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| El Salvador |  Review on October 20, 2011: |
efyl
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Let me separate our experience with USCIS and NVC from the embassy and make a quick comment on the former two. First of all, it would make sense if there were just one organization doing this. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, there really is no excuse for the whole process not being digital in this year, the year 2011. I know they have pilot programs going n oand it's great that the electronic payment option is currently available, but this is one of the last purely paper-based bureaucracies and having to submit duplicate documents should be unnecessary.
Regarding the embassy. I'm going to give them some slack and my "3" rating will frighteningly bring up their average. A friend of mine who works in another embassy told me that the consular unit is rather small in El Salvador; and it undoubtedly must be overwhelmed with applications since a quarter of the country already lives in the US. That said, I think those excuses only go so far. Part of the measure of your competency is in how you deal with overwhelming circumstances. Why do I read about people in other countries who were able to pick their visa up a few days after the interview and my spouse waited 5 weeks from the day of the interview to receive it back via mail. Crazy. If you look at the ratings on VisaJourney.com, El Salvador basically has about the lowest embassy rating in the world (excluding a few consulates/embassies where only 2 or 3 people have given feedback). That in itself should make one cautious about dealing with this embassy; and should make their superiors in Washington consider making some changes. That said, I will give them this--my wife, who speaks fluent English, felt like she was treated well enough while at the embassy.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8540