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| Juarez, Mexico |  Review on August 6, 2011: |
Gus&Cole
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I’m gonna start this review with the traditional greeting to VisaJourney because without this website, this successful story wouldn’t have been possible. THANKS A LOT VISAJOURNEY AND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT PROVIDE HELPFUL INFORMATION HERE.
This will be a very detailed review so be ready for some reading.
I placed links to some pictures related to the context, that will be REALLY helpful so you can see exactly how places look like and get familiar with them even before you go to Ciudad Juarez.
Ok, lets start.
Day1: Tuesday
Loooong day. Stayed 5 hours at the airport, from 4am to 9am. Not good. Arrived to CD: Juarez airport and took a taxi $245 pesos, like $20 USD.
PICTURE: Facing outside the airport: http://goo.gl/21I0o
FACT: There’s no way to get ripped off here or feel scared because it is an official taxi service from the airport and you don’t pay the driver, you pay inside and get your ticket.
It should be a 15 minute ride if you stay at any of the hotels by the consulate.
PICTURES: Closest hotels to the American Consulate:
• http://goo.gl/MKzMo
• http://goo.gl/2d2DB
• http://goo.gl/GXheG
I was planning to get my medical tests that same day but it was 11:00am and the taxi driver told me they do the tests from 6am to 11am at the medical centers. So I checked in quick and went to the medical center. The taxi driver was right. I got there at 11:30am and was unable to do the tests obviously.
I walked around to see the location of the consulate and the ASC. I asked questions to everyone. Then I went to my room and rested.
• TIP: Stay at Ibis, it is in the best location. It is right between the two authorized medical centers, 2 minutes walking distance. I used “Clínica Médica Internacional” which I heard is the one that most of the people use, nevertheless, you can use either one and you’ll be fine. This hotel is also walking distance from the Consulate and the ASC. The facilities are brand new. Staff is fine, the service is not as great as where I am from (Cancun) but it is acceptable. If you decide to stay somewhere else, make sure the hotel is on the same side as the Consulate so you don’t have to cross the street because it has a lot of traffic and it takes forever. There is some sort of bridge to cross the street but in my opinion (trust me, I’m Mexican) it’s a good place to be robbed at so I NEVER used it and if I were you I wouldn’t do it either.
PICTURES:
• Ibis Hotel: http://goo.gl/MKzMo
• Medical centers adjacent to Ibis Hotel: http://goo.gl/AyYcM, http://goo.gl/PCR3B, http://goo.gl/LJvPd, http://goo.gl/OlSL0, http://goo.gl/GVqmL
Day 2: Wednesday
Medical Tests
Required documents for medical tests:
1. Invitation letter from the consulate (bring the original one, they never keep it)
2. Passport
3. Appointment confirmation letter.
PICTURES: The clinic I used: http://goo.gl/tGXgM, http://goo.gl/PCR3B,
Note: You can bring your cell phone but they will tell you to turn it off before going inside. You can go out and use it if necessary, no problem.
I woke up at 4:00 am. I set my phone alarm and also a wake up call just in case. By the way, DO NOT FORGET TO SET YOUR WATCH TO THAT TIME ZONE. I got ready and left to the medical clinic. I arrived at 6:00am. There was already over 10 people. The security person let us in and told us to go to the receptionist in order for her to check our documents. First issue for me was my appointment confirmation page was incorrect. For some reason on the applicant’s name field there was only a comma. I found this really weird since the website is designed so it doesn’t let you make your appointment unless all the fields are correctly filled out. I got really stressed out. I messaged my fiancé and she was freaking out too.
Anyway, the receptionist told me “Let’s see what they tell you inside” and gave me a number (6).
At 6:00 (apparently, I had no watch). They called the first group of people, over 20. They told us to go to some sort of windows that looked like a bank. I waited in line till they called me. They took a picture of me, took fingerprints, did some stuff on the computer and put a bracelet on my wrist. Then they made me sign the paper where you authorize that they can use your tests for their purposes and that you will not ask for a copy of it and blah, blah, blah… It was very quick.
