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| Amsterdam, Netherlands |  Review on October 8, 2009: |
MinkKC
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My fiance had his interview on Oct 1st, and I was lucky enough to be able to arrange to be there for it as well.
We arrived about 15 minutes early, and got in the one line that seemed to be forming. About 5 minutes before the 1:30pm appt time, they announced that for immigrant visas there was a separate line. We were let in before the other line. Even though the K1 is technically a non-immigrant visa, we were supposed to be in the immigrant line. They did a security check (had to leave umbrella outside, didn't bring cell phones to avoid issues with that), then we were admitted and told (I swear I heard him right) to window number 7. It was closed, we waited for a while, there was another couple in line before us already being helped at window #5. After a while, a woman opened the shade and told us for fiance visas we were supposed to be at #5. Not that it mattered, as there had been a couple being helped at that window anyway. So we went to number 5, and were helped by Tara, a very nice American woman. She asked for the documents they were wanting (probably best to not have them bound as they put them in order), and we dug through our pile of papers to give her what they were asking for. For income proof, I had followed the instructions I had found in the forums, and included paycheck stubs, a letter from my employer and 3 years of IRS tax transcripts. No checking acct info. I don't believe the official instructions had even included tax info for the K1, but they did want it. Although, she wasn't sure at first if they would accept the official transcripts instead of copies of my actual tax forms, even though I had read on here that they were better. Turned out it was ok, though. They didn't ask for additional relationship proof, even though we had brought tons of stuff. After she took the required forms, we waited for about an hour then we were called to another window (we were expecting to be taken into an office or something, but the interview was just conducted at the window) to speak with the consul. He surprisingly asked me (the US citizen) more questions than my fiance. A few brief questions on how we met, what I do for a living, what he does, if we had met each other's family (and we hadn't yet - I met his mother later that evening, though), when and where we planned to get married. Then he basically said congrats, and expect his passport in a week. No requests for the relationship proof that we had brought, although it might have made a difference that I was there with him for the interview. They seemed more interested in financial info than anything, and the other couple that had been there before us seemed to not have brought enough proof (wasn't a K1, though). They were there before us, but we got called to the window first, so I am guessing it wasn't going to go as smoothly for them.
All in all, a very easy experience. Just make sure you bring everything they ask for, plenty of financial proof, copies of all the originals (they wanted to see the originals but then kept the copies), and extra passport photos. My fiance was thinking the 2 passport photos on the application were really what they were wanting, but had brought 2 extra just in case. And they did want them.
(updated on October 22, 2015)
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #5060