Interview gone HORRIBLY wrong!

[shannon65 2]

Hi Jennifer, sorry this happened to you. I had a somewhat similar experience at the embassy at Seoul. I was visiting my fiance at the time he went to the interview. He went by himself, when he came back he said they wanted me to come with him because they had questions about the relationship. It's very fortunate I was there, I'm not sure what they would have done - a phone call like you got maybe? They didn't ask for any more evidence, I think they just wanted to see us together and get a better feel for the relationship. The red flags for them were he has several children and was unemployed at the time of the application. I think it went into AP for a short time but it was lifted. He was denied the visa but it was for other reasons, he requires a waiver which we are about to submit. Good luck to you.

[JenK 0]

Hi Jennifer, sorry this happened to you. I had a somewhat similar experience at the embassy at Seoul. I was visiting my fiance at the time he went to the interview. He went by himself, when he came back he said they wanted me to come with him because they had questions about the relationship. It's very fortunate I was there, I'm not sure what they would have done - a phone call like you got maybe? They didn't ask for any more evidence, I think they just wanted to see us together and get a better feel for the relationship. The red flags for them were he has several children and was unemployed at the time of the application. I think it went into AP for a short time but it was lifted. He was denied the visa but it was for other reasons, he requires a waiver which we are about to submit. Good luck to you.

Good luck to you too! I really really really wish I had been able to be there. Unfortunately I am in a college class with mandatory attendance and I would have to repeat the whole course if I missed even one day. Otherwise I would have made every effort to be there. I'm glad to hear your AP got lifted though, I have read too many times now that it is not. I wish you luck with the waiver!

The days are moving so unbelievably slowly as we wait. Living life on pins and needles is no fun.

Jennifer

[shannon65 2]

Hi Jennifer, sorry this happened to you. I had a somewhat similar experience at the embassy at Seoul. I was visiting my fiance at the time he went to the interview. He went by himself, when he came back he said they wanted me to come with him because they had questions about the relationship. It's very fortunate I was there, I'm not sure what they would have done - a phone call like you got maybe? They didn't ask for any more evidence, I think they just wanted to see us together and get a better feel for the relationship. The red flags for them were he has several children and was unemployed at the time of the application. I think it went into AP for a short time but it was lifted. He was denied the visa but it was for other reasons, he requires a waiver which we are about to submit. Good luck to you.

Good luck to you too! I really really really wish I had been able to be there. Unfortunately I am in a college class with mandatory attendance and I would have to repeat the whole course if I missed even one day. Otherwise I would have made every effort to be there. I'm glad to hear your AP got lifted though, I have read too many times now that it is not. I wish you luck with the waiver!

The days are moving so unbelievably slowly as we wait. Living life on pins and needles is no fun.

Jennifer

It sounds like you have a lot more evidence now and I think you'll be OK. I think they did not require more evidence from me because I had phone bills and e-mails (not all of them, just a sample). I did not even notice the AP box was checked off on the denial letter (and the consulate didn't mention it) until several months after the denial. I e-mailed the embassy and they said AP had been completed. The interviewer asked us a lot of questions about why we'd want to marry someone from a culture so different, but at the end she said we sounded sincere and she'd take it at face value. I think she ran it by her supervisor though and that's why the AP. I know all about time moving slowly and I hope they get your evidence and make a quick decision to approve. Waivers are much more complicated and required a lot of time and documentation and letter writing... Good luck for your process..

[JenK 0]

Thank you! I hope so too! They should get the paperwork tomorrow, and Kim is going to call on Tuesday, and my lawyer and the senator's office are faxing the consulate on Tuesday to try to ensure they got it. However, there is no way to know if they will actually READ It and not throw it on a desk someplace. He DID say to send anything in that might help our case even though he did NOT write anything on the 221(g) so I hope he remembers that. We are going to be as persistent as possible.

I just wish I could stop running all the moments of this interview through my head. I wish time would pass more quickly. I wish to have either a "yes" or a "no" SOON so we can move on from there. I've just seen that when they give time estimates as to how quickly they are going to do something, it never happens as fast as they say it is going to.

I will keep you posted and good luck to everyone!!

