Ashley y Diego

Hello fellow visa journeyers,
This website has been a great resource for us throughout this process, especially when it gets confusing or we have to wait without knowing what is going on. Since this happened to us quite a lot going through the argentina embassy in buenos aires, I wanted to share with you what we've learned so that your trip through the consulate to the interview and POE can be straightforward and quick! I have a K-1 visa, but most of the info applies to other visas as well.
Attached is the "Packet 3 Checklist" (K1K3 appt instr) for K1/K3 visas, which comes in a package with additional detailed instructions. I've attached the police certificate instructions; everything was too large to upload, but if you want the whole package of instructions, send me a message and I'll email it to you.
Also attached is the interview letter they send to all visa applicants (Appointment info). I would use this as your primary list, supplemented with any additional items from other materials.
WHAT TO MAIL TO THEM - When they indicate they have received your packet, gather all of this:
1/ DS-230 part 1 (do NOT sign part 2!)
2/ More evidence of relationship (updates from the first packet you sent, they have that already)
3/ Two copies of DS-156
4/ Two copies of DS-157 if male aged 16-46
5/ DS-156K
6/ All passports you have ever held
7/ Legalized birth certificate (legalization is free in Capital at Calle 25 de Mayo 179)
8/ Any marriage and divorce/death of spouse certificates if applicable, legalized as above
9/ Police certificate (follow attached instructions exactly! Will not accept if without "exception to article 51")
10/ Court and prison records, if convicted of a crime
11/ Military record, pertinent pages in original DNI suffice
12/ Four identical US passport-style photographs
13/ Evidence of support (I-134 plus documentation of funds plus proof of US citizenship/residency for each sponsor/cosponsor, copy of passport bio page will suffice)
14/ Medical exam- sealed envelope you receive from one of their approved doctors
15/ Court order, for each beneficiary who is a minor
16/ Receipt from paying the visa fee.
Make a simple photocopy of everything here and mail it to the consulate or bring in person if you're nearby. File all of the originals into an organized folder, wait for the interview date, and bring it! Easy enough.
Some notes:
Documents for the interview will be accepted in English and Spanish (and the interview may be conducted in some combination).
1, 3, 4, 5: if you're unsure about signing something, leave it blank and do it at the interview when they tell you to. Not a big deal.
2: Be thorough, but not too crazy. When you get to the interview and have to explain what all that stuff you are submitting is, there may be laughter and you will likely feel a little silly. So don't worry too much!
6: It will be a problem if you are missing any passports used in the last 10 years. However, there is a solution: go to Direccion Nacional de Migraciones at Calle Antartida Argentina 1533 in Capital and get "Movimientos Migratorios" for every year of the last 10 you are missing a passport. Send copies and bring originals to interview in place of previous passports.
7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16: There are specific instructions for any questions you have with these. If you want to complete them before receiving info from the embassy and have any doubts, don't hesitate to message me so I can email you the complete instruction packet (maybe it's somewhere on the internet, but I didn't find it??).
7, 8: You will need these translated to English for the AOS. You can have that done while you're waiting for the interview here in Argentina, check VisaJourney for the translator's statement that must be included.
ABOUT TIMING:
There are two ways to contact the embassy, email or the USC going in person. The former is the preferred method, while the latter should be reserved for more extreme/immediate type situations.
After you get the NOA2 your packet is sent to the NVC. You can find out from the NVC when they mailed your packet to the embassy. The embassy will contact you (email) anywhere from a few days to a few weeks after they receive your packet, requesting you to send the above list of documents. If they have not contacted you in one month, contact them. It will take them anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to process the documents you submit. If they have not contacted you (always, by email) within two weeks, consider contacting them. At this point they should assign you an interview date. The date may be as short as three days or as long as months away. After the interview, they will return original documents to you but keep the beneficiary's passport and all the forms you have submitted to assemble the sealed packet you will present at the POE and put the visa in the passport; they will be mailed in one to three weeks.
Okay, I hope this is helpful to others making part of their journey through the consulate in buenos aires. Good luck! And of course, leave comments if you have had a different experience with visa documents here.
Appointment info (English).doc
K1 K3 appt instr(English).pdf
Police Certificate Requirements.pdf

You don't need copies, you just will want them to know what is in your file because you will always have the burden of proof and responsibility if everything doesn't go the way you want!
You should maybe ask your wife to "make" a copy by noting down what she sent in before she forgets? Just so you have peace of mind about this?

I assume you're going to Buenos Aires embassy.. it is intimidating at first with all the security and such but it's really not a scary place. Those people are people who chose to work in the embassy, some of the women told me they had done the same K-1 visa with their Argentine fiance but now had come back to spend some time there and are working trying to help others immigrate legally. The people working there live in Argentina and although they may not be Argentine they chose to do it for a reason, they might have friends or family there to visit or love the culture or want to get better at Spanish or whatever. Everyone is nervous, but the embassy employees are on your side, they're people too, they're just doing their best to uphold the rules so that everyone is treated fairly and US security standards and laws are enforced properly while making it a welcoming place to all good-intentioned people.
Read the embassy reviews, it actually helped us a lot before the interview to realize that them running hours late and getting confused and just being real people meant it wasn't such a scary thing. We went in SO nervous, but after hours being there just started to understand it was just something to do, and be honest about, and stand up for yourself in a polite way, and to be prepared for, but not to be scared of- if you don't have anything to hide, there's no reason you need to be sweating the armpits off your sweater! Just try to relax.. if they're running really behind, maybe even take a nap or get to know some of the others waiting.
You should know too that as a US Citizen there you definitely have rights and can advocate on behalf of yourself and your fiance.. but there generally won't be a need to do this- we used this sort of power to beg for them to process faster or give us more information, and most of the time their response was "we'll do our best".
It helped us to know we were going to have a treat after the interview- when you can tell yourself "no matter what happens, we're going to go together to our favorite restaurant and get ice cream and take the rest of the day off, and we'll have each other there for support" through your nerves getting the best of you, it can make you feel a lot better!
No se preocupen, muchisima suerte, van temprano que el estacionamiento es medio dificil, pero preparanse esperar horas, y si no, mejor!