|
|
| Nicaragua |  Review on May 5, 2010: |
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I will not give a detailed description of the US Consulate office since Mike did solid job of describing the place. Every detail he gave was a 100% accurate.
We were scheduled for our interview at 8:00 am and arrived at 7:30. My fiancée forgot the two required photos in the hotel but luckily there was a man that approached us and offered to take pictures on the spot for $20. We then went through security check and got a number (207). We waited for about an hour and 15 minutes before we were called up. We were serviced by a female clerk. She asked for different documents. We had a hard time hearing here since she was behind a thick glass window and it seemed like the intercom was not working at all. We had to ask her to repeat herself several times which only made me more nervous than I already was. Also, she was not as friendly as I would have hoped. Once she collected all the forms she asked for our evidence supporting the validity of our relationship. She asked why we had so few pictures. My fiancée explained to her that she was not much of picture person. She then asked my fiancée how old I was and went on to make a bad joke about how old I looked. That to me seemed a bit unprofessional but I was not upset, I guess because I was so nervous. We then proceeded to sit down. Me being a pessimist, I started to imagine that our application would be denied. I felt we did not have enough supporting evidence. We only had about 10 photos, about 10 pages worth of e-mails, 3 months worth of phone bills, a receipt for the engagement ring, signed and notarized letters from a few of friends, about ten pages worth of IM correspondence, a letter my fiancée wrote me for my birthday, and my passport showing I had made bout 6 trips to Nicaragua in the last 3 years. I felt that we had way too few photos and that was the main reason why I felt I had to be present at the interview. I figured what better evidence that our relationship is true than for me to be physically present to answer any questions. After about 30 minutes of being at the edge of our seats we were called up for a second time. This time we met with the consular officer. She was much more pleasant than the first woman (Judging from the reviews written by other people it seems they have a bad cop, good cop thing going on). She first asked my fiancée a couple of questions. All here questions seemed to come from the letter describing our relationship, the one that we provided in the I-129F application. She asked my fiancée how we met, who introduced us, when we became a couple, and a few other things that were in the letter. She then asked me how we communicated, where we planed to have our wedding, were we planed to have our honeymoon, and who was going to be present at our wedding. She asked if any of her family was going to be present at the wedding to which I responded that unfortunately most of her family would not be present. She seemed a bit sad for my fiancée when I said this but I then went on to explain that we would only have a civil wedding for now and eventually have a church wedding back in Nicaragua so the rest of her family and my family could be present. She seemed to be pleased when I said this. She then had my fiancée sign the DS-156 form and explained to us that we must get married within 90 days of my fiancée entering the US. She then said our application was approved and congratulated us.
The whole thing took a little more than 2 hrs from the time we came in to the time we were done. The Consulate staff was professional. The consular officer was extremely gracious. Other than the bad joke the clerk woman made and the fact that they forgot to take my fiancée’s finger prints (she had to go back the next day) I would say the experience was extremely pleasant.
In conclusion, the only advice I have for anyone applying for a K-1 visa is to have plenty of supporting evidence. Take lots of photos, especially if the petitioner will not be present at the interview. And in the case where your relationship may raise any red flags, like in Mike’s case, I would definitely advice the petitioner be present at the interview. But in the end, if your relationship is genuine and you have plenty of support you should have no problem getting approved.
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #6023