|
|
| Dominican Republic |  Review on July 9, 2011: |
Terca
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
My husband went for his medical 2 weeks before the appointment on a wednesday, he got there at 6:30 am, and was done by 9:00 am.
On the day before the Interview Hubby and I stayed in a cheap motel close by and paid about $20 dollars for the night. the place had parking and air conditioner but no blanket, it was clean and they had cable.
On the day of our interview we parked 2 blocks away and gave the guy "managing" that space 200 pesos. BEWARE OF BUSCONES, these people are very convincing and they just happen to know everything you are missing from your documents, one even told me that the pictures now have to be 50x50 in size without specifying anything else. Pfft don't listen to them, they can take your pic inside the consulate for 200 pesos if you forget them. there are women shouting from accross the street "7:30 am interviews line up here" I dont know what kind of money they get for doing this but it is true that only the earliest interviews can line up against the wall of the consulate first. I guess after the early people go in the people across the street can now line up against the wall.
Outside you can see windows 26/27 these are for people that have to come back to bring add'tl docs. Then further up you will see the wall for queuing up. it is under an awning so no sweat if it rains. I didn't carry a purse and i recommend every other person carry only car keys and docs nothing else or they may throw your stuff away inside when they pat you down. My husband's memory stick got disposed of this way.
Once in line someone comes around calling for elders and people with babies and handing out numbers, then you are allowed to go in walk through a metal detector and get patted down by male or female officer depending on your sex. Women with purses hold up the line FOREVER because each purse is checked manually.
Inside the consulate there are fans, and a small cafeteria that opens around 8 something. the benches where people seat face the windows 1 through 25. Windows 24 and 25 are to the right next to the bathrooms in a corner. There is an electronic display screen that calls out the number you were given outside, and there's an intercom pretty loud to call people by name. For our immigrant visa interview we we're called 3 times. Once to hand in police cert, banco popular sheet and medical exams results, then to have your fingerprints taken and lastly for the actually interview. Our interview was pretty short (meaning she asked zero questions) and the consul was super nice, i was missing a doc so she gave us a green paper stating what we had to bring back and to go to windows 26/27 as soon as we had the docs.
We went back to windows 26/27 a week later, the ladies on those windows were not nice, and they gave us trouble when we brought the doc we were missing (a residence card photocopy front and back) they had never seen the new card with a hologram pic on the back metal strip and said " we see these everyday and they don't have a pic on the back" ... After explaining nicely it was brand new they reluctantly took the copy and instructed for us to pay "domex" the courier service for the visa package. We went back inside with a green cardboard receipt they gave us and paid for it. Got the visa package 7 days later 
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #7899