K-1 Visa - Jakarta - Approved

jm123 · June 2, 2014

It was quite a harrowing journey but it's finished now. I thought I would give a quick recap of what happened in case it is useful for anyone else in the future.

We had our visa interview at the embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The timing worked out nearly perfectly; I had already booked a trip out to Indonesia to see her as well as a sub-flight out to see her parents in her hometown to discuss marriage again when the final documents we had been waiting on arrived and she put in the formal request for an interview. Our trip had allowed us free time in case she was able to land an interview, but unfortunately the interview date was off from the normal interview days due to a combination of American and Indonesian holidays, and ended up being smack-dab in the middle of our trip out to her parents...so we had to do some creative re-shuffling of our flights/hotels on short notice. It was an unexpected additional cost, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to do the interview while I was in-country. In the future, just know that the Jakarta Embassy will schedule K-1 visa interviews on days other than the normal Tuesday/Thursday if both land on a holiday.

We had done a wealth of preparation as we were concerned that her prior applications for a visa would count against us (My fiance had two prior student visa applications which had been rejected under 214b). We prepared the following documents in a clear plastic divided folder. Note: I do not guarantee these as correct or not, simply it's a list of exactly what we prepared:

1) Copy of the Indonesian passport (excluding empty pages)

2) Copy of the DS-160 online completion confirmation page in English/Indonesian (the page that shows the barcode)

3) Original & Copy of both her Indonesian Birth Certificate as well as a certified translation of the same

*Note: skipped the Name Change, Marriage and Divorce Certificates as they did not apply to us.

4) Police Certificate: She required a police certificate from Japan due to a long-term stay there, but this arrived in a sealed envelope, so no copies or certified translations were included. She also had the original & copy of her Indonesian police report, but it came pre-translated so it did not require a separate translation.

5) Original Affidavit of Support

5a) Signed Form 1-134 Original and Copy

5b) 2013 Tax Return, no originals only copies (online filed through Turbotax, so there is no 'original'. No original signatures were put on the tax report prior to submission) with a copy of my W-2 (originals were not available at the time).

5c) Bank Statement (a signed and stamped letter from my bank detailing the date my account was opened, the current balance, and as my bank does not calculate "total amount deposited over the last year" I had them write "please see attached bank statements for the prior year for a comprehensive list of deposits" and included original copies of those statements, signed and stamped by the same bank official. (no copy).

5d) Stock Statement (Originals, no copies). I received a letter from my stock broker that simply the date, my name, account number and current stock holdings. I also had them send me another 1099 overview form, which I attached.

5e) Original Signed letter of employment (no copy).

6) 2 color photographs (US passport sized) - These were actually older than 6 months by a few weeks, but it was the same photo we had used for the medical report request as well as the original I-129F application, so we figured it was better than taking new photographs. All we did was write her full legal name on the back of each picture and put them in a plastic bag with her name on it.

7) Medical Examination Report - Original, No Copy. This arrives sealed, so there is no way to make a copy of the contents. It contained x-rays so I wouldn't recommend folding it. We did include the original request form receipt, but no copy of that either.

8) Proof of ongoing relationship - We had color printed pages of about 8 emails from the past few months, and about 4 different Facebook wall posts, etc. We also had about 16 screenshots from my cell phone arranged 4 per page of Skype, Line, Facebook Messenger and Skype Call histories from the past few months. Since I had arrived a few days earlier, we also included my plane ticket stubs and about 8 recent 4x6 prints of us together doing a pre-wedding photo shoot, and the original receipts from that as well. Finally, we had both originals and copies of a number of letters, post cards and package receipts from the past few months.

9) Copy and Original of the fee payment receipt from the bank

Once again, we used a clear plastic A3 size internally divided case, with each section of documents labeled, to hold the materials. Unfortunately the Medical exam report didn't fit very well.

The only other preparation we did was quiz each other based on the lists of common K-1 interview questions you can find on this site and elsewhere.

We arrived about an hour early to our embassy interview as we misjudged traffic. We were told to wait outside as the embassy staff was at lunch. Unnervingly, several people came out of the embassy in tears, apparently having been rejected for one visa or another. After some time an Indonesian guard came by, asked what visa we were applying for, and asked to see a copy of the email from the embassy. Luckily we had a copy on her phone, as we had not printed it out (I would recommend that for anyone else) and we were allowed in, No outside drinks can be brought inside, but they had no issue with packaged foods. All electronics must be surrendered at this time. Despite the warnings you see online, they do indeed have storage space for your electronics and you will get a receipt once they document what you brought. After security, we were directed through the non-immigrant visa waiting room and into the next waiting room beyond. There is a bathroom on the way you can use, which I would recommend as the wait can be quite long. We arrived with several other people and were told they would call us up to Window 5 when they were ready for us. After about 1 hour and 30 minutes with no call, we became concerned. I approached the window, introduced myself and asked what was going on...turns out they just hadn't had us on the list of applicants somehow, but they took care of us not long after we asked. My fiance was called up to the window where embassy staff looked at the DS-160 form, her passport, the I-134 packet, and opened the medical examination report, and gave her a paper on Domestic Violence to read, and had her sit down. Some time later she was called up to take fingerprints and do the interview.

Prior to my fiance, there had been 3 others who did interviews, although we were not clear if they were fiance or marriage visa applicants. None had their S.O. with them. All of those interviews took between 30 minutes and one hour, so I settled in for a long wait. About 5 minutes later my fiance came out of her interview, and it was clear that she had passed.

From what I gathered, all they did in the interview was have her swear to tell the truth, quickly reviewed the documents up to the proof of relationship (but not the actual proof of relationship materials or anything thereafter), then ask her a series of questions. They asked:

1) What is your full name?

2) What visa are you applying for today?

3) How did you meet your fiance?

4) Why were you both in Japan at that time?

5) When did he propose to you?

6) What does your fiance do for work?

7) When was the last time you met him (I was in the lobby, so she said 'he is here now')

8) Where will you get married in America?

And that was it. He told her the visa was approved and gave her the paperwork on when to pick up her passport with the new visa in it.

Given all the stress, preparation and work we put into the application, the actual interview was literally a snap. We couldn't believe it. I'm unsure how much of an impact my presence had, but it seems like it may have been a real boon to our application.

Now we have a lot of other work to do, but I thought I'd post this review of the process in case it helps anyone else in the future. Good luck to everyone who is still working on an application.

Girl from Celebes · June 2, 2014

It was quite a harrowing journey but it's finished now. I thought I would give a quick recap of what happened in case it is useful for anyone else in the future.

We had our visa interview at the embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The timing worked out nearly perfectly; I had already booked a trip out to Indonesia to see her as well as a sub-flight out to see her parents in her hometown to discuss marriage again when the final documents we had been waiting on arrived and she put in the formal request for an interview. Our trip had allowed us free time in case she was able to land an interview, but unfortunately the interview date was off from the normal interview days due to a combination of American and Indonesian holidays, and ended up being smack-dab in the middle of our trip out to her parents...so we had to do some creative re-shuffling of our flights/hotels on short notice. It was an unexpected additional cost, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to do the interview while I was in-country. In the future, just know that the Jakarta Embassy will schedule K-1 visa interviews on days other than the normal Tuesday/Thursday if both land on a holiday.

We had done a wealth of preparation as we were concerned that her prior applications for a visa would count against us (My fiance had two prior student visa applications which had been rejected under 214b). We prepared the following documents in a clear plastic divided folder. Note: I do not guarantee these as correct or not, simply it's a list of exactly what we prepared:

1) Copy of the Indonesian passport (excluding empty pages)

2) Copy of the DS-160 online completion confirmation page in English/Indonesian (the page that shows the barcode)

3) Original & Copy of both her Indonesian Birth Certificate as well as a certified translation of the same

*Note: skipped the Name Change, Marriage and Divorce Certificates as they did not apply to us.

4) Police Certificate: She required a police certificate from Japan due to a long-term stay there, but this arrived in a sealed envelope, so no copies or certified translations were included. She also had the original & copy of her Indonesian police report, but it came pre-translated so it did not require a separate translation.

5) Original Affidavit of Support

5a) Signed Form 1-134 Original and Copy

5b) 2013 Tax Return, no originals only copies (online filed through Turbotax, so there is no 'original'. No original signatures were put on the tax report prior to submission) with a copy of my W-2 (originals were not available at the time).

