US Immigration from Philippines

Hello,

I am a CR1 applicant and I am sharing here details of my experience of my visa interview for anyone curious. Mine was on May 23rd, 2024 scheduled for 7:30 am.

6 am - arrived outside the embassy, lined up at the 7:30 am line (there were lines for 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 and so on and these were just for waiting to be allowed in, no documents asked at this point yet). Only waited 5 mins before 7:30 people were let forward to line up at the actual entrance to get in
6:30 am (-ish - didn't have a watch on me) - showed passport and DS-260 form, got sticker on back of passport and entered embassy - was told to look for "Area C" but the line managers redirected us to sit at seats outside Area C first since it was full at the moment
6:40 am (found out time from someone with a watch) - already lined up in Area C for preliminary interview (1st step). Note, there is no "Area C" on any signs, so just show your passport sticker and let the line managers direct you to the correct place. They were very helpful and answered questions and made sure noone got lost during the process. Just explain what you've already finished and been told and they will know where to direct you next.

At this point I don't know how much time passed so I'm recounting it in steps according to how they divided the lines:

Step 1: Preliminary interview - was asked to show the DS-260, passport, PSA Marriage Certificate, NBI Clearance

1st attempt - Before the interviewer could begin, he said my photo was not in their system (it was, but I suspect since it was older than 6 months, they wanted the more recent 2x2 photo uploaded) so they asked me to go to another counter where they could scan the 2x2 photo I brought with me. I stepped out of the line and went to the other counter and had mine scanned without issues. However, the person in front of me had a printed copy of their photo and they didn't like it. They wanted it on photo paper and so he presented another. But that didn't work for them either, as she said his hair was long in it and he currently had short hair. So she told him to go to the Kodak booth outside (it was still within the embassy but outside of the room we were in). I don't remember how much it cost as I only walked by it briefly but prepare some cash in case this may happen to you for whatever reason.

2nd attempt - I lined up again for Step 1 and got a different interviewer. He asked for the same documents mentioned above, and asked some questions. There was just a lot of dead air in between his questions where he was just reading and maybe updating my file. Some questions I remember:
- What is your name?
- When is your birthday?
- When were you married?
- Spouse's name?
- Spouse's foreign address?
- Your current address?
- Your phone number?
- Have you lived or worked abroad before? If so, when and where?
- How many people does your spouse live with at his address? (I said 2 - his parents)
- Are you currently employed?
- Have you applied for a US visa before?
He then told me to go to a specific counter number to have my fingerprints scanned

Step 2: Fingerprint scanning - was asked for DS-260 - you do not get this back, as this is used to forward to the final interviewer. This seemed to take longer than it usually should, as there was only one counter and the window next to hers was rolled down so the other person may have been absent or late that day. Based on others' encounters there are usually 2 people scanning fingerprints. She scanned my fingerprints and told me to sit down and wait for my name to be called. Note - I had stood at the end of the line formed in front of the counter, however I didn't notice that there were maybe 8 people seated in that area (I was seated in that same place "Area C" before but to wait for Step 1, so I thought it was just people waiting for Step 1 and not Step 2). I only realized too late when the line manager had them stand up and line up after me that I had inadvertently cut in front of them. I didn't step out though because at that point there were closer to 20 people in line then and noone had admonished me - I imagine everyone was too nervous to even notice and the line managers had been too busy to tell me where the end of the line was.)

Step 3: Final Interview

People's names were called randomly but it may just have been because their system assigned a few people each to the 9 counters/interviewers and their pacing differed. The applicant next to me noticed one specific counter would process people very quickly, like 3-5 mins tops, and I happened to get her! And my seatmate was right, it was a breeze with her. I was nervous to get another interviewer because they had been using their intercom and not their localized speaker to talk to their applicants, so that meant they were blasting their questions to the entire room/building. Though we couldn't hear the applicants's answers, it was nerve-wracking hearing him question them demandingly for extra documents that they couldn't produce. Luckily a boss/leader stepped out (too late really) and finally told him to fix his speaker situation. His speakers ended up still being a little loud (we were seated over 20 feet away so this was impressive) so we could still hear some of his questions after that. The other interviewers had different volumes of speakers, some we could faintly hear from where we sat and some not at all unless they turned on their intercoms.

My own interview was probably under 5 mins, see below some questions/documents she asked:
- Who is your petitioner?
- How did you meet?
- When did you last see him?
- When did you get married?
- Have you lived or worked abroad? If so when and where?
- What is your spouse's profession?
- Please show your marriage documents from USA (on top of the PSA ones) - I suspect she wanted this since we got married online via Zoom and wanted more papers
- Was your spouse married before? (Yes)
- Present his divorce papers please (she also commented that the first interviewer missed out on asking for these earlier)
- She asked again whether either of us were married before? (I said him yes, me no)
- Is your spouse currently working?
- Are you currently employed?
- Do you have any criminal records?

And that was it, I passed! She said to expect my passport in 1-2 weeks. I got back to our room at Bayview Hotel across the street by 8:30 am. Overall very quick!

We picked up my passport with visa on May 30th (7 days later). LBC had actually sent a text message the day before (6th day) to say we could pick it up already but there was a rainstorm and I couldn't get a ride in time before LBC closed at 7 pm so we went the next morning. Went online immediately after and was able to schedule the CFO requirement for June 4th. At the time there were dozens of openings every day for the entire month of June. I don't think you need to be too concerned about getting a CFO slot these days.

I am open for any questions you might have. I will post my CFO experience later on too. Hope this helped!

So I received my schedule for interview and gathered all my requirements, however on the final part where yoh nad to go to ustraveldocs to fill in and pay, which I already did, it only shows no schedule available... so what about the email then? Now i am stuck, emailed them to report, yet it will take 2 days, and my schedule on email is already in 3 days! Its last minute I know but I just had my funds in my credit card now.

I cant even contact them and all can only course thru mail.

Hi Everyone,

I been a member of visa journey for quiet sometimes and I can tell that this site helps me a lot during my K1 to citizenship journey.

I didn't know that one day I will help my step son to do his paper works.

My step son is married to a lovely girl from Dominican Republic. I just attended their wedding a couple of months ago. Now they are ready to start filing petition to get his wife and her son here.

My questions is what kind of paperworks do we need to accomplish to start. Do I have to go CR1/IR1 for them? Any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

FYI. my 16 yrs old K2 is traveling alone next month. They went to his local dswd office and was informed that minor travel requirements for him is not needed. I was worried sick about this issue a few months ago because I could not find a post regarding minor traveling alone.

My then fiancee now my wife AOS went smooth and it is within the timeframe. She got her green card without us going to an interview process.

Thanks to all the information I got from here.

So, back when my wife first landed here, everyone online told us to get her an SSN ASAP. We got one approved at our local office, and then sent off our I-485 before her SSN arrived in the mail. However on the I-485, we checked the box requesting an SSN. We read somewhere here that we needed to do that so that they would update her last name now that she is married, and to remove the "Valid for work only with DHS authorization" part of her card. But now my wife is worried that she will have two different SSNs which will cause all sorts of problems. I personally think that since the I-485 has the same passport number and I-94 number that we provided when we applied for the SSN at the local office, shouldn't they see that there is an existing number with that information and not cause issues? I know someone who had a SSN mix up when he was younger and it still causes him problems to this day, and I don't want the same for my wife.