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Singapore US Consulate Reviews
Average Rating: 3.7
/ 5
106 Review(s)
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| Singapore |  Review #14326 on April 23, 2014: |
bigjohn7502
Rating: 
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
The interviewers were polite. No issues with my interview
| | | Singapore | Review #14129 on March 17, 2014: |
mwetterh
Rating:
· 2 people found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
March 17 2014. Our whole process was approx. 6 months Sept 2013 - March 2014.
The Interview was in our case the easiest of all the stages going very smoothly and taking only 2 hrs. I will give a more detailed response in a couple of days.
| | | Singapore | Review #13469 on December 17, 2013: |
kitthekat
Rating: 
· 2 people found this review helpful
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I arrived at 920am (interview was scheduled for 1015am). There was no queue. I showed the guard my appointment letter and he asked me to wait for security to wave me through. I entered the room with the security scanner. There were some backpacks and luggage bags with tags stored there - and they will also keep your mobile phone if you need them to. I didn't bring mine with me.
Once you leave that room, you turn left and left again and go up the long-ish walkway. The building you want is at the end of the walkway, to the right. Show the lady inside your appointment letter and she will tell you to go to the visa room (first room on the left).
The visa room was pretty crowded and seats were all filled. I pressed the first button (immigrant visa) for a queue number (006). They were currently serving 003. All immigrant visas are first heard at window 7. What they say about people being able to hear everything you say is absolutely true. There's maybe a 2-3 step distance between the first row of seats and the glass windows.
Took about 45 minutes for my number to be called at window 7. The famous "asian guy" asked for my passport, my birth certificate plus one photocopy, police certificate, two passport photos, I-134 and supporting evidence, and any other proof of my relationship I wanted to submit. Just as a note, the girl before me didn't have a photocopy of her birth certificate and had to pay $1.30 for the embassy staff to make a copy. They must use some high quality paper lol. She also had regular-sized passport photos instead of the large US-sized ones so she had to get a set of two from the photobooth in the far corner of the room for $10. They did not ask for the ds-160 confirmation page (it was already sent in with packet 3).
Financial documents he took from my pile:
- I-134
- ITRs for 2012 only
- W2s for 2012, 2011, 2010 and the duplicate copies
- Offer letter (my fiance started a new job 2 months ago)
- First paystub from my fiance's new job
- Printout from my fiance's HR portal stating his YTD earnings
- J's Digital bank statements (not signed by a bank officer or anything like that - just computer printouts)
Documents he returned:
- Duplicates of all the documents above except the W2s.
- ITRs for 2011 and 2010
Note on the I-134 supporting evidence: He asked me if I had copies of my own bank statements. I was a bit stunned because I didn't think it mattered. He said that would only apply if I was intending to support myself in the US. I said, is self-supporting allowed in the embassy in Singapore? He said, sure, why not?
Also, the girl before me did not have any ITRs or W2s but she did present an offer letter from her fiance's current job (they both graduated recently I believe) and did not have to submit any additional documents.
Proof of relationship submitted:
- Chat logs from whatsapp and skype sorted by month
- I had a scrapbook of photos, cards, pictures of gifts sent to each other, receipts, etc that I slid under the window. I asked if I could get it back later on and he slid it back under the window and asked me to show it to the consular officer during the 2nd interview.
Then the questions started:
- So you work in xxx, what do you do?
- Tell me more about your duties. What kind of policies do you oversee?
- Have you ever been denied a visa?
- What is your marital status - single as in never married? How about your fiance?
- Do you or your fiance have any children from a previous relationship?
- How did you and your fiance meet and when?
- What kind of website was that? How did you end up dating someone from a writing website?
- Have you been to the US? When was your last trip?
- When did you first meet your fiance in person? How long did you stay? Where did you meet?
- Has your fiance ever been to Singapore?
- How many times have you met? (I answered just the one time early this year, and he paused and said, that's still fine.)
- Have you ever lived overseas?
- You listed xx countries as countries you visited in the last 5 years. What was your purpose for the trips?
- Did your fiance ever tell you how much he earns? How much?
- What is your fiance's job? What does he do?
The first interview was pretty relaxed and friendly overall. He asked me if I was excited and ready to move over to the US and made some small talk about being a civil servant and internet security measures in government offices. He then gave me my xray and two forms - a "document submission letter" and the instructions for registering with aramex. He checked if I'd read the pamphlet on domestic violence - I had - so he didn't make me read it again.
There were 12 applicants in the immigrant visa queue (mostly families) and they all went ahead of me and the other girl who was also applying for a fiance visa. After about 2 hours, we were pretty much the only two left. She was called first and after her I was called to window 6.
The American consul apologised for the wait and asked me how to pronounce my fiance's surname (it's not a common surname). He said, "So, your fiance is based in [town in Colorado], huh? That's the area I'm from, though I haven't been there in a while." Then he asked:
- You met on a writing website - what site is that?
- What do people do on that website, what is its purpose? How do you meet people there?
- How did you end up from talking about writing to your fiance coming over to visit you? (I corrected him and said that I was the one who visited my fiance and he laughed and said, sorry, my bad.)
- What do you both write?
- Is your fiance published? What kind of publications - print or digital? Can you name me three publications he was published in?
- Why do you remember those three publications specifically?
- Do you still write? What kind of writing?
- What did you do when you were in Colorado? Did you take any day trips?
- Was the trip to Colorado Springs the only day trip you took?
