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Ireland US Consulate Reviews
Average Rating: 4.3
/ 5
143 Review(s)
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| Dublin, Ireland |  Review #7917 on July 13, 2011: |
jayvikings57
Rating: 
· 1 person found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: General Review
So I had my consulate interview there last week. In short it was an unpleasant experience. Here is my summary of the day.
Arrived at the consulate at 12.30 for the appointment time which was 1pm. Was told be the consular security to leave and get a coffee as no entry was allowed prior to 1pm. Got a coffee and came back and was 2nd in line after a nice K1 visa couple who I got talking to. I was there for my CR-1 visa I should have mentioned earlier.
So entered security and basically its your typical airport experience. Security were all Irish and they either got up on the wrong side of the bed or are normally rude and abrupt. I thought nothing of it and got into the embassy waiting room at 12.59 as the second person in and received a ticket from the greeter security guard. Sat down beside the other couple. All in all there were 9 sets of couples. My wife was not with me as she was working in the states and couldn't get the time off not that she needed to be there anyway.
I was second in however I was the last of the 9 called at ten to four, some three hours after I got in. In fairness I was calm because as long as I was getting my visa I did not care. But it didn't make sense.
I got called up and was greeted by an Irish lady who was checking my file. I can honestly say in my time on the planet she was the most horrible person I have yet to meet. She proceeded to tell me that we filed the wrong affidavit form (I864ez) when it should have been the I-864. However our immigration lawyer said other wise. No matter there was no trying to explain myself as I was told to take a seat and I would be called. It costs nothing to be nice, but hey life is too short to worry about people who enjoy being mean.
Eventually I got called by the interviewing Consular Officer. The only American I met on the day funny enough but also the only nice thing I have to say about the whole experience. He was a true gentleman in every sense of the word. Took my finger prints, explained the extra from I have to send in and explained every part of my application was fine but I had to send in the I-864. Bid my farewell and I was glad to be getting out of Dublin.
So just waiting for fed ex to get me the form my wife has filled up and I will send the consulate the docs they need hopefully by early next week. The consular officer said that I should have the visa then within 2 weeks all going well.
Things to remember for the Interview day:
- Dont bring any electronics to the consulate: laptop phone etc, they will be taken and given back but save yourself the hassle
- Dress respectable, I did and it didnt help, but it might help someone
- Bring your medical. Dont bother bringing your x-ray. All 9 couples brought their x-ray. All 9 went home with their x-ray. They dont look at it. They only take the medical.
- Dont forget your massive envelope (18*14inches) and 10euro worth of stamps. Again you will be asked for that.
- Dont worry about the relationship questions, they are straight forward.
- Have cash. They dont accept anything but cash or a bank draft of the exact amount.
- Be prepared to wait. Its a long tiring day.
- Keep a cool head. Even if you are dealing with someone who seems out to get you, remember they are doing a job. Remain calm, breathe and just remember why you are there.
- haha oh yeah bring an elastic band or something. Since you cant bring a bag in my paper work was falling everywhere. A way of holding the paperwork together would be a help
Thats all I can think of.
Best of luck to everyone.
| | | Dublin, Ireland | Review #7769 on June 15, 2011: |
ER Team :)
Rating: 
· 1 person found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My fiancé came down to Ireland to accompany me. We arrived at the embassy at 12.00 PM, although we were scheduled at 1 PM. We wanted to make sure we could find it – which was very easy – easy access from the city centre, the bus stops just on the other side of the road from the embassy. We grabbed lunch in a nearby café and head towards the embassy approx. at 12.50. There were 2 more couple queuing and we were allowed to come in almost right on the spot, before 1.00.
We went through the security and were asked to leave all liquids and electronics with them. We were instructed to go into the embassy building- When you enter, you go straight into the room where you will be ‘processed’, there’s no hallways nor changing rooms – everything is happening in that one room among all the other applicants. We were given a number and told to take a sit and wait to be called in. We were called in by a very nice gentleman who took the payment – we paid 263 euro cash. We were told to take a seat. We were called in after approximately 20 minutes. An emotionless lady asked me for all the documents: I-156 in duplicate, I-156K, I-134 with supporting evidence, envelope with a stamp and my passport. We were told to go and take a seat again and wait to be called in by a CO. That’s when all the waiting happened… we waited until we were the last ones in. We were called in by a consular officer… who didn’t even use my name – what was the point, since we were the last ones in? He went through my file (he had everything there, our petition, our evidence, everything). He asked about my overstay and wanted to know exactly how long I overstayed and why. He was checking some stuff up on his computer and kept on going through my forms. He was particularly interested in the dates…probably checking if the timelines match up – all he seemed to be interested was the overstay, however not many questions were asked. He just kept on doing sth on his computer and going through the file. Then he took my fingerprints and told us, he’s not going to keep us waiting. We weren’t sure what’s actually happening…so we asked are we done. Is everything okay? He answered, yep you’re fine and that he’s waiting for the report to confirm the length of my overstay- just to make sure I didn’t overstay for more than 180days in order to be eligible for visa. And that if I didn’t overstay for more than 180 days I will receive my visa within 2 weeks. Than some other guy came and asked us where are we going to live…when we told him that in Seal Beach, CA he told us how lucky we are- that they have really good pizza there… and we rushed out ready to celebrate our approval! Not worrying about that report, why would we? We knew exactly what it would show!