Step 1: Blood withdrawal. One guy sitting on a computer called my name and asked me if it was me. Then he put a barcode sticker on my bracelet and told me to have a seat right next to the previous person, no spaces in between.
Right away they took my blood sample, I barely felt it.
Then they told me to go and sit in front of the famous painting of the ocean with the boat. It’s a big hall with lots of chairs. A doctor with violet scrubs came out and told us what was next. He was nice.
On both sides of that painting there are 2 rooms, one for men and one for women. Also on the right side there is a little open room for the sight test.
Step 2: Sight test. It was quick; they called my name and made me sit on a chair. I covered my right eye with some plastic thing and read some letters, then the same with the left eye. I was a little grossed out because everyone before me had put that on their eyes, so I didn’t push it towards my eyes. I thought that wasn’t very sanitary. Anyway, I got 20/20. They don’t tell you, they just write it on a form and give it back to you so you hand it to the doctor. Right when I finished, they told me to go in the men’s room.
Step 3: X-Rays and General check.
Then another doctor gave us an explanation of what was next. He was going to call our names and tell us to go to a private room. We had to take our clothes off and leave our socks and underwear on and wait for him.
It was my turn and did as I was told. I waited there for like 10 minutes. There was a scale and I weighed myself. Cool!! I lost 2.5 Kg!!! (5 pounds). Any way, I kept waiting till the doctor came in. He measured me and weighed me. He thanked me for doing his job because I left the weight on the correct measurement.
He told me to lie down and told me that he was going to check my blood pressure, eyes, ears, chest, and at the end he was going to tell me to pull my boxers down quick to see my area. Good thing I manscape  LOL. He did all that quickly and he just visually checked my area and felt the glands that we all have on the sides, by the hips. Then he told me to pull my boxers up and that was it.
He told me to put my pants and shoes on except for the shirt. He told me to leave the room and wait in front of the x-ray room behind some foot prints until they call me. The doctor with violet scrubs called me and I went in. He told me to push my chest towards some device and then he told me to do the same with my shoulders.
It was kind of amusing because he told me “press your chest towards the device…. Now only your shoulders…” which in accordance to my common sense means push the shoulders towards the device but ONLY the shoulders, not the chest also. So we had a little funny argument about this but he was pretty stubborn and talked a lot so I decided to shut up.
That was it! I put my shirt on and was told to go pay and to be back at 2:00 pm.
Step 4: Payment. Just went to a room that also looked like a bank. Got in line and paid $2,198 pesos ($185 USD). The woman told me to go back at 2:00 pm with my passport and WITH MY BRACELET ON.
TIP: No one told me not to eat anything before my medical tests, but I used my common sense and didn’t eat anything. It probably isn’t even necessary since they didn’t even ask me if I had eaten something. My recommendation is to wait until the tests are executed.
FACT: You can pay cash, with debit card or with credit card. I wish I knew this before so I didn’t have to carry all that cash. They do not accept American Express, which is kinda dumb.
FACT: K-1 applicants (such as me) DO NOT REQUIRE ANY VACCINATIONS!! People that require vaccinations are told to present their vaccination certificate, although some people told me they made them take some vaccinations even though their certificate said they had them already. Each vaccination costs over $600 pesos (over $50 USD).
I was a little nervous cause I was supposed to go get my results at 2:00pm and my ASC appointment was at 2:10. I hoped it was 2:00 sharp, not Mexican time!! Haha!! I was done at like 7:30am so pretty early. It was smooth and quick and no issues with my appointment confirmation letter. However, the security guy told me to print a new one cause I was going to need it for all the next appointments. The thing here is that there’s no way to print a new one, you just press submit or something after you filled it out and it just lets you print it, it doesn’t let you save it or anything and there’s no way to modify it.
I walked to the consulate and asked the person checking the people’s documents at the entrance about my appointment letter issue. He said not to worry about it and tell the people at the ASC appointment to correct that for me.
