Consulate Review: Dominican Republic
Review Topic: Direct Consular Filing
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
June 25, 2012 |
| Embassy Review : |
I'm not one for sharing much, but since I found so much help in this website I knew I had to post my experience in case that it could help somebody else. We were approved!
It might be a bit long because I relate a bit about DCF process, Medical Exam experience, and the Interview.
We filed for DCF (Direct Consular Filing). It was hard to figure out wether it was possible to do it or not until my husband asked on http://Dominicanstotheusa.com.
So the first step was to call USCIS (809-221-2171 ext. 6608) Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. To 11 a.m. to make an appointment to take the required documents to file the I-130 properly. Note: One thing we learned is that having the necessary documents will save you time and headaches. We started calling this number.
The Info people outside will most likely have no idea what DCF is so you'll need to educate them which means going there and asking them will be of no help.
We tried for about a week to call this number with no luck, and decided to simply show up. We went on May 2nd (Wednesday), they told us they only work with DCF on Thursdays, they made an appointment for us for May 3rd. Well, it turned out that they didn't really made an appointment for us bud after a lot of arguing they let us in. We went to window 25, turns out we were missing the original of two documents and had to come back in a week, the following Thursday. (A whole week delay because we didn't get the correct documentation!!)
May 10th was when we finally filed the I-130. After that it was simply waiting. From other people who had done DCF we knew our answer could come any time from 3 to 6 weeks. It was 4 weeks 4 days, June 11th, 2012. I called my husband at work to give him the news and we started gathering the documents we needed, filling the forms.
We went to get the medical on June 13th (Wednesday). My husband went with me but couldn't come in to Consultorio de Visas. He waited outside.
In there things ran smoothly, I never waited for too long. You go in, make a line to pay for the exams and vaccinations. First you get the X Rays, then they take your blood. A young girl drew my blood, which wasn't painful but I don't think she had much experience about it. 15 minutes later I was still bleeding. You do these two things without waiting to be called. After that you wait to be called for the medical exam where they weight you and feel your heart. You have to be in your underwear. Because I'm shy it was a bit uncomfortable because this people work so fast they don't care much, but it was nothing unbearable. Then you get in the vaccine line and if you are as much afraid of needles as I am, your heart stops. The vaccines didn't hurt at all though, except for the next day when I got a fever and felt like I couldn't move my arm. This only lasted for about a day and a half.
Then you sit and wait for a CD and the vaccinations report and you are free to leave. I was told at the beginning when I paid that since I had an Open Cita I needed to go get my results. On June 22nd (Friday). Which meant my appointment would be Monday, June 25th.
From then on waiting to the Cita I wasn't nervous about the approval or not, somehow my husband and I were so normal and our relationship was so solid and good, we had no red flags at all. We thought about all the reasons people got denied and there was nothing they could tell us.
We thought about the Red Flags, even though we didn't have any knowing them can help prepare a couple for the questioning that could come because of it, I read so many interview accounts and saw these red flags be overcome by honesty, patience, and preparedness.
I think people should dress the part, if you do a careful examination of your relationship and think one of the red flags could make them question your motives in the relationship, you better do not give them extra doubts by not dressing properly.
For me this was an important day, my relationship didn't depend on it, but my happiness in the near future did. I could not imagine my husband leaving without me, it would have broken my heart and his. You get married to be with the person you love, you do not want to be miles apart.
Despite this certainty that we would get approved, I couldn't sleep and so I read every interview account in the DR posted here in VisaJourney. I am serious I read each one of them, it's all I could do every night. Some of them reassured me that we would be okay, others shattered my confidence. I would tell my husband about some and he acted pissed off, he was mad at his own Embassy and got very defensive so I told him, baby, you don't know yet... calm down, maybe they'll treat us nice. Days went by like this, I fired him up and then it was my responsibility to calm him down.
On June 22nd, we went to get the results with a big red tape, Do Not Open. We didn't. It was a 10 minutes kind of thing and it sucked going to Santo Domingo just for that.
On Sunday, June 24th, we went to stay at Marriott. We sat and talked together, not much about the Interview, we were done with that. There was a Criminal Minds Marathon on AXN and we watched that until bed time.
This morning, June 25th, 2012 we woke up at 5.30 a.m. We had decided to get there at 6 a.m. but changed our mind to 6:15 a.m., so we got there, the line seemed long but very soon we were let in.
A cocky part of me thought we would be out of there by 9 a.m., so imagine that it was 9 and they haven't even call us once, not even to give my paperwork. I started to freak out, my husband had always been calm, but he was visibly desperate. They were calling people they had already called, for fingerprints and then for Interviews. A couple had been approved and was leaving and I was completely sure they had forgotten about our existence.
And then, they called us. We go, I give them my documents, everything was in order and we sat again. It was about another hour before they called us for fingerprinting, that was really fast and we sat down. I had come to terms with the wait and we both zoned out, I heard them call our number to window 19 but it didn't register. I saw it in the screen and thought to myself, that's my number. But didn't stand up or did anything, it was the weirdest thing. I poke my husband and tell him that's our number and then he stands up, OMG, and it finally sinks in, We need to go to the window, it's Interview time!
We go there, English or Spanish, we chose English because even though my husband has been living here for 2 years his Spanish is non-existent. The guy said, bear with me, this is the first time I do this in English this morning and swears us in. I had already seen the green slip and felt very calm and good about everything. My husband, who hadn't been nervous at all through the whole process chose rambling to show his nerves. I had read they don't like rambling and so got very nervous but did nothing to stop him, his rambling paid off.
Do you have kids in common? No
Where do you plan to live in the US?
When did you get married? April 15th (this is the only question I answered, my husband took up all the other questions and added more than needed lol)
When did we meet?
What did he do for work?
The guy said, Well, I'm going to go ahead and approve your Visa, we said thank you and went to pay Domex. We chose to pick it up in Santo Domingo, so they told me to call on Thursday and check on it.
It was about eleven by then.
Thank You everyone who has tell us about your experiences in other to help others!
Ah P.S. We had a bunch of proof (quite heavy to carry) but they didn't want to see anything. They told us they had seen the pictures we turned in with the I-130, so I would recommend people to submit as many proof as possibly with it as it makes it easy on the interview day. |
| Rating : |
Very Good |
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ver 5.0