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| Egypt |  Review on November 23, 2011: |
nababdurrahman
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Ok, I am back home. Let me tell you all about my chaotic but sooo worth it past few days. My husband spoke with somebody that he knows from the embassy that advised him strongly to have his spouse with him...so on Thursday night I booked my ticket for Friday morning and I was off. I arrived to Cairo Saturday at like 9 pm and we were supposed to be at the appointment at 730am the following day (Sunday). And before sleeping we heard all this news about how 39 people had died at Tahrir square and there was a lot going on there so we went to sleep wondering if the embassy would even be open. That insecurity was eating me through the night.
Ok, so we got to Tahrir Square at 6:45am and there were a lot of people there from the protests and so many people were awake there, it did not feel like it was that early. We walked through and these kids asked to see our passports so that we could go through and get to the embassy. That was all fine. We passed by the protesters and then got to the embassy. The guards outside asked to see our passports, then we saw a huge line outside. Must have been like 100 people waiting in line. We went towards the front of the line to find out what was going on with the embassy today and one of the staff told us that it is likely that the embassy would be closed today because they were short staffed due to the protests. My heart dropped when I heard that. I literally came to Egypt for Sundays interview and my flight out was Monday at 7am so if they told us to come the next day it would throw everything off. Anyway, the guy told us to wait around and see what happens.
Another guy came out of the embassy and said that immigrant visa interviews would not take place today because the folks that conduct the interview did not come in.
At 7:40am (at this point, many people are freaking out) and by the way, I have lived in Egypt before and I understand the mentality which really pisses me off but a lot of times Egyptians that have a little authority start acting very arrogant and really let you feel like you are at their mercy-which is pure BS. My husband and I could tell there was something weird about the way the staff was acting, it was extremely arrogant and sadistic. Anyway, so at 7:40 am a guy comes out and tells everybody to form 2 lines- one for immigrant visas and one for non-immigrant visas. So we ended up being towards the front of the line, people get pushy so just make sure you are not loose when you are there, stay firm and stay in line or people will stomp all over you. (On a side note, if you arrive a little late it's not a big deal because they are still dealing with people that have been there all day-if you get there late it would just mean that you would join the end of the line which means you would stay longer because you will have your interview later.)
A guy asks to see your letter from the NVC that states you have an interview and then he just asks how many people are going in, so in our case it was my husband and I so he marked the number 2 and then signed it on the paper. Then he lets you go towards the doors of the embassy. Once again, there is a short line there and so we waited like 2 minutes and then another guys checked our papers and told us to go through a door.
For those of you that have never been to the embassy, it's like one small window at the front and then a door to the left and a door to the right-they lead to the same place inside but it's just symmetrical. SO anyway, we went in and this lady asks to see your letter once again and then just asks if you have a cell phone or camera or wires or electronics, you turn them off then check them in and she gives you a number to claim it later. Then you put your bag through the scanner (like at an airport) and you go through that security thing they have at airports-that was all easy and hardly took a minute. By the way, it's a good idea to pack some snacks and drinks in there because you can't leave once you are in and it's a lengthy wait.
Okay so once we got through security, it's this big open area and you go downstairs that will be on the left. Once you get downstairs you will see a bunch of chairs, like 12 rows of 4 chairs and then there's another set of doors. You go through that set of doors and there is a DHL counter and then you walk through another set of doors and there is a guy with a desk in front of him that asks to see your letter and your passports. He issues you a ticket that has a number on it. Then you walk forward and there are like 50 seats there, so just take a seat. The room is pretty much seats and then along the wall there are counters with numbers. There are 15 windows total, all next to eachother. There are also bathrooms there. You can sit and wait inside, which is much warmer, or outside on those chairs. We originally sat inside then lost our seats so we were shafted outside, it was pretty cold so I would suggest dressing warm. You cannot stand and wait inside, but outside you can-it's a bit more relaxed outside because people are just chatting and waiting. If you wait inside or outside, they have a big screen that says NOW SERVING NUMBER ___ AT WINDOW ___ and you can hear them announce it in arabic and in english.
Okay, so there are 2 sets of numbers going. Once set starts at 1 and another set starts at 500. The CR1/IR1 visas and DV visas start at 500. Our number was 513, so we were 13th obviously.
So we were waiting and I went and asked a guy working if immigrant visa interviews will take place today and he said yes, but it will be delayed a bit because the staff was coming late. I was just happy that they were coming. So it's like 9:30am and they are still just calling numbers under 500. It wasn't a big deal because my husband and I were chatting with eachother and the time was going by pretty fast, but I would have rather just talked somewhere else instead of at the embassy waiting for the interview! Ok, so then a man came outside and made an announcement, he said that they will start to call numbers from the 500 at 10am.
