|
|
| Ghana |  Review on November 28, 2010: |
JenAndBabs
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
We arrived at the embassy well before 7:30, but they wouldn't let me in with my fiance so I sat on a rock across the street and bit my nails. My fiance paid his fee and handed in all of his forms and the evidence of our relationship. They took it all: proof of my trips to ghana, phone records, emails, my you tube videos, wedding invitation & website, copies of packages and letters, and pictures. we had very few pictures of us together in ghana, maybe six, and some were from the same event. But we had lots of skype phone records. I had everything paperclipped with post it notes on each section and a cover letter, but I don't know if that made any difference. They gave it all back later, I think maybe they photocopied it first.
So then Babs waited some more and they called him up to the interview window. this was an American man. he asked Babs to sign his name, asked if I was his wife or fiance, and then asked when we met, where we met, how we met. He asked when was the last time Babs had seen me and when he said I was waiting outside, the officer said to go call me.
After that the officer mainly asked me questions. He asked me about when I was in Peace Corps and how many times I had been to Ghana and looked at my passport. He said all of our evidence was fine that he had no questions about our relationship and that was the good news. The bad news was that I don't have tax transcripts and the Accra embassy requires tax transcripts. I asked why when I had two other forms of evidence like the I-134 form required, but he said it was a post policy so there is no way around it. He said I will need a cosponsor since i was not regularly employed last year and can't produce tax transcripts.
That was the bad news. But it wasn't too bad because he gave us another appointment for the next week. That gave us time to get a signed ORIGINAL I-134 from the co-sponsor with tax transcripts (only). the transcripts could be faxed but the form had to be original signed so we had to get it DHL. The officer was really helpful as far as giving me specific information about this.
Then he said our application will also require significant administrative processing, but couldn't tell me why or what kind of processing or how long that would take. he said could be days, could be months, but can't start until they had the I-134. Then he asked Babs if he'd been married before, asked about HIS parents names, where they lived, if they were still living, and about his siblings and made him spell out their names. Babs was really nervous and the officer said he wouldn't bite. He was nice, he joked around with us a little.
Everyone we had to deal with was nice and helpful and they were really patient with Babs' nervousness. But I do think the tax transcript thing should have been in the information they gave us if it is post policy, because it is not on the I-134 that you need them.
Also all the forms the embassy gave us in the packet were outdated and sometimes badly copied. They still might have accepted them, but we typed and printed out the more recent editions from online, and Babs just gave those to them.
The following week Babs went back and turned in the forms from the cosponsor. They didn't ask any more questions, but we had a mistake with the tax form (tax returns instead of transcripts). The officer (a different officer from the last time) gave him the link to the IRS website and gave him another appointment two weeks later. Really they were pretty patient with all of that. By the next date we had the transcripts as required and Babs handed them in. They took his contact information and said they would call him about when to pick up the visa. Now we are just waiting on Administrative Processing and praying it will be taken care of quickly. Thank God for getting us this far.
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #6923