Questions about Interview

[sorchaine 10]

My fiancé has his interview next week and we are wondering what we can expect. From the reviews that we have read it seems pretty straight forward and "easy" when it comes to the question parts. To give a bit of background, neither of us have been previously married, he has never overstayed a visa as he just acquired his passport this year and has never been out of Brazil. I visited him twice before spending a total of 6 months with him and his family in Brazil. Neither of us have children, his criminal record is clean, medical exam passed. We are both unemployed currently as we have been students during this time. I have a co-sponsor, my mother, who makes more than enough for the affidavit of support. The evidence we are including are the boarding passes from both trips I made there, photos taken from both trips of us as well as a few with members of his family, cell phone records, email history through screen shots showing the inbox, some sample emails, and a few snail mail letters that I was sent while I was there showing my name and his address sent by my parents.

We've been reading a lot of posts and interview reviews from many different countries. We have noticed that Brazilian interview questions seem to be normal and not so much "tricky." I've noticed that some other countries have trickier questions such as what high school did you fiancé(e) attend, the name. Are these tricky questions common to be asked at the consulate in Rio de Janeiro? Have they had the question where you are asked to locate your fiancé(e)'s place of residence on a map or questions about why you decided to do the K1 vs. K3? I will not be able to attend the interview with him as I have university classes starting that week that I have to attend. So I hope that doesn't look bad for us that I won't be able to make it there.

So far things have gone well. We have not had any RFEs and have not had much trouble with anything, so with the interview coming up in a little less than a week we're getting a bit nervous and are hoping for the best!

Any feedback would be much appreciated!

[TBoneTX 43,433]

You may get quicker replies if you post these questions in the Latin American subforum, si man. To avoid creating a double post (here & there), you can hit the "report" button below and ask for the thread to be transferred -- or, if you notice an Organizer who's on-line, send a PM with the link to this thread and ask for its transfer.

[Ladylethal 12]

The interview will depend on the officer who interviews you. Mine was pretty much straightforward, and I had a similar background as you. No previous marriages, a 4 year relationship with several trips before engagement, no kids, we were both just out of college, easy sail through the process, etc. I'm also fluent in English and my interviewer was a newer one with bad Portuguese and seemed very glad she could do the interview in English instead. It was more of a chat than an interview, as we talked about wedding plans and what I had graduated in and what I planned to work on in the US when I got the authorization, etc. (I have a review of the interview in the timeline)

Some people reported harder interviews with more questions, but what I'd expect is direct questions about how you met, what language you communicate in, where you'll live, work, etc, what plans does he have once he's in the US (if asked about work always remember to say that if he plans to work it will be once he has the GC or work authorization. He might also be asked personal questions to verify how well he knows you like asking your b-day, what you do, and things like that. From all the interviews I've read about since I joined VJ I'll also say that knowing the families is a big deal for them, so the fact you stayed in Brasil for 6 months with his family is a good sign, and the pictures of yourself and his family should definitely be brought to the interview.

All in all from accounts of different embassies Brasil is not amongst the toughest ones at all, but they still do their job properly and suspicious petitions will be scrutinized. With what you told me your fiancé should have no problems at the interview at all, just remind him not to be too nervous (impossible not to be somewhat) and to answer honestly and calmly.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Ladylethal

[Carolina+James 1]

On my experience, it was super smooth and easy. No tricky questions. The tricky part, it seemed, was to organize all the paperwork. There were many people who either forgot something or placed something out of order. But they would just get a second chance, and if it was a form they could fill it there, and if it was a wrong picture they could go outside and take another.

I was either lucky or excessively obsessive about the paperwork, which made me the first to be called to the interview, even though I was alone and I had a RFE during the I-129F part. My husband was married before and does have children, and that was not asked at all. Just plain simple questions, I even couldn't understand what he wanted to know in one of them, because it was so simple and unexpected to be so.

I was not asked the K-1/K-3 question, but it seems pretty simple, so just have that clear on your mind in case you are asked: K-1 is for not married yet, K-3 for married, you guys are not married yet, reason why you preferred to stay that way, etc.

I don't remember them exactly, but the personal questions were:

- If I was proposed marriage right after we met (answer was no, and here I told him the whoooole story of us getting together)

- To talk about James. He said: "I don't know him, I want you to tell me about him".

- Why we wanted to get married.

My original review I will paste here:

Things were very smooth. I spent the night at the "Aeroporto Othon Hotel": 3 stars, basic and good enough for me, breakfast at 6am was important, and it is very close to the consulate, so I went walking in the morning to the consulate. Things were very smooth to me, placed the documents in order, talked to the person on the window about the docs, took finger prints and to the interview. Until then, everyone are brazilian employers, all of them were very polite to me, and helpful to all I could see that needed assistance. I was the first to be interviewed, I believe it is because I had no problems at all with my documents. But those who had forgotten something were given blank forms to fill, or could go outside to take pictures, nothing bad. The interview started in portuguese, and he took a while to ask about my english and then we spoke in english. The questions were about me and my fiance, my family, my trip to meet him and the fact I spent 6 months with him. Very quick, though I was a little lost in a question about the game we play together, I got embarassed I couldn't understand his question, even though it was in portuguese. The consul was very polite to me, when he asked for further info on my fiance, he said it nicelly, said "you are saying in general ways, I want more details, I don't know him". Then after all he said all seemed in order, and I double checked asking if it was approved, which he said yes, instructed me to the desk for that green paper and I was good to go to pay T.N.T's tax of sending the passport home. I was so happy I went walking all the way to the airport, to view a little of that beautiful part of Rio

[menina 50]

Our case seems to be very similar to yours. My husband had no problem at the interview, and I was not able to attend with him. One thing in our favor is that I am fluent in Portuguese, and he (at the time) knew very little English, so he was asked how we communicate. I believe that question comes up a lot. He said the questions were very straightforward about how we met and what he planned to do once he arrived in the US (work, school, etc.) I don't think there were any tricky questions, and for sure he didn't have to locate my city on a map. It is important to know the name of the city of course and some information about family. Especially with your process going smoothly up to this point and no complications of previous marriages, he should be fine. As was stated earlier, be sure to have all of the correct paperwork because some people are denied right off for not having it.

[sorchaine 10]

Thanks everyone! My Portuguese is very bad, almost non-existent, but he is fluent in English, so we have no trouble communicating at all. Often when chatting if he pronounces a word wrong in English I'll immediately say it correctly, then he'll say it back a few times the way I said it. It's almost become automatic that we do that, but it doesn't happen very often. He's always concerned if people will be able to understand his English, but I've almost never had any problems to understand what he's saying. We have been studying what papers we needed and going over them and reviewing that they are filled out correctly since we got the NOA2. I'm always worried that I forgot something so I'm always having him check or checking the copies of the pdf for the forms I sent him that I saved on my computer. About two weeks ago was went I sent him all the forms that are requested, since it was easier for me to print them for him. I also sent him an entire copy of the I-129F with original evidence paper-clipped to the copies in the I-129F. I have it all split into folders for him, the new forms required for the interview, the new evidence (not submitted yet), the I-129F with evidence and the affidavit of support information, which I hope is enough. I sent both I-134, one from me, one from my mother. I included a letter explaining why I am not required to file a tax return (no income) and my mothers last three years of tax returns, her three most current paystubs (copies printed from internet as she doesn't get paper copies) that were as close to the interview that I could get without the package arriving late. Also a letter printed from her employer's website showing her job title, annual salary, employed since, and a copy of her German birth certificate as well as her US citizen born abroad paper.

I am a bit concerned about the lack of showing daily contact. We do have the email history that shows we email back and forth quite a bit, about 420 emails starting in January 2009, but sadly I'm unable to provide the proof that we talk daily. Instead of using Skype or Yahoo Messenger to talk over the internet to one another, we use Ventrilo. Which I have been unable to find a way to show history. I pay for the service which I have had since August 2008 (for gaming) and we have always just used it to speak to each other privately with a password because it's easier for us to use. I did put in a letter that I submitted with the original I-129F explaining that we do communicate via Ventrilo and that it does not have a feature to show history on it as far as I can tell. It does go back to the beginning of the current month, but all it can do is show the login name, date/time and IP address. I originally submitted a copy of that for one month showing them the amounts of time that it shows us connected vs. disconnected to try to explain the situation. I just hope it won't end up hurting us later on. We are connected to it almost 24 hours a day. The only time we are not on it are when we are rebooting or have to shut down our computer for some reason, otherwise we have a "sleeping" channel we made to put ourselves in to let the other know when we are sleeping or when we are awake.

We'll probably go over the questions this weekend to see what his answers will be. Since we won't know exactly what they will ask, I have found some on these forums to help kind of see what they generally ask. And I'll keep drilling him until I am satisfied that he can answer these honestly and with good answers without sounding rehearsed. I know he will be very nervous, so I want to make sure we go over as much information as we can and make sure all the forms are in order, filled out correctly and not missing any information.

Right now we have the interview this coming Tuesday and the only thing he still needs to do is pay the Citibank fee which he is planning on doing the Monday prior. I told him I would feel more comfortable with him paying it on Friday (just to make sure it's done), but he said Monday will be fine.

Thank you again to everyone! We have been reading all the Rio interview reviews almost daily to see if there's anything we should focus on or that we're forgetting. I'm glad those are there and I can't wait to submit our own to help others as well!