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| Costa Rica |  Review on July 3, 2008: |
CourtAndGrey
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Our interview was on Wednesday, June 25th at the US Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica. Our interview was scheduled for noon and we arrived around 11:30. We waited in a short line out front of the embassy and when we reached the door, we told the guard we had an appointment at noon for our Fiance Visa interview. He waived us through and we went through the security scan and entered the embassy courtyard. We were instructed to take a number from the little machine, so we selected "Immigrant Visa" and were given #609. We went to the lobby waiting area and sat with about 25 other people who had already arrived. Everyone in our area had #600 numbers. There was another part of the waiting area that was handling Tourist Visas. Those people took up a HUGE part of the courtyard and the waiting area. Our little section was much smaller. At 12:00 on the dot, they opened one window and started calling 600-numbers. There lady who was calling people up was very nice. She collected documents and prepared everything for the Consular who did the interviewing later. Numbers 600 and 601 each took about 20 minutes, and once we reached 1:00 we thought it may be dinner time before we would be called. Things sped up a little and around 1:45 we were called. I brought my PACKPACK full of papers to the little window and the nice lady greeted us and asked our names. She pulled our file and started asking for papers. She asked for the DS-156, DS-156K, DS-157, and DS-230. These forms need to be signed in front of the embassy official, so she asked Greivin to do that. A few of the forms are needed in duplicate, and I had two copies of everything, so that was fine. Then she asked for all four photos and she attached those to several of the forms. Then she asked me for the financial documents. First all my I-134 info, then the co-sponsor's. I had duplicates again of everything although none were needed. NOTE: I WAS ASKED TO PRESENT PROOF OF MY CO-SPONSOR'S CITIZENSHIP! I didn't see this in the I-134 packet, but it is required to present a copy of their passport or something else that can prove their citizenship in the states. I did not have this, all I had was my birth certificate with my father's full name, but this wasn't sufficient. She said the consular would need to decide how to proceed on this. She asked us if either of us had ever been married and if either of us had children. We did not need to present any other evidence of relationship or anything else at this time. ANOTHER NOTE: OUR PACKET THREE STATED WE NEEDED TO HAVE ALL CIVIL DOCUMENTS TRANSLATED BY AN OFFICIAL, APPROVED TRANSLATOR TO BRING TO THE INTERVIEW. WE PAID OVER $60 FOR THREE PAPERS AND THEY WERE NOT NEEDED! Of course I hate to say you don't need this, but in our case, it was a HUGE waste of money. We asked if they needed these documents and she lady looked at us like we were crazy. She said everyone there is fully capable of reading in both english and spanish and they translations are not needed. GRRR. She then collected the Medical info - which was all in one envelope from the Doctor's office. They did not need the actual X-rays, although we had brought them. After we presented everything, she folded our giant packet in half and put it in the pile of files for the Consular. She told us to have a seat and he would call us up for our interview. We sat back down and waited another hour and half.
Eventually he called Greivin's name and we went up to the window. The Consular was very friendly and greeted us cordially. He asked if we wanted to do this in english or spanish, but before we could answer he offered to do a bit of both, so we agreed. He started by having Greivin take an oath swearing his was telling the truth, verifying who he was, and what his intentions were with this visa. At this point, Greivin finally got nervous. The entire waiting process he was cool as a cucumber, but once we went to the window, his nerves just took over. When he raised his right hand, it was shaking so much he couldn't hold still. The consular then had him scan his fingerprints in the little scanny machine (which he had to do twice because of the shaking...) The Consular could obviously see his anxiety and was very nice. He asked us if we were nervous and said we had no reason to be and that everything was going to be just fine. We both laughed and relaxed a little.
He then started flipping through our file. He asked us when we met and greivin said "last year", and I added "in april". He asked me what I was doing in costa rica, and inquired about my school and what i was studying. Then he asked me about my work and what I plan to do with my Master's degree. (A little random, but I went with it). He was very friendly through the whole thing and I felt like he made an effort to smile and help us relax because he knew we were nervous. He then asked me about my cosponsor. He started clicking around on the computer, and I later found out he was looking in some database to try and confirm my father's citizenship. He asked me a ton of questions about my father and his family and his life and his ancestors. Eventually he either found what he was looking for, or was content with all my answers and said he would accept the birth certificate as proof, but that we were getting lucky. Then he asked Greivin what he wanted to do in the states and where he was going to live, to which he answered "I want to get married, and I will live with her in her house." The Consular flipped through the file one last time and said "Alrighty, everything looks great, I am going to approve your Visa. As long as everything with the fingerprints come back clean, your Visa will be ready to pick up on Friday at 3:00. Congratulations to you both, and now you can relax. Have a great life in the states."
We thanked him and left the little window. We left the embassy with smiles from ear to ear! Greivin was squeezing my hand so tight! We walked out the doors, down the stairs and were practically running up the sidewalk. About two blocks later we realized we had no idea where we were going and stopped to gather our thoughts. We celebrated with a wonderful lunch and took some time to process everything.
On Friday, we went back to pick up Greivin's passport with the Visa. Greivin went straight in and did not need to take a number. He was called up the window and the same lady from before gave him a big, sealed envelope, a little letter with some directions, and his passport. Overall, the pickup process took about 20 minutes. Greivin came running out of the embassy around 3:25 with a smile even bigger than before. He sprinted up to the car and immediately pulled out his passport and we sat in the car admiring the shiny new page that had changed our lives!
Overall, our process was relatively smooth. The waiting was horrible, but for being CSC, 125 days is very reasonable. Once the NOA2 was issued, we had the visa in less than a month. This was VERY quick compared to most VJ'ers. Please message me if you are working with the Costa Rica embassy and need any help. We are happy to share any info that we can!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3082