Wanted to let you all know that my husband received his papers on Tuesday.
Here was our experience:
Arrived to Ciudad Juarez on Sunday. Stayed at la Playa hotel (www.hotellaplaya.com.mx) across the street from the consulate. It cost 560 pesos (about $56) the night. It was fine...nothing special. No internet (that's why I didn't post sooner) but they did have heat/air.
On Monday morning my husband went to do his medical interview. The papers we got (packet 4 which never arrived...his aunt picked them up for us) said not to go to the embassy or the medical interview before 6, so my husband left at 6:05 and ended up being number 216 in the line....haha! Nice. Around 8 they sent the people waiting back to their hotels to have breakfast (nice of them to not want people fainting in the lobby!) but they said that everyone would be attended. Hubby came back to the hotel, then left again around 9:30. They took his blood, then did x-rays, checked him and asked questions, then they called my husband to see the psychologist (again...read my other posts. he was previously denied a visa...long story. but this is something specific to our case. oh, for those of you that know, this was not the psychologist in the other building...it was a woman at the medical center) and they did the pee test, and finally they gave him 2 shots (chicken pox and mmr my husband thinks). The exam with 2 shots cost 2650 (around $265 which he paid there...in pesos). His results weren't ready at 3, and they had told him they wouldn't be. So he picked them up the next day around 930, and then headed to the consulate.
He went in around 10 and they gave him a number. Then he had to wait for his number to come up (for him it was about 15 min.). They checked his papers (marriage certificate, birth certificate, financial docs, and my job offer in the States, and affidavit of support.) Then they sent him to sit down and wait for his named to be called. About 15 minutes later they called him to take his digital fingerprints, and then they sent him to area B where he waited for his actual interview. Less than 10 minutes later his number appeared for his interview (hubby says they could call you by name or by number), so he went to the window. He had an American who was "muy buena onda" (nice guy). Hubby was sworn in, asked if he had any previous problems with Mexican or American police, if he had previously been in the US, what my name was, the date of our marriage, and how we met. Then he asked to see pictures. (he looked at 4...) He started typing on the computer, then gave hubby a piece of paper and said that the petition was approved and welcome to the US and good luck.
(So everything so far has happened in less than 2 hours...it was about 11:45)Then he told husband to wait to be called again to pay (if he hadn't paid yet) or to give him the visa. ***Major side note***I could see my husband from the hotel. I just went to the third floor and stood on the balcony over by the consulate. At this point, my husband waved a paper at me and was smiling, so I assumed that he had the visa. (at least that was what I was hoping) In the next six hours my husband just waited to actually get the visa. Make sure to check it, because they had put that my husband was FEMALE instead of Male, so the first visa in his passport had to be canceled. He actually thought it was kind of funny.
But good thing he saw it there...or it would have ment another trip to the consulate the next day. Also, the man that did the interview told hubby that he had already paid, which he had not. So hubby was trying to tell him that he really hadn't paid yet, and the guy got kind of upset. A little while later (2 and a half hours), he realized that hubby really hadn't paid, so he thanked him for his honesty. And hubby was the fifth to last person to leave the consulate. I was super nervous by that time, because it was almost six, and no one was leaving anymore. They had started to shut off the lights....:S But it was all ok when he came out and showed me his visa. The next day (12th of Dec) we crossed the border into El Paso to have the visa stamped (we are driving back leaving the 19th), but we wanted to get this taken care of in Juarez. And we had an extra day. ***Another big note***In the packet that they give you after the interview, have the person receiving it check and make sure they are actually THEIR OWN PAPERS. The guy at the border was telling us that lots of people come with packets and they aren't really theirs. :/ Imagine how stressful it would be to end the whole case like that. Took about an hour for everything to be organized with crossing...just because hubby was waiting a lot. There was one other person (child) in front of him. They took his prints again and he had to write his name. They stamped the passport and OFF to Texas!
We didn't have to file any additional papers. I wasn't able to go in to the consulate. Hubby's advice is to be really patient.
From start to finish of THIS visa (IR-1) filing from Mexico City (I have an FM-3) it took 9 months and 10 days (the same amount of time as having a baby!), for which I am very grateful. I think that this particular visa in our case took almost exactly as long as our K-1 (fiance) visa from 3 years ago.
We are currently packing and hope to be back in the USA around the 20th to spend Christmas with my family.
Can't wait! And hubby can go to my sister's wedding. So that is our story. I hope that it helps someone, but our case was kind of different from other peoples for a couple of reasons. I am always here to answer questions, but I don't think that I will be on much until we get back to the states. To my friends that have helped me and understand the ups and downs of this whole process, I wish you the best of luck.
Kristi and Esperando...you will get your visas no problem. And it's the best Christmas present ever!!!
Good luck, girls.cindy