5c) Bank Statement (a signed and stamped letter from my bank detailing the date my account was opened, the current balance, and as my bank does not calculate "total amount deposited over the last year" I had them write "please see attached bank statements for the prior year for a comprehensive list of deposits" and included original copies of those statements, signed and stamped by the same bank official. (no copy).

5d) Stock Statement (Originals, no copies). I received a letter from my stock broker that simply the date, my name, account number and current stock holdings. I also had them send me another 1099 overview form, which I attached.

5e) Original Signed letter of employment (no copy).

6) 2 color photographs (US passport sized) - These were actually older than 6 months by a few weeks, but it was the same photo we had used for the medical report request as well as the original I-129F application, so we figured it was better than taking new photographs. All we did was write her full legal name on the back of each picture and put them in a plastic bag with her name on it.

7) Medical Examination Report - Original, No Copy. This arrives sealed, so there is no way to make a copy of the contents. It contained x-rays so I wouldn't recommend folding it. We did include the original request form receipt, but no copy of that either.

8) Proof of ongoing relationship - We had color printed pages of about 8 emails from the past few months, and about 4 different Facebook wall posts, etc. We also had about 16 screenshots from my cell phone arranged 4 per page of Skype, Line, Facebook Messenger and Skype Call histories from the past few months. Since I had arrived a few days earlier, we also included my plane ticket stubs and about 8 recent 4x6 prints of us together doing a pre-wedding photo shoot, and the original receipts from that as well. Finally, we had both originals and copies of a number of letters, post cards and package receipts from the past few months.

9) Copy and Original of the fee payment receipt from the bank

Once again, we used a clear plastic A3 size internally divided case, with each section of documents labeled, to hold the materials. Unfortunately the Medical exam report didn't fit very well.

The only other preparation we did was quiz each other based on the lists of common K-1 interview questions you can find on this site and elsewhere.

We arrived about an hour early to our embassy interview as we misjudged traffic. We were told to wait outside as the embassy staff was at lunch. Unnervingly, several people came out of the embassy in tears, apparently having been rejected for one visa or another. After some time an Indonesian guard came by, asked what visa we were applying for, and asked to see a copy of the email from the embassy. Luckily we had a copy on her phone, as we had not printed it out (I would recommend that for anyone else) and we were allowed in, No outside drinks can be brought inside, but they had no issue with packaged foods. All electronics must be surrendered at this time. Despite the warnings you see online, they do indeed have storage space for your electronics and you will get a receipt once they document what you brought. After security, we were directed through the non-immigrant visa waiting room and into the next waiting room beyond. There is a bathroom on the way you can use, which I would recommend as the wait can be quite long. We arrived with several other people and were told they would call us up to Window 5 when they were ready for us. After about 1 hour and 30 minutes with no call, we became concerned. I approached the window, introduced myself and asked what was going on...turns out they just hadn't had us on the list of applicants somehow, but they took care of us not long after we asked. My fiance was called up to the window where embassy staff looked at the DS-160 form, her passport, the I-134 packet, and opened the medical examination report, and gave her a paper on Domestic Violence to read, and had her sit down. Some time later she was called up to take fingerprints and do the interview.

Prior to my fiance, there had been 3 others who did interviews, although we were not clear if they were fiance or marriage visa applicants. None had their S.O. with them. All of those interviews took between 30 minutes and one hour, so I settled in for a long wait. About 5 minutes later my fiance came out of her interview, and it was clear that she had passed.

From what I gathered, all they did in the interview was have her swear to tell the truth, quickly reviewed the documents up to the proof of relationship (but not the actual proof of relationship materials or anything thereafter), then ask her a series of questions. They asked:

1) What is your full name?

2) What visa are you applying for today?

3) How did you meet your fiance?

4) Why were you both in Japan at that time?

5) When did he propose to you?

6) What does your fiance do for work?

7) When was the last time you met him (I was in the lobby, so she said 'he is here now')

8) Where will you get married in America?

And that was it. He told her the visa was approved and gave her the paperwork on when to pick up her passport with the new visa in it.

Given all the stress, preparation and work we put into the application, the actual interview was literally a snap. We couldn't believe it. I'm unsure how much of an impact my presence had, but it seems like it may have been a real boon to our application.

Now we have a lot of other work to do, but I thought I'd post this review of the process in case it helps anyone else in the future. Good luck to everyone who is still working on an application.