first time applicant. i know i need to buy a ticket in banco popular, call and make an appointment. but how does the process look like now? do i go to the embassy with the paperwork and that's it or is there an actual interview there? what kind of interview? english only, spanish only or whatever goes?how much time does a visit to the embassy take? do they send the passport back or one has to come back again?
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applying for american visa
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Don't know about the process myself but this might help answer a few questions.
How To Apply | Embassy of the United States Dominican Republic
How To Apply | Embassy of the United States Dominican Republic
It is always a good idea to bring proof of valid ties to the country where you are applying from, something that would make you come back home on time without violating the visa. Such ties usually are family, property ownership, and active bank account. Good luck!
I just wrote about it in the Cabarete Diaries thread under a "Kafkaesque" heading. But to just sum it up for you, be prepared for Hell and Purgatory in the same afternoon. After you fill out the online application and print it out, you go online and make an appointment, pay the application fee at the bank, and then show up on your chosen date for your interview. Be prepared to wait in a line that snakes around the capitol twice and begins somewhere in the foothills of Santiago. Try and make an afternoon appointment (you'll thank me later). Then be prepared to wait all day.
You are not allowed to bring a cell phone or any electronic device inside with you--includes things that vibrate--so do yourself a favor and leave it at a hotel or inside your car.
The interview is fairly fast and right to the point and they can do it in either English or Spanish or Martian. They're tri-lingual. They also speak alien. You'll see.
Eat a lot before you show up to wait in line. be sure you poop and urinate before you get in a line that snakes around the building 50 times. inside the consulate there are bathrooms, but you are not allowed inside until you have waited in the line from hell.
Once inside, you interview may ask you to perform random things--including circus acts and a few acts of humiliation. bring your best face. They may ask you to demonstrate your agility by asking you to stand on your head for 15 minutes and then do 50 push-ups. it's crazy.
Frank
You are not allowed to bring a cell phone or any electronic device inside with you--includes things that vibrate--so do yourself a favor and leave it at a hotel or inside your car.
The interview is fairly fast and right to the point and they can do it in either English or Spanish or Martian. They're tri-lingual. They also speak alien. You'll see.
Eat a lot before you show up to wait in line. be sure you poop and urinate before you get in a line that snakes around the building 50 times. inside the consulate there are bathrooms, but you are not allowed inside until you have waited in the line from hell.
Once inside, you interview may ask you to perform random things--including circus acts and a few acts of humiliation. bring your best face. They may ask you to demonstrate your agility by asking you to stand on your head for 15 minutes and then do 50 push-ups. it's crazy.
Frank
I agree with frank12, and it is very sad that many people get rejected after going through all this. But DV8 should be just fine because of her husband and his family being well off in the RD. So, everything should go well for you! I hope you can visit us in DC area soon.
And there was a time in which the appointments were walk in. That was chaos! People had to sleep outside of the consulate to get an appointment, and then, in the morning, the line would be cut off.
i tried to ask miesposo all this but he is useless. he's on his 3rd or 4th visa and the last time he went in they did not even take his paperwork, just the application and a passport. so not much of help for my case.
i know i cannot take the phone inside but i will not be going in my car (i think). i may ask a family member to stay with the goodies and arrange them to come and pick me up later, hence my question regarding time. i do not want to stand outside for hours (if it's short deal) or have them wait for me for hours (if it takes all day).
i have the ties to DR, i guess. the title of the house (half of it) and marriage certificate. i wonder if they will fuss about the bank account being only partially in my name. by partially i mean that those dummies split my surname in two as dominicans always seem to think it's impossible to have only one surname, despite my cedula and other docs clearly spelling it as one word). oh yea, and i have a valid cedula and residencia to prove i spent money, time and risked stomach ulcers by going through the process.
kateP, thanks for the link. it is very helpful. i wanted to check with posters here how things usually proceed here.
i know i cannot take the phone inside but i will not be going in my car (i think). i may ask a family member to stay with the goodies and arrange them to come and pick me up later, hence my question regarding time. i do not want to stand outside for hours (if it's short deal) or have them wait for me for hours (if it takes all day).
i have the ties to DR, i guess. the title of the house (half of it) and marriage certificate. i wonder if they will fuss about the bank account being only partially in my name. by partially i mean that those dummies split my surname in two as dominicans always seem to think it's impossible to have only one surname, despite my cedula and other docs clearly spelling it as one word). oh yea, and i have a valid cedula and residencia to prove i spent money, time and risked stomach ulcers by going through the process.
kateP, thanks for the link. it is very helpful. i wanted to check with posters here how things usually proceed here.
If your husband has traveled to the US and come back a few times already - that should add positive points to your case. Foreign Service officers’ job is to prevent US visa violations and reject those who can potentially commit such violations. You should be very low risk individual with the family, property and valid bank account in the RD.
