Our K-1 Visa INTERVIEW Experience (US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela)

[neyla_romero 2]

This post is about our experience with the K-1 visa interview at the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela.

In September of this year (2015), we received our NOA2 saying that our application was approved and that I was eligible for a fiancé visa. About a month after that, we got an NVC letter with our case number saying that our case was sent to the US Embassy in Caracas. We waited 3 weeks after the NVC letter arrived and my fiance emailed the US Embassy in Caracas explaining our situation and asking for a date for the interview. He also added our USCIS receipt number, NVC case number, and both of our names, so they could have full information of our case (ImmigrantCaracas@state.gov). The US Embassy in Caracas won’t send you a package like other embassies, you must email them. A day after sending the email we got an email saying that our visa interview was scheduled for November 24 (36 days after the email was send). This email also has instructions of the documents you need to bring and information about the medical exams you need to do before the interview.

My fiancé came to Venezuela in order to be with me during the interview. There’s another post in my profile about how to get the Venezuelan tourist visa (any US citizen needs a tourist visa to go into Venezuela).

The documents we brought to the interview (also some advices of how get them):

- The confirmation letter that the US Embassy sent you with the date of your interview: They’ll send you this letter attached to the email where they tell you that your interview has a date.
- DS- 160 confirmation sheet (Beneficiary): You must fill in this form and bring it to the embassy, it is very important; you won’t be able to go in without it.
- NOA1, NOA2, NVC letters: They don’t ask for these letters but we included it in our binder in order to have proof of everything.
- Forms I-134/ I-864 Affidavit of Support: You need to fill in the form I-134 and bring it to the interview. If you don’t have a job or if you are not above the poverty line, then you will need a co-sponsor. This co-sponsor must fill out form I-864. Even if you have a co-sponsor, you must fill out the I-134 form.
- Form 1040 Individual income Tax Return (Petitionary): If you don’t have a job or if you don’t pay taxes then you’ll need the income tax form from your co-sponsor.
- Legalized birth certificate (Beneficiary): The beneficiary will need copies of his/her birth certificate. This birth certificate needs to be legalized by the principal register of the zone when he/her was born (in case you’re Venezuelan). In my case, I had to go to the principal register of Caracas (Registro principal de Caracas, Av. Urdaneta), you’ll need to bring to the register a copy of your birth certificate, it costs 1.700 BsF. You’ll have to wait 4 business days before you can have it.
- Peticionary’s birth certificate (copies, front and back).
- Police Certificate – Antecedentes Penales (Beneficiary): You’ll need a police certificate, this expires after 3 months so make sure you know when your interview will be so your certificate don’t expires before that day. My mom had a friend who helped her to get this certificate so I don’t have much information about it, you’ll need to go to the Ministerio de Relaciones Interiores, Justicia y Paz website and find the information for this (http://www.mpprij.gob.ve/).
- Medical Exams (Beneficiary): The US Embassy will send you in the email the options of the doctors that are authorized to give you these exams. You may NOT open the exams; the US Embassy has to open it. It’s expensive (10.000 BsF) and because of the situation of the country it’ll probably get more expensive so be prepared. If you need to, the Dr. might send you to get some vaccines. I went to the Sanity building in La Urbina (Calle 5 con calle 11, Edificio Anibrum. La Urbina). These vaccines are free, and you must have the international card and the certificate of vaccines so you can give them to the doctor.
- Fiance Letter of intent (Petitionary and Beneficiary): These letters are very similar to the ones you sent with the I-129F application, you must say that you’re still willing to marry to your fiance in the 90 days after your arrival to the US.
- Evidence of the relationship: You’ll need to bring any kind of evidence that you have of your relationship. We brought copies of boarding passes, tickets to places we went, receipts of places we went, pictures together, screenshot of skype video chats showing how long the conversations are, text messages and letters.
- We also attached a letter explaining how our relationship were in the past 9 months since the I-129F petition was send but they didn’t read it.
- Cash to pay the visa fees: You’ll have to pay the visa fees even if your visa is not approved, you can pay in US dollars or in Bolivares. ($265 or 1.669 BsF)

The day of the interview:

We arrived at 7:30 am, the visa interviews is in order of arrival. You’ll have to listen to one of the works that says all the rules in the embassy, there’s a lot of prohibit articles that you can’t bring in, including your cellphones. Women can go in with their bags but they have to make sure that they don’t have any prohibited articles in there. You can leave your phones in a small locker that’s in the entrance of the parking lot. You’ll have to pay 200 BsF per locker. Also you can’t bring binders that aren’t see through, we had a black binder and we had to throw it out before going in the embassy. After you listen to the worker explain the rules, you’ll start doing the line to go in. First they’ll check the letter where you have the date of your interview and they’ll give you a ticket. After this a security guard will check your bag and pockets to make sure you don’t have prohibited articles. Then you’ll wait on another line where a worker will check your passport and the DS-160 confirmation sheet. He’ll tell you to go straight to security without doing line because you’re going to immigration. Security is like an airport security, you’ll have to take off your jewelry and belts. After that you’ll go to the room where they do interviews with everybody, tourist visas and immigrant visas. In that room you’ll go near where window 12 is and you’ll take a number, after that you can sit down. After having the number we waited about an hour to an hour and a half before they called us.