| | | Dublin, Ireland | Review #7670 on May 27, 2011: |
MrsOMahony
Rating:
· 1 person found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
So, when my husband & I got the notice our interview (well HIS interview) was on April 28th at 1 PM, we were relieved. It was just in time (we needed it sorted so we could move & start work in August) and we thought we'd make a day of it in Dublin (since we were living in Cork). We got the train up & arrived at the embassy shortly before 1. The guards were incredibly polite & kind and helpful through the entire process.
However, we arrived into an incredibly crowded room filled with mainly J1 Visa applicants and a few couples, like ourselves. Apparently the "appointment of 1 PM" meant nothing at all. We were eventually called up, sorted through our information with a rather unfriendly woman. We needed additional pictures of my husband so we left, ran around the corner and sorted that, returned, paid the fee... and waited some more.
And then continued waited. Slowly, the J1 applicants dwindled until it was just several couples like us waiting. We were exhausted, hungry, tired and frustrated. Luckily, the guards were polite and helpful, that's the only thing that made the experience bearable. Finally, at nearly 5 PM we were called to a window to be interviewed... that's right, a window. No privacy at all. Colm took the oath and the questions began. We met online (yes, not a classic "love at first sight" story. A penpals-turned friends-turned more story instead), which led the officer to probe my husband and ask if he had been "shopping for an American bride"...ick. It was unbearably uncomfortable. I could tell Colm was starting to worry. But, all was well, I guess we were deemed legit by the officer in the end. We were informed we "almost got a visa" today. We only had to sort out an issue with the Affadavit of Support (a problem which was the fault of the embassy, as far as I am concerned, but that's neither here nor there). So, we left, worn out and tired. We missed our train and arrived home late at night, exhausted and very unhappy. We mailed in our additional forms and about two weeks after the interview, my husband's Visa and packet arrived.
The fact that they were so quick in issuing it is the only thing that raised my opinion of the Embassy.
| | | Dublin, Ireland | Review #7527 on April 28, 2011: |
Irishlover
Rating:
· 3 people found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
We just had our interview at the embassy. The ONLY two good things I can think of about the day there, was the fact that the security guards were friendly and we met some fellow VJers there! Besides that..... well not so good.
Our interview was supposed to be at 1pm, we were told not to get there to early so we arrived at 12:45. There was a line and we got into the building a little after 1. There were HUNDREDS of people there trying to get J1 visas. We were finally called, around 1:45, to submit our initial documents (envelope, medical) and answer a few questions, by a very rude lady who informed us that we were not going to be approved today because we needed to turn in an 1864A for our joint sponsor, and get his birth cert. What I wanted to ask was..... why were we not informed of this two months ago when we got our interview date! Had we known about this we would have gotten it and brought it with us!
So, I was livid and we were told to go wait again. At this point we had been standing the entire time because the room was so crowded. About 2:30 we were called again and they took half our number which we got when we entered the embassy and then were told to go wait again. Fortunately we had a couple very nice people to talk to and keep us company, but we were all getting very impatient. The room started to filter out and eventually it was 4pm, closing time. The only people left were those with immigrant visas who needed their interview. I went up to the security guard to find out what was going on, since there was no one else around, and he said not to worry, that we will all be interviewed today.
So around 5pm (4 hours later) we were called for our interview (they did it in no particular order). They proceeded to interview us in the room with everyone else, I was shocked by this as I was told we would be interviewed in private rooms, as we are talking about personal things and everyone can hear your conversation!
The interviewer was pretty nice. He swore John in and looked through our file. He asked about the I864A, which the lady spoke to us about earlier and then went to talk to her about it. I could hear him say something like "oh come on, they obviously make well enough to sponsor him, it's just a technicality. But she said she didn't care, that we would have to turn it in ;( So then he asked John when/where we met, how long we were in Australia for, when he proposed, if he had the intention of marrying me before we went back to America, and if we had been living together for most of the time. He was friendly enough, then gave us a paper stating what we had to send in and that once it was in we would have our visa!
