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| Dominican Republic |  Review on August 9, 2011: |
la popa
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
First of all, reading all these posts comforted me in my time of panic before our interview and made me feel much more prepared for what was about to come so thank you to those that have written reviews!!
My fiance and I arrived at the embassy at about 5:15 am. There were maybe about 20 people in line ahead of us. By 6:00 all 4 lines were filled with people. There was some of the employees going through the lines and attaching a number to everyones paperwork. This is the number that you will go by for your entire process. They split the groups into men and women before going through security. You are not allowed cell phone or a list of other things so make sure you leave all of that in your car or at your hotel/ home. Once inside, we grabbed a seat on one of the benches. There is a little place where you can get drinks and food if your hungry. You are there a while so be sure to bring some extra money. Also, there is no air conditioning. Only large industrial fans so be mindful when planning your wardrobe. We preferred to go classy and professional looking for such a big day but some people arrived dressed as though they were ready to hit the club. About an hour after we got there, we saw our number come up on the board so we went to the window that it specified. This was only to submit our applications and pay our fee. We went to sit back down and about an hour after that we were called up to a different window. This time it was to take my fiances fingerprints. We sat back down again. I wouldnt suggest putting anything to hold your seats because as soon as we got up, there was someone waiting to take our seats. After about 2 hours waiting, we were called to another window and this was for our actual interview. Our interviewer was a younger woman and VERY polite and kind which was a huge relief as you can imagine the type of people that I had been imagining and dreading for months to interview us. she asked us for our paperwork and then asked us how we met. We showed her our photos and she asked me who some of the family were in the photographs and then confirmed my answers with my fiance. She spoke to me in English and to my fiance in Spanish. She asked us how we got engaged and then she asked me to go and sit down in the lobby while she talked to him. She then called me back to the window over the loud speaker and had him go sit in the lobby while I confirmed the answers to the questions that she had asked him. She asked me when his bithday was. What did we have for dinner last night? Who prepared it? What color were the sheets in our bed? Who asked who to marry? What did we do after we got engaged? Where exactly were we when we got engaged? She then asked me to go get him adn bring him back to the window. She then told us everything looked good but to go have a seat while they did some administrative processing. We sat for probably another hour and a half. We saw our number come back up on the board so we went back to the window and she said congratulations. Our visa had been approved. We went down and paid the Domex fee to have the documents sent and then we left. Because we didnt have a phone, we borrowed someones from the gas station next door for a small fee in order to call our ride. Very exciting! We had so much evidence of our relationship but the only thing she had asked to see were our photos. I still suggest bringing anything and everything you can just to be sure you have it in case they ask. My fiance just recieved his paperwork in the mail this past week and they spelled my last name wrong so he has to go back this week and have them fix it to be sure that there is no problems when he enters. Crazy considering they have copies of every possible form of identification that I have but thats life. Overall, it was a relatively easy, pleasant experience. We were confident about our relationship and we prepared everything and more for our interview. If made sure that if they wanted to see something, I would have it. I had all of my paperwork sorted into a file folder and then envelopes and plastic bags for easy access. I didnt want to give them any downtime to come up with any off the wall questions to try to shake us up. Our lawyer said that sometimes they do that.Good luck everyone!!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8085