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| Bogota, Colombia |  Review on January 16, 2009: |
Bruce P.
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Went today Friday Jan. 16 for my Venezuelan wife's CR1 interview. She was denied a visitor's visa in 2007 because the interviewer focused on the marriage fraud danger of marriage to an older gringo--though that is totally irrelevant to a visitor visa approval or denial ( I am a retired lawyer from Fla.) so we had some trepidation, but since 2007 we have put bank accounts and my Colombian finca in both our names and have lived together on our finca near Medellin. The first woman interviewer put the paperwork in a certain order that had been forwarded from NVC, in fact the only document that was requested at the post 40 where a folder was given were the lab results; since if the document was sent to NVC it was not needed again. The first interview on the docs was around 9 a.m. after going in the embassy a little after 7 a.m. that lady, who my wife later said was friendly (she did not want to see me)told us then to go sit in front of window 2 and a consular person would call us. About an hour later at around 10:30 a.m., I was called to window 5 by a young gringa woman, who only wanted to know how much time I spent in Colombia versus in U. S.-- that puzzled me since as an Am. citizen I could stay away 30 yrs. and not lose my U. S. citizenship. She asked how we met and then wanted to speak to my wife and asked the names of our Lab. retriever dogs in the photos --returned the photos and said we were approved. I then asked her some questions like about travel restrictions during 2 yr. conditional status period, but she said they all were questions for Immigration to answer not her with State Dept. I then asked why couldn't some doctors and labs in the other major Colombian cities like Medellin, Cali, Cartagena be certified for use, so one day less could be spent in Bogota--she had to ask her superviser, who said the CDC in Atlanta required that they be close enough to monitor. The medical exam in Bogota took 5 min. at 135,000 pesos and 40 people were waiting to pay the same. This guy must make over $500,000 a year for a test any first aid worker could perform. Why were they selected??? A fishy situation-- I plan to write my new Sec. of State Hillary Clinton on this. And why can't with the millions of dollars they take in annually they couldn't build some kind of shelter for the poor folks who have to wait hours outside in the Bogota weather while their relatives are getting the once over? The employees were friendly, not like 2007 when she was denied a visitor's visa, but I hope Obama sacks Amb. Brownfield.
Bruce P. 
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3817