Consulate Review: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
November 20, 2014 |
| Embassy Review : |
I will give recommendations first, then I will tell our story and review of how it all went down. Our interview appointment was set for Nov. 18, 2014, at 8:20am.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1) Unless you are part of the 7am, 7:20am, and 7:40am club, I would not get there any earlier than 7:50am, unless you want to avoid traffic and not pay too much for taxi. Other than that, getting there too early before your appointment time is a waste of time. They basically entered all K-1 applicants in two waves: All the 7,:20, & :40am people at about 7:55am, and all the 8, :20, & :40am people at about 9:20am. We got there at about 7:20am and waited 2 hours just to get in.
2) Don't make the long line. Go to the back of the Consulate at the corner of Rua Santa Luzia and Rua Mexico. As you are coming from Av. Pres. Wilson you will see a huge line which is for Non-immigrant visas only. IF you are making a line with more than 20 people, it is very possible you are on the wrong line. When in doubt just approach one of the guards or one of the assistants with a red polo shirt and ask about the line for K-1 visas.
3) DO NOT BRING any electronics or any sharp objects. You will go through a security process before you enter the offices, and if you have any sharp objects they will take them away from you. Cell phones and other electronics can be left with some people outside which according to some reviews I've read it's safe. We did not bring any electronics with us.
4) Don't be upset if others are called before you. At the end of the day we are all going to be seen. We nearly lost our cool after our file folder was misplaced after we were the first of our group to finish filling out the forms. We ended up leaving at 2:20pm (exactly 7 hours after we got there), a big difference from the other person who reviewed before me who left at around 9:20am.
5) If you are the petitioner, bring dollars to pay the fee. With the ever-changing exchange rates if you decide to pay in Reais, you will pay a very expensive fee. We payed 689 Reais and in dollars it would have been 265.
6) The Correios is located on Av. Pres. Wilson between Av. Calogeras and R. Mexico and it is super small. For some reason the little map they give you at the consulate is not very accurate. You will spend about 57 reais for normal delivery, or about 68 reais for express delivery.
7) Bring some snacks. They have water in the waiting room, and we brought some dried fruits and nuts with us. It helped use lived through our 7 hour ordeal.
8) Bring ALL the documents you can imagine you will need. Specially TWO (2) Passport style photos of the Brazilian applicant with their name written lightly on the back of the photos. We had a girl who did not bring the photos and had to go out to take them and come back.
9) Be prepared to deal with very rude people, and to kill them with kindness. The guy who helped us (with the red polo shirt who we thought was named "Alex") was very helpful but had a very poker-faced attitude. He seem not to care too much for the people there. He really just wants to get everyone in and out as soon as possible so he can get on to his lunch break or work (which is very similar to his break 80% of the time since he is doing absolutely nothing but chat with the guard). His name was actually Felipe. However, we never stopped smiling and being nice, and that made the rude people have no choice but to help us.
10) Bring a sweater, wear long pants, and closed shoes with socks. IT IS VERY COLD in the waiting room.
OUR STORY/REVIEW:
We used Airbnb.com to reserve an apartment in Copacabana since we wanted to stay in an area where we could relax and take our minds of the process we were about to take upon. I had traveled to Sao Paulo on Saturday, and then my Fiancee and I traveled together to Rio de Janeiro (Santos Dumont airport) on Monday. We took a taxi from the airport to Copacabana which would have cost us about 25 reais if we would have used the regular "yellow" cabs, but we decided to go with a "Certified" taxi and they charged us 57 reais. It was the best idea to stay away from the center of the city and relax in copacabana the day before. We were able to go to the beach and have a nice dinner the night before.
We woke up at 6am, and were out of the apartment by 6:50am. We took a regular taxi cab which only costs us like 23 reais to the consulate. It literally took the cab 20 minutes to get to the consulate with absolutely no traffic. When we got to the consulate at Av. Pres. Wilson, we asked the guard where to make the line, and he pointed towards R. Mexico. We innocently made the wrong line for about 10 minutes, until I saw some people asking the Red polo shirt assistant something and the people going to a shorter line. My fiancee went and asked while I waited on the line and he directed us to the shorter line behind the consulate at R. Santa Luzia. There were about 10 people in front of us. This was about 7:30am.
at about 7:55am, Felipe came out with a board in his hands and went to the front of the line. He started asking for people's names and State (Ours was Sao Paulo), and he would give them a form with three cards attached to it (DON'T FILL OUT THIS FORM OUTSIDE; although some people started and then Felipe told them not to). When he got to us and the two people behind us, he told us that we were all in the second wave and that he would come back out to get us. One of the people in the front of the line was also an 8am group person hence after Felipe took all the 7am grouped people, she was the first in line and we were 2nd. They went in roughly at around 8:05am.
