Consulate Review: Nigeria
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
November 27, 2010 |
| Embassy Review : |
Okay well this is long-as both my fiance and I have found VJ so helpful, we wanted to make sure you got all the information available, including the questions we never knew until he got there.
I will start off with a couple things besides the regular questions that most people have.
1. There are masses amounts of people in line waiting that morning, so be ready to wait a long time, Nd got there at 5am, and was handed #25, but still had to wait for 5 hours until he was called.
2. No matter what-be confident in your answers-as they will try to ask some questions in a different manner to make sure you are keeping with your story and telling the truth.
3. It is okay to ask them to clarify their question.
4. It is okay to ask them to slow down (as they seem to shoot questions at people rapidly).
5. As most of you know-as we did, bring tons of evidence-and more importantly have your I 129 F front loaded-I had sent so much information in-all color coded and organized well, it was appreciated.
6. Organize your things-I sent my fiance a lot of organizational materials, and they could tell he had everything organized so well, they wouldn't be able to ask for information he could not immediately give them.
Okay so here are the details:
He arrived at 5 am, with about 10 people there, then tons of people came. When the guards came out (before 7am) they had people line up according to visa type-his group had somewhere between 60 to 70 people in it!
Then as you all know the security ask for the papers, give you a number, you can't take cell phones in and there isn't a very secure way to leave them, so leave them at home.
A woman collected the forms that were required (two copies of each plus passport pics etc) and he sat and sat. Although he was #25, they placed all the women with children in front, so the children wouldn't have to wait so long. My fiance was fine with that. Luckily he stayed strong while sitting there for five hours listening to questions-he said that it was as if the known Asian lady had a microphone, denied-denied-denied. I am starting to wonder if the cases where there have been red flags on the packets are first given to her???? Just a theory. He said the others sounded a bit more sympathetic but she did not. He prayed he would not get her.
Then his number was called. The CO he got was the white woman.
She asked him if what she was holding was his passport and documents, he said yes, put his right hand up-swearing to tell the truth-etc.
He was fingerprinted.
The first questions were the same as everyone's
Who filed for you?
When did you get engaged?
Where?
How did we meet?
Why did your fiancee (me) come to Nigeria.
He explained I was doing my PhD field research.
She asked many questions about what my PhD was for, about my school, etc etc
(At this point she was firing away questions very fast and he was having a hard time feeling confident when he started to finish his sentence she was starting hers-so he asked her politely if she could please slow down so that he could make sure he was answering the questions correctly, and she did slow down and did not give him any grief about asking)
She asked why did his friend introduce me-his fiance to him while I lived in America.
When did you propose?
Where?
When did you first see your fiance?
He clarified and asked, do you mean in person or the first time I saw her period? She said the first time ever-and he explained over skype.
When did you see her last?
Why did you see each other in Ghana?
Why did she not come to Nigeria? (we took a vacation in Ghana and wanted it to be a vacation)
She asked a couple details about our trip in Ghana.
You don't have a lot of phone bills, how do you communicate? (explain mostly online).
Does your fiancee have a brother?
Does she have a sister?
Where does she live?
Where does she work-what does she do?
A variety of questions about my sister-all of which he knew.
What are your wedding plans?
(He explained that we would have a court marriage and then a wedding in the church) She said "Americans only have one marriage" He replied, we have been planning on having a court wedding-then one later in August in the Church so many people can come to it. She then again said "In America there is only one wedding." He said, well we have been planning this for awhile, but if we find that it is illegal, then we will abide by the law.
You know you must get married within 90 days?
He replied, yes we know and have this planned.
She asked to see pictures.
He had a couple albums and some photo books I had made for him, she wanted to see the books first.
She went through them and asked randomly where and when the picture was taken.
She said the books were very nice, who made them.
He explained that I made them for him, and that I do professional photography on the side. And then laughed and said I could make one for her if she really wanted.
She asked to see some of our emails. (He pulled out a divider organizer and told her that he had so many per month starting from two years ago, what month of what year would she like to see? she looked at a couple).
As she asked questions she made notes. At this time, she turned away and typed on the computer.
She then had him sign papers, and said by this time next week go to this address (on a paper given to him) to collect your passport with your visa.
He was approved!
He thought it would be one week, like she said-but then when talking he told me that-and I said check the date, because that puts it on Friday after Thanksgiving-a federal holiday, and like we had originally guessed, it was for Monday after the holiday, so it will be 10 days.
My fiance was very prepared, for months and months he has been studying all the different questions given here on VJ, we are both so thankful for this forum. He also brought so much evidence-little of it did they look at, but you never know what they may want to see. He said the interview went smoothly and was easy, but that is because he put hard work into studying everything about my family and such. We know each other well, so he just stayed confident and calm (I don't know if I could have stayed that calm for five hours). He also said that many of the people who were walking out being denied did not have a lot of evidence with them, and obviously were not prepared. I would rate Nigeria high due to his experience, but I am rating it lower because I know overall they deny a lot of people and try to be a bit intimidating. Also I personally think they should give different time slots, not everyone getting there in the morning if you still have to wait for 5 hours-and who knows how long all the others had to wait-as he was in the first group. Because of VJ and both of our hard work and preparation things went well, and we are so grateful for this part to be done!!!!! We are happy that we will soon be together permanently!!! |
| Rating : |
Moderate |
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ver 5.0