Consulate Review: Trinidad & Tobago
Review Topic:
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
September 8, 2005 |
| Embassy Review : |
Okay, I got out of bed way too early this morning, but here's my account of my K1 interview this morning. I hope it helps someone else. My interview was scheduled for 7:30am. I decided to arrive at the embassy for 6:50sm to beat the masses. Well I didn't. There were throngs of people already at the embassy and several of them sporting these big envelopes that I knew were for the immigrant visas. At 7:00am they welcomed everyone over the bullhorn as we were herded away from the embassy unto the road against the barricade that blocks off part of Marli St. The officer at the gate asked those who were here for permanent residency (that includes us K1 applicants, because I was the only one of my kind today) to take their appointment letters out of the envelopes and take two steps forward from the main group. Yes, more herding.
We were then asked to switch off all cellphones and get any cellphones and keys out as they were not allowed inside the embassy, were were given a chit to come back and claim them after.
After proceeding through what seemed like another TSA checkpoint where my bag was searched and they passed me through the metal detectors, I was the third person inside the embassy at this point and took my seat in the immigrant visa section, to begin my wait. Yes, even though the letter said 7:30... arrive earlier than 7:00am to ensure you get through early.
At 7:15am another officer came and distrubuted folders with a checklist with the order in which they wanted you to prepare your documents for the person at the window. It was a sort of adhoc generic list for all immigrant visas, so I muddled my way through that.
After waiting an hour, at 8:00am, my name was called, to go to Windows 1. I was so confused, I eventually got my bearings and went through this door to Window 1. The woman behind the counter was pleasant enough but spent some of her time fixing a faulty copier machine in the back. She asked for my passport, birth certificate, deed polls and tax statements. I gave them all to her. I asked her if she didn't want the affidafit of support to go along with the tax statements. She responded, 'Yeah sure'. So I kept filing documents under the window to her and she just kept taking them and even the x-ray envelope with my medical inside. She unsecured the envelope and returned the x-ray to me. She handed me the x-ray and said to put it at the bottom of my suitcase and it's valid for one year, after that I can do whatever I want with it. She said that it's rare for immigratation to ask for it. If they do, you can get your suitcase and show it to them, but it's not necessary to walk with when you fly in. Hmmm VJers have different experiences on this.. what do you guys think about that one?
Okay the story continues, she pulls out a pink file now with what was once our nicely packaged I-129F application, and goes through that and starts asking me random off key questions. 'Where does your wife work?'... this was 2 minutes after she read the job letter, 'I replied, well my fiancee works at...'
She said, 'Yes, but she'll be your wife soon right.' Then she asked 'How many children do you have?' Well I thought I put NONE on the form. Oh wait, I did. Again she was just testing. Then the fun stuff to take from the new forms that I had to add to our file. The main thing was our affidifit of support, the I-134. Note all embassies are different. We just prepared ours based on guidelines from VJ, and it seems we over prepared. We got letters from bank, job and any other accounts. That was a good thing. However we also have statements for each account that covered a year, and copies of recent pay slips.
The woman behind the counter asked me outright, 'Why did you bring so much? We don't need this, here you can have it back. So I recieved all the statements back. then there were the W2s and 1040s. We had 3 years worth, seems they only wanted 1, so she gave me those back too. She actually didn't recognize the summary statement of the 1040 that you can get from the IRS and kept asking me for them. She said we don't have the 1040, so you can't get through today. You need your fiancee to send this to you and you can come back any Friday morning and we'll continue processing your case. I was just confused. She started giving me back the originals of some documents then she came across the IRS statements - which I gave her in the very beginning again, and said, 'Oh look, they're here. Don't look so worried.' 
So she started to process the forms now. She was a little ticked that I printed out my own forms, she asked me, why did I not write on the forms they sent me in the packet. I told her that it was easier to fill them out online and print. She had to manually enter all the information unto the computer, so I guess it's actually easier for them to do so when they can easily distinguish between the form questions and answers. But then again she didn't like how I used single sided prints instead of conserving paper. At the end of it she commented on the size of the finished packet and told me to go back outside and have a seat. The consular officer will call my name in a moment.
That process took 40mins.
I then waited with the masses, a full embassy of people for another 40mins. Then they called my name to come to window 4. Okay, great, I was excited now. This girl was more pleasant than the previous. She pulled out the pink envelope and started through the file. Then she stopped, and asked me when and where I met my fiancee. Then pulled out the DS-156K and the unnumbered form which I had to fill out and swear before the officer of my intent to marry my fiance. She just asked me to sign at the X's and she continued on through the new file. She then got to my fiancee's G325A form, and saw her picture and told me that she was very pretty. I said, 'No, she's astounding!'.
When she got to the pictures we had submitted as evidence, she asked me... where was this? It was a picture of our first date, and she couldn't believe that it was that, as we were all decked out. She called all the women in the back there (I only saw women there, and all of them were American Trinis) and they started to admire our pictures. I started to blush as they fawned over the other pictures. She then asked for the full story of our first date, not for the visa process anymore, because we'd now gathered an audience who wanted to hear about my weekend trip to Chicago to take my fiancee out on her first date. She told me that she wants to go on a dinner cruise too, I'd convinced her.
After that the questions dwindled. She's asked if I know when I'd like to be in the US, I told her Oct 1, she nodded, yes.. that's all in good time. And then I told her the wedding date, Oct 22nd. She said, you set the date already, even before the visa. I told her that's what faith was for... she she laughed.
They had a backlog of visas to print and asked me if I really need it this Friday. I didn't, she said that was great, because she could guarantee it on Tuesday 13, when I have to go back and pick it up, but she couldn't guarantee I could get it this Friday. So I got a letter to that effect. The interview ended with all smiles and ,'Enjoy your new life!'. That part took 20mins.
All in all, the herding was uncalled for. The first lady who recieved my documents at the window, was a bit standoffish, but it's Trinidad, I can handle people like that. The consular officer however for the actual interview was brilliant and warm, and made the whole thing much more pleasant.  |
| Rating : |
Moderate |
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ver 5.0