The first interview (a Venezuelan lady that spoke English too):

She asked me in Spanish:

-How old are you?
-When is your birthday
-What’s your fiancé’s phone number
-Where do you live?
She had all of this information in front of her, so she was probably asking me these questions just to make sure that I am who I say I am.
-Do you speak Spanish? (To my fiance)
-Is this the first time you've seen each other?
-How long have you been together?
-How did you meet?
-Oh, you know his family? (She was looking at the pictures we brought, one of them were with all my fiancé’s family. This was a very important photo. She fixated on it before pulling it out and keeping it for the decision process.)
-What’s your fiancé’s address in the US?
-What’s your civil status?
-Have you married before?
-Has your fiance married before?
-How old are you? (To my Fiance)

This lady was nice, she was just doing her routine job, she took some of the pictures we brought including the ones with the family of my fiancé and the ones where we got engaged. This interview lasted about 17 minutes. After this, she told us to go to pay the visa fees and that after that another officer will call us to keep going with the interview.

The second interview (an American citizen):

We both said to him "Good morning".

He asked (in English):

-You both speak English?
-When did you get here? (To my fiance)
-Do you have a ticket go back? (To my fiance)
-Do you have a ticket to go to the US with him? (We said no because we don't want to buy a ticket until the visa gets approved.)
-Please put your left fingers here. That’s it guys, your visa is approved.

This officer was very nice to us, he smiled to us and he barely asked any questions. He had our case in his hand and he didn’t even open it. We feel that the fact that my fiance was there helped to get the visa approved without so many questions. This interview lasted less than two minutes.
After this you’ll have instructions to open a profile in a website to set an address where they can send you the passport and all your documents.

We really hope that this post helps you guys a lot, and if you have any question, please ask us. We’ll be very happy to help to all the in love couples out there.

[Elf 146]

- Moved from K-1 Process to K-1 Progress Reports -

- Duplicate thread removed. Please do not create the same topic in multiple subforums -

[Lyon#1 0]

Thank you for your testimony!

I would like to use the option of the letter also.

Thanks

[Spitfire1961 5]

Had my interview today and everything went well. All I need to do is wait for my passport and visa. Thank you VJ and to all the people who helped me and answer all my questions. God is so good! God bless to all of US!

[Jesus 54]

On 11/27/2015 at 2:34 PM, neyla_romero said:

This post is about our experience with the K-1 visa interview at the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela.

In September of this year (2015), we received our NOA2 saying that our application was approved and that I was eligible for a fiancé visa. About a month after that, we got an NVC letter with our case number saying that our case was sent to the US Embassy in Caracas. We waited 3 weeks after the NVC letter arrived and my fiance emailed the US Embassy in Caracas explaining our situation and asking for a date for the interview. He also added our USCIS receipt number, NVC case number, and both of our names, so they could have full information of our case (ImmigrantCaracas@state.gov). The US Embassy in Caracas won’t send you a package like other embassies, you must email them. A day after sending the email we got an email saying that our visa interview was scheduled for November 24 (36 days after the email was send). This email also has instructions of the documents you need to bring and information about the medical exams you need to do before the interview.

My fiancé came to Venezuela in order to be with me during the interview. There’s another post in my profile about how to get the Venezuelan tourist visa (any US citizen needs a tourist visa to go into Venezuela).

The documents we brought to the interview (also some advices of how get them):

