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| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |  Review on July 7, 2015: |
CB & FM
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
We had our interview today and were approved. We felt confident but were still a bit anxious as my finacé had been denied thrice before for a travel visa.
We chose to try to do the whole process here in Rio during one trip with our plan to fly to the US from here. We have to admit we are a bit nervous for the visa issuance due to the software issue that happened in Jun but we have recently seen that more 300,000+ visas were issued this past week to bring the backlog of 350,000 down. They are back on schedule we hope as our flight to the US is next week.
We came to Rio with the intent to do the medical one week prior to the interview so that all the documents would be at the consulate for the interview. It worked.
We completed the X-ray and blood work on Friday 26 Jun so that all the results would be in Dr. Garrido's office by our appointment on 30 Jun which would be one week before the interview. Both of the offices for the exams were very efficient and the staff were very accomadating and nice. The results were at Dr. Garrido's office when we had our consultation. We tried to arrive only a few minutes before our time so as not to be too long waiting in the reception. Tania was very different than we expected. She was very professional and prepared all our paperwork for the consultation and asked us to have a seat to wait for the doctor to call us. My fiancé asked if I could go in with him and she said Yes. The consultation was very quick and the doctor was very agreeable. Because all of our exam results were there and we had previously had all the vaccinations done, he was able to close our case. He told us that he would send the documents to the consulate and that they would arrive by that Thursday. We returned to Tania to pay the fee and the correios and motoboy, a total of R$ 580. We were finished with the first part of our endeavor in Rio.
The interview today went very well. Friends of ours had advised to make sure to set an alarm so as not to miss breakfast due to having to run to get to the interview on time. Our interview was at 0920 so we set an alarm for 0700 to allow us to leave by 0800. We were staying in Copacabana so our plan was to take the metro from Cantegalo station to Cinelandia station. The train being only at its second stop was still relatively empty so we were able to get seats for the whole trip. It went very well and we arrived by 0845. You should try to remember that you will enter via the gate near the corner of Rua Mexico and Rua Santa Luzia so as not to go to Avenida Pesidente Wilson which is at the other end of the building. We exited the metro at the Presicente Wilson exit but as we had been to the consulate before relized that we needed to follow Rua Santa Luzia at the corner of this exit to bring us more directly to the entrance we needed. We signed in at the gate there and were directed to the second floor. We met Alex who asked us to have a seat as he was directing others before us in filling out the forms. He then asked my finacé to come to his table where he showed him the forms to fill out. As the process has changed now but only just recently he had us fill the forms for the fees which we had already paid, three small slips with name and case number and also the information page for the interview. After we had the forms filled he had us sit again for a small time until he directed us to go to one of the windows for our documents to be checked. The officer, a Brazilian, helped us to insure that all our required documents were there and in their proper order. He remarked as to the amount of copies I had as he only needed the original and one copy. I remember reading on VJ that you said have the original and two copies. But as this left one copy for us to take with us I feel that it was good. He asked us if we had pay the fees online and if we had a reciept which he asked to keep. He tore up the threee small slips that we had filled out as these were for the payments that you would make in the previous process, the consulate fee and correios fee. After we had submitted all the documents and my fiancé's passport, we were asked to wait for our name to be called. This was at about 0920. We waited for about one half hour until our name was called. We then met with an officer, an American. He was very personable and made us feel comfortable. He had Francisco take an oath to tell the truth Then he asked him several questions: how we met, what website, who made first contact, if he had been to the US, the reason for some earlier visa appilcations, if he had planned to come to visit me on those visas, how many times I had visited, had he ever been arrested, my profession in the US, his profession and in what language we spoke. Francisco told him that we spoke mostly English but that I was also learning Portugues very fast. He then gave him a paper to fill my name in on a line and to sign This stated that he would marry me within 90 days of arriving to the US. While Francisco was filling in this form, he asked me if we had plans for the wedding. I told him of our plans and also of our nervousness as to the software issue and how we had heard of the push over the past weekend to overcome the backlog. He said it had been a busy week. He asked me where I lived. After that Francisco handed him the form and he told us that the visa was approved. We then finished by talking to Alex who told us that as we had payed online we did not need to pay the correios as we were picking up at the CASV in Rio. He told us that we would recieve an email when it was ready.
Now we will wait for the visa to be issued and then fly to NY next Tuesday.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #17273