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| Quito, Ecuador |  Review on January 18, 2010: |
jessyfrank
Rating:  | Review Topic: Direct Consular Filing
I assembled all of the documents months before the interview in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I double checked every requirement. I knew that we had everything that we needed. I went to the interview with my husband just in case they needed to see me (I have heard from others that it was required in the past). I heard the entire interview because my husband was standing mere feet from me behind a curtain. All interviews were held standing up, behind two layers of glass. The man that interviewed my husband said that he was missing a document and a signature. He told him to leave and then come back weeks later once he had everything back together.
I pulled myself together quickly and got up the nerve to go speak to the immigration officer. I asked him what we were missing. He said that I did not have the original signature page for the financial support affidavit. I had included both a faxed copy and the original in the packet after taking extra measures to have that page. He insisted that it was only the faxed copy and said that he could not review my packet.
I asked if I could have the paperwork back so that I could turn it in again. My dad paid $45 to express mail the original document to Ecuador not a week before. He said that he could not return the papers, but that he would review it "if he had time." My husband and I waited while he reviewed the papers. when he called us up again, he said that he had found the document but that I needed a signature from both of my parents on the affidavit.
I knew that this was not right because I read the instructions carefully. My mother did not want to include both her and my father's assets in the affidavit because my father had more than enough to sponsor an immigrant.
The officer was very rude and impatient, but eventually conceded. He proceeded to ask some final questions of my husband for the visa approval. He asked him if he had ever been to Miami. This was an unclear question as my husband had been to Conneticut before by way of Miami (as the port of entry), but he had never actually spent time outside of the airport.
He did his best to answer the questions completely and accurately. The officer answered him with an unbelievably rude answer. "No wonder your mother -in-law hates you. You always talk around in circles." I felt like I had no opportunity to talk back, but I know that this was crossing a line. He had no right to speak to my husband like that but we felt unable to respond due to the circumstances.
These people think they can be as nasty as they want because they hold the fate of lives in their hands. After the visa was granted, he refused to help us any further. We were told to go to DHL, even though we knew that the visa could not be delivered to my in-laws' house. In the end, we were told we would have to track the process of the visa and then pick it up down town Guayaquil because they do not have a mail delivery system in Duran, Ecuador.
If I could go back, I would make a conscious effort to correct him. After the way I viewed the treatment of immigrant applicants by US immigration officers, I am not at all surprised that every other part of the world views us in such a negative way. I hate that my country is being represented by such terrible examples of US customer service.
 
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #5562