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| Montreal, Canada |  Review on March 7, 2019: |
EssTee
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I had my interview this morning and though I was successful, I would not say it was a good experience for me. First of all, it was absolutely freezing outside to the point where strangers were huddling together for warmth, and they do not open those doors until exactly 0730, so dress warmly.
My negative part of the experience was not the interview itself, but the precursor to that where you talk to a person at the counter and they arrange your documents for you. A tip: the document list on the consulate website states you should have copies of your birth certificate and passport. They DON'T mention that they want copies of basically any original document including previous divorce certificates, or documents that have been translated from French to English, for example a birth certificate from the province of Quebec. I had to pay $1 to go to a cashier and have one of my documents copied - more on that later. But just make copies of everything to be on the safe side.
Another tip, on the consulate website they use the terrms D-160, I-134 etc, however the clerk was asking for the actual names of the documents such as "affidavit of support.". As I had reviewed the document list over and over again using the letter/number reference, I wasn't as familiar with the name of all the documents, and that led to a really scary moment. She was asking for the affidavit of support and I thought she was asking for the D-160, which I had already given her. I mentioned that I thought she had it there and she was incredibly rude (she had been pretty terse the whole time but this was a new level) and said "This is why you're supposed to be organized" and refused to check and see if she had it or not. I apologized for the misunderstanding and asked for a moment to look for the correct form, and she said "If you're not prepared I'll have to mark that down on your application." She then proceeded to pull out a large red marker and wrote "MISSING DOCUMENTS" in all caps across one of the sheets of paper. At that point she sent me to the cashier to have the document I needed copied. The cashier took my money but had no change (?!) and had to go away for 15 minutes to get change for me. I tried to refuse the change - which was 63 cents - but she said they legally have to give me change. All this time i had no idea if I was going to be turned away for having missing documents or what. As I was waiting I eventually realized I had the form I needed - thank god.
When I returned to the counter she had taken another case and asked me to wait. After that was complete, she then took a third person, which I'm pretty certain was intentional to make me sweat. When she eventually called me back and I presented the documents I couldn't find earlier, she mockingly with a big grin on her face said "Ohhhh I thought you said I already had this!" It really broke my heart that she was so unfeeling and unkind. I flew across the country and had this interview at 330am my local time, and I was nervous. I also don't deal with these forms day in and day out like she does. But instead of having any kind of empathy or patience or understanding, she mocked me in my distress. After she was done making me feel like human garbage, I was printed and sat down.
The interview itself was quick and the diplomat was really kind (the clerks that arrange papers are not diplomats - clearly). She put me at ease and asked only a few questions about how me and my fiancee met, our jobs, and if I planned on working in the US. Unfortunately, the celebration I might have felt at being approved was overshadowed by how awful I felt at the way the first woman treated me. I hope others have a better experience!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #25723