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| Amsterdam, Netherlands |  Review on August 14, 2008: |
JeroenAndMichelle
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Kind of bad news turned into happy news a bit later..
I had my interview August the 12nd and I arrived at the consulate at around 1.05pm for my 1.30pm appointment. Two people were ahead of me and while we were waiting for the gates to open, a lot more people came along.
At around 1.20/25pm the gates were opened and we were told to stand in lines, one for immigration and us citizen services and one for other services. With my nervous head, I initially entered the wrong line and that actually set me back about 4 people in the line (while I could have been first of the immigration line haha).
Anyways, after some waiting it was my turn to give my paperwork to a really nice Dutch consult employee and he told me that I would have to wait for a bit and that I would be called out for my interview when the consult was ready.
While I was waiting, I was talking to some of the other applicants and they asked me if I was nervous, which I really was because I had a previous conviction behind my name. It was really minor and I never had any punishment either but still, the papers where there so who knows what could happen.
At around 2.45/3.00pm I was called for the interview and the consult asked me how I did and I told him that I was ok but nervous. He told me that I had nothing to fear but yeah, I still feared the outcome a little bit. He asked me how I met my fiance, what my birthday was, what he had in common, why I wanted to marry her and such.
And then it was time to talk about my court records. I explained the consult what happened back then and what the ruling was. The consult was really unsure if he could give me my visa so they told me he had to put it all on hold and that he needed me to write them an email about what exactly happened and what the ruling was of the judge. This all in my words so they could make a decision based on that. I guess it is needless to say that I that kinda shocked me and I was kinda sad when I drove home.
The same night, I send them an email in which I explained everything and also added the explanation of my uncle, who is a retired lawyer, about the classification (the classification was different to what really happened back then) and then I had to wait for the ruling of the consult.
This morning, 2 days after the interview, I called the consulate to check if they received my email in good order and they told me that they just printed it out and had it added to my case. I was happy to hear that they would look at it real soon and told them I would wait until I heard from them again.
About 30 minutes later, I received an email from the consulate, saying that they would approve my application and that they would like me to call them for an appointment to hand over my passport.
All in all it was a good experience I think. Of course I was sad about the initial application hold up but it turned out to be for the good. I can understand they cannot give everyone their visa just right away when they had court records and I am actually happy that they didn't deny me right away as well (which they could have done and then I would have been further away from home in the timeschedule).
So yah, I give them a 5 out of 5.. I could say something lower in rating but that wouldn't be fair because they were simply doing their job with the hold on my application. The people were nice and the process was fast and smooth.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3228