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| Bogota, Colombia |  Review on August 24, 2015: |
Karo&Fer
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
First a big thank you to VISAJOURNEY and all those that contribute who made the interview easy to handle through great guides and posts that allowed to us to properly plan and organize everything from the initial application to the interview.
So….We waited over 9 months for approval of our K1 Visa application and 6 weeks more to finally schedule our appointment at the Bogota Embassy. Thus we were extremely anxious. First I would recommend that while you wait to schedule your appointment with the embassy, make sure you gather necessary documents whether your financials for support or birth certificates for your beneficiary. We had all our documents ready and were able to schedule an appointment with just a little over a week advance notice. We also sent paperwork to the embassy and applied for the visa 3 days after I obtained the case and invoice number. Thus did not wait for embassy to email me.
Week of interview: My fiancée lives in Medellin, so we needed to organize travel to Bogota and considered like many have, to give ourselves a week or a few days to get everything done. However, my fiancée was able to get her blood work/x-ray, medical exam and fingerprints all done in one day and ended staying the night in Bogota unnecessarily. Imagine that if your fiancée has children then it would not be as easy but one person or a couple could get it all done in a day.
For medical and finger prints: My fiancée took an 8 o’clock bus with her mother from Medellin on a Tuesday and arrived in Bogota at 4:30 AM. I arranged for a driver to pick her up at the terminal and take her to do her blood work first, she was done at 8 AM. The driver waited for her and took her to the hotel where she ate breakfast and freshened up and then left at 10:30 AM for the fingerprints that took 15 minutes at most. She had time to kill, so went shopping and ate lunch. The driver was late to pick her up but they left at 2:30 PM for a 3:15 appointment with Dr. Dennis, the only doctor that gave us an appointment. The drive is very long, probably would have been faster to take the bus but my fiancée had the driver and was apprehensive about using buses in Bogota. She arrived at the doctor after 4 and was worried that she lost her appointment but the doctor’s office did not even notice and she was able to see the doctor quickly who she says was very courteous and respectful and gave a basic physical with medical history questions. She then waited an hour and half to get the doctors report. But everything was done by 6:30 so yes very long day and a lot of traffic but medicals and fingerprints can all be done in one day and just a few days before the interview. Again kids would change things completely.
My fiancée stayed the night in a hotel near the embassy but left to Bogota the next day.
The embassy interview was just four days after complete her appointments in Bogota. My fiancée again took a bus on Sunday night before the Monday interview and arrived in Bogota at 5:45 AM for an 8:30 appointment. She was able to take a shower at the terminal and do her make-up and hair to look pretty for her interview – my fiancée dresses up to go get milk but mention this because my girl was able to travel 8 hours on a bus and looked great for the interview. She ate breakfast before arriving to the embassy.
At the embassy she passed the long tourist visa lines and was able to enter the open seating area where it rained and was cold so please keep this in mind as she waited almost an hour before being called up to give her papers. Once called for her papers, she went up to the window and handed her stack which was reviewed and the women noted that it was well organized and would not need any more evidence or pay stubs. She did not ask for any questions and told her to wait for the consul.
After this, my fiancée waited another hour and watched most couples get rejected including ones where the USC applicant accompanied the fiancée and one couple even had child from the relationship and my girlfriend said the most approved came alone and not with the USC so I think doing you due diligence on organizing evidence and financials is more important than attending the interview.
Finally, an hour after going to the first window, my fiancée was called up to see the consul. She says it was a man who greeted her and first comment was that I her USC applicant travelled a lot and have visited Colombia many times. He then asked her how many of those visits were for her and how many were for business. My fiancée answered, we were together on every visit whether it was for business or leisure – we are always together when he is in Colombia. Then he asked her how we met and our plans for the wedding. My fiancée explained we are Catholics and it is tough to find a church and do the marriage course in 90 days so that we would have a fake wedding first – the consul laughed and told her she was approved. He gave her some papers and told her passport will arrive in 15 days. Easy, relatively quick and painless – so high marks for the Bogota Embassy but really think it was important to really prepare.
Good luck to all of you and follow the guides, read the posts, plan and prepare because it makes the process much easier.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #17637