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| Ukraine |  Review on October 17, 2008: |
cwaf
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Our interview was fairly smooth. My story is a little longer and detailed, but I feel it may help someone in the future. We arrived in Kiev on Saturday and rented an apartment (arranged 2 weeks ahead) for 4 nights for $55.00 a night. Getting TO the apartment proved a challenge when the wheels broke on my suitcases, but we made it. We went to a Pro Bank to pay for our applications, knowing they closed at 4pm. Our taxi driver made CERTAIN we made it on time, as he zipped along the roads. We made it with 15 minutes to spare, paid for the applications, and recieved the receipt/notice. We went to the Embassy on Sunday just so we knew where we were to go for our Monday morning, October 3rd, 9:30am appointment. We arrived a little early-9am--and there were many people waiting outside. We walked up to the front and I showed my passport and was allowed to go ahead since I was a USA citizen. However, my fiance and her daughter were not allowed in yet since they were NOT USA citizens yet and not yet married to one. The guards told me to go ahead, so I took all of our paperwork, thinking I would get a headstart with it. It is not completely clear where to go, but I was finally instructed to go to the Immigration room. I was surprised since a K1 is a nonimmigrant visa, but I went on back. After waiting for 25 minutes for 9:30 to arrive, I began looking back down the hallway for my fiance. Three other 9:30 appointment women came into the room while I waited. One woman told me, through her daughter, that "my woman was not allowed in". I immediately went outside with all the paperwork and discovered they were not allowed in because I had their passports!!  After providing those to the guards, we were ushered into the guard building, leaving the banned items there to retrieve later. Back in the Immigration room, we had 2 women who had gotten ahead of us. However, it only took aout 15 minutes before we were at the window and providing the documents as the man asked for them. We were instructed to sit back down and wait until called again. After a while, we were called and Sveta and her daughter both were electronically finger printed. We returned to our seat again to wait. There were two or three women who had been waiting along with us, and when their names were called, it took them only 5 minutes each to complete the 'interview' and walk out with the pink card in hand. When finally our turn, the man--an American--asked me if I spoke Russian. I replied "no" and he joked "good! now we can talk all about you!" He asked them something in Russian and after Sveta answered, he asked me about how many times I had been over before to Ukraine. He had my information in front of him, so I knew he was just testing me. I found out later that he had asked the same question to Sveta and he was comparing our answers. After informing him, he said "OK! That's it! Everything is fine." He had the women raise their right hands and swear to the truth, and then I did the same. He gave the pink card and we were off to the FedEx tent/pavillion in the courtyard. There we obtained the information needed to allow us to retrieve the passport with the visas directly from the FedEx office instead of waiing for it to be delivered. That wa sit. We arrived at 9am and left about 11:30. I think ours was a little longer since there was Sveta and her daughter, but it was not an uncomfortable wait. The people were all helpful and I saw no one that was not pleasant.
The next afternoon (Tuesday) we were explored the city and decided to go to the FedEx office for 2 reasons: the first was we hoped the passport would be there even though FedEx had not yet called us. The second reason was so we would know where we were going when it was time. It was good that we scouted a day ahead because the FedEx office was not an easy place to locate! Her passport was not there yet. The FedEx employee informed us the Embassy brings over the passports at 6pm daily, so we hoped it would arrive that evening abd be ready for us the next morning. We had a nervous time, though, because we had to leave the apartment at noon on Wednesday and were not certain where would would stay if the passport was not yet ready. However, those fears were relieved at 11:15 when FedEx called and said we could pick it up!
The only potential problem was a mispelling in one of three places for their last name. Unsure as to how big of an issue it would be, we went back to the Embassy and I spoke to a woman there. She said since it was an obvious typo and not a completely different name, it would be fine. It turned out she was correct and no one even mentioned it during our trip to the USA. Overall, I was very happy with our experience.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3472