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Belmopan, Belize | Review on April 19, 2012: | Alanaloria
Rating: | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Things were a little different than what we were expecting from reading reviews about the K1 process in other countries, and there's not a lot of information out there on Belize, so I'll give the best summary I can
First of all, my fiance had to go to the US embassy in Belmopan to pick up his instruction/interview packet (it was all part of that same package). At that time, they told him to fill out all the forms and get the medical exam, and bring them back for his interview which they scheduled for about a month later. He had to get the medical exam in Belize City (visiting 3 different doctors for the blood tests, chest x-ray, etc) and it was about $150 US including the taxi. He also had to go to Belize city to get the new version of his birth certificate, so I recommend doing that at the same time if you live far away. Other than that, he needed typical things like his police record (from Belmopan - he didn't need one for the US even though he lived there for a few years), passport photos, old passports to prove he had a student visa when he was studying in the US a few years ago, the I-134, and most of the other typical forms - I think they were the DS-156, DS-156k, DS-157, and DS-230 part 1. We also had to go to Atlantic bank to pay the visa fee, which luckily for us was reduced from $350 US to $240 US just 4 days before our interview!
The interview itself was not bad at all. I went with him to the embassy, and they let me in with my passport. You have to leave everything at the security checkpoint when you go in - no cell phones, food, water, etc, but they did seem to allow books and extra jackets (it'd cold in there!) We had to wait 20 or 30 minutes in the waiting room with all the other visa applicants, and then a lady called us up to the window to review all the forms and make sure they were complete. Then we waited about another hour before we were called up to the window for the interview. The interview itself was in the same waiting room with everyone else, we just had to stand up at the window and talk to the lady through the glass. She was pretty nice and asked about 10 or 15 typical questions like how did you meet, what do you like about her, what DON'T you like about her, why do you want to move to the states together instead of having her more here, what are your plans for the wedding, etc. She also asked us about some of the pictures we'd given them as evidence and where they were taken. Overall it was not too stressful and only took about 15 or 20 minutes. Then she told us we were approved!
My fiance had a sort of complicated situation, because he was going on a trip to the Dominican Republic in a week, and you need to go through the US in order to get there, so we knew he couldn't do that with the K-1 visa since it's a one-time entry visa. We told them about the situation, and they were very nice and said that he could keep his passport with his B1/B2 visa after our interview, go on his trip, and then come back and drop off his passport when he got back. After that they said it would take about a week for them to print the visa and the package, and then he would have to come pick them up again.
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