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| Bogota, Colombia |  Review on October 3, 2006: |
Danny&Adri
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Summary: it was the same service you expect in any government office, probably of any country. However, I think the difference is that these people have great control over the future of those they are serving, so perhaps some of the embassy employees let it get to them and are a bit more rude than they should be. (Perhaps those like us also allow it because we are scared to make ways.)
Below are the details of our experience:
As I talk of "embassy" and "windows" and "interviewers" do not think so much of an office environment as I was expecting. Picture an outdoor pavillion with lots of black iron fences and concrete walls. The seating area was a covered concrete area, perhaps like the an eating area at your favorite amusement park. The windows where the questions and interviews where held seemed more like concert ticket windows than anything else.
Our appt was for 7:00. We showed up at 6:00 and were about fifth in line. A couple of street vendors were selling coffee, gum and cigerettes. At about 6:30, several embassy employees started dividing us into lines for K1 visa or other stuff. We were told to double check our paper work and they discussed what we would need. In doing so, we realized we were missing from our stack an old passport. Adri called her brother who said he would bring it to us. We asked one of the ladies outside, how could we get the passport once it was delivered. She said there was a process, but that someone inside would have to tell us.
We were then taken through security where no cameras were allowed. I don't think other electronic equipment was either, like computers or music devices, but I'm not positive about that. Cell phones were allowed.
After security, we walked down a sidewalk through a second entry way that took us into the pavillion area mentioned. The person at the gate had the K1 folks set along a long bench. Right at 7:00 a lady went over the process again, basically reading a large print out of Packet 4 letter. She then started processing us, giving us a folder labeled "K1" and having us arrange our paperwork in there. This lady was the same lady we had asked outside about getting the passport from Adri's brother. Adri asked who could tell us. She then told us the process, which I'll detail in the next paragraph. (I found this amusing that she would not tell us outside but would after we were in - - - She was quite rude in all of her attitude.)
We were sent to a seating area to coordinate our paperwork into the folder. In about 10 minutes we were called to "Window 29" where a lady checked all our paperwork. She had a copy of the file that we initially sent to Texas Service Center (then CSC) and she returned a large number of things out of that file that she did not need, like extra translations we had done that I guess were not needed. About this time Adri's brother called on the mobile stating that he was outside the embassy. They would not let him in. What they did allow was for me to leave the pavillion area, but NOT leave out of the secure area. I walked to the secure area where Adri's brother handed me the passport through the fence. I was surprised the guards did not seem to watch me to closely, but perhaps they could tell it was just a passport even from a distance.
I took the passport back to Adri who was still at the window. She was speaking through a phone to the lady behind the window who was very quickly checking the folder from the CSC and the folder of items required in packet 4. This whole process, including me going up to the front security, took about 15 minutes. She told us we would be called to "Window 2" for fingerprinting. We were called after about 20 minutes and then told to wait for the interview. By now, it was approximately 8:00. We started the long wait.
The chairs were like uncomfortable lawn furniture. The wind was blowing some and it was quite cool unless you were in the sun. There were restrooms and a small cafeteria where you could get coffee, sodas and some danishes.
At about 11:40, we were called.
Up until this time, everyone we had seen, all the security, all the folks behind the windows, all the assistances, seemed to be Colombian. They ones I spoke English to, could not understand me. (I do not speak Spanish.) They all also seemed to be "extremely business like", bordering on rude.
The man that interviewed Adri was an American, but Adri said his Spanish was very good. He was still business like, but not so terse as the others we talked to.
When she got to the window and picked up the phone, she said, "Buenos tardes." He looked at his watch and said in Spanish something like, "What? No, not yet. Don't scare me like that." He was very personable, asked a couple of questions in Spanish like, "Where did you meet?", "Has Danny met your son?", "How does your son feel about him?" Then without warning he switched to English and said, "So where did you learn English?" and finished the interview with a few questions in English. Since Adri is so fluent in English and in the English e-mails she sent to me, I'm sure he was just checking to make sure the e-mails and her communications were really from her. After about 3 or 4 minutes of questioning, he handed her a slip of paper and said we could pick up the visa the next day at 4:00. (WOO HOO)
I was standing about 5 feet from her, but he never asked to talk to me. At the end of the interview he handed us back the pictures we submitted last April when we started the process. He never asked for the additional proof of the relationship that we prepared for the interview; they had all the previous paperwork.
Next day, picking up visas - -
They would only let the beneficiaries in, the sponsors had to stand outside the embassy. They would not let anyone in the gates until 4:00. They then passed out the visas in the same order as they were approved on the day before. We were one of the last, but still Adri got out by about 4:30. She had the visa and a sealed envalope to give to the US Immigration officer at her point of entry. The embassy official was joking some and said the envalope contained a letter that basically said, "If this person does not get married in 90 days, here is the address you should hunt them down at." :-)
While the beneficiaries were inside getting the visas, the sponsors who were there were chatting out side. I met a man that said that his fiancee had an interview one week before and was denied. He said that according to his fiancee, the lady that interviewed her denied everyone that day. She was told she did not have enough proof of relationship and asked why her fiance was not there to support her if they had the relationship. They man I met said that after this, he flew down to Bogota for the re-interview on the 28th and that he and his fiancee brought "tons" of extra proof of relationship documents. On the 28th, his fiancee got the same interviewer as my fiancee did. This interviewer did not even ask to talk to him, just as I was not asked to speak to the interviewer either. Perhaps just being there was sufficient.
Also, Adri and her son were getting K1 and K2 visas. We were told her son not only did not need to be there, but that children were not allowed. This did not seem to be the case. There were a number of kids in the interview process. Adri took her son the second day when she picked up the visa. It was not a problem.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #896