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| Mumbai, India |  Review on July 18, 2015: |
sailorgal
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I had my K-1 visa interview on the 10th of July 2015 and here is my review. It is pretty detailed for all those who wish to know all the details
Biometric - Happened at a building called Trade Center which is like a minute away from the Consulate Building. I had an appointment for 11 am and we reached there at around 10.15 am. My appointment was still 45 minutes away but they let me in in-spite of me telling the guard that it is at 11 am (later when I came out my dad, who was waiting outside for me, told me they kept other 11 am appointment people waiting outside but let me in. Oh lucky me!). The biometric thing only needs you to carry your passport, DS-160 confirmation page and a print of your appointment letter. DO NOT carry any additional paperwork to the biometric. Once you are inside they take your fingerprints and a photo. It all took like less than 5 minutes with 10 minutes of waiting outside the building in a queue.
DO NOT forget to carry the DS-160 confirmation page from biometric to the visa interview because it is stamped with the biometric date.
Interview - Scheduled for 9 am, reached Consulate by 7.45 am. There is a separate queue for immigrant visa applicants (though I did not see any immigrant queue, there are so less people for immigrant visa that there's no queue. You just walk in the consulate building). Then you have to go thorough security check and you're led past the non-immigrant-visa waiting area (a huge tent sorta thing with seating arrangement) into the main building and then into the immigrant-visa waiting area. You go to counter 1 and get your token number (which is a white slip with your token number on it that they stick over your interview appointment letter) and then you sit in the adjacent waiting area till your number flashes on the screens placed on the wall. Meanwhile consular assistants working there come and check your documents and arrange them together. They ask you for your passport, 2 visa 2inch*2inch size photos, DS-160 confirmation page (from your biometric), interview appointment letter, medical report, beneficiary's birth certificate original and one photocopy, police clearance certificate and marriage/divorce certificates if you are applying for IR/CR-1 visa or if you or your fiancé is divorced. They staple the documents and photos together and hand them over to you. Then you go to counter assigned to you when your number flashes on the screen, generally counter number 2 to number 9. Here you submit the documents stapled before and submit any other documents they ask you for. This step takes about 5 minutes. Here they might ask you a few questions. They asked me who was calling me and if I could give them my fiance's contact number which I have memorized in all these years so I was good. Then they tell you that you will be called for the interview and ask you to go sit in the waiting area again. Your number flashes on the screen again, this time you generally go to counter number 10 to number 15. That is your call for interview!
Actual interview experience - I walked to the counter and greeted the Consular Officer who was an American guy. He was very polite and kept a nice pleasant face throughout the interview.
SIDE NOTE - Observed so many people slouching, resting their heads over their hands with elbows placed on the counter top or just randomly touching their face. AVOID! The CO is noticing you all the time. Always be aware of your posture and stand straight.
So here's what the CO asked me,
Who is calling you?
How did you meet?
How long have you been known each other?
What were you looking for in your partner?
Were you looking for anything specific like religion, education, age etc while looking for a partner?
When did you both last meet? I answered December 2014.
Did you ever meet before December?
Have you traveled out of India before?
Have you been to the US before?
How did your parents take this? Do they support you?
Do you have any wedding plans? When do you plan on doing it?
Will your family join you for the wedding?
Have you met his parents?
How are they?
I think the CO assumed my fiancé was an Indian origin US citizen so when I told him that he is a Christian, born and brought up in States, in short a true blue American, CO asked me if my family was okay with the religious difference.
That was it. Interview last for like 5-7 minutes and then he said "your interview went fine. You will hear from us soon through an SMS and you will have your passport mailed to you in a few days". With that he returned me a few documents like my PCC, birth certificate photocopy. The consular officer kept my passport and all my documents and sent me off.
We started back from the consulate when I received a call from there asking me to come back. In the initial interview the consular officer did not ask me for any financial documents like the Affidavit of Support or my fiancé’s IRS tax transcripts or pay stubs just nothing. So I thought may be the officer is calling me back for those documents. I reached and he was like “I called you back because I went through your application after you left and saw that you were calling each other husband and wife in some of your texts. Also your engagement pictures appear to quite formal to be engagement pictures. Are you married?” (we call each other hubby/wifey out of endearment and those words accidentally crept into the relationship proof texts that that we submitted to the USCIS in our K-1 visa petition. Make sure you don’t make this mistake while submitting the proofs with the original petition or while carrying additional proof to the interview). I told him we weren't married and explained to him how Indian engagement attires are similar to wedding attires but the rituals in both are different. When I went for the initial interview the officer saw the engagement pictures my fiancé had submitted with the visa petition and was like "cool" and then in the second interview he said all -are you married?- stuff. So I showed him the entire engagement photo album (which he had not seen or asked for in the initial interview) and explained to him all the rituals we did in the engagement. And he said “thanks for coming back I just wanted to verify these facts” and kept my passport and other documents again and I left.
He did not ask me for any financial documents, additional relationship proofs, new letter of intents from me and my fiance, letter from our respective parents stating they know and approve our marriage plans, marriage plan proofs just nothing. I was fully prepared with any documents right from my resume to loads of ongoing relationship proof and photocopies or every little thing but I wasn't asked for anything!
My case status over https://ceac.state.gov/ showed READY for like 4 days after the interview and went into administrative processing on the 16th of July. 17th of July the status said ISSUED yay! javascript:emoticon(' ')
The consulate has fast processing times and it was a nice experience overall.
Good luck to ya'all! javascript:emoticon(' ')
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #17355