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| Sydney, Australia |  Review on August 28, 2013: |
kdld
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My interview was conducted on the 27th of August, 2013 at 10:45AM and it was a painless, enjoyable experience! The staff were very professional, friendly and courteous, and while they were thorough with their procedure at no point in the interview was I made to feel uncomfortable.
I live in Western Australia, so I wasn't too sure how long it would take me to get to the consulate at the MLC center. I arrived around 9:30. I caught the elevator to the 10th floor and proceeded to US Consulate reception only to find i was a little early and and they told me to go off and have a coffee and come back after 10:00am.
I went back up to front of reception, where a friendly lady checked my passport and placed a tick next to my name in her list. I then was told to place all of my things on the security screening belt. Here I had to take any electronic devices out of my bag. I passed through security with no trouble and deposited my things, taking out only my thick stack of paperwork with me and wallet. Security also gave me a numbered ticket in order to collect my belongings on the way out.
At this point I had in my hand:
My passport
My wallet
The Express Post envelope
Supporting documents
My visa fee receipt (this is very important, you must pay for your visa fee which is $240 at the post office before the interview date then bring your receipt.)
2 US sized visa photographs 5x5 cm
We sat in some chairs waiting near security until we were called to take the lift up to the 59th floor to have our interviews conducted. After exiting the elevator, I turned right and went to a small window where a man asked for my passport again and checked my name off the list. I collected my passport again and proceeded through the door to where the interviews were being conducted.
I took an immigrant visa ticket from the ticket machine and sat in the waiting area alongside other visa applicants. I wait from 10:20am to 11:05am to be called to the interview window (# 7). The lady asked me when i was planning on leaving for the US, then took my passport, the Express Post envelope, my receipt and my visa photograph. I was then asked to place my left fingers, my right fingers and two thumbs on a fingerprint device. After that was recorded, she looked through my file and asked me to sign my name again on the DS156 form as it was a copy of the form, and then told me to sit down and wait while she takes my file to the consular officer in preparation for my final interview.
Sitting at the waiting area I could see everyone there was very nervous as to their own outcomes. I waited from 11:15am to 11:35am for my second part of the interview. I was then called to window 2 and wow the view is incredible..... (shame we cant take out cameras!!) I lugged all my paperwork up to the interview window and the consular officer inside was a young lady. She smiled genuinely and it was in her eyes,it wasn't the kind of fake smile you usually see in bureaucratic environments.
She said:"So today I'm going to ask you a few administrative questions first then move onto information about your relationship. Now please raise your right hand."
I did so and she asked me to affirm an oath that everything I say is true & correct.
She then proceeded to ask me these questions while looking through my file:
Have you been to the USA before? How many times?
How long was your longest stay?
Have you ever had any issues with USA immigration?
Have you ever been arrested?
She looked through my file, then asked:
Have you ever resided in another country for longer than 6 months?
Were you born in Australia? When did you immigrate here?
Have you ever been married? Any children?
Has your fiance ever been married?
Then she smiled and flipped through my file again and asked the following questions;
How did you and your fiance meet and when?
When did your fiance propose?
Have you met his parents?
Has your fiance met your parents?
How does your family know your fiance's family?
What church do you belong to?
Does your family and your fiance's family belong to the same church?
What relation are you to your relative's in US?
What does your fiance do for work?
When will you get married?
Will your family attend the wedding?
Will you work after you arrive in USA?
During these questions, I felt very comfortable as the officer was smiling the whole time. This made me comfortable enough to supply a lot of extra information. I asked if she wanted to see some more recent pictures from out second trip as my family was with me on the second trip, but the lady said it was fine and they had enough info in the original petition (guess its better to be safe.
As we had already provided the affidavit and supporting documents with Packet 3, She looked again at the petition files, compared them to the information in my file and commented on a few photos of us together and said how nice they looked! (haha) It was then that I caught a glimspe of the BIG red APPROVED STAMP on my papers, which helped put me at ease! After a while she said "Everything looks fine here."
I felt a happy rush as she leaned over and got a small white slip of paper and wrote my name on the paper and handed it to me. The small white slip said "Congratulations your visa has been approved!"
She then told me that the following steps are:
Your visa will be sent out within the next 5 days and I will receive a sealed yellow envelope with my visa, which I will have to hand carry with my chest X-ray to customs when I arrive in America. I will be taken aside to a waiting room and the officers will open the documents there. You will be given 90 days to get married.
She was very thorough and informative. When I walked out of the building I felt great. I was guarded down the elevator to Level 10 where i proceeded to security and collected my belongings. Everyone on the way down and on Level 10 asked "Did you get what you wanted?" I called my fiance as soon as i was outside the lobby to give him the good news. Then told the rest of my family etc who were waiting anxiously to hear my result. It was a wonderful morning.javascript:emoticon(' ')javascript:emoticon(' ')
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #12668