to give you a background of our journey ...
jan 16 -->> we got our medical and interview schedule: medical - march 3 & interview - mar 10
jan 23 -->> i went for an early medical, day 1
jan 24 -->> i had problem with my chest xray and was scheduled for sputum smear tests on jan 28, 29, 30
jan 28-30 -->> sputum smear tests -- on the 30th i was told to come back the ff day for pulmonary evaluation
jan 31 -->> pulmonary evaluation -- i was told that all my smear tests were negative but i still have to wait for 8 weeks (sputum culture); after the interview with the doctor, i was told to follow-up the result on apr 2. i was given a piece of paper with the number to be called and name of person in-charge (clark).
Apr 2 -->> i called clark and was told that i can pick-up the result anytime. he told me to bring my appointment letter, official receipt from st luke’s, and passport. I went to window G, where clark is. he then instructed me to proceed to 2nd floor for immunization. i was called at the doctors’ room. the doctor told me that since my pregnancy test was conducted long before, i needed to redo it. she gave me a stub and told me to pay P495 at the cashier’s in 5th floor. after payment i was instructed to go to 4th floor for the urine collection. when result was out, i was instructed to proceed to 2nd floor and wait for further instruction. after about 20mins, i was called to the immunization room and was given MMR. i then proceeded to ground floor for the releasing of the xray film and vaccination sheet. since my appointment for embassy interview has lapsed i was given a new schedule, apr 8, 730am. thanks god!
apr 8 -->>
i arrived at the embassy ground at 515am and was called to queue at gate 3 at exactly 6am. the guard checked the appointment letter + valid id to gain entry to the embassy. next stop is the entry to the building where the interview was conducted. here you need to pass your bags thru the xray machine. just follow the arrows leading to the immigrant visa section. upon arriving at the immigrant visa section, another guard would ask for appointment time and will tell you where to get seated. the guard will instruct you when to queue to get your ticket stub. just relax and read the interview instructions shown on the tv monitor. they present it both in english and tagalog.
step 1. obtaining a ticket stub -- here you have to submit the appointment letter and ALL DS forms. in my case, like what others advised here in vj, i filled-up that portion of ds-156k where it says DO NOT WRITE BELOW THIS LINE: my fiance/e's name, signature, date today, and place (Manila, Philippines). once you get the stub, time to start waiting for next action.
step 2. finger scanning -- i heard my name called over the PA system for finger scanning at window 16. there is an assistant there who will get the stub and help in the scanning. once done, i got my stub back and returned to my seat.
step 3. submission of documents -- i saw my number flashed on the board (6027) and the corresponding window number, 14. i greeted the filipino pre-screener good morning. he asked what my petitioner's name is and i said so. then he asked for the ff: (a) my fiance's affidavit of support -- he returned the 1st 2 pages of the i-134 which purely contain instructions in filling it up; (
step 4. interview with the consul -- interviews with the consul are conducted in a closed door cubicle or at least semi-closed. i was assigned in window 27. the consul was a lady in her late 20's or early 30's i should say. she was not very friendly when i got in. she did not even smile. as far as i can remember, she asked me the ff questions: what is your name? your petitioner's name? what website did you meet? what does he do for a living? how old are you? how old is your petitioner? have you been married before? how about your petitioner? so neither of you have been married? any children? how about your petitioner? so neither of you have children? what took you so long to get married? how many times did he visit you? when was the last time he visited you? what made you decide to get married? what is your petitioner's occupation? how many people live with your petitioner? where does he live? what is his ethnicity? do you know where he went to college? does your petitioner have any brother or sister? have you ever applied for a us visa? did you work in canada? have you ever been out of the country? many more ?s i cant recall. rest assured all of them are related to the documents you submitted. in my case, she did not even look at me when she asked and when i answered her. she kept looking at the documents. at one point she was browsing the 129f folder that my fiance submitted. just know your fiance by heart and you will be fine. she also read the notes taken by the filipino pre-screener and asked questions from there. the last question asked of me was 'do you have a photo album?'. i slipped in my clear folder to her and she browsed thru it. after returning it to me, she said 'looks everything is fine. just wait for your name to be called at the releasing' . to confirm what i just heard from her, i asked her if i am approved. she said 'yes you are' and she smiled at me for the first time. i thanked her and she said you're welcome (smiling).
step 5. releasing -- my name was called to window 37. i was given my appointment letter with the pink slip stapled on it. i was told to proceed to delbros to pay for the delivery fee and that i can go afterwards.
step 6. payment -- at a delbros counter i was asked to fill-up a form. when done, i paid P250 and that's it!
we can't thank god enough for answering our prayers. we are now waiting for the delivery of my visa.
to everyone who posted here, thank you for generously sharing your experiences. without a doubt it made our journey a lot easier.
godbless everyone.
ram & analise
