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| Argentina |  Review on January 25, 2018: |
Matiela
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
the interaction with the embassy previous to the interview was painful and cumbersome: it was almost impossible to get ahold of a human being by phone (much less going there in person), they took forever to reply emails, when they finally did, they did so ambiguously. they took WAY more time for things than they said they would approximately take. they even made me go to an interview that wasn't scheduled after all. I had to go back home with nothing more than a "sorry, we can't answer any questions about what happened but you're free to send us more emails". no matter how official an email looks, telling you about an appointment, if it doesn't come directly from the embassy's email address, it probably is just an error in their system. (the TRUE email comes with the packet 4 PDF attached, which is mostly a rehash of the packet 3 PDF).
my embassy trip was mostly fine and only took about an hour and a half. they really scared me a couple times but everything's good we think. first scare: the lady who took my papers said that even though the packet 3 instructions AND an email from the embassy confirmed that for argentines, the requirement of police records for residence abroad was 1 year minimum residence instead of 6 months like for most countries... the interviewer might still decide he wants to see mine for New Zealand, in which I spent almost 9 months as a backpacker. she said that's not usual but she needed to warn me. the problem with this is, I had already tried to get those records just in case but the process was so cumbersome that when I found out I wasn't supposed to need those records after all, I gave up - not smart. I spent the next 45 minutes in fear everything would be delayed for 2 months because of this. anyway, luckily in the end the interviewer just asked me a couple questions about NZ and was satisfied. big heads up: even if the packet 3 explicitly states you don't need records for countries you stayed in for less than a year, if it was more than 6 months try to get them anyway in case this comes up. if you have bad luck, this might end up saving lots of your time.
second scare: in the end the interviewer said "you're approved, congratulations!" and then gave me a paper that said rejected LOL. I'm 99% sure this was an honest mistake since the guy just wanted to give me some paper with their email address written on it, so I could tell them I already have a flight date (so they'd hurry giving me back my passport by then). the first paper he reached for was one of the ones they give to rejected interviewees. it was a form and he didn't fill, stamp or sign anything on it, just circle around the email address he suggested me to write to, so hopefully it's just that a funny mixup, but man was I alarmed when I realized what the paper said (I wasn't in the room anymore so I couldn't ask). The receptionist said not to worry about it too.
another little thing: they were very fussy over some tax forms I delivered to the embassy prior to the interview and told me to bring more things, but when I did on interview day they didn't want them. not a problem but goes to show they can make you worry unnecessarily a lot.
other than that, the interview itself was quite easy and painless, also kind of quick. the interviewer asked me about a couple facts of our relationship and other things in my life. since I had traveled to a country in the Middle East he asked more than a little about that and came back to the subject a couple times. everything was OK. he also seemed especially interested in how I had liked the Netherlands, which I'd visited recently. I said it was fine, I liked it there, and after a few seconds he moved on. overall he was very nice, friendly and calm, and even joked a little bit and talked about nice places to eat in Buenos Aires.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23141