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| Manila, Philippines |  Review on April 10, 2019: |
AlbertMari
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
Instead of the hassle of Metro Manila traffic coming from Rizal, we stayed overnight in Maine City Residences for $20 per night. It was a 15 minute drive from the Embassy. We had an 8:40 AM slot on February 14. We arrived at 8:00 AM, parked on the opposite side of the embassy where a man approached us and asked us Php100 for parking. My fiancée was charged Php 50 the last time she was there at 7:00 AM, but there were no more parking spots in front of Army Navy where she parked before. Since there were no other parking spots elsewhere, we decided to take it. We had a light breakfast at a 7/11 store across the embassy because The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf shop was packed.
At 8:20 AM, we crossed Roxas Blvd to get into the embassy. The guard was already calling slots for 9:00 am. We were met by people whose business was to store electronic devices because they are not allowed inside the embassy. My fiancée mistakenly brought her power bank and earphones with her, instead of leaving them in the car, so we had to surrender them to a woman who charged us Php200 for keeping her items. She handed us a number, wished us good luck and instructed to meet her outside after the interview.
We went in together and had our bags go through an xray machine. We were instructed to proceed through the doors where the interviews were being held. Our bags were inspected again after entering.
We were instructed to proceed to queue up for the first window where our documents were inspected and several questions were asked. Personal information question like names, birthdays, were we ever married and do we have children. She asked if my fiancée traveled abroad in the last five years and were. The lady asked if we traveled together, where and how long.
Afterwards, she told us to proceed to the next window where my fiancee's fingerprints were scanned. No questions.
After the second window, we were asked to queue up for the final interview. It was a long queue and the ushers were segregating interviewees by their numbers, whether odd or even. We queued up on our seats for odd numbers, and after about 15 minutes later were told to transfer to the other queue for even numbers. We waited another 15 minutes or so until we were asked to stand up to queue across the windows were interviews were happening. From across the windows we could hear everything.
Finally we were called. The consul asked me to take my seat as he only needed to talk to my fiancee. Standard questions were asked, names, whether we had children, were we married before. Last question asked of her was if I knew how to sing karaoke. She answered yes and she and the consul had a laugh together. The whole interview lasted about 3 minutes, 5 tops. The consul told her that he would be recommending our case for approval and she will get her passport within 1-3 weeks.
Unfortunately, her passport didn't arrive on time for a trip she planned earlier this year. It was a grueling 3 weeks for us. She was supposed to go to a pilgrimage with her grandmother to Jerusalem on March 7 but did not receive her passport on time. She called up the embassy several times before that, only to find the week before her trip, she can actually borrow her passport for this travel. It was too late and the embassy wasn't able to release her passport in time for her departure. DO NOT BOOK ANYTHING WITHOUT HOLDING YOUR PASSPORT.
We got our visa issued on the 4th week, March 11. She got her passport back from the MOA 2go office on March 18.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #25966