|
|
| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |  Review on May 19, 2010: |
mrs. wife!
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Our interview was on May 13th. We stayed at the Ibis Santos Dumont hotel. Decent hotel, nice breakfast, but no room service.
We went to have breakfast at 6:30am (time they open) and left the hotel around 6:50am. Walked to the Consulate, pretty close, around 10 minutes.
When we arrived there, there were about 8 people already in line. The girl came by to check the names and they opened the doors at 7:30. There were about 12-15 applicants, no K1 visas, only CR1s and people applying for parents.
We went up to the US citizen part and the girl gave us a sheet of paper to put our contact information. Also she gave a list of documents to be placed in order in case you haven't already sent them to NVC. I only had to give them 2 photos, medical, passport and the number she gave me while checking the names outside.
Then pre-screening. The lady was very professional, no smiles, just a sharp "good morning". There were 2 people doing the pre-screening, window 1 and 2.
This part took about 1 1/2 hours! A lot of people didn't have copies they asked for or had to go downstairs to take another picture with "ears appearing".
Then, 30 minutes more to start calling people for fingerprints.
The CO was about 40-50 years old. Very nice and polite. When the interview starts he calls people at random. There is no order. So if you want to go to the bathroom you have to wait to see if you are not the one he is calling, otherwise you miss your chance.
Every time someone left the interview room, he took about 20-30 minutes to review the next person's papers. It was very frustrating because you get anxious thinking it might be you and he calls another number.
Anyway, it was 11:15am and he hadn't called us yet. He called a couple and they went in. The interview lasted till 11:45! It was the longest one. Usually the interviews were lasting 5-10 minutes. The couple got denied. I don't know why, it was the first person who got denied that day.
After that, they told us that the CO was going for his lunch break and that we should come back at 1pm to continue the interview process. By this time it was only me, another couple and one mom applying for her son.
We ran to the Hotel to do the check out. Ibis allows check out up to 1pm. So we went there, paid and left the luggage with the front desk. They didn't charge us for anything.
Then stopped in a bakery and had a quick snack, then back to the Consulate. Got there 1pm they let us in and wait again. The CO got there about 10 minutes later and went to his room. After 20 minutes more he called the mom with the son. Their interview took 3 minutes, approved. Then waited about 20-25 minutes and he called our number! Finally!
By that time I wasn't even nervous anymore. I was so tired to get anxious every 20 minutes he was reviewing the papers that when it was finally my turn I was calm.
We went to the room and he was looking through my DS230. He said hello and we waited. After 3 deep breathes to calm down some more, he asked me to put my left hand at the fingerprints machine and had it taken one more time. Then he asked us to raise our right hands and we took the oath.
He asked:
CO- I see you were in the US before on a J-1 visa right? What were you doing there?
me- I was there as an au pair.
CO- What's an au pair?
me- bla bla bla....
CO- I see that after your J-1 you had a B2 change of status but I can't find it anywhere on your passport?
me- I never received a visa stamp. Only a notice of action from USCIS saying that I was approved. I have it here with me if you want to see it.
CO- Yes, sure..... (looked trough it), ok thanks, looks fine to me (gave me back my paper).
CO- (to hubby) How about you? Did you just got here or you only came to the interview....??
Hubby- Actually I've been living down here for the past 9 months. I got here 2 months before the wedding.
CO- So, what have you been up to?
Hubby- I'm currently unemployed, but I used to work with computer programming when I was in the US.
CO- But you guys are planning to go back immediately right? (I think he asked us because of the re-establish domicile thing, but never asked anything about it, although we had all the papers ready to prove we will re-establish domicile).
Hubby- Yes. As soon as we get the visa.
CO- okay, all your papers look fine to me, please go talk to my colleague and she will tell you how to make arrangements about mailing the passport back. It usually takes about 3-5 days to issue the visa, then more 7 days for mail. So I'd say you will receive your visa in about 10 days.
me- Sounds good. Thank you so much!
Hubby- Thanks so much!
CO- Have a great day!
We left the room and went to talk to the girl. She gave us a green paper with our case number written on it and told us to go downstairs to pay the mail fee.
We paid the TNT fee, about R$26 and left!
I just received my passport back today with my visa. The visa was issued on the 17th and delivered today, the 19th! I live close to Campinas SP, so they were pretty fast.
You can always track your passport on the TNT website. They will give you a "conhecimento" number, but you can always put your case number (without the RDJ) on the "referencia" block and it will track for you!
The interview was pretty smooth and the CO very kind and polite. Nothing to complain about besides the fact that it took way too long to finally get to the interview. The problem is that we had to wait that long because some people took way too long at the pre-screening stage, while we had everything in order. That's why I'm giving a 4 instead of a 5.
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #6094