Consulate Review: Mumbai, India
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
August 17, 2012 |
| Embassy Review : |
It started by us showing up at 6:00 am for a 7:30 interview appointment. There were already about 20 people in line across the street from the consulate. The VFS folks came out at 7:20am to begin reforming the lines. I should point out that there were a lot of ‘line cutters’… apparently this is acceptable in India. However, for those of you who are coming to the USA for the first time, it is not acceptable in the USA and you will be inviting some conflict if you do it there.
Back to the VFS lines… They VFS folks formed two lines, one for immigrants and ones for non-immigrants. By this time it was a ‘free for all’ … and it was probably pointless to have waited in lined for 1.5 hours anyway. For us K1 visa applications, while all the K1 documentations says it is a ‘non-immigrant’ visa, the VFS refers to the K1 as a ‘immigrant’ visa which caused some confusion for us.
Two lines were formed in from of the consulate entrance. All non-applicants were told to leave the lines and move across the street. The immigrant visa line was relatively short compared to the non-immigrant line.
After the security check you go inside and you show them the invitation letter at the counter. From that they give you a number token. You have to look at the TV screens to see what counter to goto for your token number. You goto the waiting area associated with the counter you are assigned and wait for them to call your number.
After some time they call your number and you goto the counter and a VFS persons ask if you to submit the documents and demand draft, if you already have then show the VFS receipt. While submitting the documents the VFS person ( young Indian male) was asking questions. This person was rude, a real Axx. (As she was pulling out papers for him, the he was peppering her with questions and getting pissed if she didn’t answer immediately) The questions were:
What is your name?
Who is calling you?
What does he do?
What is your (applicant) age?
What is fiancee’s age?
He is double of your age, do you know that?
Is he married?
How many kids do he have? After she answered him, he responded really rudely and shook his head disapprovingly.
After finger prints she was told to wait and someone would call you.
After waiting 30 minutes she called to the window and greeted by the CO (very pleasant American women in her mid thirties). She asked the following:
Who is calling you?
How did you guys meet?
Does he work in your company?
Have you been to the USA before? How many times?
Are you still working in the same company?
Why are you getting married in the USA and not India?
Is this a love or arranged marriage?
Are you parents going to search for someone else if you remain here?
Are you going to get married in a church?
Are you a Christian?
What does his family think about your relationship?
Are you going to wear an Indian or American wedding dress?
The CO was making notes of everything my fiancee was saying on the computer. Finally, the CO looked up my fiancee, then for a few second ‘stared her down’ by looking her in the eyes, then smiled and said , “ok, I will approve your visa”.
The interview took around 10 minutes. My fiancee was back at the hotel at about 10 am.
We knew our applications had a red flag with the 25 year age difference between us. Because of that we had prepared extensive Proof of Relationship material (i.e. we have a 2 inch 3-ring binder full !) :-) We were expecting to go into interrogation, but thankfully it wasn't required.
Hope this provides help to anyone else out there.
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| Rating : |
Good |
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