Consulate Review: Bogota, Colombia
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
July 8, 2017 |
| Embassy Review : |
My interview was scheduled for July 5th, 2017 at the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. The visa interview was for the K1 Fiance Visa. I am writing this review as the U.S. (male) Petitioner for my fiance the Colombian (female) beneficiary.
Here is my review......
Our interview appointment time was 7am in the morning. If you can I suggest you take the 7am interview time instead of 9am because of Bogota traffic. We wanted to take no chances, considering Bogota traffic can be horrendous, so we arrived early. There was virtually no traffic when we traveled because we left so early. We arrived an hour early at about 6am. This was wayyy too early. The embassy doesn't allow anyone inside this early. They don't even allow people to start a line outside the visa applicant entrance. Instead everyone who arrives early is to stand across the street, on the corner of Carrera 50 and Calle 24 Bis . It's a dirt area and you'll probably see a mass of people standing there. When we arrived at 6am there was already a few people there, but we didn't know about standing over there. We heard them whistling and waving us over to them, but in Bogota you don't just walk over to random strangers calling you to them, so we stayed put until a police officer told us we needed to stand and wait over there. So now it made sense why those guys were calling us over there.
Like I said we arrived at 6am so we were very early. It wasn't till about 6:45 when the women came over the speaker system to start calling applicants. Luckily, the K1 Visa applicants were the first ones to be called. All K applicants (K1,K2,K3,K4) were to enter and go to Line 3. So we entered the embassy grounds at about 6:50am. So if you are wondering what time to get there? Get there 15-20 minutes before your appointment time. Anymore than that and you'll be waiting around a lot like us.
Upon entering the grounds and walking into "line 3" (a big sign with a 3 on it made it clear which line is line 3) there was two girls who were checking everyone's documents to make sure we were in the right line. One by one they went into the check-in tent. Eventually it was our turn. The girl brought us under the check-in tent and gave us "K" stickers to place on our shirts and then handed us a piece of paper telling us how they want the paperwork ordered. This part surprised me because they asked for MUCH less than what we brought. I wish I still had the piece of paper but from my memory they asked for the following:
-2 Passport style photographs of the beneficiary
-DS-160 Confirmation Page
-Original Birth Certificate of the Beneficiary (We got a notarized copy from the records building in Bogota and it was perfect. I also added a translated copy of birth certificate but later in this process they removed it)
-Photocopy of the original birth certificate
-Police report (Certificados Judiciales" from the www.policia.gov website. (A simple print out of the websites page showing my fiances clear status worked for us)
-Form I-134 Affidavit of Support (from petitioner)
-Letter from Employer with your job position, salary (yearly & hourly), date of hire, and stating whether employment is permanent or temporary.
-12 months of paystubs
-Most current Tax Year W2's
-Most current Tax Year tax returns (I gave Federal, State, and Local tax filings. Gave it all, though I believe just Federal is required, but they took all of them)
-Medical Exam sealed packets
-Current Passport of the beneficiary
That's it. Notice in that list nothing about "evidence of relationship". That is what surprised me. I brought all kinds of photos, flight tickets, hotel receipts, passport stamps, engagement ring receipts, etc.... and none of that was asked for. Also, for the I-134 form I brought banking statements for 1 year from my checking and savings account and brought my stocks statement, but again none of that was asked for.
Anyways, as mentioned, I attended the interview with my beneficiary fiance, so she carried the above listed items as a packet we made from the list they gave us, and I carried everything else we brought that wasn't in that list they provided us.
After leaving the check-in tent we went into the security building. It's a small little building with a walk-thru metal detector and a personal items scanner machine on the side. Just like what you'd encounter at an airport. We had to take off our shoes and belts. And empty our pockets, etc. Just like an airport. My fiance did not have to take her earrings and jewelry off though. They also tell us to turn cell phones OFF.
After the security checkpoint building we walked into a nice little courtyard and then into the interview pavilion. Upon entering the interview pavilion a man greeted us and pointed us to our next station, which in this case he told us to walk over to two girls at a table. So we walked over to the girls and they took my fiances name, highlighted it on a piece of paper they had, they checked our paperwork packet my fiance was holding (this is where they removed the English translation of birth certificate and gave it back to me), then they told us to have a seat and wait to be called. About 10 minutes later the same girls from the table called my fiances name and told us which window to go to.
We both stood at the interview window assigned to us and my fiance picked up the phone to talk to the lady behind the glass barrier. An important note, this is NOT the interview yet, this is what is considered a "PRE-INTERVIEW". The interview windows are color coded. If I remember correctly GREEN is for immigrant visas (like the K1) and blue is for non-immigrant visa's. So at this pre-interview the lady asked to see all our paperwork (which we had put together at the check-in tent earlier). I could not hear the conversation because I didn't have a phone to listen in, but she asked lots of questions about my fiance and NOT about me. Most of them were simple Yes or No questions. She only asked two questions about me, she asked my fiance what was my full name and my full address. So my fiance had to recite my full address, which she knew and she did say it correctly. I watched the lady go thru our packet. She looked at my I-134 Affidavit of Support form but only looked at the page I had to sign to see if it was signed, that's all. After that she took out a pair of scissors and opened up the medical exam packets. She looked thru the results and placed it back in the packet. Then the lady gave my fiance a slip of paper she had to sign. It was basically an intent to marry paper saying she intended to marry me within 90 days of entering the USA. Next she asked my fiance for a family point of contact. So my fiance gave the lady the phone number of her mother in Colombia. After that she put all the paperwork together and binder clipped it together with a plastic card that had a number on it. That number was our number for the real interview. She told us to go over to the interview section of the pavilion and have a seat and wait for our number to be called. We were number 18. The lady said the interview windows don't open till 9am. At this time it was about 8:40am. So we walked over to the seats next to the green Immigrant Visa interview windows and sat down and waited.
