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| Chisinau, Moldova |  Review on June 22, 2011: |
Jim&Natasha
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My fiancee emailed the US Embassy in Kishinev (Chisinau) for her interview appointment, and within two business days, received a reply with a date just over one week away.
I sent her $710 US to pay the interview fee for her and her daughter, of $700. When she went to Moldova AgroIndBank to pay the fee, they gave a bad exchange rate, and insisted that for visa interview fees, it should *always* be 8400 Moldovan lei, no matter the exchange rate, instead of about 8100 lei, as the current exchange rate would give. So Moldova AgroIndBank has a nice little skimming operation going on this.
Anyway, to the interview. She arrived at about 1:30 for a scheduled 2:00 p.m appointment, and went through security screening, leaving cell phones, etc. with security. She only had to wait a few minutes before being called to the first service window. There were four windows altogether.
(I was not present at the interview; I was cheering her on from the great Pacific Northwest, here in the USA.)
At the first window, they took her fingerprints.
Shortly after that, she was called to the second window. I do not recall exactly what she told me, but I believe at the second window, she dropped off additional documents that she had brought for the interview, and it was a check-in for the actual interview portion.
A few minutes later, she was called to the third window. She expected the interview to take place in a separate "interrogation room" setting, but everything occurred at the service window, and took only about 5 minutes.
The interviewer asked her a few ordinary questions, like how we met, how long we had known each other. Then he asked her 15 year old daughter about me, and about our relationship, and what school she would go to in the USA. Her daughter's English is poor (but improving rapidly). My fiancee (fluent in English) re-asked the question to her daughter in Russian. The daughter eventually managed to answer, in English, with prompting from my fiance, with information about the high school she will attend, and mentioned the walks we went on together. (Actually we went *running* together, during my last visit, two months earlier.)
Then the interviewer asked my fiance about our wedding plans. She told him about our plans to get married in Los Angeles by Madonna, in about September, which is a good central location so that friends can attend. Then she told him that we decided that might not be practical, and were instead planning a small civil ceremony shortly after she arrives, so she can work and drive sooner.
The interviewer laughed; I'm sure that having a Moldavian-Russian K1 visa applicant joke with him in English is a circumstance that simply DOES NOT HAPPEN to him very often!
Actually, the truth is, that we discussed getting married in LAS VEGAS, by a Madonna impersonator, but truth is, we might have to settle for ELVIS, as he is more widely available.
The interviewer did not ask to see any of the other papers she had brought with, evidence of our relationship, hundreds of printed emails, more photos, and other such things. My fiancee was disappointed he did not ask for this, after all the work she went through to put them together!
At the end of the interview, the interviewer asked for her and her daughter's (international) passports, and told her to come back the next day at about 4 pm.
The next day when she arrived, it took only a few minutes to claim the passports, now with a K1 visa glued into them (apparently K2 for the daughter?)
The whole thing was such a relief for my fiancee, as she had been worried sick about the interview, and had heard horror stories from other friends who had been through it. Of course, friends had been to the embassy in Bucharest, Romania. Chisinau only started doing K1 visa interviews in November 2010. This was very fortunate for us, as my fiancee lives in Kishinev.
Some factors that I think helped the interview be very successful:
1) We did a very good job putting together the I-129F packet and all the documents, with everything filled out correctly, neatly organized, and all bases covered. Thank you VisaJourney guides!! And Thank you VisaJourney posters who shared their stories and questions and answers!!
2) My fiancee speaks fluent English, and works as an English/Russian interpreter
3) I had traveled to visit my fiancee twice within the last year, and had boarding passes, engagement ring receipts, phone records (Rebtel calls), bank account records (I set up an account for her and sent an ATM card to Moldova for her to use) and many other such things. We planned for the K1 interview from the very start, just in case the relationship wound up going there. This planning and preparation was thanks to my friend Scott...
4) I have a friend in the USA who helped me with the process, and also in understanding Moldavian girls (if such a thing is possible!! ;-) My fiancee served as the interpreter for this man when when he met his wife in Moldova. I met her online (Elena's Models website) first, and then called him to ask about her once she and I seemed to get along well. (I had been on the Elena's Models site for almost 3 years before meeting her) It was after talking to him that I decided to go visit her in the first place. His help in guiding us through the K1 visa process was tremendously valuable. He also pointed out the VisaJourney site to me.
5) I think that my fiancee's unexpectedly relaxed manner helped much during the interview. She had been extremely nervous the two weeks before the interview. 10 years ago she had a bad experience with the US embassy and still had bad feelings from that. She told me she viewed US Embassy much like I would view Soviet KGB, with suspicion and distrust. I told her to see them from the point of view as a future US citizen, and to respect and appreciate them for doing their job, and doing it well. They serve current US citizens by helping keep criminals and scammers out of the USA, and mostly allowing only hard-working and honest people in. I also suggested she visualize three different interview scenarios: easy, medium, and hard, instead of dwelling on past bad experiences, and that no matter easy, medium, or hard interview, the result was always the same: Approved!
I hope I didn't reveal anything here that she considers too personal, or I will get my butt kicked later!
Anyway, she was able to be relaxed and calm for the interview, and I don't want to give myself the credit; it was all her; I'm just sharing a few things I did to try to help her prepare. I don't know which things helped most and which didn't matter. I am certain that helping her see the US Embassy staff with respect, and even appreciation, (not as "the enemy") was a big help in helping her be in the proper frame of mind for the interview.
I say it was a "medium" interview, that turned into an "easy" interview.
The interviewer asked her several questions, poking, prodding, looking for something to tell him to dig deeper, little inconsistencies, and everything simply aligned. I will say that we filled everything out with 100% accuracy and honesty and did not try to hide anything. My fiance spent about a year in a country in South America almost 10 years ago, and thought perhaps she should not disclose it in our documents, that it would lead to more questions and maybe more documents to be gathered, and very difficult to obtain from another country. I insisted that we list it on the documents, and let the chips fall where they may. The risk of not disclosing could be a lifetime ban; the risk of disclosing is maybe a few weeks of delay to gather additional documents.
When I visited Chisinau two months earlier, I stopped at the embassy with my fiancee, and they allowed me, as an American, to enter the consulate area, just to see what it was like. I was doing this so I could tell my fiancee what to expect once she got inside the embassy doors for the interview.
There was a lot involved in the month prior to the interview, getting medical tests and other such things done, and preparing for the interview, which I have not discussed here. My fiancee did a LOT of running around to different clinics and government agencies for documents and notarized translations. She did NOT have to get a "crazy report", i.e., a certificate of non-insanity, like I have heard has been required of other visa applicants. She and her daughter did have to get several additional immunization shots, prior to the interview.
I hope this account of our experiences is helpful, and since there are very few Chisinau reviews, useful to those who follow us.
The Chisinau embassy staff were exceptionally polite, professional, and helpful to my fiance, and also to me, in all our interactions with them. When my fiance dropped off interview documents (Affidavit of Support from me, etc.) about two weeks before the interview, they were very helpful, and even spoke to her in Russian.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #7808