  I got so happy when I left I brainwashed myself and forgot about all the pain I went through (stress) haha.
At around 8.00 am I arrived at the consulate (my appt time is 8.30 and they apparently open at 7.30am). Just to let you know my Fiance wasn't with me so I was alone, but still worked just fine! I entered and the guard asked me for my interview letter. I stood in line on the left side as he asked me to (immigrant visas). For around 15 minutes I was waiting in line, since they only had one x-ray machine to scan! But since I was bored I talked with the lady in front of me. It helps you feel more relaxed, especially when you get to hear other people's cases.
When it was my turn to go inside (yes you have to take turns, the guards take one from immigrant applicants then and non-immigrant applicants at a time to go inside) I was asked to deposit all my stuff in two wooden box. (TIP: DO NOT BRING A BIG BAG! DO BRING A SMALL ONE WITH ALMOST NOTHING IN IT AND NO FOOD. I DIDN'T BRING A PURSE because my mother held it for me during all this time.) One wooden box was for my Passport, Blistex and wallet. The other wooden box contained all my papers including the big X-Ray envelope. Then I was asked to go trough the scanner. No beeping noise yay! The guard told me I was all good, handed me back my stuff and told me to go downstairs, then right right, and go up the elevator to 19th floor. (Btw the guard was nice, but not too cheerful) I had to then go to window 14.
Arrived on the 19th floor, the placed didn't looked as dark and gloomy as I thought haha! It was nice a bright, and had a nice view of downtown Montreal from up high. There were rows and rows of chairs against the back divided in two sections: Immigrant/non-immigrant visas on the left and US citizen services in the right side. Window 14 was located in the front near a hallway (easy to find). The lady was really nice, I greeted them and she asked me if I was going to pay my Xpresspost by credit or if I had one. I told her I will pay with my credit card and she gave me a form to fill out for the XpressPost (name, my address, phone number, and I added the extra 1.50$ for signature required). Then she gave me 2 tickets written C-10. She told me to sit and wait until I see my number C-10 on the screen. As I waited, I chatted with the woman(Reija) I met when I waited in line. She is having her IR-1/CR-1 interview and she was C-9.
We waited for about 45 minutes (it was long) and I got called to window #6 on the left side of the room, into a hallway. I showed her all my original documents (WARNING: If you had sent in your original documents along with your packet 3 its OK, they have ALL YOUR FILES IN A FOLDER!) that she needed. Basically: Birth certificate, Police records, medical examination letter (not the X-RAY), the Affidavit of Support (and Co-sponsor in my case), Passport, letter of intent, DS-230 and DS-156k, two photos, and whatever else you needed that was in the checklist in the Packet 3 =) I had all of them so there was no problem for me. The lady at window 6 WAS SLOW and SERIOUS, she wasn't as cheerful at all I wasted a lot of time with her. After she placed all my documents in order in the pink folder, she gave me a paper written that I had to pay 131$ (I paid exact change in USD) at window 14 where the cashier is. She gave me two receipts for the payment. I went, came back, gave lady #6 my receipts and she gave me some papers that I didn't needed in my folder and told me to wait until somebody called my name. This lasted for around 15 minutes.
I waited and waited, until 11.00 pm (so slow today!) and had fun talking with 2 other ladies other than Reija. Reija had left when I was called in (she got approved!) and I was called at room #8.
I knocked room #8 (well I thought it would be more polite lol) and greeted happily. He looked really nice right when I saw him (RELIEF!) and told me to sit down, but I chose to stand because I was nervous hehe. He took one of my C-10 ticket, and gave me one of the receipt for the payment of 131$. He flipped through my papers and did see some mistakes in my papers #1 was my Fiances name was typed wrong but he corrected it for me!!! so nice. #2 I didn't had the original form of Affidavit of support and the Co-sponsor documents... But he saw that the photocopies were fine HE IS THE NICEST GUY IN THE WORLD!
As he looked through my papers, he was talking to me at the same time (talk about multi-tasking).
He asked...
"So where did you two meet?"
"When was the first time you guys met?"
"How often did you meet?"
"Is your Fiance currently working?"
"When are you planning to marry?"
That's all really! The other questions that he asked were IRRELEVANT! We talked about Chinese food (I am Chinese, so is my Fiance) and discussed places that were good to eat in ChinaTown haha. He told me he was American and just arrived 4 weeks ago and told me that he loved the Chinese food here because it tastes really good. He joked a lot and wow, he was so nice I felt as ease. He even joked about calling us "so two geeks met online and are going to get married, and the kids are going to be geeks too!" I said "Yeah the kids are going to be geekier! What are we going to do!"
Then he said that everything looked good, that the mistakes were OK and that I was gona get my Visa in a week along with my Passport and the brown envelope tat has all my info inside that will be needed to cross the border with.
"You can cross the border in any way! Plane, train, car... Whatever you want!"
"Yeah So I might as well just walk though the border eh?"
"Sure!"
At that moment I was relieved from all the stones and weight off my shoulder and head =) Then I left and TAAADAAA I SMILED WITH THE BIGGEST SMILE! It was QUICK and EASY.
I was out by... noon. It was long, but interview was PAINLESS!
I have 6 months to enter the States and then 90 days to marry my beloved
Good luck to all of you 
The interview is easy if you have all your papers! 
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #2781