So I walked to the ASC and asked the security guy about that. He confirmed what the guy at the consulate had told me. I also told him about my time concern with the proximity of the medical test delivery and my ASC appointment and he said it was fine if I was a little late but that it was not ok to be late for my consulate interview, I obviously already knew that and wasn’t planning to be late.
So I went back to the hotel and ate breakfast. It was pretty early so I was the 1st one at the buffet. It wasn’t the most extensive food selection but it was pretty good and it was only $75 pesos ($7 USD).
At 1:00pm I already was at the medical center. There already was a long line with over 50 people waiting under that terrible sun. So I knew I was gonna get a pretty nice tan since I was gonna wait there for an hour.
Fortunately, they started letting people in at like 1:30pm. They told me to go to that big hall full of chairs. They were telling people where to sit. One guy gave some instructions about how he was going to call people, and also emphasized to NOT OPEN THE BLACK ENVELOPE because that would nullify your tests.
After I got my results I was told to go to the reception desk to get my payment receipt stamped. I was out in less than half hour (not including the tanning time).
I rushed to the ASC and made it there even a few minutes earlier.
ASC (Applicant Service Center) Appointment:
Required documents:
1. DS-260. (They only check the cover page.)
2. Passport
3. Invitation letter from the consulate
4. Appointment confirmation letter
PICTURES: ASC from outside (it’s at the very end to the right).
- http://goo.gl/HroNg, http://goo.gl/MvUy8
As soon as I got to the ASC I was told by the security person to go inside and wait in line on the left side, right next to the wall. One person checked my documents and again, I mentioned my confirmation letter issue. He talked to another guy and then he told me to go to another line, which is part of the regular procedure regardless of my issue. They checked my information and put my documents in a transparent envelope. He told me to go sit in some chairs in front of the windows and wait until the security person tells me to go.
There are over 10 windows with agents taking care of the applicants. There are some white fabric things behind the chair where you sit at when it’s your turn, that’s for the pictures background and probably for some privacy as well.
After like 15 minutes, the security person told me to go to a certain window (5). It was a nice girl. She took the fingerprints of all my fingers and also took my pictures. She then told me to give her my transparent envelope with my documents.
Again, I told her about my confirmation letter issue. It seemed that it hadn’t happened before. She was able to correct my name in their system and told me it was ok now. I asked her for a new confirmation letter but she said she didn’t have a printer. She said I wasn’t going to have any problems at the consulate.
I was done in about 30 minutes. It had been a long day so I went to eat and then rested and got ready for the big day.
Day 3: Thursday
Consulate Appointment
Required documents:
- Passport
- Appointment confirmation letter
- Invitation letter from the consulate
- DS-260 (2 copies)
- DS-156 (2 copies)
- DS-156K (1 copy, bring 2 just in case)
- Affidavit of support
- Payment receipts of American fiancé(e)
- Letter from her/his job confirming she/he works there and how much she/he makes
- 2 photos (2 inches x 2 inches)
- Laser visa (if you have it)
- The form that says you intend to enter the US within 6 months and marry your fiancé(e) before 90 days of your arrival.
- Birth certificate of applicant (original and copy)
- Birth certificate of American fiancé(e) (copy only, but I brought original just in case)
- Tax declaration of American fiancé(e)
- Medical test
- Invitation letter from the consulate
PICTURES: American Consulate:
- http://goo.gl/K9MxF
- http://goo.gl/DV2rk (You are going to walk next to this long wall MANY times so you might as well get familiar with it haha!!)
- http://goo.gl/PRXGw (I risked my life taking this picture and the following one! :s)
- http://goo.gl/1nIfh
- http://goo.gl/uHkDr (Waiting Room or “Sala de espera Consulado”. This is where you MUST go first for your Consulate appointment!!)