At 10:30 they started calling 500 and then it went on from there, they finally called out our number at about 11:45. (By the way, this was our experience- given the situation at Tahrir and everything, so it is likely that if you go in and you are 13th in line then you will be called a lot earlier). So they called us and we went to the window they told us to go to, there was this Egyptian woman there that seemed like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I didn't like her attitude. I think everybody coming to the embassy is nervous as it is, so if you just talk in a civil manner it would help calm a lot of nerves. But whatever, she didn't mean anything to me. So she asked to see our letter. Then she took out our file which had our original marriage certificate and everything that we had sent to the NVC. She asked if we wanted to exchange the marriage certificate with a copy so we did so. So make sure to take a copy of your marriage certificate so you can take back the original from them. Then she was organized the papers and asked for a passport picture for my husband.
Make sure you bring at least 4 passport sized pictures (5cm x 5cm with a white background.
Then she asked for my husbands military papers, which was not specified to bring on our NVC letter. It said it was not needed, my husband did not have it with him so the lady was like okay, you will have to send that in. We still had the interview, but we just have to send that in by DHL. If you forget any documents, the good news is that you can still have your interview that day...but you have to mail it in by DHL. You cannot drop them off, they have to recieve them from DHL. And she took the medical check and opened it and reviewed it and she took my husbands passport and stapled it inside of the folder, then she gave us a piece of paper on it and she said to go the DHL desk and give them this paper. Just to help you visualize and understand what was going on, there are windows right next to eachother- and so sometimes it is hard to hear what the person from your window is saying...because there is a lot of background noise. Some people at windows speak through the microphones and you can hear everything, and there are numbers being called out at the same time...I think they should really improve the system. So when we asked the lady to repeat something she got irritated and she said to my husband "you don't speak arabic? I thought you were egyptian!" and he was like "no i speak, i just didn't hear what you said". Anyway, don't get scared of these people or worry about it, just make sure you hear everything clearly and understand what is going on.
So we went to the DHL desk and gave them that little piece of paper and then they asked for an address to send everything to and then they asked for a phone number, and 85 pounds. From what I had read before on visajourney, people said that you pay the door when they deliver it to you, but actually you have to pay there at the embassy. We were so busy trying to get everything ready that we both forgot to bring money! That sucked, but luckily my husband asked somebody that was there that he knew and we were able to pay the 85 pounds. That was an unexpected speed bump that really scared us. Honestly if anything goes different than what you anticipate then it just throws everything off. That's why i want to share every detail with you all.
Okay, after we paid the DHL, they gave us 2 sheets of paper which were pretty much reciepts. Then we sat back down and waited for them to call our number again for the interview. About one minute after sitting our number got called again. The first window took about 4 minutes then the DHL part took 3 minutes-so about 5 minutes after the first window, we were called for the interview.
Okay, I was under the impression that the interview would be private- I don't know why...but it was just through a window. It was window number 15 which is at the end and there was an American girl, she was young under 30, blonde hair. At first she was neutral, I couldn't tell if she was nice, mean, or just doing her job...So she asked for one the two receipts that the DHL had given us, then she asked:
What is your relationship? obviously husband and wife.
Have you ever been married before? No
Which state do you live in? I told her Wisonsin and she kind of smiled and she was like Do you like it? I said yeah, it's okay.
How did you 2 meet? I told her I used to live in Egypt and so we met while I was here.
Is it your first time coming to Egypt after your wedding? I said no, it is like my 4th time.
Oh, you just came to spend your holiday here? I said yeah.
then she asked my husband if everything on the DS230 form was correct, he said yes. She asked him to sign it.
Oh and by the way, I asked her if she wanted to see our pictures because we had 2 huge albums and more phone bills and a bunch of other stuff, but she was like no, that won't be necessary. She was friendly, I liked her.
Then she was said that our case was reviewed and Congratulations, your visa has been approved. We were excited, but the part I was scared most about was the AP (Administrative Processing) so I was waiting to hear that. Then she said you will receive your visa in 7 to 10 days by DHL. And I cannot even explain how that felt. And then she was like, that's it-you are done. We were so excited, could not control our excitement. We went outside and we were going up the stairs and we hear her call my husbands name to return back to the window...and I thought she was going to ruin our excitement with bad news but she called us back to just remind us to send his military papers and he will get the visa only after that is submitted. Then I asked her if we can drop it off today, she said no. Then I asked her how long it would take after they receive the document and she said that if you send it by DHL today, we will get it tomorrow, and 7-10 days later you will get your visa. So basically, from whenever they receive it it is 7-10 days later.
Okay,so then we went out, we got our phones and we were so excited. The interview itself was very smooth, but everything leading up to it was chaos and stress. But thank God, in the end it was all worth it! I hope you all have very similar interview experiences and results inshaAllah. My husband has to get the military papers from the government which he said will probably take 4 days so if he gets his visa within the next 2 or 3 weeks in hand, I will be so happy!! I will definitely keep you all updated. This visajourney family has been so supportive. If you have questions, just ask me. Take care, I think i included every single detail...if I can remember anything else I will definitely add it. Hope this helped!!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8751