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| Manila, Philippines |  Review on February 27, 2010: |
Bruin85
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I made the trip to Manila to boost my fiancee's confidence by holding her hand thru the interview process. Plenty of girls pass the interview without their fiance being with them, but I think it adds credibility to the "love story". Anyway, if you have ever been to a government office, such as the Dept of Motor Vehicles, then the American Embassy in Manila will seem familiar to you. It was very bureacratic, starting with the line to get in the building. We arrived at about 6am for our 7am appt. It was still dark outside. We lined up and eventually filed thru security and into the building. Btw, here is a visajourney link that I found very helpful for other interview experiences. For reference I am going to use the map that was posted on the entry titled "Flow Of The Embassy Interview", http://ducecoop.com/interview/ . We sat in the seats and after about 10 minutes we were told to go to the CR window (lower left of the map). That is where we turned in the DS-156, etc and got our priority number then went back and sat down. After about 20 minutes her number flashed on the board to go to window 16 to get fingerprinted. Then we sat down and waited about another 20 minutes and her number flashed abain to go to window 17 for the preinterview. A very efficient filipino lady then proceeded to ask us questions while shuffling papers like a black jack dealer in Vegas shuffling cards. She would ask for papers and my fiancee would slip them thru the slot. The lady would then take out what she wanted and them pass the rest back to my fiancee and ask for the next thing. After spending months reading posts on visajourney I followed the advice of most and brought alot of paperwork, figuring that too much was better than not enough. I didn't want her turned down on a technicality. Most of the paper work we slipped to her she slipped back, it seemed that she only wanted a few emails, only my 2008 tax transcripts, no w2s, no employer letter, no bank records or other financial records. As it turned out we brought way more than they wanted. What she did seem to want were pictures. She took all that we gave her. Anyway, she asked me how long I had been in Manila and I said 3 days, and she asked my fiance the usual questions of how did we meet, do I live alone, where do I work etc, all while whe was shuffling thru our papers. Finally she ok, sit down until your number flashes for the final interview. About 30 minutes went by and our number flashed to go to booth 32. We waited outside for about 5 minutes until the earlier interviewee left and then we went in and closed the door. Inside we saw an American man thru the glass. He reminded me of the actor Jim Gaffigan who is on the show "My Boys" on TBS. Anyway he swore us in. He was very polite. We were interviewed for only about 5 or 10 minutes, maybe not even that long. It was very anti-climatic considering the months of preparation that led to that moment. His first question was "So, are you ready to get married?" and we both answered yes. He asked me where I worked and asked her how we met,and a few other easy questions. Nothing tricky, just a few straight forward, basic questions that we expected. Finally he looked at our picturs. He noticed the onces that were taken of me with her family members, (some of which were of me drinking beer with her many cousins) and he said, "I see you met the whole family, eh?" I said yes, I went to her province where she grew up (she lives in Manila now) and visited the whole family. He said "Ahh, thats good". Then he passed the pictures back to us through the slot and said "Congratulations, go to window 38 for instructions on receiving your visa." We then waited about 15 minutes, got the famous "pink slip", went to the AIR 21 booth, payed the fee, and that was it. By 10am we were back on the polluted streets of Manila, both kinda stunned that it was finally over. So I guess my advice is to bring plenty of pics, especially of the petionner with the fiancee's family, and be sure to bring all the paper work required. Better safe than sorry. Good Luck!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #5737