My appointment was scheduled for 7:15am. I woke up at 5:00am and was already at the waiting room (“Sala de Espera Consulado”) by 6:15am. I had heard that it was useless to be there that early and even heard that they would tell you to go back later if you did, but I went 1 hour early any way. It was actually a good idea since they were letting people in earlier. There was a person asking people what kind of visa they were trying to get; laser visa (tourist visa) or residence (K-1 visa is known there as residence, and that’s the one I was there for). Once again they checked my documents. They told me to go in and sit on a chair. Then a woman started calling the people by their appointment time and their type of visa. She called “people with 7:15 appointment going for laser visa ONLY”. Most of the people there got up and made a line. I thought there was a mistake because my appointment was scheduled for 7:15 and it was NOT for laser visa (tourist visa), so I came up to her and told her that. She told me to go in line too and then the whole long line followed the woman to the Consulate (we took the walk next to that big wall on the picture above).
Once there a guy checked my DS-156, asked me if I had 2 copies and asked me to show them. He checked my invitation from Juarez Consulate and again my appointment confirmation letter. He spotted the mistake on the applicant’s name field right away, and I told him I had asked before at the consulate and they told me it was ok, just to tell people at the ASC to correct that for me, which was exactly what I did. So then he called another guy and started discussing about that. I said, come on! It has my passport number there! And the other guy said it was fine and just to check my name with my passport number. They let me in.
Once inside the building, right away there’s the security filter just like the ones at the airport. I removed my belt (They were saying no belts allowed, but I asked a few different consulate people and they said mine was fine cause it wasn’t too big), my wallet and a few small things I had in my pockets. I had left my cell phone at the hotel since you are not allowed to bring it.
I grabbed my stuff and went in and got in a small line. They checked my documents again and gave me a ticket with a number and they told me to go straight to the left, which is where the residence applicant’s waiting room is. It is a really big open room with several big flat screens above and HUGE and GREAT fans. They show the numbers and the window that the applicant has to go to. They never tell you how to read the screen so I had to figure it out my self. It’s not that complicated, the format is the following:
TicketNumber > Window number to go to
I waited like 20 minutes and they called me the first time. I went to the assigned window and there was a Mexican guy. He asked me for some documents only: passport, DS-156 (2 copies), DS-156K (1 copy), 2 copies of my birth certificate PLUS the original, 2 copies of my American fiancé’s birth certificate (they did not ask me for her original) and the famous black envelope with the medical tests. It is important to bring the DS-156 and DS-156K UNSIGNED since they make you sign them right there in front of them. I had brought a certified translation of my birth certificate and they didn’t ask for it. I also had brought a “no criminal records certificate” (antecedentes no penales) and it wasn’t required either.
This only took like 5 minutes. The person told me to go back and sit down and wait to be called again. He told me I could take a seat inside instead of going back outside but the security person didn’t let me cause they were cleaning. Oh well, no problem!
I waited for over 45 minutes to be called again. It was a guy in his 20’s, probably 25. He was pretty nice actually. We basically had a normal conversation. First, he asked if I was the applicant, he said my complete name, I said yes. Then he asked if I spoke English and I said yes, so the whole interview was in English. Then he told me to raise my hand and repeat after him “I solemnly swear to say the truth and only the truth”, and so I did.
He asked me:
- “Are you here for your fiancé” I said yes
- “What’s her name?” I said her complete name.
(He was looking through our information while we were talking, it was a big stack of documents, which was the packet we sent)
- “Are you from Cancun” I said, “yes, I was born in Mexico City, but I’ve been in Cancun my whole life, have you been there?” He said “yes, a long time ago”. I asked where he was from and he said “I’m from New York” and I said, “That’s a little different than here, isn’t it?”
- “How did you meet” I told him exactly how we met.
- “Do you have a laser visa (tourist visa)?” I said “yes I do”
- “Can you show it to me please?” I gave it to him.
- “Have you been to the US without a visa?” I said “Never”
- “Have you had problems with the police in Mexico?” I said: “Never”
- “Have you had problems with the police in the US?” I said: “Never” (Like they wouldn’t know that LOL.)
