Start to Finish: Almaty Interview

[Simplytex 387]

I’m going to do a multi-part post here documenting the journey it’s been for my wife and I to get her CR-1 visa. Long story short – the process was actually relatively painless and straightforward, taking just under 11 months from first application to her entry into the US. You can see on my timeline the various dates, so I won’t repost everything, but please feel free to direct message/reply to this post if you have any questions about it.

 

So, the couple parts of the journey I’ll discuss are:

 

• Application to USCIS
• NVC review and interview scheduling
• Medical
• Interview attendance in Almaty
• Passport Pickup
• Entry to the US

[Simplytex 387]

Part 1: Application to USCIS

 

We applied in May 2022, after getting engaged in January (so, we had decent documentation that this marriage wasn’t just due to the Ukraine war and its various impacts, in case that made/makes any difference to USCIS.)

 

The I-130 application I did online about 2 weeks after we got married, it was pretty straightforward. I’m sure this form will change (and hopefully improve, since some things were kinda vague) but my policy is to always answer the questions as literally as possible. So yes, there were a couple time where I felt like I was repeating myself (who is my spouse, who is the beneficiary’s spouse, etc.) but just fill it out as if each question is stand-alone.

 

The only other thing I will say about I-130 application is to absolutely complete the I-129 paperwork for the K3 visa. “But the visa is dead” I saw many people reply in the main forum (including legacy members with a lot of ‘good credit’ in the forum)… but I’m a data geek, so I literally tracked dozens of approvals at various service centers in an excel spreadsheet and found a clear pattern that K3 filers were getting approved months before those who didn’t – and eventually that was the case for my petition as well. All I know, is that only people who applied for K3 got accelerated approval, and no one who didn't apply for K3 got an early approval... So...

 

Other than that, not really any comments or issues with USCIS application, no RFEs etc.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Simplytex
un-merge replies

[Simplytex 387]

Part 2: NVC review and interview scheduling

 

After approval at Vermont SC, it took about 5 days for the case to transfer over to NVC and we pretty quickly got everything registered and paid up. After that, I had most of the AOS documents ready to go (I did the I-864EZ since I am the sole financial sponsor using only salaried income, and a US resident.) My wife got her police report via Gosulogi in about a week, so once that was received as well as independent/certified translations of the police report and birth certificate, we uploaded everything and began to wait. After tracking approval times, I expected that our case would be approved at NVC around Dec 6 – 10^th. On Dec 6^th we got an email saying something had changed in CEAC, but when checking didn’t see any changes.

 

After waiting another ~2 weeks, we got another email and the real DQ. So, for some reason, our case took slightly longer than others through NVC, despite no RFE’s or other reason that I can determine.

 

Once we did get DQ, then my wife and I decided to try going to Italy to ‘test’ getting her a Schengen visa. That all worked, but we still were nervous about the legalities of going to Warsaw given that Poland had continued to be more aggressive with their messaging. During her entry to Schengen zone in transit at Munich airport (she flew Moscow -> Belgrade, then Belgrade -> Munich -> Milan all on one ticket), the passport control officer explicitly asked my wife if she planned to go to Poland. Additionally, in late Dec/January, I can’t remember exactly when, but Poland released an announcement that said (at least my interpretation) that Russians would not be legally allowed to enter Poland going forward. That said, people still do circumvent this, but after some discussion my wife and I decided to look into alternatives.

 

So, on Jan 29^th I emailed Almaty consulate asking if they would be able to take a transfer. On the morning of Jan 30^th they replied, saying that they would contact NVC and initiate the transfer, and by that afternoon NVC had completed the transfer and we had a new case number assigned. From the sound of it, we must have been very lucky with the transfer process as other people since then have been denied (though, I’m not sure if they were trying to transfer fiancé visas which might have a different level of urgency, at least in the govt’s eyes…)

[Simplytex 387]

Part 3: Medical

 

After getting the transfer, it took about a month to get the interview notification/scheduling. We quickly turned around and got her medical scheduled and flights booked… The IMC clinic in Almaty has two locations, and we chose to go to the more central location on Mukanova Street.

