Pink Too

[vnt 0]

Hello. What the other person said in another thread is certainly true. They allow the fiance' into the room, as I easily went in. In fact, the guards indicated to me that I could cut in line to go to the front (I politely demured). When we got in at 8:30, we were called to submit documents at about 10:30. Curiously, they did not take the tax transcripts, nor the tax returns. The ONLY financial documents they kept were a 2009 W-2 (not even the 2010 W-2!), I-184, and the Employment letter. The intake officer only glancingly looked at bank acccount information but never kept it. Once the documents were submitted, we only waited about 30 minutes for the interview.

Before my fiance's interview I walked up and down the rows watching people being interviewed. I saw far more pinks than blues. The overwhelming number of interviews were conducted in Vietnamese, and with the K-1's, not many of the US fiance's were there. Most interviews were over in less than 5 minutes. Anecdotally, the male COs seemed quite easy and engaging, while the female COs seemed a bit tougher. When my fiance's number was called, I walked up behind her and the CO asked me to sit down (ie. about 3 meters from where the interview took place). As the other "pink" noted, I just wanted to show her I was there. In every single case I saw, the COs perused and asked questions about photos. It seems they couldn't care less about chat-logs, phone-logs, and other written evidence. Photos are critical and have a lot of them!

My fiance's interview lasted about 20 minutes. They ONLY looked at photos. Questions that I can remember were as follows:

1. What is your fiance's profession? What is your profession?

2. Have you met his kids? Has he met your kids? They wanted photos of each other with our kids. We had some, yet not others.

3. They asked my fiance' the cause of her divorce.

4. They asked why my fiance had a relationship with me while I was still married.

5. They asked what her plans were to get married once in the US.

6. How many trips did you make together?

Our perceived red-flags were, as with other cases, divorce and quick re-filing and the fact of a relationship while the petitioner was still married. The CO focused on the weak parts of the case, yet ultimately provided pink (the CO was an approximately 35-year old American woman). No other evidence was asked for (even the medical exam done in SOS was acceptable and not opened by the CO).

Overall, the experience was pleasant, efficient, and generally fair. The American CO was very polite, but her translator was a battle-axe. We made one really big error: despite our meticulousness in preparing the evidence, we were not aware that her child had to also attend the interview (extremely stupid on our part, I know). The VN translator spoke angrily to my fiance', saying things like "You will leave you children behind? You don't care about them?" Once the interview ceased, they gave her pink and her children blue. Her children's interview (they are young) will have to be re-scheduled, although pink is really an afterthought. The COs will ask the kids questions, so for those of you with kids, prepare for that.

My advice is to get there early, as it interviews were done on a first-come, first-serve basis, as I paid close attention to order in which people first submitted their initial evidence, and then finally the order in which they were interviewed. The really great thing is that you can walk up and down watching (slyly) people being interviewed. In nearly every case I say there was a pink sheet on the table.

I have a question for you all: I wrote the consulate an email asking them to quickly re-schedule my fiance's childrens' interview. Do you know how long that would normally take? I would guess one month, as that's what it took from the P3 to P4 (and P4 to the actual interview date). As the mistake was ours and not the consulate's, I wasn't sure, and I figure we are now in the annals of couples who did something no one in their right mind did in the past. Nevertheless, the hard part is over.

2nd question: our petition expires March 31st, 2011. If the children's interviews occur after that date, is that big problem (I'm not sure, as my fiance' can pick up her visa in 7 days' time).

[Ronnie&Hang 12]

That's a great after-action review. It's nice to walk around inside watching the interview huh. Both times I had to sit on the little plastic stool across the street.

The rescheduled interview is up to the Consulate, can't really tell approx. how long it will take. I also emailed and requested one to be expedited and it took about 3 weeks.

For the 2nd question, I think the Consulate will extend it when they reschedule your interview.

[BinhJerome 14]

congrats :thumbs: Great info fro the interview as well, enjoy your life together!! :dance:

[tcTTct 37]

Great stuff. Congratulations.

[Joe&Diane 0]

Great stuff. Congratulations.

great to see another pink

[ScottThuy 140]

Great news.. take a moment and fill in your VJ timeline..

[Kevin and 10]

Congratulations!

Thanks for posting the interview details. It is very helpful when members do this. People that haven't interviewed get an idea of what to expect.

[tanstaafl 1]

Congratulations. It's great that you posted the interview with details like that.

[NODINK 0]

Chuc mung!!

[luckytxn 2,263]

Most awesome and many congrats. Thanks also for letting us know of the interview. Most do not do so and this shows you care.

Buy hangers.

[Jimen & Kenly 0]

Hello. What the other person said in another thread is certainly true. They allow the fiance' into the room, as I easily went in. In fact, the guards indicated to me that I could cut in line to go to the front (I politely demured).

Before my fiance's interview I walked up and down the rows watching people being interviewed. I saw far more pinks than blues.

My fiance's interview lasted about 20 minutes. They ONLY looked at photos. Questions that I can remember were as follows:

Overall, the experience was pleasant, efficient, and generally fair. The American CO was very polite, but her translator was a battle-axe.

My advice is to get there early, as it interviews were done on a first-come, first-serve basis, as I paid close attention to order in which people first submitted their initial evidence, and then finally the order in which they were interviewed. The really great thing is that you can walk up and down watching (slyly) people being interviewed. In nearly every case I say there was a pink sheet on the table.

Re: fiances in the waiting area; yes, but not only. On my fiancee's interview date, I saw entire families accompany the interviewee to the interview. Like you, only the interviewee is allowed at the window. I did see one case where an elderly women, in her 70's to 80's accompanied by, I assume, her son. He was allowed to accompany the interviewee to the window because she couldn't hear or understand or something, because he basically repeated everything to the old woman. As for cutting in line. If your interview was at 9:30, then anyone with a US passport can also enter the consulate. If you were there for a notary, then you don't need to stand in line. The line is only for interviews. Perhaps the guard thought you were there for something else.

Re: the number of pinks on the table; I should note that the people there for interviews are not all K1 or CR1 visas. Many are family petition immigration. They also have interviews in that area. I know, because on my fiancee's interview date, we saw a female monk also there for an interview. I'm pretty sure she wasn't there for a K1 visa. ;-) Also, when we went back to submit documents for the blue slip, my fiancee spoke with a woman who is there to submit an update to her health exam. It seems at the her interview, her husband and child got pink, but she got blue. Her husband left for the US, while she waited until then to submit her new exam documents. She got pink. As for getting blue slips, I saw people getting blue slips multiple times. My fiancee got blue twice (actually, the second time was white). We submitted the requested docs and got pink.

Re: photos; I agree. During the interview, the CO went through our photos one by one. We had at least 200 photos submitted. The CO went through the photos pretty quick though. So I don't know what she was looking for. After looking through the photos, the CO mainly looked at the computer screen during the interview process. Even though the CO did not look through the mail, cards, and phone logs, they did take them. But only the Vietnam side. I.e. the mail, cards and phone logs at my end were returned during the intake session. They took my fiancee's phone logs and the mail and cards that I sent her.

Re: the CO; I think you had the same CO I did. My fiancee's interpreter was also a battle axe. We sat outside this CO's window and watched many interviews taking place. The interpreter was rude to many of the interviewees. My fiancee prayed she wouldn't get this CO, but she did. Was your CO's initials DS? We got blue twice, so she signed the blue slip DS. This CO was very nice though. After the interview, my fiancee got blue, so she wanted to ask some questions. The interpreter snapped and said she was off duty and ran away (my fiancee was one of the last to be interviewed). The CO was still there, so I was able to ask a few questions. She was nice enough to answer all my questions and gave me directions on how to submit the requested documents.

Re: order of interview; the first-come, first-serve order is only true on a per CO basis. In other words, each CO will process the petition in the order that he/she receives them. But different CO's can process their own petitions on their own timeline. So if you were number 5066, then 5067 could be interviewed before you because he/she had a different CO and that CO processed petitions faster than your CO. We saw this situation many times on our interview date.

Re: walking around; yes, people are allowed to walk around the waiting area. During my fiancee's interview, there was this teenager who accompanied her sister to the interview (most likely a family petition). This teenager would walk around and then stand right next to the interview window. The windows are slightly slanted (facing at an angle). Thus, you can stand behind a wall and the interviewer would not see you. This teenager, on multiple occasions, would stand behind this wall and listened in on the interview of other people. Of course, this wasn't really necessary. The waiting area is about 1.5 meters from the windows. Thus, if you had a good ear, you can hear everything. Assuming you understood Vietnamese, as all of the interviews we heard were done in Vietnamese.

One last observation; I should mention that you might not receive your results on the date of your interview or submission of documents. Personal experience, when we submitted documents requested by the blue slip, the CO had too many petitions to review and was not able to open our file. Thus, we were asked to go home and wait for a letter. Luckily, our CO was walking by and I spoke with her. She promised to review our file within the week. We received a letter (a white slip) two weeks later.

--jc

P.S. there are no clocks in the waiting area. So wear a watch or walk to window 11 or 12 to look at the clock inside the consulate offices. Note; when we were there to pickup the visas, all of the windows had their shades down so you couldn't see the offices. Thus, wear a watch if you really want to know the time.

[Cardin 0]

Thanks for the great after reaction review! It's such details that gave me so many clues what I should focus on too (not that I will slack on otherS) thank you man

[hniHnitsuJ 8]

congrats.. keep the more pink coming..

[michael7oanh 1]

Good to know things are changing for the better at the consulate. Congrats and thanks for the info.