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| Sydney, Australia |  Review on June 1, 2010: |
Sassyandswoop
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Overall, I found the Sydney Consulate to be very efficient, fair and a pleasant place to end your visa journey.
Getting to the consulate in Sydney is very easy. Due to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, there are guide posts littered all around the city showing a directory with maps and places of interest. The MLC Centre is depicted on the map and in the list of places of interest, finding your way there will not be a problem if you don't have a map on you. Once you arrived at the MLC Centre, look for the enormous "triangular shaped squary" building as my Dad described it jokingly, however it's a Octagon shape, and as I said earlier, it's enormous, so you can't miss it.
Once inside, you need to find the lift that will take you to level 10. The button will look different to every other button, it'll have "9 10" in smaller text and be positioned below everything else. Once at level 10, you need to go to suite 1010, so go left, and keep going left, you'll pass suite 1009, then it'll go down from there, keep going and you'll find it after you've almost circumnavigated the building. Walk in the first door and you'll be in the queue for security. My Dad and I got a bit lost, but people there are really really nice, they told us where to go to get to security on level 10.
Bags of ANY kind are not permitted (inc tote bags as Deb discovered which is really stupid they don't allow those in, but what can you do?) Have your passport and interview letter/emails ready to show the security officer. Have your phone out of your bag and switched off already and all your evidence you plan on carrying into the interview out so you don't hold up the line. After you go through the metal machine and your stuff is scanned, you check your bags and stuff you won't be taking to the consulate into a bag holder area and you'll recieve a card to claim your bag after you're finished. They don't charge for this and it's very secure so you don't need to take your wallet with you. They'll direct you to sit in the front row until the security officers at the lift call you and send you up to level 59 on a PRIVATE elevator.
Waiting in line for me took about 20-25 minutes, but there was some workshop on and they pulled 3 people ahead of us, and I was only sitting in the front row for barely 2 minutes before I was sent up to the embassy with another guy.
After your ears pop, you get off the lift and turn right, say your name to the people at the desk and they'll buzz you into the consulate. Directly ahead of you is a ticket machine, you press the button for which type of visa you're there for then take the number it prints out for you. Take a seat in the left seating area in front of the counters marked 1-5.
I waited a little over half an hour to be called up to counter 4. I took my massive pile of evidence and dumped it on my side of the counter. I handed in my passport style photo (they already had the 2 I sent into the NVC still so I didn't really need it), 3kg express post envelope, medical results, asked me to sign Part 2 of my DS-230 form, took my fingers prints and interview letter/email. She checked she had everything she needed then asked me to sit down again and she'll call me up soon.
About 10 minutes later I was called to counter 2 where she told me they were unable to finish my visa application because they didn't have the Police Certificate. I pulled out the receipt I had when I paid for my PC in February and showed her that, she went out the back and found it. She wrote over the highlighted checklist of my paperwork saying PC WAS received and accurate, she had to get rid of the Notice of something or other that says my visa application is suspended until I can provide that, then she said well we have everything and to take a seat in the middle section (which are the seats in front of counter 6-9). I sat down for about 5 minutes before I got called back to Counter 2, I had filled out an inconsequential part wrong, so she put white-out over it and had me fill it in again. Wasn't anything horribly wrong, was just for their files, so I was fine to sit back down in the middle section.
I met Deb&Steve while waiting, she had an AWESOME way of displaying her evidence, I'll let her explain how she divided everything up but it looked awesome and very professional. We talked for about 15 minutes or so until I was called to counter 11. The only counter that can be enclosed in what I believe is sound-proof glass. Kinda frightening. I carried my 25kg of bulky evidence to the counter and was happy to dump it on the desk and let me numb arms fall limply to my sides. When I got up there the lady was still flipping through my file, I saw on the top page the great big "APPROVED" stamps and was like "YES!". Then she asked me a whole bunch of questions anyway! The order might be a little off, I thought it rude to write down what she was asking while she was asking it, just in case it looked a bit suspicious.
Have I been to the USA?
What was the longest I spent there?
Did you like the weather over there? (Said it was bit cold but that Chris had a great heating system)
Doesn't get too cold in Oregon. [Think she was trying to catch me out on this one] (I said while I was there Chris and his family were saying it was unseasonably warm but I was still cold, and that being from up in Brisbane where the weather is usually mild in winter that it was cold for me)
When did we met? (I asked if that meant first started talking to each other or when we first met face-to-face)
Both.
When did you last see your husband?
So you haven't seen each other in 8 months?
Was your wedding in Australia?
Did his parents come over for the wedding? (Gave a long answer to this one explaining how and why his parents were unable to come, but that his twin brother and his wife came over, and that the brother was the best man)
Do you have a job?
What does he do over there?
Then she went on and started talking about the requirements for his income. He recently started a new job (as soon as we got the letter from his employer we sent off the final forms to the NVC and he didn't have a pay slip to send in yet) so while the letter and the projected salary were plenty to cover the minimum poverty line, they still required a pay slip. She said that he can just scan and email it into the embassy, they can just take a quick look then they will post off my visa to me. It won't slow down my visa process very much.
She didn't ask to see a single shred of evidence and I was approved before I even got to the interview counter. So ... you bloody beauty!!!
To get out, you just walk out the same door you came in, go to the elevator and press the button for level 10. The security officer on the elevators will direct you to collect your bags. The person behind the counter was very friendly and already grabbed my bag as soon as he saw me at the lift. He was very friendly, congratulating me on my successful visa. Then you walk all the way back around the building again and take the lift down to the lobby. There are 2 sets of lift side by side, you take the second set.
Once you get down to the lobby, turn your phone on, send a mass text message to your family in Aus and let them know you got it, then call your partner in America and annoy them at work to tell them you got it too 
I hope this was helpful, good luck with your visa!!!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #6153