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| Juarez, Mexico |  Review on October 9, 2008: |
GlobeHopperMama
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Juarez is a crazy place. Most of the applicants there have been living illegally in the US and are becoming permanent residents through marriage, or are parents of citizens or permanent residents and have been petitioned by their children, so the experience there is probably different from most consulates in the world. If you are simple marriage-based applicants who are going through the process the standard way, your case is relatively uncommon for this consulate! That should mean a quick and easy treatment at the consulate.
LODGING
I'll make a quick plug for Hotel Colonial. It's pretty nice, great staff, free continental breakfast, free shuttle rides to the consulate at 6am and 7am. They have three small swimming pools, wireless internet (although it works best in the lobby rather than the rooms), and a few computers available, too. It's located in a quieter area but within 10-15 minutes walking distance of the consulate. We stayed there for about $650 pesos per night. http://www.hotelescolonial.com/Jjuarez.htm
MEDICAL EXAM
One thing to be prepared for: at the medical exam, they barely give any attention to the vaccine record. Regardless of what shots the applicant has had, basically all are forced to get the MMR, Varicella, and Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis). I even know people who had those three shots administered by their doctors at home before going to Juarez, and they were still forced to get those shots. In my husband's case, it was a total cost of $290 for the medical (including the basic exam fee of $135). Also, they are now forcing all female applicants under age 26 to have the first round of the Gardasil (HPV) vaccine (there are actually 3 rounds total, but Juarez only administers the first). I can not remember how much this is, but it isn't cheap, either...The only way out of it that I've seen is if the applicant is pregnant or breastfeeding. The medical fee can be paid in cash or with a credit card in the applicant's name. We don't like carrying around wads of cash, so we used the credit/debit cards for everything in Juarez.
In general, my husband observed that the majority of the medical is driven by the applicants' appearance. People with similar styles of clothing or body types were sent through similar exams. For example, people with tattoos are much more likely to be sent for a urine sample. The questions the examiners ask also seem to relate to what they perceive by your looks.
After the medical, they give the applicant two black plastic envelopes: A giant one containing a copy of the chest x-ray they do to check for TB, and a smaller sealed one (DO NOT OPEN!) that contains the vitals to take to the visa interview. Your spouse can keep the giant chest x-ray one and do whatever he/she wants with it, since only the smaller one matters. Your spouse does NOT need to bring the chest x-ray to the interview, only the small package. I feel bad because tons of applicants are walking around to their interviews carrying that giant envelope and it's not necessary.
PRE-INTERVIEW/DOCUMENT CHECK
Also, at the medical, there is a chance your spouse will be given an appointment at the consulate a day early for "document check" or "pre-interview". It seems slightly random, as my husband didn't get this but plenty of others did. They do this to help minimize wait times at the consulate during the actual interview. They review the documents, sometimes even do a lot of the other procedural stuff like fingerprinting, so that the following day, all that's left is the face-to-face interview. Just be prepared, it might happen.
VISA INTERVIEW - DOCUMENTS AND EVIDENCE TO BRING
For the visa interview, I sent my husband with the following proof of relationship evidence:
* Photos of our relationship (about 8 pages of printed photos and captions, from the time we met in Jan 2003 till the present)
* Joint credit cards and bank account documents
* A copy of all my ticket stubs from the 7 flights I've taken to Mexico in the past year during the parts where I was in Chicago and he was in Monterrey
* A copy of our parallel ticket stubs from the 3 months we spent traveling in Europe together
* The ultrasound photos of our baby and the supporting medical documents
The most important documents are the appointment letter and passport - these will be required at the medical and the visa interview
I also sent him with a duplicate or original of everything I've ever sent in to immigration:
* I-130 approval notice
* Updated G-325a for him
* I-864 package including my W2s, original Birth Certificate, and a copy of the biographical page of my passport
* DS-230, including original marriage certificate and an original of his birth certificate
* Passport photos
Here is a great printable checklist created by some IR1/CR1 applicants from Juarez: http://www.scribd.com/doc/6059492/Printable-Checklist-for-Visa-Appointment . It mentions the fingerprinting fee, but that is now totally obsolete.
Also, you might want to review the prohibited items list of things that can't be brought into the consulate: http://www.scribd.com/doc/6067113/Items-Prohibited-Not-Allowed-in-Consulate-at-CDJ . Some of the listed items are really unusual.
Most of the evidence and documentation on that checklist won't be asked for, and the consular officer should return the original certificates that have been mailed in during the process. However, it's better to be over-prepared because at the hotel, there were so many people frantically making calls to family to have documents faxed or DHLed or scanned and emailed, etc. Also, the consulate has been known to lose stuff...
THE ACTUAL INTERVIEW DAY
In summary, the day is long, but the interview itself is really short. Most of the time is spent waiting in line or sitting in a waiting area. The interviews themselves are short because of the sheer volume of applicants being processed through the consulate. It is definitely one of the easiest consulates in the world to have anything approved. Usually they ask questions like, "How did you meet?", "How many times have you been in the US?" "Have you ever had trouble with the police or with immigration?" and stuff that's pretty simple to answer.
The consular officers are actually most accustomed to denying visas and generally telling applicants they're eligible for a waiver, so they spend more time looking for inadmissibility/immigration violations than anything else. If your spouse has no overstays or anything weird with immigration, the interview is probably going to go really fast, relatively speaking. However, many applicants spend over 10 hours there with all the waiting that they have to do. My husband's appointment was at 6:45am and he was back in our hotel at 11:30pm. This is compared to many applicants who don't finish until 4pm or later. He had a longer face-to-face time than most others, and he said it was probably 15 minutes total.
The attitudes of the interviewers vary, but I bet they are relieved to get non-complicated applicants! If you're polite to them, they will probably be polite to you. Our case was one of the most complicated ever, and my husband said the interviewer was very civil, compassionate, and careful to review all aspects of our case.
Let me know if you have any questions!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3429