For all you Colombians...

[Fede&Kendra 5]

You may have read on the reviews that the Embassy no longer asks for the the DS230 form, but I just wanted to put it out there that they did ask for my fiance's and kept it, when the Embassy sends you a letter after they received your case they say to fill it out, even though we thought they didn't ask for it, we did anyways. At the Embassy they give you a paper which tells you the order to put your papers in, they don't have the DS230 form on there but, for some reason, the lady at the first window asked for it, thank goodness we had it! And at the end they kept it. Hope that helps, it seems they change their mind about that form often, just be prepared with it.

[bigtexco 0]

You may have read on the reviews that the Embassy no longer asks for the the DS230 form, but I just wanted to put it out there that they did ask for my fiance's and kept it, when the Embassy sends you a letter after they received your case they say to fill it out, even though we thought they didn't ask for it, we did anyways. At the Embassy they give you a paper which tells you the order to put your papers in, they don't have the DS230 form on there but, for some reason, the lady at the first window asked for it, thank goodness we had it! And at the end they kept it. Hope that helps, it seems they change their mind about that form often, just be prepared with it.

Not sure if that is true about not bringing your DS-230 because the latest instructions I have do say to bring DS 230 parts I and II for fiancee and any additional members that may also be coming.

[Fede&Kendra 5]

Interview day: Previous to the interview we were really nervous, probably more than necessary

haha, so the night before didn't sleep good at all, our appointment was at 7:00 am so we arrived early to the embassy at 5:45am and immediately got in line 3, we waited there until 6:30 when a lady came out, she put a green sticker on both of us, we then passed trough the security and went into the facilities, we recieved a paper with the order of the documents they needed to see and the lady told us to go to line 29, so before going to that line we took our time to order our documents and leave just what they ask for...

(This is something we think is important not only for you but also for everybody, just take your time to put everything in order and just follow the instructions of that paper, it makes everything faster and smoother, we saw that all the people in front of us and in other lines didn't follow the instructions and it took way longer than it took for us, so our advice is "Take your time and follow the instructions")

...once in the first window, the lady asked first for the paper with the instructions and then for our documents, she asked me to sign the forms and keep looking at our documents, she gave us back the 129 package that my fiancee sent in the States, and then, suddenly, that lady looked at her computer screen and as my fiancée posted before, she asked us for the DS-230 form, we were never sure if we will need that form but at the end was a very good thing we had it. It only took us like 7 minutes in that window, so easy and short comparing with other people who didn't organize their things. After that the lady told us we had to wait in the chairs behind the cafeteria and wait there until they call us, so we went there and waited for 40 minutes more or less, suddenly they called me, we walked to window 3 holding our hands, very nervous and there was this red head kind of young lady, I picked up the phone and said good morning in spanish, she answered me in spanish too (actually the whole intervie was in spanish, something I wasn't expecting), after that she asked me if certified that everything we had putted down in our papers and everything I was about to say in the interview was 100% true, of course I said yes, then she passed me the forms to sign them and started asking me some questions:

-When did you meet your fiance?

-When did you see your fiance in person for the first time?

-When did you two decided to marry?

-What does your fiance do for living?

-Where does she live?¿Does she live with her family?

-Where are you gonna live in the States?

-Do you have intentions to work in the States?

-What do you do for living?

After those questions she asked me to take the fingerprints and after that she asked me two more questions:

-Does your fiance speak spanish or do you speak english?

-Where did you learn english?

After that I thought she was about to start speaking to me in english but for my surprise she just said: "Your visa has been approved, welcome to the United States", I looked at my fiance with tears in my eyes and a huge smile, when my fiancee saw my face she knew it, we were approved, the consul lady gave me the instructions for the delivering of the visa and gave us back the Affidavit of Support I-134 form and all the economic proofs, something and that was it. The whole interview just took like 5 minutes, everything in spanish and the consul lady didn't ask anything to my fiancée, we walked out of the embassy at 8:45 am in the happiest moment ever, thinking that it was so much easier than we expected and that we shouldn't be as nervous as we were, but we think those nervous are impossible not to feel them.

Best luck for everybody and thank you so much for all the advices and the support!!!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Día de la entrevista: Antes de la entrevista estábamos muy nerviosos, tal vez más de lo necesario jeje, así que la noche anterior casi no dormimos, nuestra cita era a las 7:00 am así que llegamos temprano a la embajada, a las 5:45 am e inmediatamente nos formamos en la fila 3, esperamos hasta las 6:30 cuando una señora vino hacía nuestra fila, nos colocó un sticker verde y luego pasamos por la requisa de seguridad e ingresamos a las instalaciones, nos entregaron un papel con el orden de los documentos que ellos necesitaban y la mujer nos dijo que fuéramos a formarnos a las fila 29, así que antes de ir a la fila nos tomamos nuestro tiempo para ordenar los documentos y dejar sólo lo que ellos nos pedían en esas instrucciones...

(Esto es algo que nosotros pensamos es importante no sólo para ustedes sino también para todos los que asisten a la embajada, tómense su tiempo para colocar todo en orden y sigan las instrucciones de ese papel, hace que todo sea más rápido y sencillo, nosotros vimos que toda la gente al frente de nosotros y en otras filas no siguieron las instrucciones y les tomó mucho más tiempo que a nosotros, así que nuestro consejo es "Tómense su tiempo y sigan las instrucciones")

...Una vez que estuvimos en la primera ventanilla, la mujer nos pidió primero el papel con las intrucciones y luego nuestros documentos, me pidió que firmara las formas y siguió mirando nuestros documentos, nos devolvió el paquete 129 que mi prometida envió en los Estados Unidos y luego, de repente, esa mujer miró en la pantalla del computador y como ya había posteado mi prometida, nos pidió por la forma DS-230, nunca estuvimos seguros si íbamos a necesitar esa forma pero al final fue muy bueno que la teníamos lista. Sólo nos demoramos como 7 minutos en esa ventanilla, muy fácil y corto comparado con otras personas que no organizaron sus cosas. Después de eso la mujer nos dijo que teníamos que esperar en las sillas detrás de la cafetería y esperar hasta que nos llamaran, así que nos sentamos y esperamos más o menos 40 minutos, me llamaron y caminamos hacia la ventanilla 3 tomados de las manos, muy nerviosos y allí estaba esta mujer peliroja y más o menos joven, levanté el teléfono y le dije buenos días en español y ella me contestó también en español (en realidad toda la entrevista fue en español, algo que no nos esperábamos) después me preguntó si yo corroboraba que todo lo que habíamos escrito en la documentación y que si todo lo que iba a decir en la entrevista era 100% verdad, obviamente respondí que si, luego me pasó las formas para firmarlas y comenzó a hacerme unas preguntas:

-¿Cuándo nos conocimos?

-¿Cuándo nos conocimos en persona?

-¿Cuándo decidimos casarnos?

-¿A qué se dedica su prometida?

-¿Dónde vive ella?¿Vive con la familia?

-¿Dónde va a vivir usted en los Estados Unidos?

-¿Tiene usted intenciones de trabajar en los Estados Unidos?

-¿A qué se dedica usted?

Después de estas preguntas me pidió que me tomará las huellas digitales y luego me hizo dos preguntas:

-¿Su prometida habla español o usted habla inglés?

-¿Usted dónde aprendió a hablar inglés?

Después de esto pensé que ella me iba a empezar a hablar en inglés pero para mi sorpresa ella sólo dijo: "Su visa ha sido aprobada, bienvenido a los Estados Unidos", miré a mi prometida con lágrimas en los ojos y una sonrisa gigante, cuando mi prometida me vio, inmediatamente supo que habíamos aprobado, la cónsul me dio las instrucciones para la entrega de la visa y nos devolvió la I-134 de Sostenimiento Económico y todas las pruebas que lo acompañaban, y eso fue todo. Toda la entrevista sólo tardó como 5 minutos, todo en español y la cónsul ni siquiera le preguntó nada a mi prometida, caminamos afuera de la embajada a las 8:45 am en lo que fue el momento más feliz de nuestras vidas, pensando que todo había sido mucho más fácil de lo esperado y que no debimos habernos puesto tan nerviosos, pero creemos que esos nervios es imposible no sentirlos.

La mejor suerte para todos y muchas gracias por todos los consejos y el apoyo!!!

[Fede&Kendra 5]

Not sure if that is true about not bringing your DS-230 because the latest instructions I have do say to bring DS 230 parts I and II for fiancee and any additional members that may also be coming.

Im saying to bring the DS230 form no matter what you read on this forum, I have read lots of reviews and known couples who brought it and the embassy didn't ask for it, so I'm saying it's safer to bring it, the embassy seems to change their minds about whether or not they want it. And on the little paper (the embassy gives you day of interview) with the order they want the papers the DS 230 is not listed, the lady at the first window asked for it. And they ended up keeping it.

[andrea y arturo 14]

Im saying to bring the DS230 form no matter what you read on this forum, I have read lots of reviews and known couples who brought it and the embassy didn't ask for it, so I'm saying it's safer to bring it, the embassy seems to change their minds about whether or not they want it. And on the little paper (the embassy gives you day of interview) with the order they want the papers the DS 230 is not listed, the lady at the first window asked for it. And they ended up keeping it.

What Federico says its true. The instruction that I received from the embassy said to bring the DS230 but the latest directive on the embassy website dos not include it. Andrea was never asked for it but I can bet anything that if we had not had it we would have been asked for it. I was asked by the consul for records showing the money that I have sent my fiancee. I was also asked how we communicate and we told her skype, facebook, yahoo messenger and we told her we had those proofs. She then asked for phone records. LOL! Luckily we talk on the phone using llamacolombia.com and had those records as well. I had every conceivable proof she could ask. Down to the baggage stickers of each of my 9 trips to Colombia. After 6 hours at the embassy our visa was approved. Lesson to be learned be over prepared. Odds are you won't need all the proof you bring but it is better to have extra papers than to lack one and to be denied.

[Calicolom 266]

I filled out the DS-230 just in Case, one set I filled out part one only, the second set I filled out part one and two.

[andrea y arturo 14]

I filled out the DS-230 just in Case, one set I filled out part one only, the second set I filled out part one and two.

Well done. Better to have too much than not enough...