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| Manila, Philippines |  Review on October 19, 2012: |
Dee&Bryan
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
02:30AM - Woke Up
04:30AM - Off to the USEM
05:00AM - Arrived at USEM
06:00AM - At "Immigrant Visa and K1 Applicant" line, present your passport with the appointment letter. They will give you a zip-lock bag and put bar codes on your appointment letter and passport. Then went direct to door number 2 intended for Visa Applicants here they will check your stuff and pass thru a scanner. My husband entered door number 1 as that door was intended for American citizens. You will then be leaded by a railings and on one of those windows they will ask for your bar-coded appointment letter and give you a number, mine was "6087". They will tell you what to do next. You will pass by a Snack Bar area, you can also sit there while waiting for your number to flash and eat at the same time. Entered another door and passed thru a scanner again and gave my appointment letter to the USEM staff just facing towards me after the scan.
06:30AM - "BE ALERT NUMBERS WILL BE FLASHED RANDOMLY". We sat on a chair and watched the queuing board for my number. My number flashed and went to window 41 for biometrics. USEM staff asked for my queuing number, name and birthday and have my fingerprints scanned. Went back to our seats after this.
07:30AM - Number flashed and proceeded to window 51, A Filipino screen-er looked at our docs and ask us "Who is your petitioner and full name?", "How did we meet?", "Do you have chat logs, emails and remittances record, wedding photos? If you do please present them later at the consul", "Have you traveled outside the Philippines?" then she ask for my new and old passport and she put it in another zip lock bag. Went back to our seats again and waited.
09:00AM - Number flashed at window 62, A very nice American lady consul interviewed us. She looked at us and ask us "How did we meet?", "What do you like about each other", "How long have you been married?", "What did you do on your anniversary?", "Bryan, how long have you been living here?", She asked for our wedding pics and said "Who's dog is this?" . We answered everything truthfully and bubbly, it's just like talking to an old friend. She was very nice and told us that my visa was approved, congratulate us and wished us good luck!!!!. 1 second after we are done we then went to window 69 where the 2Go window is, gave them my Visa delivery information sheet.
Tips and Comments:
-Bring a black pen
-Wear something comfortable
-Bring a sweat shirt if you want, it tends to get cold inside the USEM
-You should stay away from those fixers outside the USEM but they will tell you important reminders anyway so it was not really that bad, I listened though =)
-If you are lost ask one of the security guards and not the fixers
-Make sure you line up at the correct line, Immigrant Visa Applicant and K1 Visas has the same line. There are line for seafarers and Non-Immigrant Visa Applicant, don't get confused =)
-Answer questions cohesively and truthfully
-You can wait outside at the snack area and wait, there also queuing boards there so make sure to focus and be attentive for the numbers to come out
-No picture taking outside the USEM property. We did it twice and got reprimanded twice, LOL
-Ang haba ng pila mga sisters as in pagdating namin dun ang dami ng tao, diko ma-imagine na ganun na pala kahaba ang pila when we got there
-USEM staff para sa akin ay mababait naman madami kasi nagsasabi na masungit yung iba pero in general I think okay naman sila
-Dami kong dinalang docs pero di naman hinanap sa akin yun, ang hinanap lang eh old passport ko and wedding pics namin
-We thank God and hugged each other right when the consul said we are approved. yey!!!!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #10671