(He kept going through the hundreds of pages of our stack)
- “Do you have any tattoos” I said “No tattoos, no piercings”
- “Where does your fiancé work?” I said the name of the company and her position.
Then he asked me for the rest of my documents; affidavit of support, payment receipts, tax declaration (he didn’t ask me for this, I asked him if he wanted it, he said yes), letter from her work confirming she worked there and how much she makes (again, he didn’t ask me for this one, I asked him if he needed it, he took it), 2 photos and the form where it says you intend to move to the US before 6 months after receiving the visa and once there, get married before 90 days of arrival (2 copies), I had to sign this last one. He also gave me the DS-156 and DS-156K to sign.
We were talking about the consulate, and I told him, “I’d like to ask you 2 questions”
- “Why HERE!!?” (I meant why they do these things in CD. Juarez, which is a horrible place). He said “Well, probably because this is right next to the border and a lot of people from Texas come to get visas”. I said “well, that makes sense” (not really actually).
- “Do you like it here?” He said “I do, I love Mexico. I love the people here and the food” (He must be the only person in the world that likes CD. Juarez!!!)
Then he just said “congratulations, your visa has been approved” and he gave me some instructions to pick it up.
He was a really nice guy. It was actually the easiest part of this whole tedious procedure.
I said “I REALLY appreciate it, thanks A LOT!! My fiancé is going to be REALLY happy!!” I even showed him the labeled folder she made me with all the documents inside and even a table of contents which I showed to him and he said “WOW!!” and he even came closer to the window to see that.
He kept my passport and my laser visa. He said they were going to send them along with my K-1 Visa, which I think will be stamped on my passport.
I rushed to the hotel and messaged my fiancé. She was crying so I called her. It was one of the best days of our lives!!!
It was a trending topic on our Facebook pages. Many people from her family, mine, and friends congratulated me on there.
They even had people over to celebrate!!
As for the insecurity in Ciudad Juarez, I think people should stop watching movies; it is not as bad as they all say and they just make people really scared and stressed out. There are drug cartels that only care about their enemies and issues and nobody cares about harming the applicants or regular people. If someone is killed by those people, it would be collateral damage.
Those coyotes are dumb, they look like homeless people and all you have to do is ignore them. They are not allowed to go on the sidewalk, so they call you from the street and you will notice that when you go there. They basically do that by the medical center, really early in the morning but it’s very irrelevant.
What is annoying are the people that keep giving you flyers for food places and asking you if you had your pictures taken. You will be approached for that dozens of times.
My recommendation is to go out only for your appointments and maybe to eat something. If you can eat in the hotel that would be better (although I went out to eat almost everyday).
So, if you can just stay in the hotel that would be better. Plus it’s SUPER hot outside.
PICTURES: Other stuff:
- http://goo.gl/bZmFN (The best mall in the world, it has my fiancé’s name =P. Across the street from Ibis hotel and next to the Consulate.
- http://goo.gl/og9O4 (Pedestrian bridge. I recommend you not to use is since it’s a good place to get robbed at. I never used it, I crossed the street. It took forever but better safe than sorry)
- http://goo.gl/2dhiy (Las Misiones Shopping Mall. There you can find a food court with many options. Department stores, book stores, Starbucks, McDonald’s, ATM and even a sports book)
- http://goo.gl/cQKUj (Wendy’s)
- http://goo.gl/hzvRq (Ibis Hotel Lobby. I think I should ask them for a referral commission!! Don’t you think?!)
- http://goo.gl/2uH0G (Inside CD. Juarez State Of The Art International airport)
- http://goo.gl/UfJ3s (ATMs at Las Misiones mall)
Any way, I hope this LONG review helps some people, like some reviews helped me and my fiancé. Without this community, we wouldn’t have been able to do this.
My little fiancé figured this whole thing out, she did a huge research and found many sites like this but this was the most useful one. We basically only used this one. I only went to Juarez by myself and executed her instructions. We waited 6 years for this. She is a miracle worker
Bottom line, love always triumphs. DON’T GIVE UP!!
Gustavo & Nicole
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8068