|
|
| Dominican Republic |  Review on April 11, 2013: |
Jamileh
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
First I would like to appreciate everyone who has contributed to this website and those who keep their profiles updated and provided answers to my many questions. Its with your help I was able to complete this process with out a lawyer  Thank you!!!!!!
Interview Review:
We decided to stay at Jardines del Teatro Hotel which is literally a half of a block from the consulate. Super affordable ($65/night clean with kitchenette), great staff, safe and super convenient. We arrived on Sunday to prepare and rest for our consulate appoinment on Monday, April 8th at 8:30am. I prepared my bag to take to the consulate: a copy of every paper/document we sent in, every letter and e-mail they sent us, supporting evidence like facebook screenshots, letters, a photo album, receipt from the hotel, our passports, medical CD/paper from the consultario, his school documents, additional affidavits, vimenca receipts, banco popular receipt and the interview letter ( I sent in a lot of evidence with the I-130 Petition as well) That night I could not sleep at all!! I even woke up at 1:30am to review the papers one more time lol.
Monday morning we woke up at 4:30am showered, got dressed, grabbed the bag and left for the consulate and arrived at 5:20am. There was already a long line and the buscones were yelling telling people with 7:30 and 8:30 appointments to wait on the other side of the street. We got in line and waited. After 6am they started to let people inside. Before you go through security they take the first page of the interview letter and give you the number. We were in by 6:30am. They didn’t say anything abut our appointment time. After security we sat and waited. They called all the tourist visas to another area and then began to call the numbers. At 7:45am we were called to window 16. They collected the police certificaate, banco popular reciept and passport. The lady was not very nice to us. She asked my husband very rudely:
- His name and if that was his signature on the visa application.
- Then told us that his son would not be included in this application (which we already knew)
- If his parents are alive and he said yes so she had him write N/A where it said year deceased.
Then she asked me why I wrote “see attachment “ for the DR addresses and I told her on the website it said if everything does not fit in the space provided I can add an additional paper and she could not find the attachment in our file. Luckily I had a copy of it!! She then had us write it in and she added the attachment to the application and that’s when I saw her add the green ticket to our file. After that we went to Window 15 for his finger prints and went to wait again.
To our surprise we were called to Window 19 at 8:20am, at this point we were happy, nervous and ready for this to be over lol. The interviewer was a nice African American man. He asked us our names and swore us in. He then had my husband sign the 4th page of the visa application. And then the questioning began.
To my husband in spanish:
- How did you two meet?
- How old is your son?
And then to me in English (I wanted to understand everything clearly lol):
- Do you speak Spanish? Where did you learn?
- Did you complete all of this paperwork on your on? I said yes and he was impressed
- How many times have you been to this country? I had him look at the copy of my passport to see the stamps.
- Did you file your taxes jointly? We did and then he confused himself because he was wondering why I filed taxes for 2011 if I was living in the DR I had to clarify that I filed taxes for 2012 and to look at my W-2 and the ITIN application for my husband.
- When did you two meet?
- Then again he asked me the dates of my travels to visit my husband . And confused himself again!! I was a little frustrated .
I was surpised he asked me everything and my husband 2 things lol and never asked to see additional evidence. He typed something into the computer and started tearing the green ticket and me and my husband looked at eachother grinning and he then said “En este momento tu visa esta aprovada.” He told us to go pay Domex. I asked him when will the original documents and photos be returned and he said when we pick up the passport. We went to pay domex and selected to pick it up in Santo Domingo for $9.50. First you give Domex your info and then they call you again to pay and give you the receipt with a number to track the paperwork online or by calling. We were out of the consulate by 8:35am (there was still a long line outside). Overall this was a great experience.
Domex:
As soon as we got home that afternoon we started checking the website and calling lol as well as all of Tuesday and Wednesday morning. On Tuesday it updated the website saying it was still at the consulate. Wednesday afternoon we received the call and went to pick it up. It still says the paperwork is at the consulate. I highly recommend picking it up. He received his visa in 2 days and we plan on leaving Saturday, together!!!
(updated on April 11, 2013)
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #11802