- The confirmation letter that the US Embassy sent you with the date of your interview: They’ll send you this letter attached to the email where they tell you that your interview has a date.
- DS- 160 confirmation sheet (Beneficiary): You must fill in this form and bring it to the embassy, it is very important; you won’t be able to go in without it.
- NOA1, NOA2, NVC letters: They don’t ask for these letters but we included it in our binder in order to have proof of everything.
- Forms I-134/ I-864 Affidavit of Support: You need to fill in the form I-134 and bring it to the interview. If you don’t have a job or if you are not above the poverty line, then you will need a co-sponsor. This co-sponsor must fill out form I-864. Even if you have a co-sponsor, you must fill out the I-134 form.
- Form 1040 Individual income Tax Return (Petitionary): If you don’t have a job or if you don’t pay taxes then you’ll need the income tax form from your co-sponsor.
- Legalized birth certificate (Beneficiary): The beneficiary will need copies of his/her birth certificate. This birth certificate needs to be legalized by the principal register of the zone when he/her was born (in case you’re Venezuelan). In my case, I had to go to the principal register of Caracas (Registro principal de Caracas, Av. Urdaneta), you’ll need to bring to the register a copy of your birth certificate, it costs 1.700 BsF. You’ll have to wait 4 business days before you can have it.
- Peticionary’s birth certificate (copies, front and back).
- Police Certificate – Antecedentes Penales (Beneficiary): You’ll need a police certificate, this expires after 3 months so make sure you know when your interview will be so your certificate don’t expires before that day. My mom had a friend who helped her to get this certificate so I don’t have much information about it, you’ll need to go to the Ministerio de Relaciones Interiores, Justicia y Paz website and find the information for this (http://www.mpprij.gob.ve/).
- Medical Exams (Beneficiary): The US Embassy will send you in the email the options of the doctors that are authorized to give you these exams. You may NOT open the exams; the US Embassy has to open it. It’s expensive (10.000 BsF) and because of the situation of the country it’ll probably get more expensive so be prepared. If you need to, the Dr. might send you to get some vaccines. I went to the Sanity building in La Urbina (Calle 5 con calle 11, Edificio Anibrum. La Urbina). These vaccines are free, and you must have the international card and the certificate of vaccines so you can give them to the doctor.
- Fiance Letter of intent (Petitionary and Beneficiary): These letters are very similar to the ones you sent with the I-129F application, you must say that you’re still willing to marry to your fiance in the 90 days after your arrival to the US.
- Evidence of the relationship: You’ll need to bring any kind of evidence that you have of your relationship. We brought copies of boarding passes, tickets to places we went, receipts of places we went, pictures together, screenshot of skype video chats showing how long the conversations are, text messages and letters.
- We also attached a letter explaining how our relationship were in the past 9 months since the I-129F petition was send but they didn’t read it.
- Cash to pay the visa fees: You’ll have to pay the visa fees even if your visa is not approved, you can pay in US dollars or in Bolivares. ($265 or 1.669 BsF)

The day of the interview:

We arrived at 7:30 am, the visa interviews is in order of arrival. You’ll have to listen to one of the works that says all the rules in the embassy, there’s a lot of prohibit articles that you can’t bring in, including your cellphones. Women can go in with their bags but they have to make sure that they don’t have any prohibited articles in there. You can leave your phones in a small locker that’s in the entrance of the parking lot. You’ll have to pay 200 BsF per locker. Also you can’t bring binders that aren’t see through, we had a black binder and we had to throw it out before going in the embassy. After you listen to the worker explain the rules, you’ll start doing the line to go in. First they’ll check the letter where you have the date of your interview and they’ll give you a ticket. After this a security guard will check your bag and pockets to make sure you don’t have prohibited articles. Then you’ll wait on another line where a worker will check your passport and the DS-160 confirmation sheet. He’ll tell you to go straight to security without doing line because you’re going to immigration. Security is like an airport security, you’ll have to take off your jewelry and belts. After that you’ll go to the room where they do interviews with everybody, tourist visas and immigrant visas. In that room you’ll go near where window 12 is and you’ll take a number, after that you can sit down. After having the number we waited about an hour to an hour and a half before they called us.

The first interview (a Venezuelan lady that spoke English too):

She asked me in Spanish:

-How old are you?
-When is your birthday
-What’s your fiancé’s phone number
-Where do you live?
She had all of this information in front of her, so she was probably asking me these questions just to make sure that I am who I say I am.
-Do you speak Spanish? (To my fiance)
-Is this the first time you've seen each other?
-How long have you been together?
-How did you meet?
-Oh, you know his family? (She was looking at the pictures we brought, one of them were with all my fiancé’s family. This was a very important photo. She fixated on it before pulling it out and keeping it for the decision process.)
-What’s your fiancé’s address in the US?
-What’s your civil status?
-Have you married before?
-Has your fiance married before?
-How old are you? (To my Fiance)

This lady was nice, she was just doing her routine job, she took some of the pictures we brought including the ones with the family of my fiancé and the ones where we got engaged. This interview lasted about 17 minutes. After this, she told us to go to pay the visa fees and that after that another officer will call us to keep going with the interview.

The second interview (an American citizen):

We both said to him "Good morning".

He asked (in English):

-You both speak English?
-When did you get here? (To my fiance)
-Do you have a ticket go back? (To my fiance)
-Do you have a ticket to go to the US with him? (We said no because we don't want to buy a ticket until the visa gets approved.)
-Please put your left fingers here. That’s it guys, your visa is approved.

This officer was very nice to us, he smiled to us and he barely asked any questions. He had our case in his hand and he didn’t even open it. We feel that the fact that my fiance was there helped to get the visa approved without so many questions. This interview lasted less than two minutes.
After this you’ll have instructions to open a profile in a website to set an address where they can send you the passport and all your documents.

We really hope that this post helps you guys a lot, and if you have any question, please ask us. We’ll be very happy to help to all the in love couples out there.

Hi Neyla, I have a question by legalized birth certificate is this like apostillas? thank you