Consulate Review: Honduras
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
October 11, 2012 |
| Embassy Review : |
This review is two parts: first is about the medical exams and second is about the process and interview at the consulate.
Dr. Edmundo del Carmen at Centro Medical Hondureño
My fiancé and I arrived there at 8:30 am (after a confusion of going to another doctor who wasn't even working that day). We took a number and waited for our turn. When they called our number, we went to the window to fill out a form with information and paid 295 Lps for the blood test. Then we waited for them to call his name. They called his name and took him into a small room to take his blood. After that, we went to a small hallway waiting area to have his x-ray taken. You have to wait in line in the order that you arrive, just ask the people sitting there who is the last one and then enter the room after them. My fiancé entered the x-ray room, they took his info and then asked him to pay 305 Lps for the x-ray so we went down the hall, paid and returned to the x-ray room. At this time, the secretaries/assistants of the doctor arrived (10 am on the dot). They asked if everyone there had an appointment and then they started to say the names of the people with appointments from her book to confirm if you were there. Some people didn't have an appointment so they couldn't make the exams, but I think we overheard one girl say that she paid extra to get the appointment the same day because her visa appointment was the next day. Better to be safe and make the appointment 2 weeks before by calling them. One lady was turned away because her appointment was the next day. The secretaries/assistants asked for the receipt of the blood work. My fiancé finished taking his x-ray, and then when they called his name, he gave them his passport, a picture (passport size) and our case number. After they had collected everyone's information, they started calling people one by one back to the doctor's office to check basic things like height, weight, blood pressure and an eye exam. We paid the girl 3,200 Lps and she told us to come back at 4 for the exams with the doctor (it was currently 11 am). We left and got lunch, arrived back around 2 pm and started our long wait. Around 3 pm the doctor arrived but he didn't start seeing people until about 4 pm. People with kids went first even if they didn't take the exams from the morning first. You follow the line of when you turned in the receipt, but people with kids didn't have to. The assistant has to take each individual file back when the doctor rings the phone that he is ready, so be prepared to wait a while. All depends on the doctor and if the girl hears the phone over watching her TV show. Around 6 pm it was my fiancé's turn. I was allowed in the room with him. The doctor checked him over, looked at the x-rays, and gave him 3 shots (vaccination card not necessary, they give you the shots that you require for your sex and age). Then he asked my fiancé the standard yes/no health questions, signed the papers, sealed them in the envelope and reminded us not to open or fold it. He put a copy of the vaccinations with the x-ray and reminded us to get married in 3 months after we arrived. The doctor also knows English so that was nice even though I understand Spanish.
US Consulate Honduras
We arrived at the Embassy at 6:15 a.m. There was already a huge line of people on either side of the Embassy steps. There were some guys directing you which line you had to stand in (they also were telling you that they could hold your cell phones for you while you were inside the embassy but I didn't trust them so we left our phones with another guy that our friends knew). The line for resident visas is the right of the stairs, going downhill, and the other side is for tourist visas. Around 6:45 a.m., a lady came to check for the appointment letters. We only had the print out from the embassy that they emailed us the date and time for the visa, and that was sufficient. She checked my fiance's name off of a list, and wrote a number on his visa appointment letter. Around 7:00 a.m., the resident visa line started to enter the Embassy. They reminded us that no electronic devices were allowed inside, the guard checked our visa appointment letter again, and then we went into the doors and through the metal detectors/scanners. Purses are allowed inside the Embassy, only that the lady guard had to check it. She was a little rough but we got through that part easy.
Next, we passed through the doors to the visa section to the right and they asked us to sit. The greeter lady gave us directions in Spanish about what to do and some general information. There are four windows directly in front of the seats, a smaller room to the side and another smaller room. The tourist visas are on the far side of the rooms, windows 7 and 8. The greeter told us that the people with kids would have their documents checked first, so they started to make a line. We sat until a girl said that anyone who was there for resident visas needed to make a line at window 6, but only the applicant. My fiance got in the line and when he entered the room, they asked him which visa he was coming for, they took his fingerprints and took a picture of his visa size photo (I'm assuming this is for the digital photo for the visa). After that, he came to sit down by me again and we waited for his name to be called.
Maybe 30-40 minutes later, a woman in window 3 called his name and we went to the window with all of our documents. She told me that I could go pay the visa fee (currently 4,752 Lps). She gave me the paper and I went to the cashier window. While I was paying, she asked my fiance for the required documents (forms, birth certificate, affidavits of support, tax information, visa photos, medical results, police certificate). Then she asked him the following questions:
What kind of visa did you apply for?
Where did you meet your fiance?
What date did you meet your fiance? And in person?
Who is (my mom's name)?
Have you ever been married? And your fiancee?
When do you plan to travel to the USA?
She asked us to pass her our photos (we passed the whole album, it was kind of small so we opened it up flat and slide it through the small opening) and then she asked us to sit down and wait for his name to be called again.
About one hour after that, they called my fiance's name to window 5 which is a small room with the same type of window and one chair. I was allowed to go in with him but I just stood next to him. The lady was a super nice American who first spoke to us in Spanish, but when she heard us talking in English, she asked if we preferred the interview in Spanish or in English. My fiance replied that English was better. She looked through our documents pretty quickly and asked us:
Where did you meet your fiancee?
When did you meet in person?
Have either of you been married?
Where are you staying in the US? My fiance answered "with her parents", and I told her, "only for a short time" and she laughed.
She asked me since when I've been in Honduras, so I explained our whole story of when I was here and when I went back to the States, and that I was working here.
She asked again who my mom was by mentioning her name. Then she looked through our tax documents, super super quick (I think she barely looked at anything to be honest haha)
Then she looked through our pictures and made some comments on the places since she knew all the places in Honduras. While she was looking through all of documents and photos, she was shaking her head yes and looking positive about everything.
Then she said, "Ok, your visa has been approved." I almost started crying and said "Excellent! Thank you!" and my fiance, in shock, said "OMG Thank you so much!!!" and we were both smiling like crazy.
She gave us a paper to come back the next day at 2:45 pm to pick up the visa and his passport. |
| Rating : |
Very Good |
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ver 5.0