So, after a looooonnggggg day, we were sorta approved and I hate the process even more.
| | | Dublin, Ireland | Review #7200 on February 25, 2011: |
Gingerpants
Rating:
· 1 person found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Embassy Review:
Yesterday my fiance (beneficiary) and I (petitioner) attended his interview at the US embassy in Dublin. Here is our review of the day, I hope that it will be as helpful as the
reviews I read for our own preparation.
On the forums I heard many people suggesting to arrive an hour early to the interview, our interview was scheduled for 1:00pm so we arrived at 12:00pm. When we approached the gate the security guard asked "what time are you scheduled for?" We replied "1:00," so he said "then come back at 1:00," haha so we took a walk around Ballsbridge and went for coffee in a nearby cafe. We returned at 5 till and there was a small queue of around 4 or 5 singles and couples.
We queued up and a few minutes later they called up the first family to go through security. When it came to us it took around 5 minutes to get through security, they had us remove all electronic from our bags (even flash drives
and FI's small key chain torch). They sent our things through the scanner and then had us walk through the metal detector. We were given back our bags and the kept our electronics in a small little cubby, giving us a card to collect them with later.
We entered the courtyard and walked up a ramp to a side door where another guard buzzed us in and we walked through another scanner into a smallish room. The guard directed us to the first window where a women took our postal order (payment) and handed us a ticket with our number on it. I was surprised at how few people were there as I was expecting a large room filled with people waiting for interviews. 15-20 minutes later we were called to the next window where an Irish women began asking for our documents. Here's what she asked for:
DS-156 (for some reason she took both of our copies)
DS-156K
I-134 (mine and our co-sponsor's)
Financial support evidence
Police Certificate
FI's medical report (the smaller brown envelope within the envelope containing the x-ray)
Two passport photos
FI's passport
FI's birth certificate (here's where we ran into problems which I'll explain in more detail below)
12x14 Envelope
8 euro worth of stamps (placed on the envelope and the envelope addressed to FI)
Okay so here was the birth cert trouble: FI was born in Kuwait because his dad was working for an Irish bank over there at the time, so he has an Arabic birth cert which doesn't look like the officially looking birth certs we're used to (no official looking seal or special paper; I actually asked his mum when she gave it to me if she was sure it was real, haha). So along with the original we also brought the certified translation and what his mum told me was a certified copy. This copy looked just as unofficial as the original. The lady at the counter that was taking our documents insisted that this was no more than a photo copy and insisted that we get a copy notarised. No where in my research did I see anything that stated that they would need to keep an official copy of his birth cert so this took me by surprise, I did however he that we should be sure to bring along the original. So they told us we would need to mail in a notarised copy before they could mail him his visa. After the interview we went to the solicitor across the street and paid an extraordinary 50 euro for a measly signature and a sticker, we then went to the An Post down the street and posted it to the embassy. The whole thing felt rather silly.
Anyways, back to the interview. After finishing with the women at the window we then took our seats again and waited to be called for the actually interview. 20 minutes passed and we were finally called. There was an American man behind the window this time, he greeted us and asked if I was the USC, I said "yes" and he made typical ginger comment "oh well you could of certainly passed for Irish with that red hair! Ha ha ha ha." Ironically he was a ginger as well. So he then had FI raise his right hand and swear that all he was going to say was the truth. He started by asking questions about how we met and such. Since we've been living together for so long it's kind of habit for us to kind of just finish each other's sentences so it was weird when the CO told me I couldn't answer. So because of this my silly FI confused things a bit by recalling that we had known each other for 1 month before I followed him to Texas, when it was actually 2-3 months. The CO questioned this because it clearly stated on our papers that it was several months. Poor FI was confused. The CO then started looking over my G-235A thinking it was FI's and saying the dates didn't look right. I finally did step in and say "um that one is mine, FI's is the next one." Hahah. Then he moved on to looking at our original letters of intent and next to all of our pictures. I got the feeling that since there weren't many people waiting that he was just taking his time. He also glanced over our leases and other proof that we've been living together. When he saw that I had no ring he asked FI about this and he explained that due to finances we were going to wait a little bit when we were better off. He turned to me and asked if I was really okay with this. I said "yes" and he replied with a grin "are you sure?" and I said "yes, you know it's not really what's important and I will get one eventually." He asked FI how he proposed and if I knew it was coming. Finally he said we were good to go and all we needed to do now was get the birth cert sorted.
We asked how long it would take to receive the visa and he wondered if we were in a hurry (this kind of annoyed me since after all we've been waiting nearly 7 long months for this visa so of course we're ready to get moving) we explained that ideally we'd like to be out before Paddy's day because air fare prices will go up then.
And that was it! =)
We had no mobiles to tell us the time but I wouldn't say we were there for more than an hour and a half.
If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me.
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