US embassy Athens Greece K1 visa papers required and timeframe

[Athens 101]

Where was the documents you sent to NVC translated, in Greece or your country? If you still have copies, send it to the embassy.  For K1 they ask for both original birth certificate and translated copy.  The original is returned at the end of the visa process.  

Your police report will be sent directly to the embassy upon request.  

if you choose to translate it again, it will take 1 week for express(7 to 10 days)  and about 2 weeks and half or 3 weeks for normal translation at the Hellenic ministry of foreign affairs. 

Edited August 6, 2017 by Athens

[sulusum 69]

14 hours ago, giorgis said:

Hello! I will try to help you out with the info i got. I just received yesterday packet 3 from the embassy that they notify me to send them all the papers needed. In the instructions says that documents in Greek or English dont need to be translated. But several people here strongly encouraged me to translate the papers from Greek to English so in order to be on the safe side i am doing that. I am a Greek citizen and my visa is k1. I dont know what happens with EB1 visa you re applying and because since you are a non Greek citizen i dont know what stands with the translation part. Maybe you should call the embassy just to be sure. I gave for start my birth certificate to be translated and it took around 10 days to get it back! I hope i could help you more!

Thank you giorgis for your answer. I will call the Embassy and see what they will tell me. 10 days is a lot for just a birth certificate, why are they so slow? I have got many documents to be translated including  families birth certificate, police records from homeland, military record etc.,

[sulusum 69]

14 hours ago, Athens said:

Where was the documents you sent to NVC translated, in Greece or your country? If you still have copies, send it to the embassy.  For K1 they ask for both original birth certificate and translated copy.  The original is returned at the end of the visa process.  

Your police report will be sent directly to the embassy upon request.  

if you choose to translate it again, it will take 1 week for express(7 to 10 days)  and about 2 weeks and half or 3 weeks for normal translation at the Hellenic ministry of foreign affairs. 

Thanks Athens for your detailed reply.

My documents  were translated in my home country, and I have the originals of them (EB applicants don't send them to the Embassy, we just take bring them on interview date) But I do not have translations from Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Greece. As I checked the previous posts in the forum, people say that if foreigners go to Ministry of Foreign Affairs for translation, they ask Apostle from home country's Consulate in the first place. However since I came to Greece as a political asylee, Consulate of my home country wouldn't give apostle to a political asylee ! That is the main problem for us. Any further advice would be appreciated!

[Athens 101]

Yes sulu, you will be asked to add apostille stamp.  Most especially when they find out its for American embassy. Though It's a matter of choice , you may still insist you just want to translate the documents and have for your record. A friend of mine did that when he translated his Turkish police report at the ministry,  first they asked for apostille, he insisted that he wanted them to translate only. He never had issue on that, with the embassy. 

So since those documents were issued, translated in your country, sent to NVC and petition approved, use it and don't bother translating again. 

[sulusum 69]

3 hours ago, Athens said:

Yes sulu, you will be asked to add apostille stamp.  Most especially when they find out its for American embassy. Though It's a matter of choice , you may still insist you just want to translate the documents and have for your record. A friend of mine did that when he translated his Turkish police report at the ministry,  first they asked for apostille, he insisted that he wanted them to translate only. He never had issue on that, with the embassy. 

So since those documents were issued, translated in your country, sent to NVC and petition approved, use it and don't bother translating again. 

I appreciate your input. I will first try to get it translated without Apostille, and if they insist on not translating, I will use the ones that I already have. 

Really thanks a lot. 

[Kalea 0]

Hey I'm not sure if this forum is still active but just in case-  In Greece, which paper is the birth certificate?  We have a paper that has a  birth date with a vote number, the other is the birth registration and the other is a list of her relatives showing she is not married.  Do we need all of these translated? Any help is appreciated!

Edited February 11, 2018 by Kalea

[giorgis 1]

What I did in order to be on the safe side is I got both the birth certificate and birth registration got the apostille stamp and translated them both and I gave both of them in my file

[Kalea 0]

Thanks Giorgis!  We just got the first step approved so we are waiting for a NVC case number.  Any tips for the next steps ahead besides what's already been said? 

[lenablabla 34]

On 3/22/2018 at 5:53 AM, Kalea said:

Thanks Giorgis!  We just got the first step approved so we are waiting for a NVC case number.  Any tips for the next steps ahead besides what's already been said? 

I am not sure if you have already finished the process and you are in the US, but fingers crossed!! 
 

Since you have already passed that step, i thought i might ask you a few questions( i am still waiting for my NOA2 but i want to plan ahead)  Did you get an official translation of your birth certificate (from the "Metafrastiki yphresia")? Did you have to do that or could you get it translated anywhere else?