 

My wife and I arrived separately in Almaty on April 9^th, with her medical scheduled on April 11^th. Medical was pretty straightforward. 8am appointment, and we got there about 740a since my wife was anxious at first about the medical (for what reason, I’m not sure since she doesn’t have any sort of hazardous health issues.) Still, when she finished she was smiling and really enjoyed the doctor, who was a (I assume) Russian lady who spoke English well and had been to the US before as well, good bedside manner and just seemed very professional. We finished up in maybe 20 min, were told that the file would be sent electronically to the consulate, and got the address for the x-ray, which occurred at ‘SEMA Hospital’ which coincidentally was literally across the road from our Airbnb. We got there around 8:40ish, there wasn’t really a wait for the front desk or radiology/imaging room, and were done and home by 9a. So, overall no problems at all with medical.

[Simplytex 387]

Part 4: Interview

 

A week later, the interview was scheduled for April 18^th, 9am. We got dropped off by our taxi about 8:40a, and just walked up to the building (Entrance A2 is the one nearer to the big Dostyk shopping center/northeast side of the building.) There are some double doors, and basically right inside is the security desk, with enough space for one family at a time. Per the instructions, spouses aren’t allowed to attend the interview, so I just stuck outside until my wife went through and around the corner. The rest is from her commentary:

 

Basically, at security there is a security guard who escorts folks to/from the US consulate office. My wife said the way to the office was pretty confusing, but its up on the 17^th floor. Once there, they got handed over to another room security guard, who was very nice, smiling (unusual for Russians haha) and even making some jokes. My wife’s interview was scheduled for 9a, but she said there were maybe another 7 families/people in the room ahead of her. There are five desks, the first two are for check-in/document review, middle is empty, and desks four/five are for interviews.

 

She waited until one of the first two windows was open, and went to it for check-in. A Kazakh woman was working there, and apparently had a file with my wife’s info already lined up. She asked if she could see our Utah wedding certificate as well as my previous divorce documents, so my wife gave a printout of the digital cert that had been uploaded at NVC, as well as the certified copy that I received from my lawyer (during Covid, so I assume just a printout, as in Houston/Harris county documents are digitally signed.) The agent/intake lady looked at these documents, and per my wife’s comment “Ran her hand over the pages” as if looking for a physical seal. With this lady seeming slightly unimpressed, my wife said that she had other copies of the same documents (Utah physical wedding cert, as well as a more recent certified copy I got form the County secretary, both of which had physical embossed seals… but both of which are exact duplicates of legally valid digital documents.) The lady seemed much happier with these documents, and gave them back to my wife. She asked for the police certificate + translation, put it into the file, and then asked my wife to sit again.

 

After this, she had to wait about 40min. During this time, she noticed that people interviewing at the 4^th desk didn’t have much privacy from the other people in the room, while the 5^th desk/booth was a little more separated and private. She said that 2 other people interviewing got denied (probably not spouse/fiance, but maybe family-related tourist visa or something similar), and from what she could hear it was because people were missing original, certified documents. This really seems to be a huge deal at this location, so that’s my biggest lesson/takeaway – have everything, and if at all in doubt, get even more! There also seems to be a preference for “official looking” e.g. the embossed seals on my duplicate documents.

 

Finally my wife was asked up, and interviewed by mid 30’s American, who conducted the whole interview in English (like, he never even asked if she would prefer English or Russian. I wonder if this was a note in our file, as in my email asking for a transfer, I mentioned that my wife was fully fluent…) Anyways, the questions she was asked in the course of about 4 minutes:

• Who is the petitioner? When did you meet/how did you get to know each other? When did you physically meet the first time? How much time have you spent together in total?
• Has she ever lived outside of Russia? Have you ever lived in a different city than your hometown?
• What did/do you do for a living? Is that a government job? Have you had any other government jobs?
• What is your level of education/degree received? Where was that from?
• What does your husband do for a living? Where does he work?

