Consulate Review: Dominican Republic
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
October 28, 2014 |
| Embassy Review : |
• Arrival/lining up: We arrived before 6. We asked someone official-looking where to line up, and were sent to the non-immigrant line. I figured this was right, because the K1 visa is a non-immigrant visa. When they started lining folks up, we found out that we had to move to the immigrant visa/residency line that was specifically for 6:45 AM appointments. The line was long, but it moved pretty quickly.
• Entering the consulate: When you enter, you need you invitation letter in hand and can't have electronics. When we got to the waiting area, we were given our number and sat down.
• First window/paying the fee: After some time, we were called up to a window. We gave the woman there the following documents:
o A passport photo of my fiancé.
o The DS-160 confirmation.
o The unsigned DS-156 (she would have given us one if we didn't have a copy).
o The Banco Popular receipt.
o The medical results.
o My fiancé's certificate of good conduct.
Then, the woman at the window gave us a ticket to take to go pay the $105 and told us to return to the same window after paying. After we returned, she sent us to the fingerprinting window.
• Fingerprinting window: They took my fiancé's fingerprints and gave us the pamphlet about domestic abuse. Then, we were sent to sit and wait until called for the interview.
• Interview: I think I have the order of events mostly right for this part… We were called up pretty quickly (we didn't hear an announcement for this, so it was good that we kept looking at the screen). When we got to the window, my fiancé had to put the four fingers of his left hand on the fingerprinting machine. The CO swore us in in Spanish then asked if I understood. I said yes. At some point during the interview, he asked my fiancé if he had read the pamphlet about domestic abuse (so take a few minutes to read it while you’re waiting). The CO asked what language I preferred during the interview, and I said that English would be easier. During the rest of the interview, the CO mostly spoke to me in English and my fiancé in Spanish. I mostly spoke English, but spoke to my fiancée in Spanish and asked one or two questions in Spanish. The CO asked the following questions (which I have paraphrased/translated):
o To me:
• How long have you been together?
• How did you meet?
• Follow-up questions that related to where we met and to my fiancés nickname. (I asked my fiancé to help clarify one of the questions.)
• How many times have you visited?
• Do you stay together? Where do you stay?
o To my fiancé:
• How many times has she visited? (The CO said something about it being a lot.)
• What do you do together when she visits? When my fiancé mentioned that we had gone to a resort,
the CO also asked who had paid.
Then, we had some confusion about why we wrote our telephone numbers and email addresses on the green paper. I explained that the woman at the first window that we had gone to had instructed us to do so. Finally, the CO took out his stamp, paused for effect, looked at my fiancé, and told him that his visa was approved. He said to expect the visa in 3 weeks. I asked if it might be sooner, and he explained that it could take more time or less time.
• Domex: We went to the Domex window. paid the $11, and requested that my fiancé be able to pick the packed up in their office.
• Notes:
o My fiancé spoke Spanish with the folks at each window. I spoke a mix of English and Spanish.
o Overall, it was quick and easy. We were out by around 9:30!
o It was clean and comfortable and everyone was pleasant.
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| Rating : |
Very Good |
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ver 5.0