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| New Delhi, India |  Review on October 7, 2015: |
Karn
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
IR-1/CR-1 Visa Interview, 05 Oct 2015, US Embassy, New Delhi, India
Interview Time assigned - 9AM
Since the interview letter indicated not to arrive more than 15 minutes before the interview time, I and my wife both did not arrive too early but it was still 8:30 AM. Please do not carry restricted items, For mobiles/electronics they have a deposit kiosk setup right behind the police post across from the entrance to Visa section. They charge INR 50 per item. May be more for a large item such as camera etc. Last year I was their to get a NOC towards marriage from the embassy and at that time I could deposit the mobile right at the entrance without a charge.
There was a long Q for NIV applicants and all of them were sitting in an area across from the entrance and I believe they had some kind of system to get your number in line.
For IV applicants the Q was relatively small when we arrived but when we entered the embassy we realized there was already a lot or two for IV applicants who already had entered by the time we had arrived at the embassy. I was allowed as the petitioner to accompany. after the security we were escorted to initial waiting area where they had 6 rows and another smaller area. Most rows were being used for NIVs. We were initially in the last row waiting for our turn and while we waited all NIV rows (1 through 5) were escorted inside multiple times (in terms of people about 400 NIV people were let into the main visa section before our turn came for IV).
Once we were inside the visa section, counters 1 through 19 were all used for NIVs, Counters 20, 22 and 23 were used for IVs and 24 through 32 were used for document submissions. Counter 21 was used for getting token numbers.
The system was kind of haphazard.
First the VFS people (I believe the escorting was outsourced to VFS and was being also used for this kind of assistance) would take your documents mentioned as required in your interview letter, open your medical report, brief review for completeness was done and handed over back to you and depending on how long the line at token window, you were asked to join and take a token. At token window, you are required to give right hand fingers scan and then your documents reviewed, your name was marked in the system and a handwritten token number was given. Based on what we saw, all IR1/CR1 got tokens starting with "N" and others (e.g. parents visa) were given token starting with "O".
One of the COs (at window 20) was fluent in Hindi and Punjabi and we noticed most "O" tokens were sent to that window. She seemed really nice and all we saw was totally pleasant. Everyone was approved, Aged parents who could not even speak native language properly were being treated with respect by this CO. The other two counters were initially handling "N" tokens and we saw mixed results, for most part they were approvals but with a lot of questions and evidences. And then these two counters started calling "O' tokens which slowed down "N" tokens. But slowly "O" started dwindling and by the time it was near our token number (N126), all windows were interviewing N tokens as there was hardly any O left.
I could see only one other spouse that was accompanying, all rest were by themselves. We did see few denials/produce more evidence, questions like "where are your engagement pictures", "why were you not wearing the ritual dress". We also heard for one of the previous N-er being asked why his wife was not there with him to which he replied that she was unable to get time off or something along that line and which was followed up by questions like "so this is not a priority for her?" "This was not important" although eventually this guy was approved after a lot of questions.
So finally our turn came and we were called to Window 22. American CO and Indian translator was present if needed. We were greeted nicely, she did not object or question my presence and I was not asked any question. She asked my wife to raise right hand and take the oath to tell the truth. Right after that there was yellow sheet in her hand (This was the approval message) and she was just smiling and just casually conversing...questions like..How do your parents feel about you going to USA...the reply was..."they want me to be happy..be it in India or US..and she said then a visa will be good for you  and then it was us who actually offered to show pictures but she kept on smiling and was ok to see a couple of pictures that we put in the slot. we actually saw all the previous candidates at the same window showing big albums and going into all details so my wife actually pointed that unlike others we did not bring any album instead we had brought selected pictures..to which the CO waived and said not needed..all this time she kept on smiling and was constantly trying to retrieve white sheet (about details of paying GC fees) and finally handed those sheets to us...and we thanked them took the sheets... We both huged and left the embassy. It was about 13:15.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #17988