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| Bogota, Colombia |  Review on February 1, 2024: |
camtex
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Our process at the Bogota Embassy was pretty smooth, albeit slow! We stayed across the street at the Fairfield by Marriot Bogota Embajada, I would highly recommend it since it's an easy walk across the street, especially for early appointments like ours (not to mention, it happened to be an eco day in Bogota and no private cars were allowed to drive). Our appointment time was 7 AM and we arrived at around 6:30. There wasn't any 'line' to speak of, really just everyone grouped together across the street trying to hear instructions. At just after 6:40 an announcement on the loudspeaker gave instructions for those with immigrant visas to proceed to the left towards gate 3 and those with nonimmigrant visas to go right. The first line to get inside the Embassy is just to verify you're in the right place and get checked in, after you go through security and then line up again inside. An agent helps you place your docs in the right order and there are guides attached to the table to show which docs are required for each visa type. For us this was an original birth certificate, sealed medical exam results, two passport pictures (with the beneficiary's name written on the back), I-134, and the most recent year's return (I also included employer letter and pay stubs here since I had gotten a new job in 23') - that's it. After you've ordered everything you go to a window and an officer reviews the docs for completeness and you take a seat. As others have said, if there is a logic to how people are called - I am not sure what it is! We waited for 4 hours before getting called, many people that came in after us went before us and some that came before us went after us. I went up with my fiance and it was short and sweet. Essentially, "have you been to the US before?", "tell me the story of how you met and fell in love", "what does he [petitioner] do for work?", and "does he have any pets?". For hours we had watched people go and come from their interviews and many lasted 10-15 minutes each, but I believe having a strong case with lots of evidence submitted makes things much simpler... ours had to be the shortest of the day and we weren't asked for a single extra doc. Officer congratulated us very warmly and said expect the passport back in 1-2 weeks! By 2 the same afternoon CEAC shows 'approved'. So happy to have this part of the process behind us and we're both looking forward to being together in the US in just a couple of weeks!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #32925