I posted a similar version of this on DTTUSA but thought it might be helpful to those looking for US visa interview experiences here on DR1 as well.
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We had our K-1 visa inteview this morning and were approved.
Our appointment was for 6:00 am. We arrived at 5:45 am. In my opinion, there is no need to go earlier- stay in and sleep the extra minutes! The line was long but orderly, and I was impressed by the embassy employees who kept people in line and refused to allow "cuts."
We went through security and were seated in the waiting area around 6:45.
Around 7:30 we were called to the first window to leave off my significant other's (SO) paperwork.
We sat back down and around 8:30 they called us to window 13 for his fingerprinting.
Finally, around 9:15 we were called to the window for our interview. The consular officer was an American woman, spoke decent Spanish. She asked me if I preferred English or Spanish, and I said it didn't matter, we are fluent in both. She spoke to me in English and my SO in Spanish.
She asked me the following questions (in English):
1. When and where did you meet SO?
2. What did he do for his job when you met him?
3. How did you meet the mutual friend that introduced you?
4. When did you start dating?
5. Has he been to the US to meet your family?
6. Are you living together now? Do you have a lease in both of your names? [At the time of application, I was living in Santo Domingo and we lived together.]
She asked my SO the following, in Spanish:
1. Como y donde se conocieron?
2. Cuando comenzaron la relacion romantica?
3. Has viajado a los EEUU una vez?
4. Tienes familia en los EEUU? (Quien y donde vive.)
(I don't know if she knew my SO speaks perfect Canadian English, thanks to having spent a chunk of his childhood there. Seemed to defeat the "gotcha" purpose to ask us the same questions in front of each other to compare answers, but since it worked in our favor, I won't worry too much about it.)
She asked to see our evidence. We had the following:
1. Pictures of us together, and with each others' families.
2. Printouts of IM chats and Skype calls.
3. Cards from Christmas and birthday gifts.
4. Receipts from Amazon.com for gifts.
She really didn't look at the pictures we had, she just wanted to see that we had them.
What I thought was strange is that not once did they look at my affidavit of financial support! The packet I had prepared with my employer letter, bank statements, tax returns, was never once looked at by anyone.
What I got most out of the interview is that she had clearly read our packet and knew what questions she was going to ask ahead of time. Some of the questions seemed scripted, others were very specific to what we had written in our original application. In other words, she had done her homework.
All in all, the interview itself took less than 5 minutes! It was very anti-climatic and easy. Just hope the rest of the process is as smooth!
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We had our K-1 visa inteview this morning and were approved.
Our appointment was for 6:00 am. We arrived at 5:45 am. In my opinion, there is no need to go earlier- stay in and sleep the extra minutes! The line was long but orderly, and I was impressed by the embassy employees who kept people in line and refused to allow "cuts."
We went through security and were seated in the waiting area around 6:45.
Around 7:30 we were called to the first window to leave off my significant other's (SO) paperwork.
We sat back down and around 8:30 they called us to window 13 for his fingerprinting.
Finally, around 9:15 we were called to the window for our interview. The consular officer was an American woman, spoke decent Spanish. She asked me if I preferred English or Spanish, and I said it didn't matter, we are fluent in both. She spoke to me in English and my SO in Spanish.
She asked me the following questions (in English):
1. When and where did you meet SO?
2. What did he do for his job when you met him?
3. How did you meet the mutual friend that introduced you?
4. When did you start dating?
5. Has he been to the US to meet your family?
6. Are you living together now? Do you have a lease in both of your names? [At the time of application, I was living in Santo Domingo and we lived together.]
She asked my SO the following, in Spanish:
1. Como y donde se conocieron?
2. Cuando comenzaron la relacion romantica?
3. Has viajado a los EEUU una vez?
4. Tienes familia en los EEUU? (Quien y donde vive.)
(I don't know if she knew my SO speaks perfect Canadian English, thanks to having spent a chunk of his childhood there. Seemed to defeat the "gotcha" purpose to ask us the same questions in front of each other to compare answers, but since it worked in our favor, I won't worry too much about it.)
She asked to see our evidence. We had the following:
1. Pictures of us together, and with each others' families.
2. Printouts of IM chats and Skype calls.
3. Cards from Christmas and birthday gifts.
4. Receipts from Amazon.com for gifts.
She really didn't look at the pictures we had, she just wanted to see that we had them.
What I thought was strange is that not once did they look at my affidavit of financial support! The packet I had prepared with my employer letter, bank statements, tax returns, was never once looked at by anyone.
What I got most out of the interview is that she had clearly read our packet and knew what questions she was going to ask ahead of time. Some of the questions seemed scripted, others were very specific to what we had written in our original application. In other words, she had done her homework.
All in all, the interview itself took less than 5 minutes! It was very anti-climatic and easy. Just hope the rest of the process is as smooth!
In theory, we then get the green card. 