- Did you ride the railway up to Pikes Peak? [he started reminiscing about how long ago it was since he went up there last lol]
[At this point I volunteered to show him the scrapbook and he took it - he looked at the railway tickets, the pictures from a concert we attended, several pictures of us eating out, receipts from gifts, postcards we sent to each other, etc]
- Why have you and your fiance only met once? (he asked this a few times)
- Where does your fiance work? Is it a new position? How long has he been working there?
- You submitted your fiance's 2012 income tax returns. [At this point I passed him the rest of the ITRs] Where was your fiance working previously? What did he do there?
- Why did your fiance move to Colorado, was it to take the job? Where does he intend to stay after this?
- Are you having kids or planning on having kids? [I said no and he asked me if I was sure repeatedly ].
- What do you and your fiance talk about? What are your common interests? [I briefly mentioned Dr Who and he seemed to really like that and made some small talk about the 50th anniversary :D]
Finally, he said that my fiance's income was borderline. I was a little shocked. So I said, but isn't he quite a bit over the poverty guidelines? He hemmed and hawed and checked a printout of the I864P and said "the poverty guidelines for 2 is 19,000 or thereabouts and your fiance is barely over 20,000. Or am I reading this wrong?" I verbally calculated my fiance's annual income and he accepted that we were nowhere near the poverty line. Phew.
Then he asked me to register with Aramex once I got home and that he felt our case was "pretty okay." Woo!
Edit 26 Dec: The embassy contacted me on 18 Dec and asked me to go back on 20 Dec because they forgot to have me affirm that everything I submitted in the DS-160 was true (they do this by fingerprinting me a second time). It was a minor hassle but it didn't delay my timeline by much at all. Status went into "Adminsitrative Processing" on 20 Dec (same day I went back) and changed to "Issued" on 24 Dec.
(updated on December 25, 2013)
| | | Singapore | Review #13315 on November 25, 2013: |
racheese
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Interview originally scheduled for Nov 19th, but a guy from the embassy called and asked if they could move it ahead to Nov 15th instead. I gladly agreed and received an appointment letter via post a couple of days later.
On the day of, I arrived at the embassy at 7:50am - 55mins earlier than my appointment. Didn't have to wait in line outside, just went through security and was directed to the consulate section. I was told that the service for immigrant visas don't start until 9am so I had to take a number and just wait.
The consulate section was smaller than expected with loads of people waiting around for their non-immigration visas. The set up of the consulate is pretty similar to those in the bank teller service, when your number flashes, you'll go up to the counter and greet the officer which is sitting behind a glass window. You don't have a lot of privacy as everyone in the room can pretty much hear what you're saying if they really want to. javascript:emoticon(' ') With that being said, I took a book there just to kill time and calm my nerves, but was constantly distracted by the conversations between officer and visitors.
It wasn't long before the immigrant window opened and my number was flashed (I was the first one). Behind the window was an Asian guy who had a check-list and my file with me. The first thing he did was to return me my chest x-ray film from the medical, followed by passport, 2 US-passport photos, a form to fill out just incase I had missing documents, another form to register with Aramex to get my passport, photocopies of both birth cert. and marriage cert. After that the, questioning started.
- So you met at this international school? In Singapore? Why didn't you go to public school in Singapore?
- You lived in the US before? What does your father do?
- Did your husband share with you how much he earns?
- Do you mind to you bank statements?
--> I was a little worried about this as our affidavit of support wasn't 'approved' and was sent to
the consulate. We didn't have US 2012 taxes (we lived in Canada for 4 years for university
before graduating and moving to the US)
As I was answering his questions and providing him evidence, he was checking things off the list. He then gave me a domestic violence pamphlet, told me to read it was I wait for the 2nd interview.
Shortly after, my name was being called by the 2nd officer, at this time the room was crowded. I found it quite hard to hear him over the glass window with the chatter in the background. The interviewer was Caucasian and the first thing he did was hand me the DS-230 to read over and sign. While I was reading, he held up my Canadian Criminal Record check and asked how long it took for me to get it (at this point I was worried that it was expired even though I got it back in August). I said about 2 weeks and he said 'oh, I thought it took much longer'. javascript:emoticon(' ') After signing the document and handing it to him, he just casually asked if my international school was located on orchard road and which part of the US I will be in. After that, he just told me that I am pretty much good to go. He didn't want to give me a official approval, but said that there's nothing to worry about and everything looks good. He also mentioned that it would take about 1 week for my case to be closed and get my visa. He also reminded me about twice to go home and register for Amarex.
I left the embassy at about 9:10am (appointment at 8:45) . It was super fast and REALLY anti-climatic. I even prepared a 200photos-album + a whole load of other documents and they didn't ask for any other than our bank statements.
CEAC status Update:
15-21 Nov: "ready"
22 Nov: "Admin Processing"
22 Nov (3-4 hours later): "Issued"
Passport Collection:
I chose to have my passport picked up from the Main Aramex location as I could pick up 1 day earlier than delivery. I called them first thing monday morning and asked if I can pick it up and did so on Nov 25th! Bought my ticket today and will be flying 2 days later just in time for Thanksgiving dinner! 
Overall, the last bits of the process went really well! The worse part was waiting the 1 week before the visa was issued. I was refreshing my CEAC status like a vulture would over fresh meat.
| | | Singapore | Review #13126 on October 29, 2013: |
cherieseah
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
My interview was set for 8.45, we arrived around 8am and entered within 15 minutes. We waited for a while inside before I was called to the first part of my interview, but that was on us for being super early.
Was asked a few basic questions, took about 10 mins. Told to sit back down and wait to be called by the consulate, called again in another 10 minutes, out the door less than 20 minutes later.
Super easy process going in and out! Only kind of weird that everyone can hear/see what's going on with your interview.
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