Consulate Review: Manila, Philippines
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
August 9, 2013 |
| Embassy Review : |
I woke up before my alarms went off (had set two alarms for 4am just to be sure), showered, drank a cup of coffee and ate something, and got ready for the interview. The hotel that I stayed was just a few blocks away from the USEm and paid only Php50. I was at the embassy shortly after 5:30 and saw several lines for different visa applicants, 1 line for the tourist visa applicants, another for immigrant visa applicants, one line for seafarers, and finally another line for K1 visa applicants. There were several ladies lined up already, some dressed in casual-business, few just wore denims and shirts, few women with their kids, and a couple with their foreign fiances'. A guy offered a chair and decided to take it as I was wearing my 4-inch heels, php30 for the seat wouldn't hurt anyway. By the way, vendors will lure you to have your picture taken again and try to convince you that you need to have 4 pieces of 2x2 pictures, so make sure you bring enough pictures, because they will charge you Php190 for the picture, by the way, the embassy won't even ask for a single picture, as the ones we submitted at SLEC would suffice, but still, make sure you bring extra copies to the interview. At around 6:30, the guards are starting to let everyone enter the USEM premises. Don't bring electronic gadgets (usb, cellphones, ipads, ipods, lighters) as these are not allowed inside. The K1 visa applicants were the last ones to get inside. There were at least more than 50 ladies there, there were a couple of male applicants too. Please make sure to prepare appointment letter, passport, 2 copies of DS156, 2 copies DS157, 1 copy DS156k. Put the name of your fiance on the DS156k but don't sign it. Make sure you signed the DS156 forms with the date, and leave no space on each question by putting N/A. First step before you enter, these are the documents needed: Appointment letter, passport, ds156,ds157,ds156,ds157,ds156k in this order. They will check these and put a barcode sticker at the back of your passport(take off your passport cover if it has a cover). The USEM employees will ask you what did SLEC give you after medical (cd of xray and vaccination record). Finally after this process, we were allowed to get inside and pass through metal detectors and scanner. There is another window in which you will drop your documents and they will give you your queue number. Take note of that number as it will be your guide. All applicants will be seated at the waiting area where you will see queue boards where they will flash the numbers with the corresponding window. Be attentive as they will call numbers in random. They have a counter where you can buy snacks and drinks while waiting so don't worry if you didn't have time to eat your breakfast. I was already seated at around 7:30 and I waited until my number was called. My lucky number was 6178. I was nervous watching the queue boards as it randomly shows the numbers. Finally, I was called in at around 9:30 (that was the longest 2 hours of my life) to window 42. The guy who took my biometrics was an American guy. I greeted him "good morning" and he replied and he was actually nice. He was smiling the whole time. He asked me for my name and birthday, and he told, I had such a long name and asked me if I ever had a hard time writing it down when I was younger. Haha, anyway, he asked to place my left four fingers, then my right four fingers and then my two thumbs together. After that he told me to wait for my number to be called again. Since all of the seats were taken, i and some other applicants were asked to wait outside and take our seats there as it might take a while again before our numbers are called again. While waiting, I prepared my documents in this order (as stated in the instruction along with the queue number given at the first window) NSO birth certificate, CENOMAR, NBI, affidavit of support, w2, form 1040. after 30mins or so, number was called again. I was not paying attention to the queue boards and I hurriedly went to window 53 for prescreening. It was a Filipina lady. She was stern-looking. She asked for the my documents, and asked me several questions, my name, birthday, how did you meet, name and birthday of petitioner, age, has he ever been married, does he have children, did i travel abroad and for many days, when did he visit me, do i have pictures together or proof of relationships. I actually showed her my scrapbook which I brought with me and flipped it page by page in front of her. Her questions were basically personal. She then asked me to wait for another interview with the consul. I seated in one of the empty chairs closer to the consuls' windows. Most of the consuls I saw were Americans, more male than female consuls. That was another 20mins or so, my number was called to window 61. The male American consul was waiting for me, and I greeted him good morning and asked him how he was. He greeted me in return, and said he was doing great and asked me how i was too... He asked me to put raise my right hand and take an oath. He also asked me same personal questions. I know I was being talkative and spontaneous, and I was like telling him a story after each question. LOL. He was really really nice and the last question he asked me was, "how do u like your fiance's tattoos? You know, it will be there forever..." I replied, "i actually like it, and I don't mind at all, besides I also have a tattoo." He was smiling, then he said, "congratulations,I am approving your visa, please wait for your number at window 73. At window 73, the guy just asked and verified where I want my passport with the visa to be delivered. Before 12nn, I was already out of the USEM, went back to the hotel as I couldn't wait to tell my fiance about what happened. I was extremely happy! I am so blessed! Praise God! |
| Rating : |
Very Good |
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ver 5.0