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| Dominican Republic |  Review on January 27, 2014: |
ANJOS
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I would like to start off by giving thanks to Visa Journey for as this process wouldn’t have been the same without. I was a like a fish out of water until one day miraculously I somehow stumble on this page. This page does wonders!! The support from the VJ family makes it easier. In special I would like to give a special thanks to MrTree12!!!! Please please soak as much as you can from this gentleman he’s very knowledgeable.
I arrived in Santo Domingo on 01/11/2014 just 3 days before my fiancés interview. We went out with friends from Alaska on 01/12/14 as we celebrated my 30th birthday. Once again on the 13 we were out all day visiting family and friends and of course as Dominicans we hadn’t printed out pics that we had taken on my several trips after sending our K1 package, and we had to print out a form as well (procrastination at its finest). We arrived at my fiancés home a little after 12 am. We double checked all our documents (we had a ton of things a little overwhelming I’d say) and left out clothes and everything ready because we agreed 4am was a prudent time to wake up.
On Jan 14, 2014 at 4:00 am out alarm goes off and we are super sleepy. We had only slept for 3 hours (Lord knows I need my sleep and I didn’t know but my fiancé wasn’t able to sleep for not even an hour because he was a bit anxious)!!! I say to my fiancé babe I need just 10 minutes more and he says ok me too... Uhhh the next thing I know I wake up ask him to check the time and laying next to me he says as if it were nothing “oh it’s 5:30 am” I said tu estas relajando, he replies “look at the time yourself” it was in fact 5:30 and our appointment was for 6:45 am.. So we were racing to get ready and out the house as quickly as possible. We were out the door at 6 am. My babe decided he’d drive to the embassy because it isn’t that far from his home and he knew we’d find parking.
We made it to the embassy at 6:20… we were attacked by a mob of the notorious buscones to park the car in a lot they had. My fiancé thought it made sense to just park there (for only 200 pesos) and walk down the block, so we did just that. As we crossed the street we were approached by yet another buscon asking if we were sure we had all our docs and we of course we do. He then asked if my fiancé had stapled the passport pic to his form because if he hadn’t we’d be sent back out to get it stapled, that the consul would not take a paper clip nor loose pic+form.. He pointed to us that all the people inside this mobile office (an old school bus with persons with laptops). My fiancé said heck no IF I’m missing something he has his car and he can go somewhere and do it for free.
We walk and the line is to the back of the gas station next to the embassy. We finished drinking our jugo de avena con naraja (we didn’t want to have anything heavy so early in the morning) as we waited at the line. Once we were close to the front a gentleman looked at the appointment slip and gave us ticket number 223 (our lucky #). Once closer to the door we were separated men to the left, women to the right (persons with children were called up to a “middle line” I guess in consideration). Well the men line was moving so fast that my fiancé was inside as I waited about 15 minutes. Females really need to know that if isn’t something necessary for the interview you should just leave it home!!! You hold up the line and will have to go out and discard of your belongings. I knew not to take anything with me. I went right through security with no problem at all. We were inside by 7:15am.
Once inside we sat next another gentleman who happens to have been a classmate of my fiancés’ and was petitioning for his fiancé. It was kind of therapeutic talking to others on the same boat.
At 9am our number was called to window #17 where my fiancé was asked to hand in his passport, birth certificate, acta de Buena conducta, the banco popular receipts, and his forms (DS-160 and DS-156K). The gentleman asked my bb had he ever traveled and he replied no.. He then gave us a yellow ticket and said please go to window #14 pay the visa fee and then come back to me with the receipt. We went to window #14 (to a very grouchy lady) made the payment and went back to window #17 to give the receipt. The gentleman then said I forgot to ask you for the picture (2x2) so my fiancé handed it over. He then asked me can I give him my cell #, and I gave it to him. He said you guys are all set just have a seat your number will be called for finger prints.
We waited forever and my fiancé began getting a little nervous! I kept reassuring him the whole time that we didn’t have anything to worry about we were going to be approved today. What made matters worse was that at 10:00 his friend had been approved. He started to think maybe there’s something wrong. I said no baby everything is perfect keep calm everything is just fine. At 11:20 we were finally called to window #15 for fingerprints. We then sat again. We were tired, angry, anxious, getting a bit desperate by this point (not to mention the seats are back breaking).
My fiancé decided that we had to eat something and went to the cafeteria. As he stood there looking for what to buy, #223 was called to window #18 it was already 12:05pm… I said babe they’re calling us. Now we were concerned because the interviews had taken place between windows 20-25 all morning and we figured they needed some other document. We approached win 18 and there was an African American gentleman on the other side. He said good afternoon Mr. M and Ms. D please raise your right hand… and there it was our interview. He asked him to sign the DS-156K. (men you need that form!)
Questions:
To him: did we have pics? He passed 175 pics from after submitting the package. He looked at every one of them but very quickly.
To him: Had he read the pamphlet with his rights on it and did he understand it?
To him: How did we meet? My fiancé stumbled lol
To him: Where do I live? Once again he stumbled a little
To him: What do I do for a living where?
Me: What does my fiancé do for a living/where?
Me: Has he met my family?
Me: Does he have children?
Me: Do I have Children?
Me: How many?
Me: Ages?
Me: Has he met my kids?
Me: If those were my kids in the pics? I said yes he said very nice family!
Me: Do we have wedding plans? My fiancé blurted yes lol. So he said ok you answer the question for me.
THEN IT CAME! FELICIDADES SU VISA A SIDO APROVADA!!! We kissed and hugged as the consul smiled. He said here’s your ticket please go to domex and pay the $11.. Honestly the interview was only 6 minutes long!!! That’s it. The officer was very pleasant. I didn’t have to give any of my things. No forms, nothing from my employer NADA. The only hard part was the wait and the benches.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13717