At around 9:20am, Felipe came out again with his clipboard and did the same thing again. This time, all 10 of the people outside went in (except for one girl who still had a cell phone in her hand and was told to find one of the people that hold phones so she can then come in). We were lead to a second (More like 3rd) floor smaller room. Felipe told us to sit on the 4th row (they were only 4 rows of chairs). He explained to all of us to fill out only the form following the instructions in the back. The forms ask for some of the applicants information and for the petitioners US address and phone number. So make sure you know this ahead of time. We were the first to finish so we told Felipe and he asked my Fiancee to go sit on the chair in front of his desk. He helped my finacee get all the papers in order and asked her for any missing documents (which I provided). PLEASE make sure you have a copy of your Fiancee's passport or his Naturalization certificate. He also filled out the little cards with some information and then told us to sit on the first row of chairs. This was all done within 10 minutes. We waited for about 5 minutes and were called by a guy in window 16. He proceeded to ask my fiancee some questions about her information, and also for any pertinent documents that he felt were missing. He asked me if I still lived in my address (Because I had moved beginning of the month and the address on my original petition was different) and I told him no, and gave him the new address. He whited the old address out and wrote the new address with a pen. Then he gave us a piece of paper and told us to go downstairs to the Caixa (cashier) and pay the fees and then come back upstairs to wait to be called for our interveiw. He also gave us two of the tree little cards attached to the form Felipe gave us and told us to use that to pay the correios after we get approved by the consul (This all took about 7 minutes). We went and paid the fees (689 reais) and came back up with the receipt and gave it to Felipe.
Felipe took our receipt and placed it under about 4 other receipts that he already had in his hands. He got up and handed the receipts to the woman in window 15. The consul seemed to be calling people in order, until the guy who handed the receipt after us was called ahead of one of the 7am people that were still left and ahead of us. So I figured out that after you see the person in the window your file folder goes to another person who double-checks everything and makes copies of the applicants passport. Then they put the folders on the Consul's queue. Unfortunately, our folder was misplaced into another process queue for some reason. We were getting anxious every time they would call people that had handed the receipt after us, and were pretty angry by the time they called the last person before us. It was already 12:10pm, and we thought we were gonna be the last ones after the girl. However, the girl came out happy, wished us good luck, and left. As we waited I noticed the Consul went out of his office and started chatting with co-workers, and then proceeded to start moving towards the exit. At that point I got up and asked Felipe if he can find out if they misplaced our folder because I noticed there were no more folders left on the consul's queue and he seemed to be leaving. Felipe very calmly (and with a face like he really didn't care) told us that we should be fine that the consul would be back to finish with us. I started telling him that it didn't seem right, and some lady from inside the office noticed that I was asking lots of questions and called Felipe over to the window. She asked him if we were part of the K-1 group and he said yes, and if we were still waiting. Then she asked for my fiancee's name and proceeded to start looking for our folder. Then she called Felipe again and told him something very quietly. Felipe then came over to us and explained that our folder was placed mistakenly on the wrong pile and that we would have to come back in an hour. We were obviously very upset since we had been waiting all this time. But I understood that sometimes these things happen and as long as we were gonna be seen that day I didn't care. I just didn't want to have to make another trip to Rio another day. We coordinated to come back at 1pm and Felipe said to tell the guards outside to call him when we were back.
We went to have lunch and came back 40 minutes later at 1pm. We asked the guard and he called Felipe who said he was at lunch and would be back at 1:20pm. We decided to wait it out by the gate. He got there at 1:12pm and we went in with him. He told us to sit on the 1st row and wait for the consul to call us, that he was going to call it in. At around 1:50pm the Consul finally made it back and we saw the same guy from the window tell him something about our folder and then the consul grabbed our folder and called us in. He started by apologizing for their error and for being patient. He made my fiancee raise her right hand and repeat two oaths. He then proceeded to get her fingerprints. He asked her the following questions (He only spoke in Portuguese):
1) How did you two meet?
2) How did you two communicate?
3) When did you start your relationship?
4) Have you traveled to the US?
After that he looked at me, and asked me "how did you propose to her?" I spoke in Portuguese as well (as limited as it is), and I said that we had two stories and that I would try to tell him both in Portuguese. He was shocked when I said that and asked me if I wasn't of Brazilian descent, to which I answered "No" that I was of "Dominican" descent. He was surprised and told me to go ahead. I told him both the stories in Portuguese and he looked very amused and started laughing at my "gringo" Portuguese. He then asked her a few questions more that I don't remember and then he said: "Congratulations! Your visa has been approved!" We were excited and relieved and he again apologized for their mistake and thanked us for our patience.
We left to the Correios and paid the Express fee and then came back to give the receipt to Felipe. It was 2:20pm when we left the consulate for good. We took the subway (metro) back to the apartment and it was super fast, convenient and inexpensive!
Sorry for the long review, but I really want you all to get a feel of what we went through so that you go prepare mentally, physically and emotionally. We were drained and got to the apartment and after a shower laid down for a few minutes before we were able to recollect all our thoughts and get a normal frame of mind. So be ready, be punctual, be kind and smile, and overall don't be afraid, it really isn't that bad. Good luck to everyon! |
| Rating : |
Good |
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ver 5.0