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| Guayaquil, Ecuador |  Review on December 13, 2011: |
Katie&Gustavo
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
After 7 months of paperwork and waiting it was time for our interview. Visa Journey was a great reference for us, and hopefully this review can help someone else. To be honest after reading the discussion posts and reviews of the Guayaquil Consulate I was pretty nervous about the interview. We compiled A TON of evidence and made sure that I was able to attend with my husband. I am not sure if the consulate has improved or just that we were very prepared but the interview was a smooth process for us.
Our appointment was scheduled for 7:15 and we were there by 6:15, there were two lines already formed one for immigrant visas and the other for non-immigrant visas. We were 4th in line and waited until about 7:00 when someone from the embassy came out. First he took the immigrant visa line (make sure you have your appointment letter and photos out), but when he got to my husband and I he told us that I would not be permitted to enter until 8:00. We tried explaining that I was his American wife but he would not allow me to pass. When my husband went through the gate he formed another line and waited to be checked by security, a different guard allowed me to enter around 7:30 while my husband was still waiting in that line. After security guards went through our evidence and screened us with metal detectors we entered the building. Inside there were 2 rooms, one for non-immigrant visas and the smaller one for immigrant visas. Around 8:15 a consulate representative came and swore us in, he also let us know what the process for the day would be, told us that the interviews would be short, and as long as we had all the documents we needed most people would be approved. At about 9:15 we were called for the first time to a window, a very kind ecuadorian lady collected our documents. First she had my husband sign part II of the DS-230, then took the medical envelope and the photos (she was very critical of the photos and thought that the background was not white enough). After this she asked us about 15 simple questions about how we met, how long we had known each other, how long after we met did we start dating, about our wedding, and if we had a honeymoon. She addressed my husband in Spanish and me in English. Then she asked if we had any evidence to submit and we started giving her as much as she would accept, photos, call logs, Skype logs, cards, movimiento migratiorios...ect. She graciously accepted everything and told us that would be sufficient. Then she told my husband to go and get different photos taken and return before he had to get his fingerprints taken (pictures near the consulate are much more expensive $12). He got back with about 15 minutes to spare before being called to take his prints. Then we had to wait a long time to be called again, there were only 4 people left waiting besides us when we were called to the window for our interview. It was an american council who seemed very nice as well. After greeting her with "hello" she asked if it was okay if we did it in English. I think she asked about 15 or 20 questions and about the first 10 were the same as before. She also asked how many times we had each visited each other, and some more questions about the wedding. She then smiled and said, "Your visa is approved!". The worst part about the day was all the waiting, we were not called for the interview until 12:45. Other than that everything was very smooth and the people were nice and helpful.
Other tips and things I noticed.
1. What to wear? I would say about 90% of the applicants were wearing jeans. I wore dress pants but I think that jeans are just fine as long as you wear a nice top. Also as nearly everyone else has said bring a sweater because it is cold!
2. BE EARLY, there is a waiting room upstairs for overflow of downstairs, but it is nice to be close to the windows so you can hear what is going on.
3. You cannot bring anything inside of the consulate besides your evidence. So no purses or backpacks, you can bring a cell phone but you need to take the battery out and leave it with the guards.
4. The counters at the windows are very small so make sure that you have all of your evidence neatly arranged, some people were actually laying all of their papers on the ground to find things, and it seemed to annoy the councils. Also the slot where you put your evidence is pretty small, so DO NOT put your pictures in a photo album.
5. If I had to guess about 30% of the people were turned away and told to bring back more evidence. This sounds bad but there were a lot of people who only had a tiny folder of papers and no pictures, I was not surprised that they were asked for more.
6. Of about the 30 other people who were there that day for immigrant interviews, I was the only wife there with my husband. Although I think that it did help us, I think that we would have been approved if I was not there. There were plenty of others that were approved without there spouses, so if that is not possible for you don't worry.
I hope that this is helpful, and good luck to everyone else!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8866