lasiren7174
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
I'm going to try to make this as short as possible.
We arrived at 6:20am at the park. There was probably over 100 people already there. I suggest arriving by 6am as we didn't have time to figure our which one of the 2 areas where most of the people were congregated was for the "definitiva" or "indefinitiva" visas. Fiancés are with the "definitiva" line. In any case we waited in one of the two groups listening for my fiancé's name to be called. At some point my fiancé asked someone which group it was and we were in the correct line. After about 20 minutes they called his name, he approached the man on the ladder that was calling the names and he took his carnet (identification card). Had they not called his name we would have just asked and if necessary gone to the other line. From there we were directed to another line for "definitiva" visas. In this line they just double checked that we had the main forms my fiancé was responsible for(medical results, birth certificate, police record, and bachelor certificate). I think they just try to weed out those that have showed up totally unprepared so that they can save time for the people who work inside the consulate. Once we got in this line the sun was up and we could see that there were a lot of people, mostly women, with clipboards and a red vest(I may be remembering this wrong but it was something obvious that made them stand out) that worked for the consulate and were super helpful in answering any question that we had. It was with one of these ladies that we asked if I could enter embassy with my fiancé. She had me write my name down next to my fiancé's name on her list. There was nothing official about this and she didn't say yes or no or that we should check back for an answer. We assumed that I would just continue and once it came time to enter we would know. At this time it was about 7:30am and they did not call for the "definitiva" visas until almost 11am. When they called my fiancé's name they returned his identification card and gave us a red card with a number and were told to form a line to enter the embassy. At the embassy gate they had my name with my fiancé's and I entered. From there we entered a cement room with some seats, a bathroom and a TV with an informational video about your rights as a visa holder should you be approved. As we were waiting a woman came in and called my name. She gave me an official pass to enter the embassy but at no time was this ever requested from me. We waited in this room until our group was called to proceed to another room. They were calling groups of about 15 people at a time. In the second room we waited to be called to a window. At this window we submitted our evidence and proved that I had already paid the visa fee. SUBMIT AS MUCH EVIDENCE AS POSSIBLE and INSIST ON IT. I carried a large should bag of evidence because others before me on VJ had been delayed because they did not submit enough evidence to convince them that their relationship was real. When I showed them how much I had they had me pull out the most important (ALL PHOTOS, ALL PLANE TICKETS, THE OLDEST AND MOST RECENT EMAILS and PHONE RECORDS, ALL CARDS AND LETTERS, RECEIPTS). I was not messing around with what I brought and was prepared that if they weren't satisfied I would give them more  Also, since the process to schedule the interview had changed and I had to pay at the time I was scheduling it in order to make the appointment, I did not have to pay at this window but apparently the woman helping us had not dealt with this new process before and she had to step away for about 10 minutes to talk to someone. ON YOUR INTERVIEW APPOINTMENT LETTER THAT IS EMAILS TO YOU THERE IS THE AMMOUNT THAT YOU PAID PLUS A RECEIPT NUMBER. When she came back she asked for that and I showed her. Again, she was not accustomed to this so it took a little longer. They did not take my fiancé's finger prints at this time. At this window they took all of my fiancé's documents (police records, birth certificate, bachelor certificate, medical records) and my financial documents (I-134, paycheck stubs, letter from my employer and IRS transcripts. They put everything we submitted with our I-129F into a super large clear zip lock bag and told us to exit and wait inline outside the main embassy door. We only waited until the people in front of us went through the security and we could enter. After passing our bags and our body through a security line we entered what would be our final waiting spot for the interview. We entered at 12pm and we didn't leave until 5:30pm but we left with an approved visa for my fiancé that could be picked up in 7 days so it was a long 5.5 hours with no food and we were freezing the entire time but we left extremely happy. javascript:emoticon(' ')
The interview:
We were the second to last couple called. The person interviewing us was a very nice older American woman who spent more time typing than talking to us. She asked my fiancé a few questions and all other questions were directed toward me so I guess it was good that I was allowed to enter, right? LOL! She did ask us where and how we met (which was in Cuba) and then later back tracked and asked if we met in the US so I did think she may have been trying to see if our story was solid. All of the questions that were asked were the same as I have seen on other reviews. If you are a real couple none of the questions are difficult, it is more about being calm and listening to what is being asked because we had waited a year for this moment and even when we knew we had nothing to be nervous about, we were.
A few details:
1. Be at the interview with your fiancé. IT IS SUPER IMPORTANT and although I have heard of some people not being allowed in, there doesn't seem to be a rule either way. There was a Cuban woman behind us who had a fiancé that did not want to come in and an official at the gate told her it was a really good piece of evidence of their relationship if he was with her so she left the line just to go get him so I think the days of not letting in the other fiancé are over.
2. Take as much evidence as possible and insist that they take all or as much as possible once you are submitting it. My fiancé and I still make jokes about how they approved us because they got tired reading through all of our evidence.
3. Definitely eat and take snacks in with you. The only two fiancé cases amongst all of the "definitivas" were us and the woman behind us in line and we were the last 4 people in the waiting room. When my fiancé and I left even all of the workers were gone. It was a LONG day!
4. You cannot take phones, keys, lighters, cigarettes, pens, batteries, electronic equipment or any sharp object into the embassy. There is a both on the edge of the park opposite the main snack bar where a woman held our stuff. We didn't know about the battery and I accidentally left it in my bag so they held that at security for me near the interview room.
GOOD LUCK!
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Port of Entry Member Review #15859
Entry Date: 2015-03-06