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|  Review on July 11, 2008: |
sydkym
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Wow--I can´t believe how smoothly and quickly our interview experience passed by! Here´s what happened this morning in Lima...
Our interview was scheduled for 9:30 am. We arrived at the embassy around 8:30 am and were directed to the long line of people waiting. A man was going down the line looking at people´s papers and passports. After maybe 5 minutes in line, we were at the front. The man took our interview letter, circled the date and wrote "29" at the top. My mom came with us, but they said only one other person could go inside, so she had to wait outside the embassy. We entered the small security vestibule and then continued to another line outside the side door of the embassy. Some people were being directed to an outside tented area (tourist visa hopefuls) and others, like us, were let inside to the waiting room.
Inside, there were many windows and 2 doors. We sat down and about 5 minutes later, my husband was called to window 14 (I went with him) to give his passport and 2 passport pictures to the woman there. Then we sat down again. After close to an hour, we were called to window 13 (I went with him again) and another woman asked for his medical envelope (which she opened and then returned to us, contents and all!) and then started going through our file. She pulled some papers out and gave them back to us (photocopies, some passport pictures, and cover letters from our AOS and DS-230). She only spoke in Spanish. She asked me if I spoke Spanish--I said just a little. She asked my husband how he wanted the interview conducted--he said in Spanish. She asked him how we communicate--we said in English. She asked him how we met. When we told her by internet, her eyebrows went up and she asked which page, what it was called. She asked him when I came to Peru the last time--he said I moved to Peru this past July. She asked him if I was living here, why did we want to go to the US--he explained that I only took a LOA from my work and have to return in August. She asked him when I came to visit the first time--he said December 2006--she said, and then she came back in July--he said no, she also came to Peru in April and then moved here in July (he´s convinced that was meant to be a trick question). She asked him where he worked--he said he was working as a periodista until the end of May. She asked if he had traveled to the US before--no. She asked if we had been married before--no--or had an kids--no. Then she explained that we had two visas pending, the 130 and the 129f, but she would remove the 129f. She asked us to sit down and said the CO would call us soon.
After 15 minutes, they called us to door 15. Inside was a very small vestibule with another window--I wasn´t expecting that. I was expecting a person at a desk, no glass, more informal, but no. Our CO was a woman, blonde hair in her early 40s perhaps. She was very serious. We said hello, sat down and waited in silence. My heart was pounding in my chest at this point. We had watched 4 other couples come out of the room, smiling, kissing, and happy but still I was very nervous. She had him put his fingers and thumbs on the fingerprint scanner, then she held up a stack of papers with the DS-230 on top and asked him if everything was the truth--he said yes--and then passed it to him to sign. Then she asked me, in English, "How did you meet?"--when I said on the internet she said "Why are you looking for boyfriends on the internet?" I said that it wasn´t just for that, but for meeting people and that I had had my profile on there for almost 2 years before we met and starting e-mailing each other. She said, "You are living here? Why?" and I explained that I took a LOA from my work to come here, get married, get to know his family and Peru, and to be with him throughout this process. She then looked at my papers and said, "Did you file these in the US?" I was a little confused at this question so I said, "I don´t understand" and she said that the receiving stamp on the top of the papers has a different signature, not her boss´s. I said I was living in Peru, but I explained that in the beginning we used a service in the US to help us file the first papers (the 130 and 129f). She said, "You didn´t have to do that." She asked me if I had been working here--I explained that I have been tutoring some families and that I was hired as a long-term sub at Roosevelt. She said, "You´re a teacher?"--I said yes. She asked what kind of teaching and I said 3rd graders. She laughed and said, "Wow, you´re brave!" I said, "Well, I taught 6th graders for many years so this was nothing." Then she asked me if we had any children--I said no--and then she asked my husband the same question in Spanish--he said no. She began looking through more of our papers, then at the computer, back and forth, until finally she said in Spanish to my husband that his visa was approved! We both breathed a sigh of relief! She said "Congratulations" in English and my husband and I smiled, kissed and said thank you to the woman. She explained that we would go to the DHL kiosk to pay for delivery (although we have to pick it up, so I guess we´re paying for the visa to be delivered to DHL). We waited about 30 minutes to pay at DHL and then we were done. 3 hours in all. We get to pick up the visa on Tuesday. 
**Although we are so happy that it is over and everything went smoothly, we were disappointed that they didn´t look at our pictures! We spent 2 days printing out 100´s of pictures of our wedding, visits from my family, his family, and we even took pictures yesterday when my mom and brother landed in Peru and printed them out quickly to fit them in, but they didn´t even ask for them--no supporting documentation at all. 
***Another interesting note--it was a busy day at the embassy and that included a few celebrities: we first saw Laura Huarcayo (the conductora for Lima Limón on Ch. 4) and then a few minutes later Tongo walked up to a group of girls who were turned away at the door. My husband thinks they might be a singing group. When we left the embassy, 3 hours later, Tongo was in the security vestibule.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3113