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| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |  Review on January 9, 2016: |
puzzled-panda
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
My interview was scheduled for 9:20am. We got there at 8:50 because of the traffic, and rushed in.
I saw a sign outside saying immigration interviews were upstairs. I go in and I'm immediately in this full room with non-immigrant visa applicants that are lining up, and it's hard for me to make my way through them. Then I go looking for the stairs with my husband, when I hear "hey, you" I think "good, someone will help me" and the woman says "you can go back to your places now". That angered me so much, her tone was just like "children, this is no place to be wandering around". Instead of offering help and asking me what I'm looking for, that's what I get. I say "no, we don't have 'our places', we are looking for it." She starts to point back to the non-immigrant visa room and I interrupt by saying I was going to do the interview for an immigrant visa". "Oh... then it's through those stairs". Felt like yelling "THAT'S RIGHT. You *DIDN'T* know where we were going". javascript:emoticon(' ') But we just went up.
The room was full of chairs with people sitting, I saw no one from the consulate except for the security guard. I confirm I'm in the right place and sit, very anxious. What am I supposed to do? Did I miss the instructions? Where's the form to fill out? There's surely something I need to do, right? Or else, how would they know that I'm here if I haven't done anything.
Then Alex shows up and says loudly referring to us "the couple who just got here, please move from the second row to the last row". There's apparently some order I have no idea of, it's not really visible. We move. I ask him if I was supposed to fill some paper out, he says "you have to wait, you got here now, so you have to wait". I get more stressed, everyone seems very impatient and unhelpful here. You try to get information, and they act like you're trying to take advantage of something.
I had read many reviews here, and was a little confused to how it would work. Some people would say that there is a line, and the earlier you get there the earlier you'll be done. Other people would say that they'd give everyone papers to fill out and the order was defined by whoever filled it first. Well, both are right.
Since they schedule from like 7:20 to 9:20, people will be getting there at different times. And then Alex will wait for there to be around 5 people who arrived last (that's the part I didn't know at the time and made me confused) to give them the instructions and forms. The first to fill the form, will be the first of that group of 5. But remember, there's probably other 20 people in the room who arrived before you (for the same time as you or for earlier appointments), unless you arrived at like 6 or 7am. So either you get there really early and wait long for it to start, or you go at a reasonable time and maybe wait long for your turn. I don't think it matters much.
Alex was much friendlier later, when everyone had arrived and he had less things to take care of. Once you fill out the paper, you take it to him and he will place you in a line to deliver the documents. I probably waited for an hour for my turn. The guy who got mine was very nice (finally!). We applied putting my husband's father as a co-sponsor, and the guy asked if we had his passport or birth certificate to prove he was american. We did not anticipate that, but thank God, my husband had with him his own birth certificate which mentioned his father's name and place of birth. That worked.
We were finally called for the interview at 11am. It was a woman and she was not friendly at all. She asked if I spoke english and then went through in english. She asked how we met, while looking through papers, making checkmarks and eating yogurt. I told her it was on the internet, she asked where, then asked what happened later. When she did the math, she said "it took you 8 YEARS to meet physically?!!?" She didn't just look surprised, she had this face that looked judgemental and suspicious while she went repeating it. I don't know if it sounded to her like we were lying or something, it didn't feel good. I tried to explain, she just kept doing her paper thing without looking at us. She then asked what was my work and out of nowhere she says casually "your visa was approved". That all lasted less than 5 minutes, but felt like much more! At 11:30 we had went to the post office (SEDEX cost R$37) and finished everything.
I'm very happy I got my visa, but it was definitely not an easy day. I don't think all employees there are rude, but in general they don't have much patience if you don't already know how everything works. It's better to try to get all information you can before and avoid asking questions.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #18700