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| Bogota, Colombia |  Review on October 26, 2009: |
jimboy
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I went with my fiancee for her interview on October 22, 2009. First, we almost had a problem at Helm Bank when paying for the visa application fee. You must have the case number for the receipt. Just a minor detail, but a problem if you wait until the day before the interview to pay the
fee and get the receipt, which is affixed to the fiancee's passport.
The mechanics of how the documents must be arranged, which lines at the embassy are assigned for the different kind of visa applicants are discussed well by other VJ reports, so I won't repeat them. The interview was as intense as it could get, so be prepared.
A short history of how I met Monica might be insightful and explain the extremely through examination that she and I underwent at the interview. My best friend is a wealth lawyer and was in Medellin on business last year and met my fiancee at her law school during a conference there and through one of her professors. He offered her a scholarship to study in the U.S. (he is
presently sponsoring a young man from Malawi on a similar scholarship). She applied for a student's visa, and notwithstanding a full scholarship, she was refused. In October 2008 he returned to Medellin for some surgery, and I went with him. Monica came to the hospital to see my friend, and that is where we met, and we developed an interest in each other. I returned to spend time with Monica after Christmas 2008 and again in March 2009 at which time I proposed,
and she accepted. .I had the expected photos of our being together during those three different trips, my hotel bills, passport stamps, several hundred e-mails. . . . I thought it would be a five minute interview.
We arrived at 6:30 am and by the time we were admitted to the area for the interview, which is outside the actual embassy building, there were over a thousand people waiting for some type of interview. After the initial processing, we were told to set in an area which was designated for
family type visa applicants. At a little after noon, the process stopped for lunch and we were told the interviews would resume at 1:30 p.m. Monica was the first to be called after the lunch break and I approached the interview window - it is conducted through a window with a telephone - but was instructed to set down and that I would be interviewed separately. Monica was interviewed
by a very pleasant but very persistent man who said that he was from Spain, originally. I got the impression that he was not a U.S. official.
Her interview was the only one conducted by him the entire day. Monica’s questioning took 42 minutes, and she left the window in tears. I was motioned to the window, and was questioned in depth about my friend, why he would offer a scholarship, etc. I have know this man for 25 years, and I was questioned about information the interviewer knew that would only have been known by someone who had done serious, serious study. In sum, the interviewer had reviewed my fiancee’s prior application for a student visa and had really, really done his homework. And this was an area that my fiancee and I had not really discussed because our relationship is real and we didn’t think her prior application was an issue. It was.
Additional, after we were engaged in March, Monica decided to do a backpacking trip through a number of counties in South America. She had withdrawn from her law school studies in January in expectation of studying in the U.S. based on her scholarship. She was questioned substantially about her travels. The interviewer wanted to know why she was traveling, where she stayed, who paid for her travels. . . . He ask me if I knew about her trip, and I tried to show
him the e-mails that we had exchanged during her sabbatical, but he firmly said: “just answer my questions, sir”.
The interviewer was always very pleasant, but very probing and would ask the same question two or three different ways. He wrote down every answer that Monica and I gave during our
respective questioning. He ask questions that we didn’t expect, for example: where was our first kiss, where was the first restaurant that we went to, he ask if my fiancee had any scars, tatoos,
piercings, etc. At bottom, if we did not have a bona fide relationship, there was no way we could have given consistent answers. All total, the interview took a little over an hour. At the conclusion we were simply told: “an officer will be with you shortly, sit down”.
A couple of hours later, the embassy started shutting down for the day. The shades of one window after another were being closed and the guards began securing the area. Finally, all of the applicants (remember there were well over 1,000 people there at 7 a.m.) were gone. We were the last two people left in this vast open area. I didn’t know what to do or what was going on.
Finally, the shade or shutter of a window was opened and an very professional looking female officer called Monica’s name over the loud speaker, and you could see that she had a thick packet of documents in her hand. Monica and I approached the window, the officer smiled and said the application is approved - you are going the U.S. and getting married, and we were directed to pay
the delivery fee. I have no doubt that had I not gone to the interview the application would have been denied. The experience was so intense that Monica told me as we were waiting that there was nothing in life that she wanted more than be married to me, but that if she had to return for another interview that she simply couldn’t go through that again.
The diesel and gasoline filled air of Bogata never felt so fresh and clean. We stayed up almost all night recounting the events of the day and then were able to again look to the future. She will arrive the first week of November. What an ordeal!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #5137