PhatCat

I have been to Colombia more than a dozen times--primarily Bogota but also Medellin, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Cali-- over the past few years to visit with my (now) fiancé who has lived in Bogota over 10 years. Except for Cali I have never felt threatened after following normal safe travel procedures. Avoid known dangerous areas, especially at night; don't be ostentatious, especially with phones or other things easily grabbed. We do take local taxis a lot because the fares are incredibly cheap compared to NY or other major cities. Uber also works there , as do local rideshare apps. Have your fiancé deal with the taxis as in my experience even if you speak Spanish, as a Murican, taxis will try to cheat you on the fare. And always have pesos to pay. My advice is for the interview stay at a hotel within walking distance of the US embassy. There are several; the Wyndham Tryp is nice and reasonably priced.

Thanks. In our experience and in other postings re: Bogota, they only address the beneficiary, not the petitioner. They do ask the beneficiary who is the person accompanying them. They will likely ask your fiance what languages s/he speaks, whether you speak your fiance's language and in what language you normally communicate. Something like "mostly Spanish but more English as I am learning" seems to be fine for the latter. If your fiancé says s/he speaks English be prepared for them to immediately switch to English for the rest of the interview.. On a lighter note, my fiancé said the officer conducting his interview spoke heavily accented Spanish and he had some trouble understanding the questions. This is after dealing with my Spanish for several years.

A note to OP. In Bogota the petitioner can attend the interview with the beneficiary. I did this recently with my Colombian fiance and the officer asked him if i was his fiance. In spite of red flags he was asked only the basic questions and we were approved in les than five minutes.

As of April 1 2022, Mexico has a Pre-registration process explicitly for Colombians wishing to visit, Apparently this is to address many instances of Colombians being denied upon arrival. My K1 fiance had been previously denied entry under circumstances similar to yours--they stole his cell phone and continued to use it until he cancelled it in Bogota upon return. When i filled out the reregistration form to visit last year, towards the end, one question asked if he had ever been denied entry. Then it asked how long ago, giving various ranges, the shortest being 0-5 years. When i selected that, the application was almost immediately denied. My conclusion is that he likely has a five year ban. You might want to check this for your fiance before making any plans to visit Mexico, even after she gets the green card since she will still be traveling on her Colombian passport.

Someone pointed out that i omitted the I134. That was one of the required docs that they checked upon entry. Apologies

My fiance and I attended the K1 interview in Bogota. on July 5 The process was remarkably well organized and smooth. You will wait outside until your visa type and appointment time are called over a loudspeaker. (Spanish only). You will go to a side entrance where they will check you in at a makeshift station. They did not asl for the appointment letter, the DS160 page or anything else. Instead they had notebook computers where they looked up his passport. and verified what they needed They only asked for his passport and his passport photos. After passing through airport type security there is another makeshift station inside where they will hand you a laminated form with the documents and order you will present them. For us there were no divorces so this comprised the Police record (Yes, the one you can pull online), the sealed record from the medical exam and an original Birth Certificate. That's it! From there you will go to a short line where you will present these documents at a bank teller style. window We too had copies of everything up to that point in the process and nothing was required beyond the docs mentioned. Then you sit in a covered outdoor waiting area and wait for your name to be called. For us the wait was about an hour and half. Our interview lasted less than five minutes and we were approved without even presenting the extensive documentation of our time together post the I129F submission. Good Luck!.

As I have posted the details here recently I will just summarize that my Colombian same-sex fiance and I have a 45 year difference and were approved without any questions as to age. The approved I129F sent from the embassy had been notated in red pen "2nd approved I12fF" and "45 years apart", so they did take note. As my lawyer explained, neither is reason for denial but they will look at the application closely, mostly to protect the US citizen. Since we knew this was likely to warrant a closer review, we front loaded the I129F with evidence of having known each other for 6 years and had met 4 times in the months prior to the I129F submission. I was permitted to accompany him to the interview window and the officer did ask if I was the fiance. I agree with the previous poster that my presence helped confirm that we had a serious relationship.