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| Dublin, Ireland |  Review on February 25, 2011: |
Gingerpants
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Embassy Review:
Yesterday my fiance (beneficiary) and I (petitioner) attended his interview at the US embassy in Dublin. Here is our review of the day, I hope that it will be as helpful as the
reviews I read for our own preparation.
On the forums I heard many people suggesting to arrive an hour early to the interview, our interview was scheduled for 1:00pm so we arrived at 12:00pm. When we approached the gate the security guard asked "what time are you scheduled for?" We replied "1:00," so he said "then come back at 1:00," haha so we took a walk around Ballsbridge and went for coffee in a nearby cafe. We returned at 5 till and there was a small queue of around 4 or 5 singles and couples.
We queued up and a few minutes later they called up the first family to go through security. When it came to us it took around 5 minutes to get through security, they had us remove all electronic from our bags (even flash drives
and FI's small key chain torch). They sent our things through the scanner and then had us walk through the metal detector. We were given back our bags and the kept our electronics in a small little cubby, giving us a card to collect them with later.
We entered the courtyard and walked up a ramp to a side door where another guard buzzed us in and we walked through another scanner into a smallish room. The guard directed us to the first window where a women took our postal order (payment) and handed us a ticket with our number on it. I was surprised at how few people were there as I was expecting a large room filled with people waiting for interviews. 15-20 minutes later we were called to the next window where an Irish women began asking for our documents. Here's what she asked for:
DS-156 (for some reason she took both of our copies)
DS-156K
I-134 (mine and our co-sponsor's)
Financial support evidence
Police Certificate
FI's medical report (the smaller brown envelope within the envelope containing the x-ray)
Two passport photos
FI's passport
FI's birth certificate (here's where we ran into problems which I'll explain in more detail below)
12x14 Envelope
8 euro worth of stamps (placed on the envelope and the envelope addressed to FI)
Okay so here was the birth cert trouble: FI was born in Kuwait because his dad was working for an Irish bank over there at the time, so he has an Arabic birth cert which doesn't look like the officially looking birth certs we're used to (no official looking seal or special paper; I actually asked his mum when she gave it to me if she was sure it was real, haha). So along with the original we also brought the certified translation and what his mum told me was a certified copy. This copy looked just as unofficial as the original. The lady at the counter that was taking our documents insisted that this was no more than a photo copy and insisted that we get a copy notarised. No where in my research did I see anything that stated that they would need to keep an official copy of his birth cert so this took me by surprise, I did however he that we should be sure to bring along the original. So they told us we would need to mail in a notarised copy before they could mail him his visa. After the interview we went to the solicitor across the street and paid an extraordinary 50 euro for a measly signature and a sticker, we then went to the An Post down the street and posted it to the embassy. The whole thing felt rather silly.
Anyways, back to the interview. After finishing with the women at the window we then took our seats again and waited to be called for the actually interview. 20 minutes passed and we were finally called. There was an American man behind the window this time, he greeted us and asked if I was the USC, I said "yes" and he made typical ginger comment "oh well you could of certainly passed for Irish with that red hair! Ha ha ha ha." Ironically he was a ginger as well. So he then had FI raise his right hand and swear that all he was going to say was the truth. He started by asking questions about how we met and such. Since we've been living together for so long it's kind of habit for us to kind of just finish each other's sentences so it was weird when the CO told me I couldn't answer. So because of this my silly FI confused things a bit by recalling that we had known each other for 1 month before I followed him to Texas, when it was actually 2-3 months. The CO questioned this because it clearly stated on our papers that it was several months. Poor FI was confused. The CO then started looking over my G-235A thinking it was FI's and saying the dates didn't look right. I finally did step in and say "um that one is mine, FI's is the next one." Hahah. Then he moved on to looking at our original letters of intent and next to all of our pictures. I got the feeling that since there weren't many people waiting that he was just taking his time. He also glanced over our leases and other proof that we've been living together. When he saw that I had no ring he asked FI about this and he explained that due to finances we were going to wait a little bit when we were better off. He turned to me and asked if I was really okay with this. I said "yes" and he replied with a grin "are you sure?" and I said "yes, you know it's not really what's important and I will get one eventually." He asked FI how he proposed and if I knew it was coming. Finally he said we were good to go and all we needed to do now was get the birth cert sorted.
We asked how long it would take to receive the visa and he wondered if we were in a hurry (this kind of annoyed me since after all we've been waiting nearly 7 long months for this visa so of course we're ready to get moving) we explained that ideally we'd like to be out before Paddy's day because air fare prices will go up then.
And that was it! =)
We had no mobiles to tell us the time but I wouldn't say we were there for more than an hour and a half.
If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #7200