Consulate Review: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
October 26, 2011 |
| Embassy Review : |
First I want to start by saying, this is the easiest part of the entire process so far... I know you are going to worry, Adriana and I worried a lot! However, this part is very easy! As long as you have ALL of your documents, the chances of you not getting approved a very small. The short version of our interview is, we arrived, they checked out papers, double checked our papers, we waited and after about an hour and a half, we had the interview. The interviewer asked us about 5 questions and than said \"Okay I am going to approve you\". That\'s it!! We arrived at 7:00 and were finished at 9:30!!
Now here is the long version for those of us that like a lot of detail!! Let me start by talking about our hotel... We stayed at the Vina Del Mar, we saw the pictures on the website, but they were a bit misleading. Its in a pretty dangerous area in Rio but, Adriana and I are not exactly rich, so we had to make due. The hotel it self was not bad, the mattresses and pillows were made out of rubber I think. However, for 130 reals a night, we could not complain. We arrived there at about 7:00 and after we got our rooms, we decided to try to walk to find the consulate so we would know where to go in the morning. After we asked a few people we eventually did find it. So after that we got some food and went back to the hotel, and tried to sleep, but it was hard because we were sooo nervous...
So the next day we and Adriana were both awake at about 4:45. When I went to her room to check and see if she was awake, she was wide awake, dressed and ready to go, at 5:30, lol. We had breakfast, and off we went to the consulate. I knew that arriving to early would just be a waste, so we left the hotel at about 6:45 and arrived at the consulate right at 7:00. There was a line wrapped around the building, but I knew that was not our line (thanks to VisaJourney.com.) We found the lady in the green vest, and she asked to see our pictures. (side note) When we went to get Adriana\'s pictures we had 6 of them made, one set in 5x5 the other two in 5x7. I gave her the pictures and said \"take your pick\" lol... She looked through them and picked two of the 5x7\'s. She then gave us a paper, and we went through the metal detectors and went upstairs to the immigrant visa waiting room. The room itself, is a relatively large room, with about 40 chairs, 20 on one half and 20 on the other half, and the room is divided with room dividers, the kind you see in line at movie theaters. The K visa petitioners sit on the right and the other side was for something else. I never found out what it was for, but people were sitting over there. There is a desk in the back where the lady in the green vest checks everyone\'s papers, and next to that is a little area with some toys for kids or adults that have gone crazy from the stress, lol... In the front of the main room there are five little rooms. the first two rooms are on the left side and they are for the people that are sitting on that side of the room. The third door is the door for the room where the actual interviews take place, and the other two doors are where you go to get your papers checked again. So Adriana and I arrived in the room, there were about 12 people there already. The Lady in the green vest went to the front and handed out some papers, and then explained what they were for, in Portuguese BTW. The first form she gave was a simple form to for you to list names and address. Make sure that you have the address of the hotel for this form, also have your case number. the other form were little tickets. Three of them. You fill them out and give one to the person that checks your documents, and if I remember correctly, one to sedex for shipping, and one to the interviewer. Anyway, I already had our forms in order so once Dri had finished filling out the forms, we went and told the lady that we were finished. I asked her what order I needed to have the I-134 in seeing that I had a co-sponsor. She said it did not matter. I was very nervous, and she told me its okay you can calm down a little bit... lol. She told Adriana that she was going to tell them to do everything for us first so we could feel calmer and finish fast. So we went and sat down and waited for about 10 minutes. And the green vest lady told us to go into room number four to give our documents, and to take Adriana\'s fingerprints. The guy that checked out our documents was very professional, he did not really make any eye contact. He asked Adriana about her father being in the US. She said that he is, and he asked if she talks to him, she said on the phone and its not very often. He also asked if she has ever been to the US and she said no. I forgot to sign my I-134 and he asked me to sign it, I was shaking, and after I signed it Adriana grabbed my hand and said calma. He gave us three little papers, and told us to go downstairs and pay for the visa to be shipped.
After that we went back up and waited for about an hour and a half. I had to go to the bathroom really bad, and I figured that it was okay since it was not even 9:00 yet so I told Adriana I\'ll be right back. When I came back from the bathroom the security guard started to say something to me in Portuguese, and I noticed that Adriana was not sitting in the room. The Lady in the green vest told me that she was in room three (room three is the interview room). My heart started to beat so fast. I walked into the room, and Adriana was sitting there and she was already talking to the interviewer in Portuguese. I sat down and just listened. He asked her, how did we meet, she told him that her cousin and I were very close friends, and he introduced us to eachother. He then asked her how did we keep our relationship going. She said we talked on MSN, e-mails, and I interjected and said \"skype too!\" He then said if I had ever came to Brazil before we met. She said that I have been coming for 7 years. He asked why, she said because his father is a pastor, and they visit churches, and do some mission work. He then asked where she will be living when she moves to the US, and she said Port Vincent, and he asked where is that close to. I said its about an hour and a half from New Orleans. And I said its really small, like 500 people. he laughed, and said \"Okay I am going to approve you, your visa will be in the mail in about 2 weeks.\" Whoohooo!!! So I said that\'s all? Se said \"yep!\" and as we were walking out the door, he said hold on one second, my heart dropped. He look at her picture, then the documents, then his computer, then he said, \"never mind, its ok\" I said its ok, he said yeah its fine. So we walked out with smiles from ear to ear!! All in all super easy, just make sure you have all of your documents, be confident, and be honest. This is the easy part. I hope this helps someone in the future!! God bless!!!
(updated on October 26, 2011) |
| Rating : |
Very Good |
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ver 5.0