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| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |  Review on July 11, 2023: |
Ronni
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
TLDR: I was at the consulate for four hours, interview was easy and lasted four minutes. Visa was approved. Pleasant experience.
This is going to be long cus I want to be as thorough as possible!!
My CASV appointment was on June 30th, at 7am (opening time) and I was in and out in 5 minutes!! They are very quick there!! I also did the blood test and Xray on this date at Rio!
My interview was scheduled to 8h20 on July 7th.
I got there at 7h20, and left at 11h15!
When I arrived I joined the immigrant visa line and a lady scanned my passport, placed a little tag on it and told me to go through security. After that I got directed to take the stairs and was in a new waiting room with many chairs.
Here I noticed some miscommunication between the staff, which caused a huge delay, but we were still getting called by the appointment order!
I was given a piece of paper to organize the docs in a certain order (it was kinda like this):
-contact sheet
-DS260/160
-uscis petition (if necessary, apparently for people that have dealt with deportation issues and/or illegal stays)
-birth certificates and copy (inteiro teor)
-marriage certificates and copy
-police records (all states you've lived in AND federal)
-med exam proof (I used both the receipt and the vaccination record given by the doctor)
-sponsor proof (I-864,W-2s, IRS transcript) (in my case, the consulate email instructed me to NOT bring my I-864EZ, only the transcripts, and I was not asked to provide the form at the consulate)
-place it all inside of passport
In order to filter out the people with missing docs I talked to three people there: the sorting guy, the pc guy and the interviewer.
In the scheduling order we were called to show the documents to sorting guy, then put in another line to talk to pc guy and then called by name by interviewer! This whole process took me 4 hours!!
I got called by the pc guy at 10h05, after checking my docs and asking a couple questions they gave me back most of my documents (they held onto my birth certificate, marriage certificate, and passport). The questions were about previous trips, length of stay, when we got married, if I had ever been to the US, if I had only lived in one BR state, my mom's maiden name, etc... He then filled out a sheet saying all my docs were in order and then I was told to wait to be called by name for the interview!
I think i waited around an hour for the interview, got called, took an oath and she asked if I had ever done au pair or been on a J1 visa and for what. Asked if we had both never been married before, asked about overstays and or illegal stays... and then visa approved!
The interview itself was VERY quick, almost anticlimactic. It lasted about three minutes but i stayed in the consulate for 4 hours!! At 11h20 I walked out of the consulate!
I do not think that was a typical day for them, I heard employees talking about how people usually trickle in instead of showing up in mass like it happened!
Some things I noticed about the people that got turned away, BIRTH CERTIFICATES!!! Your children's, if they are coming with you, OR if they are the ones bringing you to the US!! SO many people got denied because of the lack of them!!
Another suggestion I give is if you did hire a lawyer make sure you are also using your own emails to contact the consulate! While there I saw cases of people being informed (by their lawyers) of needed documents the night before the interview, lawyers not properly scheduling the medical exam! Be aware of the steps of the process and be proactive about it!
Overall it was a very pleasant experience, all employees were really straightforward but nice.
Also, I am writing this review on July 11th, two bussiness days after my interview and I already have my passport with my visa in my hands!!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #32253