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| Ireland |  Review on September 6, 2021: |
kmulvany97
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I had my visa interview on August 27th, 2021 and my experience was very pleasant. My advice for anyone going in is to be very calm and collective as it is not as scary as everyone makes it out to be. As long as your relationship is genuine you will have nothing to worry about.
I arrived for my appointment approx. 10-15 mins before my scheduled time. I had to click the button at the front window to check in (which I didn’t know at first until someone else waiting in line showed me). Once checked in the security guards brought me in and I went through airport-like security. My phone and keys were left in a lock box and they gave me a visitors lanyard with the key attached. I was directed to the right had side of the embassy for my interview.
When you walk into the room it is very similar to a tax office, with little booths for the embassy staff and public to face each other, there was glass separating the two of you and a microphone was used for communication. The first part of the interview was the documents checklist. I was brought up to a booth with an officer (not the consular officer) and he asked me for various documents. These included:
- DS-160 confirmation page
- Sealed Medical Report
- Affidavit of Support
- My Fiancés previous years tax returns
- 2 coloured passport photos (2â€x2â€) taken within the last 3 months
- My birth certificate (Long form and photocopy)
- My police certificate (original)
- Passport with any valid US visas inside (I did not have any valid visa in my old passport so I did not need to provide this)
- My current passport (Valid for travel)
- My final address in the USA (This was different to the address stated on the I-129F so I provided a copy of the lease of the apartment at which I will be staying - But this was not necessary)
- This officer also asked me where my fiancé was right now - I told him that he was waiting outside for me because he came over to Ireland on vacation
This part went without a hitch - one piece of advice would be to follow the checklist provided by the embassy very carefully as this officer literally had the same checklist in front of him as he was asking me for my documents. He also explained that if my case was approved that I would receive a brown envelope with my passport back in the mail, and showed me what it looked like. He explained that this was not to be opened and to bring it with me to the port of entry, only a CBP Officer is authorised to open this file and if it is tampered with beforehand it will be deemed useless and I would have to do another interview. Once this was done he told me to take a seat and that the CO would call me shortly for my interview.
I sat in the waiting room for roughly 1hr and 15 minutes before being called by the CO. I walked up to the counter and he asked me “Hi how are you today?â€, I responded and asked the same. He then proceeded to the oath, for me to state that everything I am saying is truthful and correct. Then we got into the questions:
- How did you meet your fiancé?
- Were you in the US before - for how long and on what type of visa?
- When you left the US how did you and your fiancé keep in touch and how many times have you seen each other since then?
- How old is your fiancé/ what’s his DOB?
- What does your fiancé do for work?
- Why did the two of you chose to stay in the US as opposed to Ireland?
- What is your plan going forward once you arrive in the USA? (With regards the wedding etc.)
These questions seem very intimidating but I swear to you the CO was so nice and friendly, it genuinely felt like he was just interested in our story and wanted to get a better understanding of our situation. He was not trying to trip me up with my answers or anything of the sort.
After the last question he turned to me and said “Everything seems good here, we will take your passport and the visa will be printed either today or Monday and you will receive you passport and your immigration packet by next Friday. Congratulations and best of luck in the United Statesâ€
I had my interview on Friday the 27th of August and received my passport back from the embassy the following Friday (3rd of September)
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #30087