After these, he said that the visa would be approved, and she will get her passport from where ever she had indicated on the delivery papers.

[Simplytex 387]

Part 5: Passport pickup

 

Ahead of the interview, I had completed the form for USTravelDocs that I found for passport pickup, at this link: https://portal.ustraveldocs.com/?country=Kazakhstan&language=English

The day ahead of the interview, the consulate also sent a note saying that we would need to register for document collection or delivery, and sent a link with instructions (showing the same website, but the link in their document was broken…)

 

Anyways, the day after the interview around 4pm, my wife got an email saying that the passport had left the embassy and was on it’s way to the pickup location. We never got a call or anything from VFS Global, but we decided to just be proactive and go on the next day, regardless.

 

BTW, VFS Global is shown correctly in Yandex Go if you search for “Alatau Grand” (the office block.) The VFS Global website shows a random place in the west of the city, and Google Maps shows a place in the middle of the city, but just check that where ever you head, its to “Timiryazev St 28B”… We didn’t have any problems with it, but it was kinda strange that the maps all point to different places.

 

We went around 2pm April 20^th, got a ticket, and were called in about 5 min to a desk. The lady took my wife’s Russian internal passport, checked the name on the interview letter, and behind the desk had a large plastic tub full of files. She found the one for my wife and voila, passport with visa was there, along with a few other documents (including the police certificate which the consular officer had held onto for some reason.) There is no physical packet given, since our case was fully electronic.

 

We got back to the apartment, and I paid the final $220 ‘immigrant fee’ on USCIS (instructions about this fee are pretty vague on the consulate paperwork…) Link found here: https://my.uscis.gov/uscis-immigrant-fee

[Simplytex 387]

Part 6: Entry to the US

 

We had flights pre-booked from Almaty on Qatar Airways for April 22 (I bought flexible, but had been optimistic regardless.) Check-in was easy, no issues with airline or airport staff questioning the visa anywhere along the way in either Almaty or Doha.

 

22.5 hours later, we arrived in Houston. I am very familiar with Houston passport control but normally I use Global Entry, so looking at the signs the three options were 1) US passports, 2) Global Entry, 3) All other passports, including immigrants/permanent residents. I decided to be a nice guy and go with her through the long line… Honestly, airport wasn’t too busy. It took us about 10-15min to get to the booth, at which point I gave the officer both passports and just said “FYI my wife is coming in on a CR-1 visa, also I have some dried dates which I might need to declare at customs.”

 

He said, no problem, let me just open the case and I’ll get you an escort to the visa processing area. He then walked us over to the officer pulling escort duty, and we got put into a seating area in the hall (which honestly I had never noticed before – I thought we were going to get pulled into the side offices, where I've heard horror stories of people sitting for 1-2 hours...)

 

They took our passports and told us to wait until we got called. There were maybe 3 or 4 other people sitting in this area ahead of us, but in about 10 minutes we got called. Walked over, the officer had our passports and walked us back to another area, said “take your passports, head over to the end of the hall, down the escalator, and talk to the officer at the bottom.” I wasn’t really sure what or where we were going, as the level below I thought only had bag claim and customs/inspections… I opened her passport and it had been stamped/dated. That's it, done! So, she didn’t even get any face-to-face with an officer, no questions, no "Welcome to America", nothing, just approved like that!

 

Anyways, I think we waited longer to get my freaking dried dates run through the xray machine than we did for her passport to get stamped.

 

Other than that, I can’t think of anything which might be worth mentioning. Good luck to anyone else!

[TBoneTX 43,437]

Wonderful stuff!  Be sure to post an Embassy Review, if you haven't yet, and add a link there to this thread.

[OneDude 3]

@Simplytex Thank you very much for sharing, very helpful!  I requested my transfer to either Almaty or Bishkek, will provide an update for others once I hear back.  Congrats to you and your wife and even though they didn't say welcome, let me say to you both welcome to America!!!

[funkypanda25 0]

Did the interviewer officer asked you any questions during the interview or were all the questions directed at your wife?

