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| Dominican Republic |  Review on September 30, 2015: |
jamyestrella
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
Our appointment was for 9am and we arrived at 8:20. It was super packed! I wished we'd have arrived earlier. The traffic on the street which the embassy is located on was full of traffic. As advised by others don't bring anything electronic. My husband left his phone and a few of our belongings in a business around the corner. They charged him 500 pesos. All the staff was very pleasant, everyone from the friendly security guards in the entrance to the CO who interviewed us. My biggest issue was the wait time. We didn't get interviewed till about 12:30. The positive part is if you are hungry there is a lady with a cart full of munchies to buy.
Before our actual interview, about 2 hours after arriving a nice Dominican lady collected our civil documents and asked us several simple questions (Things like if we had ever been married before, if we had kids together and our phone numbers/my husbands address). We had a bit of a scare when she said our marriage certificate hadn't been legalized. MAKE SURE IT HAS THE STICKER WITH THE SIGNATURE ON THE BACK.Thankfully it was an easy fix. She explained we'd still be interviewed but we would need to stay with our passport if approved and send it in with the legalized marriage certificate. But this ended up actually not mattering in the end and I'll explain why in a bit.
About 1 hour and a half later they called our number for the interview. The CO was a pretty pleasant guy. He asked me if I preferred English or Spanish to which I responded, "for my husbands sake lets go with Spanish". Our questions were as follows:
-(To hubby) You guys have been married for a long time!My husband responded, "Yes, four years and two months". The CO chuckled, then asked him why we took so long to do this. My husband explained we were putting certain things in order.
-(to me)Have you lived together before? I responded that I stayed for extended times in DR several occasions.
-Do you have any kids together? No
-Do any of you have kids of your own? I responded that I did.
-(To hubby)What is the age of her daughter?
-(To hubby) Who is Emily Rodriguez? He responded "mi suegra" (My mother filled a I-864a for us).
-(To me) So you live with your mother and your daughter? We responded yes at the same time.
Then he said, " Well,everything is in order. Congratulations, your visa is approved!". He then surprised us with saying that our passport would be ready in 2-3 weeks. We asked him about the whole marriage certificate thing and he told us that looking at our case he didn't see it as necessary, that we were good. Goodness, what a relief that was! He asked for no pics or additional evidence.
I am grateful and excited to start our life in the states together.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #17916