How long after you sent the packet to the Greek embassy was your interview scheduled? Was the interview failry easy?

 

Any input from anyone else here is much much much appreciated!

[Kalea 0]

Hey there lenablabla,

         Greetings from the US!  We had an official translation of metafrastiki yphresia (the birth registration paper) done at the municipality level.  The cost was better than any language website here.  It has been helpful through that process and the process that continues in the US. Don't pay attention to the "expiration date on the paper" after its translated  just have it translated before the "expiration" on the certificate.

 

After we sent out stuff in to the Greek Embassy I think it was maybe a few weeks or a month for our interview.  We had to call the police back as the embassy didn't receive the background check the first time.  The interview itself was fine!  The first one was in greek and that was the hardest one, then the American consulate was very friendly and that interview was very nice!  We were very prepared for anything that could come but we were approved that day!

 

we're happy to answer anymore questions!

 

and yes, we are married now! working on permanent resident papers!

 

 

[giorgis 1]

Hello Lena!I am in the US yes I have my green gard for a few months now.I am really happy to answer any questions you have you can text me any time.So I translated every single document I had.Lixiarxiki praksi geniseos, birth certificate etc.I wanted to be on the safe side so every Greek document I translated it to the ministry department of translations.After you send your documents it will take a few weeks for the embassy to get back to you.They LL send you instructions how to book your appointment.The interview in my case was easy.Thankfully all my documents were ok so I didn't have any issues.A really nice lady asked me some easy questions and asked for some photos.It took around five minutes.Prepared to get there early and don't be stressed.Many people had issues with documents.Especially the police report on some cases didn't reach the embassy.Be organized and have all the documents and translations and photos and what is needed.I ll be happy to help whenever you need during the process!

[lenablabla 34]

@Kalea and @giorgis thank you soooo much for your replies! Its pretty helpful to know there are people that went through the same process and experienced the same issues. 

Regarding document translations, i take your advice and will translate my birth certification to Metafrastiki Ypiresia (have to get an apostille stamp first). I am glad to hear it only takes a few weeks/1 month for the embassy to contact me for an interview, since the whole process has taken so long so far (dont know if you knew, but the k1 visa timings have been doubled in the last 6 months). Glad to hear that embassy interviews are fairly easy, as long as you are prepared.

No more questions for you at this stage  Unless you have an advice for me. Otherwise, i will bug you again in a few dates when i hopefully have my NOA2 !

Thanks again , your help is much appreciated!

[giorgis 1]

My only advice at this point be super prepared with the documents.Get the apostile stamps and translate everything from Greek to English cause when you move you need to have them!Read carefully what is needed and go over them again and again.As far for the interview i told you my experience was super pleasant.They kept some photos be prepared to have a bunch of them and of course evidence that you met like tickets etc.The questions we're simple and straightforward.We ll be here to help you out don't worry!When I was in the same place stressed and confused someone from here helped me so much and I feel I need to give back that help! 

[lenablabla 34]

Hi guys! I ve now received my NOA2 and waiting for NVC to receive our case and get contacted by the embassy. thanks to visajourney, i managed to find the list of documents the Greek embassy (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VFUSaOoUMesBn8OqHmSdY7TEje6aQuW0/view?usp=sharing)  will require and started preparing them. I am a bit stressed out though since most of them will take a while to obtain.

 

Did you guys had to get any police records from countries you stayed for more than 6 months? And if so, did you translate those?

 

Also, they are asking for W2s for the past 3 years along with "tax documents". Since there is not a W2 form in Greece, what did you submit?

 

thanks in advance for your replies

[Linski733 17]

On 10/18/2018 at 2:17 PM, lenablabla said:

Hi guys! I ve now received my NOA2 and waiting for NVC to receive our case and get contacted by the embassy. thanks to visajourney, i managed to find the list of documents the Greek embassy (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VFUSaOoUMesBn8OqHmSdY7TEje6aQuW0/view?usp=sharing)  will require and started preparing them. I am a bit stressed out though since most of them will take a while to obtain.

 

Did you guys had to get any police records from countries you stayed for more than 6 months? And if so, did you translate those?

 

Also, they are asking for W2s for the past 3 years along with "tax documents". Since there is not a W2 form in Greece, what did you submit?

 

thanks in advance for your replies

I have already received packet 3 they only wanted w2s from me the petitioner in the u.s not for my fiancé in Greece. It also says there is no need to have documents translated that are in Greek or English you can do it if you want but we chose not to since it clearly states that there is no need.