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| Tunisia |  Review on April 22, 2024: |
Shawn and Jihene
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
This review is from the point of view as myself (Husband Petitioner) and wife (immigrant applicant).
After all the stress and anxiety, the actual visa appointment was smooth and relatively quick. I think we benefited though from the fact that just the week before, we had been to the consulate for our daughter's consulate report of birth abroad, and so the CO already knew us and recognized us, and had agreed to let me into the embassy for my wife's visa appointment (as my wife is nursing, and would need help to attend to the newborn.
All in all, we arrived a little before 730AM for an 8AM appointment. We were among the first one's in. They gave my wife a number after security, and after about 15 minutes of waiting, her number was called. She had to provide all the original documents of the following:
Marriage contract
city hall marriage certificate
birth certificate
police record
my tax info (oddly, they didnt ask for tax transcripts, they wanted the copies of w2s. they also asked for 2023, which luckily we had. Technically, this shouldnt have been required as taxes were not due until April 20 and our appointment was April 3).
We had a whole stack of documents ready to present, along with photos meticuliously organized and labels that fell many prime pine forests I am sure. But they didn't ask for any of this.
After the documents were submitted, we waited again for about 30 minutes, until her number was called again. They asked her essentially four questions:
When did we meet
how did we meet
when did we get married
what she intended to do in the USA.
After she answered the questions, the CO said "your visa is approved" and gave her a pink slip to come back in two weeks (Eid was the following week so the consulate would be closed). We were in and out in about an hour. We checked her CEAC info hourly. It was in adminstrative processing until about 3PM and then changed to issued. We went back on April 17 and she was in and out in 30 minutes to retrieve her passport (note is seems all immigrant visa appointments occur on Wednesdays).
One thing that was disapointing was the discrepency in how my wife was treated in my presence as a US citizen and when I was unable to go with her when she picked up her passport. We had to attend with our newborn child as we had no one to keep her with and my wife is nursing. When I was able to attend, the security guards were accommodating and friendly, polite and nice to both her and I. Unfortunately, without my presence, they were rude and condescending to my wife, unprofessional, and bullied her for having to bring our child. I plan on bringing this up to the consulate directly, as this is an unacceptable way to treat a young mother.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #33133