As we waited for the interview windows to open up, there was a little coffee stand next to the windows. So you can get a coffee if you need it. This entire interview pavilion is outdoors so it does get cold in there, especially in the morning. So a hot coffee could help the shaking from the cold and maybe help settle the nervousness and anxiety shaking too. Though the entire interview pavilion is outdoors, it is covered via a roof, so if it is raining you won't get wet. But everything before this, like "line 3" earlier in this process, and the courtyard, and the waiting on the corner of the street is all outdoors, so if it is raining, bring an umbrella. The security building is indoors and the check-in tent, as worded, is a covered tent. It was at this point, sitting down waiting for the interviews to start that I took the opportunity to see what other people were wearing. This varied widely from a suit and tie, to just jeans and a jacket. I myself wore a business casual outfit. Dress shoes, charcoal pants, long sleeve button up shirt. And my fiance wore an outfit a little more casual than I. She wore a white shirt with a light gray button up sweater and dark pants. The attire though did not seem to matter much. But do dress like you are serious. No shorts or t-shirts. It is cold in Bogota so dress warmly. I was under dressed for warmth and was shaking like crazy.
Okay, so the interview windows started opening up. We were number 18 and they started calling numbers at number 11. So I thought we'd be waiting awhile but no, numbers 1-10 were skipped over. At first only one window opened, then two windows, then three windows opened. It stayed at three interview windows the entire time we were there. Every girl before us, after there interview, would turn around and walk past us with a big, joyous smile on there face, obviously being approved. So that helped settle our nerves a little. Eventually they called us, number 18. The calling of numbers happens over a speaker system, so it's easy to hear. We both walked up to the interview window they called us to. My fiance picked up the phone, handed the interviewer the paperwork thru the bottom slot in the glass window, and we started the interview. The very first thing she asked my fiance was to place her fingers on the fingerprint pad for her fingerprints, which she did. Then she asked who was that who was with her at the window. My fiance told the lady it was her fiance, the petitioner. The lady then told her to tell me that I could go have a seat....... Yep, that's right. Made it all the way to the interview to be with my fiance and I was told to leave. So I picked up my little binder of paperwork, turned around with everyone staring at me like something is wrong, I went and sat down, while my fiance stayed at the window. It felt like a walk of shame, as everyone stared at me with puzzled eyes because the one other "couple" (everyone else was without their fiance. Just us and another couple were together), the other couple there before us got to stay together during the entire interview, but they had a different interviewer. Apparently it is at the discretion of the interviewer if the petitioner can join the interview. We had an oriental girl, young girl, but who seemed pissed off and she seemed like she hated us. So she had me go away and sit down.
Anyways, at this point I sat down and timed my fiances interview. It lasted about 7 minutes. Probably 8 minutes total including the 1 minute I was able to join her in the beginning. The list of questions my fiance remembers the lady asking her was:
-My Full Name?
-My address?
-My birthday?
-How many times I visited? (The answer was 7 times)
-She asked how was I able to afford 7 trips? What do I do for a living?
-Have either of us ever been married or divorced?
-Have either of us had children?
-How did we meet? (Open ended question she had to tell the story, but make it brief and quick)
-How long have we been together?
-How and when did I propose to her?
-Did I give her a ring? (The answer was yes and my fiance said the interviewer then looked for the ring on my fiances finger. She wore a decoy ring because the real ring was way too expensive and valuable to wear in Bogota).
-Have you ever been arrested?
-Have you ever been to or lived in the USA? (The answer to this was yes, and this started a firestorm of interrogation because my fiance was illegally (her parents overstayed their Visa) in the USA when she was 4 years old till 12 years old).
-Why were you in the USA?
-Were you there legally?
-Do you think it's okay to illegally stay in the USA?
(At this point my fiance said she went back and forth with the interviewer defending herself and explaining everything. Luckily, my fiance was a minor, 4 years old, taken to the USA against her will by her parents, and that's what she said and that's what saved her. Being a minor that illegal immigration status/record isn't counted against her, so this whole issue was moot and void but the interviewer really sank her teeth into this).
After the interrogation, I won't even call it a interview at this point, the lady said you are approved and your visa will be ready for pick-up at the DHL location we choose in 2 weeks. Whooohoooooo!!!!!!! She then handed my fiance a domestic abuse pamphlet and that was it. They hung up, and my fiance walked over to me a Visa approved women!!!!
After that we walked out the same way we walked in, we got in our taxi (which was a friend of ours) and headed home!
All in all the Embassy process went very well. I gave the review a 4/5 rating because our interviewer was very rude and unfriendly and it seemed she was digging deep to try and reject us. But ultimately we were cleared and approved. Every other step of the embassy went very well with very nice people. The process was orderly and quite easy. They say the rejection rate at the Colombia Embassy is about 20%, or 2 in 10 people get rejected, but while I was there I only saw smiles. As long as you know your fiance, have answers to the questions you'll be asked, and have all the paperwork correct, and of course don't lie, then you'll be fine. I prepared so much and spent so much time putting evidence of relationship together, and putting banking statements together etc, but none of it was ever asked for. So my advice to you would be still bring that stuff, but don't go overboard putting it together, with hundreds of photos and chat logs, etc... as most likely it won't be asked for.
If anyone has any further questions, please don't hesitate to send me a private message and I'll help you the best I can.
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| Rating : |
Good |
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ver 5.0