Jennifer

[dropped 0]

I must admit that reading this thread put a serious damper on things for me as I'm hoping to go through the interview process in Stockholm in a not too distant future. Is it possible that the reason the CO needs more convincing (regardless of documentation) is that the two of you met online perhaps?

[Minya's wife 24]

I must admit that reading this thread put a serious damper on things for me as I'm hoping to go through the interview process in Stockholm in a not too distant future. Is it possible that the reason the CO needs more convincing (regardless of documentation) is that the two of you met online perhaps?

Many people pursuing K-1's all over the world met online and it did not impede them at all in securing their visa....so no, I don't think it has much to do w/ it. Read the OP's original post, not much of their initially submitted evidence was proving an ongoing relationship, which probably made the CO curious enough to investigate further....which then snowballed into the situation 'today'.

However, they did not seem satisfied with what he brought in as far as evidence of our relationship. We had our letters of intent, letters I sent him, pictures of us together, ticket stubs from his trip here, his proposal letter to me , but apparently this was not sufficient. We do not call each other because of the cost, and if we do, we use prepaid phone cards, so we have no phone bills. We have no e-mails because we do not e-mail back and forth, we talk on MSN. We have chat logs we are going to send in as more evidence.

These are not items that prove(convincingly) an ongoing relationship. More items were/are needed that show a progression of dates - chat logs (showing ongoing conversations), e-mails, phone call logs.These are the types of things used to prove ongoing relationship....and sadly these things were not presented/looked at during this interview.

-P

[dropped 0]

I must admit that reading this thread put a serious damper on things for me as I'm hoping to go through the interview process in Stockholm in a not too distant future. Is it possible that the reason the CO needs more convincing (regardless of documentation) is that the two of you met online perhaps?

Many people pursuing K-1's all over the world met online and it did not impede them at all in securing their visa....so no, I don't think it has much to do w/ it.

I was just thinking that maybe this particular CO has a problem with relationships that started online. I wasn't saying that relationships started online cannot flourish - I have friends who met on a BBB back in '95 and are now married expecting their first child - I'm just saying that some people are biased against such.

Read the OP's original post, not much of their initially submitted evidence was proving an ongoing relationship, which probably made the CO curious enough to investigate further....which then snowballed into the situation 'today'.

I read the whole thread but I must admit that when JenK said KimS had brought her letters with him that there was enough to prove "ongoing." Regardless, I'm learning tons from this thread!

[Minya's wife 24]

I read the whole thread but I must admit that when JenK said KimS had brought her letters with him that there was enough to prove "ongoing." Regardless, I'm learning tons from this thread!

There's nothing the OP has said that indicates that this CO had such a bias for online relationships...but who knows.

In today's "instant communication" world, really...a lot more than snail mail letters are needed to prove that you are in a fiancee relationship w/ someone. The OP states somewhere further in the thread that their mode of constant communication is CHAT, yet they did not initially include those chat logs.

So it is a good think to keep in mind, that at the consulate stage, one should be focused on proving that the relationship is not only a bona-fide one, but it is also on-going. And....bring as much evidence as you can with you to the interview....if they don't ask for it then you carried a few extra pounds of $heit for nothing, but if they do ask for it, you have it available to present.

-P

[JenK 0]

I read the whole thread but I must admit that when JenK said KimS had brought her letters with him that there was enough to prove "ongoing." Regardless, I'm learning tons from this thread!

There's nothing the OP has said that indicates that this CO had such a bias for online relationships...but who knows.

In today's "instant communication" world, really...a lot more than snail mail letters are needed to prove that you are in a fiancee relationship w/ someone. The OP states somewhere further in the thread that their mode of constant communication is CHAT, yet they did not initially include those chat logs.

So it is a good think to keep in mind, that at the consulate stage, one should be focused on proving that the relationship is not only a bona-fide one, but it is also on-going. And....bring as much evidence as you can with you to the interview....if they don't ask for it then you carried a few extra pounds of $heit for nothing, but if they do ask for it, you have it available to present.

-P

Yeah we learned the hard way that we needed more evidence, I just hope its not too late. We honestly just didnt know and our lawyer didnt tell us. She said the interview would be "5 minutes, and easy" so we had the impression that there was really nothing to it, so we didnt make a big deal out of it. We thought we had a guaranteed "yes" pretty much, but now we find that to have been ANYTHING but the truth. Now it might be too late, especially if the CO is convinced that our relationship is not valid, I don't know if anything we do at this point will change his mind. But I really hope it does.