[Simplytex 387]

4 hours ago, funkypanda25 said:

Did the interviewer officer asked you any questions during the interview or were all the questions directed at your wife?

No, as I did not attend the interview with her, as per the instructions only a translator or helper (for people with disability) would be allowed into the consulate office.

[Ineska 22]

On 4/24/2023 at 9:04 PM, Simplytex said:

Part 3: Medical

 

After getting the transfer, it took about a month to get the interview notification/scheduling. We quickly turned around and got her medical scheduled and flights booked… The IMC clinic in Almaty has two locations, and we chose to go to the more central location on Mukanova Street.

 

My wife and I arrived separately in Almaty on April 9^th, with her medical scheduled on April 11^th. Medical was pretty straightforward. 8am appointment, and we got there about 740a since my wife was anxious at first about the medical (for what reason, I’m not sure since she doesn’t have any sort of hazardous health issues.) Still, when she finished she was smiling and really enjoyed the doctor, who was a (I assume) Russian lady who spoke English well and had been to the US before as well, good bedside manner and just seemed very professional. We finished up in maybe 20 min, were told that the file would be sent electronically to the consulate, and got the address for the x-ray, which occurred at ‘SEMA Hospital’ which coincidentally was literally across the road from our Airbnb. We got there around 8:40ish, there wasn’t really a wait for the front desk or radiology/imaging room, and were done and home by 9a. So, overall no problems at all with medical.

Thank you so much for sharing all the info. It is very helpful. If you don’t mind, could you please share what kind of medical records did your wife have to bring from Russia to Almaty for the med apt? My mother will have an apt hopefully in the summer there as well but she has no record of her vaccinations. We are trying to figure out how that will all work. Thank you again for your help in advance.

[Simplytex 387]

1 hour ago, Ineska said:

Thank you so much for sharing all the info. It is very helpful. If you don’t mind, could you please share what kind of medical records did your wife have to bring from Russia to Almaty for the med apt? My mother will have an apt hopefully in the summer there as well but she has no record of her vaccinations. We are trying to figure out how that will all work. Thank you again for your help in advance.

My wife had an old medical card (booklet for kids), that she took to the government hospital with that card and a blank certificate (that she says she bought in just a office supply/stationery shop), and had the hospital transfer the info/stamp it. She also went to a doctor to get whatever what updated (I think Tdap, hep B, and flu.)

 

In a group chat, some people said they were able to go get an antibody test ahead of time to prove mmr, etc. and that should be acceptable for some things. 

[Ineska 22]

17 hours ago, Simplytex said:

My wife had an old medical card (booklet for kids), that she took to the government hospital with that card and a blank certificate (that she says she bought in just a office supply/stationery shop), and had the hospital transfer the info/stamp it. She also went to a doctor to get whatever what updated (I think Tdap, hep B, and flu.)

 

In a group chat, some people said they were able to go get an antibody test ahead of time to prove mmr, etc. and that should be acceptable for some things. 

Thank you, Symplytex. We don’t have that old booklet any more and were wondering if she’d have to get all the shots again.
They now have electronic cards, but they are not printable and it doesnt have anything other than covid vccinations. Appreciate the antibody test tip. Thank you again! 

[Vashezzo 43]

On 4/30/2023 at 2:56 PM, Ineska said:

Thank you, Symplytex. We don’t have that old booklet any more and were wondering if she’d have to get all the shots again.
They now have electronic cards, but they are not printable and it doesnt have anything other than covid vccinations. Appreciate the antibody test tip. Thank you again! 

I looked in to this for my partner as well, I found the CDC page outlining vaccine requirements.

 

The TL;DR (at least for a woman in her 30's) is that they can use an antibody test to verify Hepatitis B, Varicella, and the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine.

 

The only other required ones are a TDAP booster and flu shot (which I believe are typically administered as part of the exam).

 

I'm not sure the current covid situation for people who are still in Russia, my partner is living in Serbia and will be required to get a non-Sputnik vaccine since they're easily available to her.