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|  Review on February 20, 2011: |
Ribs & Beans
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
We got to the line at about 5:15am, and there were already about 90 people waiting, and more kept on coming. Nobody was dressed like a hooker or anything like we read about, but most people were wearing jeans (we wore dress pants, dress shirts, and a light sweater for me). We only saw one couple with more evidence than we had--they had a whole big cardboard box full! The buscones were out in full force. The line started moving around 6am. An employee working outside at the line took the first page of everyone's interview packet, and then we were divided into the male/female line. After going through security, I rejoined my husband in the waiting room.
First his name was called to window 13, where a very nice woman took my husband's fingerprints, and then sat back down. About 45 minutes later, his name was called to window 18, where a woman took my husband's documents. She also went over some of the information from our file--confirmed our phone numbers, addresses, the names of my husband's parents, if this was the first marriage for each of us, if we had any children in common. She asked him if he had ever traveled to the US and Puerto Rico (no), and if he had ever tried (no). She gave us a number and we sat back down.
Then we waited...and waited...and waited some more. There were a lot of people getting called up for very short interviews in the morning--most were approved. We were so convinced that we were going to be called at any minute. Finally around 12:30pm we gave up and bought some food. By this time we were starting to get really uncomfortable. I had already fallen asleep like 4 separate times. There are some nice big TVs up at the front of the room (don't know what we would've done without them!) but the same program (on Nat Geo Wild) kept repeating over again! There are only so many times I can watch lions kill other animals...
Anyway, I was starting to get more nervous, because around lunchtime it seemed like the interviews were starting to last longer. A lot more people were interviewed separately, people were spending more time showing pictures and other evidence, and a lot more people were being denied or sent to sit back down to be re-called. We saw about 5 couples called to "window" 11. We had read about window 11 before, but even the way they called people up was mean and intimidating--rather than call people by number like everyone else, they just called out their full names over the loud-speaker, followed by "ONCE" in a very intimidating voice. Everyone called to 11 was back there for a long while, and then sent back out to sit and wait some more.
Around 1:40pm, they finally called us to window 18. My husband had peeked at the COs on the way back from his last trip to the bathroom (the bathrooms were filthy, by the way...for some reason I'd expected better), and was a little nervous about this one. We got up to the window, and found a young (@ age 30) husky white man with a full beard. He was initially very serious and didn't smile. He asked me if I spoke Spanish (yes), and my husband if he speaks English (a little). He said, "ok, we'll do this in Spanish."
Then he started looking through our file, turned to the guy sitting behind him, and asked, "wait, do I have a Peace Corps Volunteer here?" The guy replied, "I don't know, where?" He replied, "Right in front of me! I do!" He turned back to us and started chatting with me about Peace Corps, and about where I worked when I was in PC. He even joked a little! He went on to ask us each a few questions:
To my husband:
Where are you from?
What do you do for a living?
To me:
Where are you from?
Where did you guys meet?
What do you do for a living?
Your parents didn't come to the wedding?
To both of us:
Do you know the term "sanky panky"?
(To my husband, semi-jokingly) Are you a sanky?
My husband laughed and replied, "no, never!" He started writing and check-marking a few things in our file, and told us that we are approved! He handed us the green slip, and we went down to the Domex counter to pay. The whole interview lasted about 4 minutes; he didn't ask to see even one picture (aside from the 15 we had send in with the I-130), or any other evidence. It was all very anti-climactic.
We decided to take the route of having my husband's visa delivered to the Santiago Domex office, and having him pick it up there. The interview was on Wednesday, February 16th. As of the tracking information online, it got to the Santiago Domex office today (February 19th), although my husband isn't going to go and pick it up until he can confirm it with someone over the phone.
Anyway, we were out and back to the hotel (Jardines del Teatro) by 2pm! Hotel checkout was at 1pm, but the Doña was very forgiving, and we gladly hauled ass out of there and out of the Capital. The end! :D
P.S. I'm rating it a 4, but if we hadn't been approved it would've probably been a 2! The waiting room was large and clean, and there was plenty of seating (and the TVs, of course). We got some sandwiches and juice from the little cafeteria, which were pretty good but expensive, of course. The seats got very uncomfortable after so many hours of waiting! The bathrooms were nasty. The waiting time was RIDICULOUS!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #7180