My wife just passed her interview

shira · November 4, 2013

My wife's interview (CR1 visa) time was 9:30 AM today (Monday, November 3), China time. I just got off the phone with her, and asked her the details of her experience:

Although her appointment was for 9:30, she had to wait until 10:30 for the document intake person to see her. This person (a woman) asked for all of the originals listed on the Interview Letter. And she also asked her if she had addtional original I-864 documents from other sponsors. (I thought this was a strange request, but maybe the person wasn't familiar with my wife's case, and asks for documents from other sponsors just in case).

After she gave all the documents, her interview occurred almost immediately afterward. She was asked four questions:

1) How did the two of us meet?

2) How many times have I visited her in China? (I've been there seven times, but I know lots of people get an easy interview "pass" when the spouse has visited only once.)

3) How do the two of us understand each other well (since my wife's English isn't very good)? (I knew they would ask this question, and I tried to anticipate it in my two "personal statements" submitted as part of the evidence we sent (with both the I-130 and DS-230). She explained that we use Google Translate during chats to clear up misunderstandings, and if we are really having a problem, we add translated explanations as part of our daily emails.

4) Do we have a child together? (This question was very surprising, since we don't have a baby and I've never heard of this question being asked.

That was it. She was told she passed - total interview time, about three minutes. As with other people on VisaJourney who easily pass, the interview person wouldn't let my wife show her the additional photographs (from my latest trip) that she'd brought.

My wife was very worried going into the interview, even though we provided a ton of evidence with the I-130 and DS-230 submissions (and I also went overboard with the financial evidence I submitted along with the I-864). She was worried because at the hotel where it seems almost all interviewees stay (she's been there since Thursday) she heard a lot of horror stories of women requiring multiple interviews. She even talked to a woman who told her that she was told she passed her medical examination, but four days after "passing" her interview, she was contacted by the Consulate and told that she needed more medical evidence. Very strange.

Anyway, my wife is now greatly relieved, but won't be totally worry-free (because of those horror stories) until she receives back her passport with visa.

Getting back to the "red flag" type of issues (such as my wife's poor English). I strongly recommend that these red flags be addressed in the evidence file. Try to anticipate what questions might be asked about these issues, and provide solid explanations. I called my "explanation" documents "Personal Statements," and I signed and dated them. My wife brought the originals with her to the interview, just in case they asked for them.

Anyway, I'm very appreciative of all the solid advice given to me here on VJ. My wife, on the other hand, kept reading about the interview process on various Chinese web forums, and a lot of the "information" she received really sucked.

Edited November 4, 2013 by shira