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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on December 3, 2015: |
k_stacky
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My interview was at 7:40am, so we stayed overnight at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, which was amazing. You can see the consulate from the hotel lobby and the staff there was extremely friendly - well worth the price in location alone, but the hotel itself made it all the more worth while! Definitely recommend staying there if you can, especially if you don't have your own transportation with you because it is so close to the consulate.
I left the hotel around 6:55am and got there before 7:00am. There were two people ahead of me, and by the time 7:10am rolled around there were about ten people in line and growing so I do think that 7:00am is a good time to be there to line up. Around 7:30am security came outside and started setting up the barriers for the line to form single file and we were all told to have our passport and DS-160's out and ready. As others have stated, don't bring large bags with you. People with them were turned away before they even opened the doors.
Around 8am I think we started going inside and a woman with an ipad confirmed my appointment and I was given #2. I went through the metal detector and whatnot and the guard there was extremely friendly and really put me at ease for the rest of the process.
After security you go down a small flight of stairs and wait in a small lobby with chairs. A few minutes later the guard got the elevator ready and as many people as could fit all rode the elevator up to the 19th floor. When we got out a woman was there to greet us in English and French and told the non-immigrants to line up and the immigrants to sit in the middle. After fifteen minutes or so I was called to window #2 via an overhead speaker. The person who took my documents was behind thick glass and I found it very difficult to hear him, but it was manageable. He had my file and a checklist of what he needed to ask me for which ended up being: the affidavit of support, the letter of intent, 2014 tax return, police check, medical results, 2x passport photos, and (luckily!) I printed out the page that showed my payment had gone through for the fee's because it wasn't in their system that I had payed. He also had me confirm my address and phone number in Canada and then the address and phone number of where I'll be going in the US, and took my fingerprints.
After that I went to go sit back down. I was sitting maybe 30 seconds before I was called again over the loudspeaker to go to room #8. The interviewer was extremely friendly and definitely made the process painless. He joked around with me and it definitely eased any nerves I had going into it. I took the oath and he took my finger prints again and then asked me questions:
- Have you ever lived anywhere other than Canada?
- Have you ever stayed in the US for more than 6 months?
- Have you ever had any trouble at the border?
- Have you ever been in trouble with the law?
- Is this the first marriage for both of you?
- Do either of you have kids?
- What does your fiance do for work?
- What do you do for work?
- Where did you meet?
After that he handed me the "Welcome to the United States" letter and said I should have my passport back within two weeks. I went back down the elevator, up the steps, and out of the consulate and walked back to my hotel. When I got to my room it was about 8:50am. Overall, a very pleasant experience and a lot smoother than the horror stories I was making up in my head. I had a whole folder full of documents and about 95% of it wasn't asked for, but I was still happy I had it. If you're prepared and your relationship is genuine then there's nothing really to worry about at all.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #18494