U.S. Embassy Moscow: K-1 visa interview experience

[EricD 0]

If you would like a detailed description of my fiancee's experience in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, read on. She wrote this because she knows that it is a stressful experience, and the more you know what to expect, perhaps the less nervous you will be. Obviously your experience may be different - but probably not much. So without further ado:

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OK,

In order to go into the building you need to have your Russian passport and invitation card from the US embassy (pink document).. Really I was surprised a little that nobody told about we need to have our Russian passport.. There is no information about it in their website.. probably they thought that every Russian has his Russian passport with him every day.. well I had it with me only because I was going to the embassy.. and had it just in case.. Guard checked out bags and us, took away the water and let us to come in.

Inside another guard told us to switch off and to take her our mobiles and take off our coats.. then - another check for out coats and bags (as in airport)..

Inside we found that their equipment, which should give us number of turn, did not work. Guards did not help us absolutely - they told "read the information and press the green button".. So good advice after we explained them, that we did it already 10 times and even more.. but I guess they were programmed to tell only "press the green button, press the green button"..

So we had no choice but to forget about it and to go straightly.. There is no any information window in the embassy!.. All what we could was to find somebody who worked there and to ask them where we should go.. At last we (me and 2 other girls) went to window number 6 (it was window for immigrants), and again should show our Russian passports (!)..

In some time they began to call us the this window (number 6), where Russian woman checked our documents (what we had, and what we had not), but she did not read them so much, just a little.. she asked documents and we gave them to her one by one.. she opened envelope with result of our medical examination... she put all our documents to the folder (prepared them for officer) and only after this she told us OK - we could pay state duty (tax) in the window number 4. Obviously if we had not any document, we would not be able to meet officer - she would stop us on this stage.

After this we were sitting in the hall with no water, having a real thirst, and were waiting our turn for interview (when they would tell our name).. to my surprise the embassy did not have special small rooms for interview, just some hall with many windows. And person should come to the window and stand there talking with officer (in another embassy I saw such small rooms, where people were sitting by window and were isolated from another people). But it was not bad situation at all, probably in small room it would be more scary )

We began with oath that will tell the truth.. (he asked us to raise right hand..)

this girl, who was going to marry a man who was Russian, but lived in US, this girl did not receive any questions, one only.. they communicated in Russian, because she did not speak English.. he asked her about how they met each other and she replied - relatives introduce her to him (she has a lot of relatives, who lives in US). That's all. So she had simpliest situation and the most short conversation.

Another girl who is a teacher of English - I don't remember her questions exactly (probably because they talked in English... to his pleasure ...and did it very quickly). But I remember he asked her about job of her man, about his profession.. they communicated longer than first girl..

Me.. first he asked (in Russian) about how we met each other, I told about internet site and even showed him the first page of this website, which I printed before... then he began to ask if this site gave me some information about man, if he was married or nor (marital status) and if he had criminal story.. really when he asked me these questions in Russian I saw that it was not very easy for him, I tried to guess and to help him to tell some words..

Probably that's why he decided to know, how I communicated with my man, if he speaks Russian.. I told that most part of the time we communicated in English.. Right after I told this he began to talk with me in English! To my mind it would be better if he would tell me about his wish to change the language, and after this would continue his questions in English, but would not do it so suddenly.. Because when you don't expect another language you need some short time to realize what happened.. and at this time it is not easy to accent your attention on the meaning of question..

But after I realized this fact (that it was English), I was lucky to remember a couple of words from his question and to guess about a meaning.. He wanted to know about hobbies of my man. Being still under the impression of his actions (how he decided to change language), I could not remember anything except couples of my fiance's hobbies.. One of them I remembered due to pictures which had in front of my eyes, another one - just remembered by chance. But this officer still was not satisfied, or maybe he just was glad to speak in English.. he asked me about if my man listen music or he played some instrument.. I told that both of these things - he liked to listen and some years ago he played the drums (really I could not remember word "drums" in English, I tried to choose something between "drums.. droms.. and even ..drops )", but was not sure and helped myself with hands, showing what he did..), but really officer guessed already, what I wanted to tell (before my attempts to show it by hands), because he repeated this word correctly, helping me. And he noticed also that many years ago he did it also, but then leaved this occupation. And also officer asked me to show pictures with man. That's all.

Really the English of this ofiicer was very good for me.. I understood him without any troubles.

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So there you have it. Hope it helps - Eric & Nadezhda

[amberdima 6]

thanks for sharing..seems simple enough. congrats!

[Murad 0]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! My fiance is going to have an interview soon, i can't wait till NVC recieve all the documents from USCIS...

When did they tell you the Interview date? When NVC sent everything to the Consulate in russia?

I hope my fiance will be here soon:(