Guys, can you suggest me on when should I buy ticket. Fiancee's interview in Mumbai consulate is on May 12.

Should I buy the ticket now or wait till interview is over?

If I buy it now for May 24th, then I will save on $$$.

Kindly advise me. Also, what did you guys do?

best to buy tickets when THE VISA IS IN YOUR HAND

Thank you girl.

I am a firm believer in waiting for the real deal. A visa in hand is worth two in the Embassy!

best.advice.EVAR!

agree

I'd normally agree on anything that said wait...but we bought our plane tickets in January (when our interview was in March). I felt pretty secure about my husband being granted the visa since hubby doesn't have diseases, a criminal record, an overstay, or anything else that would shoot out a red flag. We had lived together in Brazil and had a solid amount of proof to show a bonafide relationship.
I figured that if for SOME reason my husband's case required a waiver, it'd be easy enough to change the plane date until a later time. I went to Brazil for the interview so it seemed the best idea to just buy both tickets at the same time. Another thing I looked into was the approval rate in Brazil for K1 visas and it's VERY high.

This is what we're going to do.

Even when you feel pretty confident about getting the K-1, anything can happen! I know a couple who got delayed because the printers at the Consulate were not working right, so they had to wait longer to get their visa eventhough they were aproved.

If you can change the dates for free, then now could be fine. But otherwise wait.

Its quite possible your fiancee may end up in AP or AR delying issuance of the visa.

Thanks a lot guys for all the advice. I am thinking all the thoughts here.

BoraBora: How much time did you keep between interview date and expected travel date? Since you bought the ticket before interview, I am guessing you kept a week or so between interview and travel date to be safe.

Bengali lover

If you're still not convinced that you should wait until the visa is physically in your hands, read this cautionary tale. It has a happy ending, but an expensive ending.

I waited until after the interview.... I always hate to assume things because then the opposite happens!

I want to book mine this week - I don't have an interview date yet but I am expecting it to be some time this month and I am not traveling until 30th June so I have three months of weirdness if things go wrong. If they do go wrong and I get denied then tbh I will have worse things on my mind than changing the date of my ticket

I figure worst case scenario is that I change my ticket date.

Hi bora boa,

Where did you see the approvla rate for K1 visas in Brazil (through the VJ timelines?)? Just interested because I'm in the same boat. Also, how much supporting documentation did you take to the interview and how much do you think you really need? My fiancee's interview is April 22 so I want her to go there very prepared, but I also hear many interviews in the Rio consulate take 5-10 minutes and the immigration officer often doesn't look at secondary evidence.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

The main thing you need to consider in making your decision is what is the likihood that your fiance's visa will be put on Administrative Review. Even for us, knowing that London has a very high rate of approvals, and even having been approved, we waited to book his flight until he actually had his visa in his hands.

I'm really stuck on this one. First of all, I want to be with my fiancee at the interview in Kiev - for her and her 6 year old son it will be a 12 hour train ride from the city where she lives. After the interview, I then want to spend the next 10 days or so helping her to pack and get organized for the trip over. Finally, I want to fly back with her and her son. So I've got two risks to consider. First is the risk that there will be a delay due to some administrative review, which I think is remote, and then secondly is the risk that the visa will take more than 10 days to reach her in her city. If it were just her, then I can see perhaps waiting on buying tickets, but we've got her son to consider and the start of school. Cost is a bit of a factor as well - in that even with advance purchase airfares are going to top $3,500 and the cost of buying the tickets in less than the "advance" time frame will run closer to $5,000. I think that perhaps the cost of changing the flight dates will be less than the cost of booking the flight immediately after she receives her visa. I still have a lot of thinking to do on this one.

I guess it seems weird that I bought the plane ticket before the interview because I never understand why people set wedding dates before the K1 interview, but oh well.

Well, here's our story:
We found out my husband's interview date in the end of January. I bought our tickets here on the last day of January and hubby's interview date was March 13th. I was definetly going to the interview so it didn't matter that I bought mine or not for that time. We figured that since we were going to buy mine it'd be better to get them both. My husband is from Manaus, Amazonas (in the far north of Brazil) so he had to travel almost 4 hours to attend the interview in Rio de Janeiro. So my husband bought his one-way ticket from Manaus to Rio soon after I got the tickets between the U.S. and Brazil. When my husband left Manaus, he left for good.
We coordinated our flights so that I was arriving from Miami and he from Manaus at the same time in Rio...we also bought tickets for the same flight from Rio back to Miami - and that date was only 4 days AFTER the interview. Let's just say that we were pretty sure, right? Seems crazy now, but at the time it didn't. Our interview was on a Tuesday and it was super easy and we were approved in like 6 minutes. We went back 2 days later (Thursday) to get the visa and then were on our way to the U.S. on Saturday (if I remember correctly).
Everything worked out as planned - except that Bush arrived in Sao Paulo on the same day as we did and my husband's plane was delayed. I FREAKED out when I got to Rio and hubby wasn't there. We did meet up in the hotel later. My baby had saved the hotel name/address/number and called to say he was on his way.