I don't have to "Wait In Line" for long, as you are given a "TIME" and it moves along as people arrive for their TIME.
Just go up to the window when you are called.
Smile, answer truthfully, they can spot liars, they get them all day long!
Don't "offer" any information they don't ask for."Good Luck" I hope you get a VISA!
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Just go up to the window when you are called.
Smile, answer truthfully, they can spot liars, they get them all day long!
Don't "offer" any information they don't ask for."Good Luck" I hope you get a VISA!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
I renewed my work visa in SD while on vacations (2 summers ago). They offered to send my password back in LT, I was like no gracias, I came back.
I am probably the only person who had a pleasant experience at the US embassy. Everything was straight forward, staff was nice, I didn't have to stand in these long ass lines cause I wasn't a visitor/tourist visa, I was in and out withing 30 minutes both times. But, it was very crowded.
No cellphone is indeed a pain in the ass. Thank God I was a trusted and recommended dominican taxista who kept my smartphone while I was in.
That was my feel good story of the day :laugh:
yes, i am polish. i still have to go through the same application process thou. granted, all of my polish friends who applied in various countries of their residency were granted visas but there is no guarantee. i hope i will have no problems. i have ties with DR and no desire to live in the USA, just to go there with family, do shopping and have an alternative route to travel home in case of emergencies.
You'll have no trouble getting a visa with your family ties. Let me know if you make it to Atlantic City while I'm in the USA!
DV8,
Let me tell you how we do it.
1. I send the redhead and the monkey by taxi to the consulate from the colonial zone. It only costs around $300 pesos. Then i find a nice cafe (Segafredo) and wait for them to return by taxi.
2. After they depart for the US Consulate, I go to a nice cafe in the Colonial Zone and get settled in, get comfortable. I put my "Girl Watcher" dark sunglasses on and order a cappuccino and wait for the girls to walk past. I'm a professional I like watching girls walk by...bye, bye, bye.
I then pull out my laptop and try and invent the most outrageous lies in the universe that i can think of while i get high on caffeine. I am a professional liar, as well as a professional coffee drinker. I like to Girl Watch and type away. After about two or three hours of crazy lying, i get up and take a nice long walk around the Colonial Zone. I go to the gym, do some more Girl Watching at the gym, then head back to the cafe and re-invent more lies.
Basically, i've written two books while waiting for the redhead and monkey to try and snake through the US Consulate line that wraps around the island twice...maybe three times on Friday. Two weeks ago, we did the whole thing all over again, and i wrote a third book. No joke. It's coming out next week. I wrote the whole thing while i waited a fortnight for them to renew their Visas. Then i waited another fortnight while they renewed their Cedulas and Immigration papers--which involved going to a hospital and watching nurses text on their cell phones for hours while they patiently waited for their turn to give blood and take turns urinating in front of very large, obese women that painted their finger nails and gossiped about Novellas (soap operas).
The monkey got bored and decided to chew on the curtains. Then she ate the curtains inside the hospital while the nurses chatted and texted away with invisible boyfriends. The nurses didn't care about the monkey eating their curtains. They didn't buy them.
Frank
Let me tell you how we do it.
1. I send the redhead and the monkey by taxi to the consulate from the colonial zone. It only costs around $300 pesos. Then i find a nice cafe (Segafredo) and wait for them to return by taxi.
2. After they depart for the US Consulate, I go to a nice cafe in the Colonial Zone and get settled in, get comfortable. I put my "Girl Watcher" dark sunglasses on and order a cappuccino and wait for the girls to walk past. I'm a professional I like watching girls walk by...bye, bye, bye.
I then pull out my laptop and try and invent the most outrageous lies in the universe that i can think of while i get high on caffeine. I am a professional liar, as well as a professional coffee drinker. I like to Girl Watch and type away. After about two or three hours of crazy lying, i get up and take a nice long walk around the Colonial Zone. I go to the gym, do some more Girl Watching at the gym, then head back to the cafe and re-invent more lies.
Basically, i've written two books while waiting for the redhead and monkey to try and snake through the US Consulate line that wraps around the island twice...maybe three times on Friday. Two weeks ago, we did the whole thing all over again, and i wrote a third book. No joke. It's coming out next week. I wrote the whole thing while i waited a fortnight for them to renew their Visas. Then i waited another fortnight while they renewed their Cedulas and Immigration papers--which involved going to a hospital and watching nurses text on their cell phones for hours while they patiently waited for their turn to give blood and take turns urinating in front of very large, obese women that painted their finger nails and gossiped about Novellas (soap operas).
The monkey got bored and decided to chew on the curtains. Then she ate the curtains inside the hospital while the nurses chatted and texted away with invisible boyfriends. The nurses didn't care about the monkey eating their curtains. They didn't buy them.
Frank
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