InsanelyOne

OMG!!!!  I"m a fool!  I dated the check 2019!  
 
UGH!
 
At least we have plenty of time to resubmit. Thanks for pointing that out.  I didn't make the obvious connection that remittance = payment.
 
 

For the benefit of the other users on the forum it would be nice if you let us know what the answer was.

Thanks. It ended up being very easy. I didn't have to provide any kind of documentation during the interview. I guess since my fiancé and I have lived together for over 10 years it was pretty much a no-brainer.

Thanks. It ended up being very easy. I didn't have to provide any kind of documentation during the interview. I guess since my fiancé and I have lived together for over 10 years it was pretty much a no-brainer.

With all due respect, why did you apply for the Diversity Lottery when you don't appear to have any desire to come to the US?

With all due respect, why did you apply for the Diversity Lottery when you don't appear to have any desire to come to the US?

I really wasn't expecting any problems and sure enough in less than 5 minutes were were approved. The people at the Santo Domingo embassy were wonderful. One funny thing is that my fiancé and I are not Spanish speakers but they kept trying to talk to us in Spanish. Understandable since we were definitely the exception as neither one of us is Dominican. The agent who performed the interview was awesome. She was so sympathetic to our story and how we've been waiting over 10 years to return to the US. With a big smile she said congratulations. I was immediately choked up and couldn't even speak. She just looked in my eyes, smiled and said "finally!". Finally is right. Can't wait to get back to the States and start a family. I'll be working on a full review of the experience later.
Thanks for all the help and advice! Good luck to everyone waiting on their outcome.

My fiancé and I had quite a trying day yesterday as we attempted to take care of both the medical exam and the VAC appointment in the same day.
1. Medical Exam
There are two choices where to have the medical exam. For no specific reason, we chose Servicios Médicos Consulares. We arrived at 6:00 AM and there was already quite a few people (I would estimate close to 20). The facility doesn't technically open until 6:30 but they were letting people into the outdoor waiting area (equipped with chairs) and were asking people to fill out a form and sign a letter of consent. The gentleman that was organizing things was pleasant and spoke English (neither my fiancé nor I speak Spanish very well). As far as documents go, we brought everything we had just to be safe. That said, we didn't have a document that he insisted we needed. He wanted the passport and the VAC/Embassy appointment confirmation page (which we had) but he also insisted we have the letter from the NVC. The problem there is that with a K-1 visa, there is no letter from the NVC. With the K-1, the NVC just forwards the case directly to the Embassy. I told him this was for a K-1 visa and that we don't have the document. He then took the document from the woman sitting next to us and told us that was what he needed. I indicated to him that she was getting a IR-1/CR-1 and that the process is slightly different in that case. He wouldn't budge. He insisted he needed a document that had the NVC Case Number (SDOYYYYMMDDXXX) on it. We have no document. I did have an email from my lawyer with the NVC Case Number so I provided that to him. After much pleading (and a little anger on my part) he reluctantly accepted it but told us we would have to bring the document when we returned to pick up the medical results next week. Still not sure what we are going to do since the document he is asking for just doesn't exist.
What bothers me the most is that this idiot is not an agent of the US government. He's just a worker at the medical center. He has no authority to demand documents that don't even exist. All he should care about is that we have an appointment scheduled with the Embassy and we need a medical exam done.
Anyway, my fiancé was in by 7:00 and out by 9:00 and the exam itself was pleasant and efficient. The doctor spoke fluent English and was courteous and friendly. My fiancé did not have access to his vaccination records so he was required to 3 vaccinations: Influenza, MMR, Diphtheria. The vaccinations added about US$100 to the bill.
2. Now the fun part, the VAC
We got to the VAC at the Galeria 360 Mall at around 12:00 for a 12:20 appt. My fiancé was turned away because they said there was a problem with the DS-160 confirmation page. For place of birth, it included the city and country. (The DS-160 actually has city, state/province/county, and country). However, my fiancé's passport only lists the country (no city). The agent at the VAC said that she cannot accept him because the DS-160 confirmation does not match exactly with the passport. He showed her his birth certificate which shows the city but she said that didn't matter. It had to match the passport. I was still upset about the idiot at the medical center so at this point i was ready to rip this 's head off but thankfully my fiancé was much more levelheaded. The VAC agent told us we had to submit a new DS-160 that only included the country on the place of birth so it would match the passport. Now mind you, this woman is NOT an agent of the US government. The entire VAC operation is operated by Dominicans. She has no more authority to tell us we need to submit a new DS-160 than any jerk on the street. I was incredulous. I called my lawyer back in the US and she was flabbergasted. She said "It defies all logic!" The lawyer followed up with an email that I think summarized it perfectly:
"The DS-160 confirmation page is an automatic summary and I don't see how to exclude the city, unless you left it off the entire application, which would obviously mess things up otherwise -- if it even allowed you to submit it like that!"
So here we are again at the mercy of fools. There is no way we are going to start all over with a new DS-160. Our Embassy interview is already scheduled for next week.
Desperate times call for desperate measures:
So we're at an impasse. I am now willing to do anything to make this happen. It seems all this idiot is concerned about is that the place of birth doesn't exactly match what's on his passport. So we drive back to our hotel and I photoshop the DS-160 confirmation page to remove the city from the place of birth. If I do say so myself, I did an awesome job. You couldn't tell at all that the document had been manipulated. We printed the new document, took it back to the VAC and we were out of there in 15 minutes. They took one look at the document, compared it to the passport and that was it. They handed the document back to my fiancé and never looked at it again. They didn't keep it. There is no physical record of the manipulated document ever existing. Luckily I had the skill and wherewithal to take matters into my own hand but not everyone would be willing or able to do so. I feel sorry for anyone else that has been a victim of this idiocy.
Well...that's it for now. I can only hope the interview goes more smoothly.
I'd love to hear other folks experiences to see if they compare.