Arrived at embassy at 7:30 AM for our 8:15 appointment. They have a special holding area with signs posted with the appointment times listed for the K-1 visa line and the immigration line. The guard let everyone proceed to line 4 under the tent at about 7:45 where they checked my wife's DS-260 and passport. After they checked everyone they made us line up in line number 5 to await entry into the security checkpoint of the embassy. After they x-rayed us and our packages we proceeded to a window where they stapled a reference number to the DS-260. We were in the embassy by 8:10 and they assigned certain numbers to a window for prescreening after which we went to step 2 and fingerprinting. The poor lady in front of us had a problem and after she dried her hands a couple of times they asked her to go to the CR nd try washing her hands. We had no problem and were told to proceed to step 2b which was the counseling officer. They asked my wife some questions but she had a hard time remembering our wedding day and what my job was before I retired. lol She was just nervous and when he reviewed the I-864 affidavit of support it was my turn to get nervous because he asked me my annual income and I had to do some quick mental calculations. Since I don't meet the poverty guideline I had to use a member of my household (my sister). when he asked to see her I-864a the line for taxable income was blank because she is self employed and that information is listed in schedule C under net gains or losses. The Filippino Consular Officer could have just looked on my I-864 page 5 for my and my sister's annual income. I tried to give him my sister's 1099 which shows her income but he didn't want it.We were then given a slip to take upstairs to pay for the immigration application fee. No major problem after that because we passed the interview at the next step but we got a 221g because her original birth certificate recorded her name wrong and it wasn't listed under the NBI AKA. Fortunately a friend she met at SLEC told her there was an NSO office close to where we stayed so we had the document in 2 days instead of 2 weeks if they had to send to our province. It was an overall good experience and we were out the door by 10:25. Our Visa was issued on June the 14th and my wife couldn't be happier.
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #19744
Review on June 16, 2016:
