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Switzerland US Consulate Reviews
Average Rating: 4.6
/ 5
37 Review(s)
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| Switzerland |  Review #2377 on January 22, 2008: |
Manuela
Rating: 
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I arrived at ~9:30am for my 10am interview. You can show your interview invitation letter to the security agent, and they will let you skip the line (just as it says in the invitation letter: do not wait in line). You can't take any bags (not even clear plastic ones) or electronic devices into the building, so make sure you can carry all of your things with 2 hands.
Inside you give your passport to the person in the window and they'll ask for your appointment time, while another security agent asks you to go through the metal detector. You'll also get hand-scanned. Everybody is really friendly.
You then get asked to sit down to your right, there's a little area with some chairs, and it was packed! They have a really small tv mounted on the wall, and I spotted a box with toys if you bring kids with you, and there were also some magazines to read available. You wait until they call your name and the window number, mine was window number 6 (immigrant visa window), which is right to the side of the waiting area, so everybody sitting there got to see and listen what I answered 
The man at the window first asked if he could speak in English, and I answered that yes of course he could!
You give that person at the window all of the documents you brought, including proof of payment, photos, medical envelope, and they'll go through the forms and check for some things. They asked me if I had a proof that my fiancé works for the I-134, so I handed them the company letter that I have and that was fine. I had no tax returns btw. They will give you the originals back if you have copies, but since I've had at least two originals of each thing I just told them to keep the originals.
The only questions I got asked there was "when do you intend to travel" and "So, your works right?". The person also made me sign the ds-156.
I was then told to sit down, and the man apologized that I would have to wait a bit, since the consulate was very busy today, and they'd call me up for fingerprints and stuff close to lunch. (It was barely 10 am then).
After I sat there for 2 hours, and most everybody had left by now, I got called to window 3 where I got asked to sign the ds-156k and they took my fingerprints (all 10 of them). I expected some questions then, but no questions were asked, and the guy there told me to go back to the waiting area and wait for the other guy to call me up again.
I barely sat down when the guy at window 6 beckoned me over. He said that everything looked fine with the visa, asked me if I had my fingerprints taken and told me that I could either pick up the visa or have them send it to me. I asked if that was all, and he smiled and said yes! I told him that I'd appreciate it if they sent it to me, since I don't live exactly close to Bern. He said they'll send it out in a day or two, and that it would be sent B-Post, which is slowpoke mail in Switzerland. I wasn't in a hurry so that was okay for me.
A week later, I had my visa in the mailbox, along with the big brown envelope that you aren't allowed to open!  Everybody was really nice and friendly in Bern!
| | | Switzerland | Review #1666 on June 4, 2007: |
Shub
Rating:
Click here if you found this review helpful | Review Topic: K1 Visa
The process was extremely quick and painless. I returned my checklist and got a letter two days later for an appointment 10 days later, i.e. today, at 11 AM.
I got there, went through security, was told to sit down, and within a couple of minutes was called to one of the counters, where a local (i.e. not an American, judging by his accent) took my paperwork (DS-156, DS-156K, birth certificate, police record, military record, affidavit of support, two photographs, proof of payment of the visa issuance fee). He made me sign both copies of the DS-156, then told me to go sit down again.
Minutes later, I was called to a different counter and this time taken care of by an American, who had already typed up my fiancée's name on the DS-156K and made me sign it. Then he took the prints of both my index fingers and told me to go sit down again.
I didn't have time to sit down, the other, first guy already beckoned me to his counter, told me they'd send me the visa in the mail the same day or the next, asked me to write my address on a large envelope, told me about the sealed envelope I am to present to the immigration officer, told me I have 6 months to use the visa, and that was that.
I'd given him originals of my birth certificate, police records and military records, and asked if I could have them back and give him copies instead, and he said sure, no problem. That was cool because the stupid birth certificate and police records cost about $20 each per copy, and I can surely reuse at least the birth certificate later on. I made sure I could go at that point, he said yes, and I left.
There was no "interview", no questions asked, I didn't have to show any sort of evidence of our ongoing relationship -- nothing whatsoever, except the affidavit of support.
I was in and out of the embassy in exactly 30 minutes.
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