CR-1 Process- Juarez, Mexico

Alex & Ivan · August 24, 2018

Hello Everyone!

Today we were approved and wanted to share our end experience with this entire process.

Our CC was April 19th and we requested for an expedite at the beginning of August since in seemed that Juarez was waaaaaay backed up on interviews. They are about 6-7 months from CC to actual interview date. After seeing a post on facebook on someone asking to expedite their case I thought what the heck, I got nothing to loose. I filed for an expedite for some personal issues as well as my apartment lease coming to an end and my rent will be going up to about $1300 a month since my husband and I did not want to agree to another year. When I originally agreed on the 10mo lease I was under the impression that I would have had an interview date in August. Once July rolled around and saw how backed up we were I got super bummed because it seemed that we probably wouldn't get an interview until November. I also have lot's of student loans I have to pay of with some credit/car debt as well. When I filed for the expedite I put financial as one of the reasons but also showed that I am in good standing with all of my payments and don't have any derogatory marks. I stressed that my financial plans last year were made based off of what I thought would be an approval month. Of course I had a plan B if the interview date didn't go as planned BUT it would just be so helpful to have someone to help with the finances and not struggle from the trips I am consistently making out to Mexico. I most definitely did not think I would get expedited but by some miracle we did 🤗 They called a couple days later and we set up his interview for August 24th.

Prior to my husbands interview date I had traveled to Mexico for our one year anniversary in May. I brought him 3 pre-made color coded sticky notes packets with all the information he would need for his time at the consulate as well as translated the names of the packets since he only speaks Spanish. All he would need were a couple more documents which I noted on his packets as well one was an extra copy, one for himself, one for the consulate. He arrived in Juarez on Tuesday, August 21st, Had his medical and biometrics exam on the 23rd, and his interview today.

For the medical exam it was weird because they asked for the address which he didn't expect since they only asked for the DS-260 for, Appt letter, and passport initially so had to revise his documents to get the address. His appt was at 6:30am and finished within the hour and then had his biometrics at 2:30pm. Got his results at 3:30pm for his medical exam and everything was all good.

He got to the interview and was super nervous because the office who was doing the interviews for his group was denying a lot of visas. When he walked up to the officer he said the nervousness went away as he was talking to the officer because the conversation was very natural and the officer seemed to enjoy the conversation with him. He was smiling and even laughing at the thoroughness of how I prepared his packets. He was asked:

How long have you and your wife been together? About a year and a half

How long ago did you meet? about 2 and a half years ago

How did you meet? We met through mutual friends and through those mutual friends she was the one who actually started reaching out to me to get to know me more ( officer laughed and said " ohhhh reeeeally" ). She would send me messages and of course I would reply because I liked her too so I would message back. We found out we had a lot in common, one of those things being we love to video game. We both would hop on our playstation to play and we would be in the chat audio all night for hours which eventually led to actual phone calls. Then we started face-timing each other on the daily and our days off. One thing led to another and then I asked her to marry me and she flew out here to do so. We have since then traveled a lot together and she has come out here on multiple occasions to spend time with me and my family. I have some picture if you would like. My wife prepared a packet hold on...( husband took out giant 30page packet our our photos dates by month and year we traveled together, office then chuckled and said " wow you really have traveled a lot together!". Officer then asked for him to show him all the pics and were we have traveled and what we've done together while visiting)

It seems like you and your wife love each other a lot

So tell me about your plans for work when you arrive to the states: I currently work at the Nuclear power plant in Veracruz as a Technician who calibrates instruments so I am planning on applying to the nuclear power plant in AZ. They also have a really big electricity company I can apply to as well if I am not hired on at the power plant. My wife and I have already done a lot of research of the position open and what is needed in order to be hired on.

The officer then asked him more questions about what else he does at the power plant just out of curiosity.

Congratulations you have been approved, your visa will arrive in a max of 10 days and good luck to you and your wife.

My husband said that he doesn't even know why he was so nervous, that as soon as he started talking about us he just felt so much peace because it's our truth. He felt as if though he was talking to some friends who just happened to ask how did you guys meet.

I am so happy this process is finally over and we can finally be together! I didn't have a lawyer, just literally hours and hours of reading threads on this website 🤣 I would take other's experience and did soooooo much research on what to do, mistakes commonly made, finding checklists and so much more! I would get so bummed when I would have people tell me you should get a lawyer, it makes the process easier but I am so happy that I didn't and just put in the work to make it happen. I have learned so much and have also been able to help others. I even helped someone get their case expedited who had been denied !!! The main advice I can while at our interview is just be truthful and honest lol. Like my husband said, it's our truth, there is no need to be nervous about your relationship if it is an honest one. Good luck to everyone!