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| Mumbai, India |  Review on November 21, 2008: |
trinket
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
We had kind of a peculiar case than most of you guys, so my interview was based on 2 issues which I don’t think I have ever encountered with any other couple in these forums.
1--- We had Arya samaj wedding but we never registered that marriage, we were told that Arya samaj certificate is sufficient enough as its valid and legal in India.
2—After marriage in 2004, my husband couldn’t make it back to India due to severe financial issues, he did come a few days ago, but we haven’t been able to physically meet with each other for 4 years.
7:15 am – Reached Consulate
7:25 am – Finger printing
7:45 am – Prescreening interview—gave me my original documents also asked these questions—
i) where is your husband currently
ii) when did he come to India
iii) how long you two are married
iv) asked me for my marriage registered certificate—I said I don’t have it because we had Arya samaj wedding and its legal in India………she said its not legal and I will need registered marriage certificate……she also said that just because I have my husband’s name with my passport and other govt. issued certificates, that doesn’t make him as my husband legally :dead:
Was all scared for the next few hours, couldn’t breath or anything, thought I am done for good.
12:40 pm—Was called for the final interview. Was a nice American lady and she asked a lot of questions, but was very friendly with her questions.
i) who is your petitioner
ii) how did you meet him, when did you decide to get married
iii) did your parents agree to it (me and hubby are inter-racial couple)
iv) why he couldn’t come to India after marriage
v) why was he laid off from work
vi) what is he working now and where
vii) does he live alone or does he live in shared apartment
viii) will you guys be living in the same place after him taking you to US
ix) now that he is in India, how long is he going to stay in India
x) does he have any brothers and sisters, is he the youngest or oldest of them
xi) have you ever talked to any of his family member
xii) show me wedding photographs
xiii) do you have any other proofs, then please show me.
xiv) Do you work? What was your last job.
I did give her around 20 photographs, both wedding and non-wedding ones and she looked at each of them closely. About proofs, I was giving out all the postal letters we send to each other, telephone bills, western union receipts, I was going to pull out other proofs too as emails and chats and insurance papers and others, but she asked me to stop.
She typed something out on her computer and said that my Visa has been approved and I can pick it up from VFS either this evening or it can be couriered to me.
CO didn’t open up any of those proofs which I gave to her, she only saw those photographs closely and talked to me, I was just piling up those proofs and she didn’t even open up one single phone bill or letters or anything. She didn't even bring up the marriage certificate question, so that was a big relief.
Overall the experience was good, though a long wait and plus they didn’t let my USC husband enter the consulate, even though we did confirm through email and him showing the print out of that email didn’t work. So my husband had to wait in the sun for around 5 hours.
Also please don’t take any zipped folder or bags, they take those away.
We got our passport this evening after making a second tour to VFS.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3613