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| Naples, Italy |  Review on February 28, 2012: |
giorgiannap357
Rating:  | Review Topic: General Review
A bit late for the review, we had our interview/medical on February 7th, but thought that regardless it will still be helpful.
AS mentioned we had our interview on February 7th, at the embassy in Naples. On February 6th, he had the medical exams.
First of all I would like to recommend the place that we stayed at, it is called Franca's Bed and Breakfast, not only it was the most budget friendly (and I compared it with all other options in the area), but you can walk to the consulate in less than 10 minutes. The B&B is in an apartment bldg. at the 7th floor (if I remember correctly) and you get a nice balcony with a beautiful view of the bay. The owners were exceptional as well, we had nice homemade breakfast and let us use their printer because we forgot to print something. I never experienced this before when I stayed at a B&B or hotel, in this place we felt like we stayed at some relatives house. I recommend it 100% good location, great hosts, and cheaper than everything else around.
And now about the medical and the interview:
Monday he had the medical exams, we arrived there at about 7-30am and I believe we were out by aprox 9-30am. He was given 2 additional vaccines and I believe he paid about 225 Euros. At 2 o'clock we had to go to the consulate to bring photos and for fingerprints. We had the rest of the day to wonder around. On tuesday morning we arrived at the consulate at 7-30 am, we were planning to get there earlier but overslept because we were up late going over each and every piece of paper making sure we have everything. To be honest with you I am glad we got there at 7-30 and not hours earlier like other people here did, because anyway they do not let you in until about 7-40 so just to go and wait there outside it makes no difference. Like I said although we got there last there were only 6 other people ahead of us and all of us were out from the consulate by 10am.
Once we went inside we were called at one window where one lady checks the documents and asks you for all the documents that were on the checklist. Now probably the most important thing I can tell you from this entire experience is that if you have italian residency you WILL NEED TWO police certificates. It seems like the instructions are not 100% clear and a lot of people only go with one. While we were there there was a couple who had the K1 done by an attorney and even they did not have the second police certificate. In our case we did not need two because he only lived in italy without being a resident and therefore one was enough (on the checklist you can find the names of those 2 documents in italian I do not remember how they were called)
Once we submitted all the documents we were again asked to seat until we were called by the consul.
There was only one consul and as we waited we have seen him talk to other applicants before us and seemed like a dark person, he never sketched a smile or had made any gesture to make one warm up. When it was our turn it was rather surprising because the minute he called us at the window he smiled at us. I think he read our "how we met" story and sort of put him in a more cheerful mood. He only asked us 2 questions. What website we met on and what does he do for a living, after which he told us our visa will be ready to pick up at 5pm. At 5 we went to pick up the visa not far from the consulate and also very close to the B&B and there it was mission accomplished!!
If I can give a few advices one and the most important is make sure you have all the documents, organize all your documents in such an order that when you go there and they ask you for them you k now exactly the order in which you placed them. We saw a couple there that had all their papers messy and not only that they had a hard time finding what they needed but they were missing something. Organizing all your documents in order not only makes it easier to retrieve them but it is also easier to see if you are missing something.
Naples:
We got there 2 days before and we got to do some sightseeing before the interview. I recommend taking a daytrip to Capri. Going to see the underground Naples. We took mostly cabs they were pretty cheap and more convenient the one day we decided to take a train we waited almost an hour and in the last day when we wanted to go to Herculaneum we wasted 3 hours just waiting for trains and not even getting to go the Herculaneum. If you stay at B&B Franca they have predetermined taxi prices depending on where you want to go. Pizza Pelosi close to the grand terminal train stations was very good and I recommend as well.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #9238