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| Dominican Republic |  Review on July 14, 2011: |
I & JJ <3
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
My husband and I arrived at the capital on Sunday, July 10th, and stayed at the Jardines del Teatro. The aparta-hotel is nice, clean, and conveniently close to the consulate. They even offer to keep your bags in the main office incase your interview runs past check-out time and they need your room. We spent the night making sure all of our paperwork was organized and just relaxing before the big day.
On the day of the interview my husband got up at 4:45am and was able to drag me out of bed by 5am. We got ready, ate some cheese and crackers for breakfast and left all of our bags ready on the bed in case we couldn't make it back by 1pm for check out.
We were on our way to the consulate by 6am. I was looking for the buscones but I guess there weren't that many because of the huelga nacional. The line was already plenty long. It started off as one long line and once you got to a certain point one of the guys with the yellow shirts asked you what type of visa you were there for, told you which line to get on, and handed you a number.
I think we were on line for about 20 minutes or more when I started to feel really sick. I am 3 months pregnant now and have had extreme morning sickness throught this pregnancy. Standing outside in that heat for so long must have set me off because I felt like I was going to faint and throw-up. I had to get off the line so that I could throw-up on the curb. One of the guards asked me if I was feeling sick. He called my husband over off the line and my husband explained that I am pregnant. The guard told us we should have said something from the beginning and escorted us to the front of line and let us in. I went to the bathroom to take care of business and while it wasn't terribly dirty the smell could make even the healthiest person nauseous!
Once I stepped out of the bathroom I saw a wave of people come in and rush to the metal benches. My husband and I sat to the far right near the bathrooms and cafe. We were called up to window 24 at about 7am. The lady asked how far along I am and if I was still feeling sick. She was trying to convince me to let them change our interview date because we could be in there until 4:30 and she did not want me there feeling sick, fainting or vomiting when I could just change the date. I lied and said I only felt a little faint because of the heat but was much better. There is no way anyone would have been able to get me to change the interview date, I don't care how sick I could have been.
She proceeded to collect our paperwork (husband's passport, police certificate, banco popular receipt) and returned some of the documents I turned in with the affidavit of support. We sat back down and continued waiting. The machine that calls out the numbers is loud and clear but sometimes a person would come on the loudspeaker and call out names. It was more muffled and at times they would speak at the same time as the machine. My advice to everyone is to listen closely.
I started to feel hungry and sent my husband to the cafe for something to eat. Of course he was called to window 13 at that moment (about 8:15am) and had to abandon the line. A bunch of people rushed to window 13 at the same time like a pack of wild savages and skipped us (gotta love my fellow dominicans!). Once done with finger prints my husband got me something to eat and we continued to wait.
At about 8:40am we were called to window 19. That's when the nerves finally kicked in. The agent was a guy probably in his early 30s, tan skin like mine which made me think he could be hispanic but he had an accent when he spoke in spanish. He swore us in in spanish and asked my husband to go take a seat outside. This made me really nervous. For some reason I thought that they ask you questions together and only separate you when they are suspicious.
I don't really remember the order which he asked all of the questions but I'll try my best to write everything I was asked.
I think he started by asking me how we met. I told him my parents introduced us and he asked me to elaborate. Then he asked what day we met in person. I gave him the exact date (July 27, 2007) and he asked how come I remember the exact date. I said I don't know why, I just do. He looked through our papers and said you guys met in 2007 and waited three years to get married in 2010. I said correct. He asked me for my passport but my husband had it in his pocket. I told him I would have to get it from him so he asked me to give him any pictures I had so he could look at them while I got my passport. I had separated our pictures according to trip and put them in ziplock bags. I had about 12 or 13 different bags and was so nervous I started stuffing them through the window all at once and the guy was looking at me like if I was crazy. I ran out to grab the Passport from my husband and he must have guessed why I stepped out because he already had it in his hands. When I got back to window 19 the agent had only looked through one of the packets of pictures and asked me to take the others.
He then started flipping through the pages of my passport looking at the stamps and asked why I have an Italian visa in there. I explained that I studied abroad there and he asked me where I went to school. He also asked:
What do you do now? Work
What’s the name of the company where you work?
What do you do?
Did you study architecture?
Then the real interrogation began. He grabbed a post it and was jotting down all of the answers I gave. The questions were:
Does your husband have any tattoos or scars?
How long after you met did you guys first kiss?
How long after you met did you have sex?
Where did you have sex?
Did you bring your husband a gift during this trip?
Have you guys had sex during this trip?
When?
Were the lights on or off?
And before last night, when the last time you had sex?
Do you have any kids? (no but I’m pregnant now)
Are you sure the child is his? (yes I became pregnant during my last trip!)
If they were to do a DNA test would it come out positive? (of course)
What did you get him for his birthday?
Do you have any pictures of your wedding?
Can you show me the pictures?
I pulled out our extremely heavy wedding album and started to turn the pages, which was quite difficult for me because I am short. He asked me to turn the pages faster and asked if we got married by church. I answered yes and quickly turned to the pages of pictures taken at the church. He said he saw enough and that I could go take a seat. He picked up the phone, called my husband in and asked the following:
Do you have any tattoos or scars?
When did you guys meet?
When did you have your first kiss?
How long after you met did you have sex?
Where did you have sex?
Have you had sex during this trip?
When?
And before that?
What did your wife get you for your birthday?
Did your wife get you anything now?
Have you ever committed a crime or tried to enter the US illegally?
After that my husband made a sign for me to go in. When I got there the agent was looking through our papers one last time and told us what we wanted to hear: Your visa is approved, go pay the Domex. My husband and I thanked him, kissed, and rushed to the DomEx line. We asked them to deliver my husband’s passport to their Santiago office and picked it up today. Our POE will be at JFK on Saturday morning.
Overall it was an ok experience, minus the getting sick part. The questions were a bit personal and I really didn’t mind answering, however, I think my answers were pretty embarrassing and I know I must have been blushing a lot. I did answer truthfully even though I hesitated at times but my husband gave the exact same answers as did, humiliating as they may have been. We answered everything the same except for the birthday gift question because neither of us remembered. I am grateful that we were out of there by 9am on the dot. I hope this review can help anyone else who has upcoming interviews.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #7926