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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on August 29, 2006: |
Mark UK
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My interview was on a relatively mild summer's day, which was lucky because it got really hot within a week or so afterwards and I had to stand outside for more than two hours in total.
I got there at 8.45am for my interview time slot at 10.30am. It's true what they say about not getting there too early - you WILL wait. I got admitted into the building at just before 11am and they were running about 30 minutes behind pretty much from the start.
I deposited my phone, camera, PDA, etc with security and took a ticket and sat in a very crowded large room with windows dotted around the sides with consular officials behind. I was #23 for the immigrant visas and they were servicing #8 at the time. So I had plenty of time to check my documents.
After about an hour, they called my number for the document check. It seemed to take them a long time to get the immigrant visa queue moving but then they did, it was pretty quick. It almost came as a surprise, even though I was staring at the video screen pretty much the entire time.
I went to the window and they checked my documents. I even got to see the large file that they had on me (including the I-129F with the very satisfactory red 'APPROVED' stamp across it). They handed me back my X-ray from the medical which is comically oversized compared to the rest of my documents and went down the checklist.
Everything was fine...until they asked for the I-134 Affidavit of Support.
I explained that the visa helpline told me when I first got Packet 3 and asked questions about how to fill it in said that it wasn't necessary until I was in the US and applying for Adjustment of Status. I thought it a little odd, but they insisted. Not only that, but I triple-checked with them (at a cost of $LOTS per minute) that this was true when I called about unrelated questions I had. All three times, they said it wasn't necessary.
When the lady explained that I wouldn't get my visa today, my heart broke. I'd planned so hard and been as conscientious as I could possibly be (if I'd put that much effort into school and university, I'd have a double-doctorate from Oxford  ), but they, rightly, insisted that I needed proof of our finances before I got a visa.
However, they continued with the rest of the interview. After the 'document check' ended, I was told to wait in the main room for the next stage which consisted of an interview with an American consular official. After calling up my fiancée to tell her the bad news and about an hour's wait, I went to the same window for the interview.
He asked me to raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth and he took my fingerpints. He asked me how I was and I couldn't stop myself saying 'not so great' but I think he was understanding about it.
He didn't ask the questions I thought he would like 'where did you meet?', 'when did you propose?'. He asked me what we had in common (I NEVER thought of that!) and whether I was being hasty - things which I wasn't expecting so I had to give an unrehearsed 'from-the-heart' answer. Really, on a technical level, he was a quite brilliant interviewer and I thought 'wow, that guy knows his stuff'.
He said that I was 'all set' pending my I-134 and helped list all the things that I would need and said it would take about 2-3 weeks to complete final processing once they had the evidence needed. He was professional and courteous and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had worried about. I was absolutely distraught about not getting the visa on the day, though.
Unfortunately, due to a delay in the post, it took six weeks for the evidence to support the I-134 to get here. I posted it straight away and now I'm really nervous about whether it's enough for them.
The purpose of writing this review is to give people something to learn from. So I would say this: triple-check your information from different sources. They told me that the best way to get an 'official' response is to EMAIL them as there's no trail for the visa helpline information. What I would advise is that to get the info from the helpline, Email the Embassy with a reference number (that the helpline give you if you need an official response) and check on forums like this.
Also, it's easy to read these testimonies and think 'yeah, well, they got lucky, I bet mine is really hard'. It won't be. They are human beings who are extremely well trained to be courteous, as helpful as they can be and to spot if you're telling lies. Be completely honest and you will be absolutely fine.
Good luck to you all and I hope you are very happy with your fiancé(e)s!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #804