Juarez Consulate

[bdesj 0]

Yay! Congratulations! Eleven days till I see my wife in Juarez and thirteen days til our next (hopefully last) IR interview. I sure hope we get through like you guys did- no surprises!

[Cassandra PC 1]

Ok I’m back home (with Hugo!) so I thought I’d give the full report.

Day 2: Interview. Pretty much how Agnie described it, just a lot more people and a lot more waiting.

7:30 am we arrive at the consulate. He was inside and past security by about 8 am. He went in with a belt, jacket, pen, and an expandable folder (with other folders inside). In building A he gave them the appointment letter, he was given a number (which he’ll never forget!). Here they also gave back the pictures and copy of my birth certificate I had sent with my I-129f petition.

About 10:00 am he was called to present his documents. The mexican women was nice and told him to take his time to taking out each document they asked for. (Here is were they send you go out if you are missing documents or photos)

He gave her everything from the “Mandatory documents” folder I had made:

-Receipt of payment from Banamex

-Form DS-156 (Duplicate) - Filled out from CDJ website

-Form DS-157(Duplicate)- Filled out from CDJ website

-Form DS-156K(Duplicate) - Filled out from VJ website (CDJ version was expired)

-CDJ-402 Testimonio - Hand printed my name only

-Mexican Passport

-Birth Certificate original and copy

-2 Photos ( They were hesitant to accept them, but they did)

In addition she also asked for:

-His Tourist Visa

-Petitioner’s original birth certificate and copy

-Petitioner’s Passport (if he had it - to just show it)

-Proof of Petitioner’s job (He gave them the letter from my employer which said I was going to start my job next week, they just took that)

-Big Black medical exam folder - they took out a piece of paper and returned the x-rays to him.

He was asked to sign on the X for each copy of DS-156, DS-156K, and the Testimonio.

He sat down for another hour. Then he was called by his name. An american took his fingerprints.

Then began the really long wait in Building B. A lot of it standing up because there weren’t enough chairs. Here you can go outside and there are places to buy food. Everybody stairs at the board waiting for their number to come up. At 5:00 he was called to the last window. First he had to swear to tell the truth blah blah blah. The 35ish female consul greeted him in English. He returned the greeting in Spanish. She asked him:

-Who is petitioning for you? He answered with my full name.

-What is your birthday? He got that one right.

-Where are you from? Again an easy one.

-Where did you meet? He told the story about his sister the matchmaker

-How long have you been together? He said 2 years (even though it’s a little more)

-Are you going to live at this same address? He said the name of the street and she repeated my entire address for him to confirm.

-How many times have you been to the US? Twice. Last summer and in November.

Ok, so when was the last time you entered? November of 2006

Ok, so when did you leave? He says 29 of February of 2007. Then corrects himself 29 of JANUARY of 2007. She says her records state the 30 of January. He explains that he left at 11:30pm so ok, it was the 30th.

-Where did your fiance study? He says Washington (which is totally wrong) she says Ok, good.

-What did she study? He gave an unsure “kind of like...” answer.

-What do you do? He said he’s an architect. She knew that he also had a bar (from something I wrote in the petition.

-What do you want to do in the U.S? First I want to get married, then if they give me permission, I want to work.

-How’s your English? When he said not much but he’s learning she started to give him a lecture about how he needs to speak English to have opportunity in the U.S.

Ok, you have your visa. Then she started chatting with him about Oaxaca. Here is where she told him he “came out better” in his visa picture than his passport (what a flirt ).

She explained that everything was taking a long time today so he would probably have to wait a while. And wait he did!

After 6pm his name was announced. He was given the packet with his passport opened to the page of the visa. They returned the petitioners birth certificate. They explained that he had to go to Cordova bridge. He was one of the last 40 to leave the consulate around 6:30pm.

In the end I was glad I went for support but the wait was really agonizing. I could go on and on about all the stories I saw that day. In general it’s heartbreaking to see so many people, generally there for spousal visas, get rejected, banned for 3, 5, 10 years. I was waiting with a group of about 15 women and only one other person got the visa straight up. Two people were told to come the next day because they had to have their prints checked again and the computer was down. So If you’ve never had a US visa be prepared for extra name checks. Visas were either denied or required a waiver for people who had some history of being in the US illegally or didn’t have any of the paperwork filled out correctly.

Some recommendations:

- It doesn’t seem to matter much what time you actually get there ( I was waiting with women at 6pm whose husbands had been there since 6:30 am), so save yourself the headache and don’t line up super early.

- Monday is a really busy day I recommend NOT GOING ON MONDAY. Do what Agnie and Roberto did and go to the medical on Tuesday and the Interview on Wednesday.

- If you’re as impatient as I was, have your fiance buy a public phone card so they can call you from inside the consulate.

- We had his passport style photos taken in the US so they had problems rejecting them. Since so many people get sent outside to retake the photos anyway, I would just give in to the deal they have going and wait to take the pictures across the street from the consulate once you get there.

Day 3: POE

I’ll describe this just in case anyone actually does enter through the Cordova bridge as they require. Luckily we had an evening flight out of El Paso because crossing over took 4 HOURS! The taxi from the Hotel to the El Paso airport cost $50 (we talked him down from $65). When we got to the border, the taxi stopped and waited with our luggage as we went inside. None of the 15 windows were open and the officers were just fooling around in the back. We were finally attended by some ahole supervisor who thought his jokes were really funny, stuff like he couldn’t believe I actually wanted to be with Hugo and that he better watch out for the gays in San Francisco . He also asked us when we got married and said many fiance visas “fall into that trap”. He gave Hugo a lecture about absolutely NOT being able to work and another lecture about not returning to mexico, “you’d be deporting yourself”. He opened the packet and spent a long time looking though it (it had EVERYTHING from the original petition) IMPORTANT: He asked me where the nearest immigration office is to my house for them to send the documents. So it’s a good idea to know where you are going to file!

We paid 6 dollars for the I-94 and then walked with our luggage through immigration and the customs X-rays. The taxi was waiting for us on the other side for the quick ride to the airport. SO HAPPY to get on that plane!

[AgRo 0]

Ah-ha. Thank you, UCLA. What I was getting at was ?did you, or the others who`ve gone in the last couple weeks, provide 1040s from 2006? According to USCIS, W2 and paystubs are sufficient since tax season is still going. But I`m not so sure the consulate will see things the same way. Any rate, I`d really appreciate knowing whether anyone has gone in this month without last years taxes.

Hi bdesj!! I hope these few days fly by for you! I meant to answer your question before. As you know my fiance had his interview yesterday and he did not take any 2006 tax information (even though I have received all of my W-2s already). They looked at W2s and tax returns from 2003, 2004, and 2005 for my co-sponsor and me and only kept the 2005 information. I think if your interview is before April, not including 2006 taxes shouldn't be a problem.

[kitkat1 5]

IMPORTANT: He asked me where the nearest immigration office is to my house for them to send the documents. So it’s a good idea to know where you are going to file!

What does this mean? Since they are not going to send you any documents from the POE, I can't figure out what he was talking about.

Anyway, Congrats!

[Kristen_y_Efrain 0]

Cassandra and Agnieszka, I am so excited for you guys. Congrats again....

Cassandra, I have a question about crossing the Cordova Bridge....because we are doing that also. What time did you cross? Our flight is at 1:30 I think...based on your post, I am wondering if I should change it to a bit later.... I guess we will just have to make it another early morning, and get an early start on it.... I always figured that I could call and change the flights if we needed to. (does it sound like I am basically talking to myself? I pretty much just answered my own question...but I am sure you understand)

Anyway, thanks again for the in depth reports on how it all went down. It makes me feel soooo much better having an idea of what's to come...

Have fun with your guys!

[Cassandra PC 1]

IMPORTANT: He asked me where the nearest immigration office is to my house for them to send the documents. So it’s a good idea to know where you are going to file!

What does this mean? Since they are not going to send you any documents from the POE, I can't figure out what he was talking about.

Good point. I was also confused because I was under the impression that I will be sending everything to a national USCIS office. But he was INSISTENT about knowing my local CIS office. So I guess this is a good time to ask what does happen to that huge packet of K-1 stuff?

Cassandra, I have a question about crossing the Cordova Bridge....because we are doing that also. What time did you cross? Our flight is at 1:30 I think...based on your post, I am wondering if I should change it to a bit later.... I guess we will just have to make it another early morning, and get an early start on it.... I always figured that I could call and change the flights if we needed to. (does it sound like I am basically talking to myself? I pretty much just answered my own question...but I am sure you understand)

I really think we had an especially long wait but it makes it even more stressful if you are worried about missing a flight. I would get up early and give yourself a few hours. Many people told me that just a normal crossing can take well over an hour. Plus you wouldn't want to go during their lunch hour (I can't imagine the scene there when they are actually on a brake). Oh - did I mention taking the taxi all the way across the bridge. I'm the kind of person that would walk with all my luggage to save 30 bucks - I'm glad I listened to my mother on this one and took the taxi - it's a really far uphill walk.

[Allie&Leo 0]

Kristen- Leo and I crossed bridge as well. Took 1.5 hours and maybe only 10 people in line ahead of us. They are very slow inside. Took about 20 minute break while we were in there. We had a noon flight next day after interview. We decided to cross day of the interview so we wouldn't have any stresses for wait time at border or airport. Then spent the night in El Paso. We took a cab from Hotel in CDJ and he dropped us off at the border. Then we were able to pick up a cab on the other side to take us to our hotel. The day of interview was really long with waiting for Leo to come out of consulate and then waiting at border but I'm glad we decided to get all of it done in one day.

Give yourself plenty of time for border crossing. Airport in El Paso is really small. We waited in no line at either check - in or security.

[bdesj 0]

They looked at W2s and tax returns from 2003, 2004, and 2005 for my co-sponsor and me and only kept the 2005 information. I think if your interview is before April, not including 2006 taxes shouldn't be a problem.

Great! I know that it SHOULDN`T be a problem, but I wasn`t too sure how it would work in practice. Thanks for letting us know- I feel better now.

[kitkat1 5]

Good point. I was also confused because I was under the impression that I will be sending everything to a national USCIS office. But he was INSISTENT about knowing my local CIS office. So I guess this is a good time to ask what does happen to that huge packet of K-1 stuff?

I think the guy was just giving you a hard time or else he was confused. The packet of K1 stuff does not get sent to the petitioner and AOS paperwork does not go to your local office so it makes no difference.

[ucla_cutie26 0]

Hi everyone it’s good to read up on everyone’s successes. Bdesj, you’re next.

I came across this under the FAQ section.:

5.2.1...(newsgroup)..Does anyone know exactly what happens to this wad of papers in the brown envelope (after) the USCIS (INS) at POE goes through them?

A..(newsgroup)..It is sent to the USCIS (INS) district office closest to where you will reside, which will be the office handling your case once in the USA.

(NOTE: the envelope may "transit" through one of the Service Centers, but it will end up at your local office at some point in your adjustment of status process - i.e. when you apply to be a permanent resident)

The link is here http://www.visajourney.com/faq/k1k2visa-enter.html in case any of you want to read more about entering on the k1 visa.

[Lucy N Fer 0]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ONCE AGAIN! Glad things are still moving along.

[Kristen_y_Efrain 0]

Thanks guys, I think maybe going that night after the consulate is a good idea. I will have to check with Efrain and see what he thinks. I guess I would have the whole day to get packed up, right? WIth all of my nervous energy from waiting to hear the good news? (I am thinking positively, hoping that helps in some way). I know I would be less stressed if we were already across the border and just had to get up and go to the airport in the morning...

And thanks for the tip about the local office....It's good to know that stuff just in case!

THis weekend I am going to get everything in order. Yeah!

I hope you all have a nice long weekend!

[GabachaYucateca 0]

All of this is VERY exciting!

I just get all freaked out reading all of the interview questions...if he gets all nervous and can't answer questions about my life here (ie where I went to school, the address he'll live at, stuff like that), could he get denied? Life on the other side means nothing to him, he has no context about any of it...he wouldn't know the difference if we lived in New Jersey or Rhode Island, but he knows me inside out.

Is it really possible that he'd get denied for not knowing these things even while sitting there with a photo album full of pictures from the last 7 years?

I need a Valium...this point isn't even for a couple of months.

[Cassandra PC 1]

I just get all freaked out reading all of the interview questions...if he gets all nervous and can't answer questions about my life here (ie where I went to school, the address he'll live at, stuff like that), could he get denied?

You're going to be nervous about it because it's a scary process to go through - but I wouldn't worry about grilling your fiance on questions (it will just make him more nervous). Like I mentioned in my post, my fiance actually got the question WRONG about where I went to school. My advise for nerves is to focus on your paperwork - if that is all together it will give him the confidence he needs to get through the interview. Stay Positive and Good luck!

[GabachaYucateca 0]

Should he tell the consular agent that his proposal consisted of: "Que pedos? Nos vamos a casar o que."

Ay, the romance!