I guess if anything comes out of this, I hope others learn from it and that they don't make the same mistake. This might be a mistake that will mean months or even years of misery for the two of us because we won't be able to be together.

The consulate received the FedEx package I sent today. Who got it I don't know. If they will read it I don't know. If it will make any difference I don't know. I hope the senator's office can get a response from the CO confirming that they got it and have looked at it. I will keep you posted.

Jennifer

[JenK 0]

Day 6 of waiting for CO reply

Today my fiance called the embassy and this is what we found out. The lady on the phone was very polite and said that apparently 99% of ALL cases going through the Embassy in Sweden get put on AP. Why? For additional time to review the files. They usually like to review them all on Fridays when the Embassy is quiet. They very very rarely make a decision in one day. They say the usual time is about two weeks. She says we should probably know something by next week sometime.

She says she wasn't sure if the mail had gotten to the consular officer, but my lawyer sent a very nice fax stating what evidence was sent, that two separate envelopes were sent, and that she hoped this additional evidence would confirm a bona fide relationship so that the visa could be issued. The senate's office sent one too, but I didn't see a copy of that. The consulate should get both tomorrow, and I know they pay attention and reply to things from the senator's office.

I guess it is just how this particular consulate operates, which is very different from most I've seen. They just seem to want to be more thorough. So if your honey is in Sweden, do not expect your interview to be over in one day. Do expect to be put on AP. I guess its good to know your embassy, but I tried to research it and there was very little information on the embassy in Sweden. There is a list of embassies on this site but Sweden is not on the list.

This makes us feel a bit more positive that things might be ok and we still might get the visa. All I know is time has never moved more slowly. I will keep you posted.

Jennifer

[rebeccajo 14]

I see four reviews for Stockholm in the Embassy/USCIS reviews section of VJ.....

[JenK 0]

I see four reviews for Stockholm in the Embassy/USCIS reviews section of VJ.....

Geez I never even read those! I didn't know those were there. Hmm, seems that ALL of theirs went smoothly AND quickly and ended in one day. One review was from THIS month. So it does not seem like it is true that 99% get put on AP. Now I'd like to know what the REAL story is over there. Did this lady on the phone misinform us? Why did everyone else's go so quickly and smoothly when our interview took ALL day? Now I'm confused once again.

Jennifer

[JenK 0]

DAY 7 WAITING for CO reply....

Interesting developments. The consulate officer called my lawyer today while I was at school! Apparently he read the wrong phone number off of the fax letter that the lawyer sent them asking if they got our information, because he seemed surprised when my lawyer answered the phone. He said he was trying to reach me because he had 2 questions to ask me about the information I sent in (which means he GOT it). She said well, she is at school during this time. She asked if she could help him answer the questions but he said no. He then said ok, I will try to reach her tomorrow then.

So I have now forwarded ALL my calls to my cellphone so I can carry it with me at ALL times. That way I can be sure I will not miss his call. I am so nervous now I am shaking! I am wondering WHAT on EARTH he could be calling me to ask! I just hope I have the answers! I'd hate to think this whole thing is hinging on the answer to two questions. I'm hoping its just to verify things or something. Now every time the phone rings I am going to jump!!!!

My lawyer seems to think he will call me very early in the morning here, though I bet he will call me in the middle of my test tomorrow while I'm at school, but I will let my teacher know I am expecting the call and there is NO WAY I'm not taking it! She's cool, she will understand, and I'm sure everyone in my class will be listening in! I dont know how I am going to study now, or sleep for that matter!

My lawyer says he sounded positive about everything though, and he still does have Kim's passport, so things just might be looking up! Maybe, maybe?! I'll let you know!

Jennifer

[rebeccajo 14]

This is nervewracking for me. I can't imagine how you feel.....

[JenK 0]

This is nervewracking for me. I can't imagine how you feel.....

I have never been more nervous in my ENTIRE LIFE!

I just wish I had gotten his call TODAY so now I didn't have to WAIT like this!

Jennifer