Hello, welcome to our live
attorney chat. My name is Attorney Desiree Koger-Gustafson and if you are new to our firm,
we regularly host these Facebook live chats just to give a little more information about
certain parts of the immigration process and maybe even touch base on some new things and
new avenues that are coming up and so if you have comments feel free to comment
or questions and I will try to get to those today and if not,
then you can always comment later. We do review those and then hopefully we'll set another
type of Facebook Chat to deal with those questions if they're more in depth.
In these Facebook chats or our Facebook group, we handle clients throughout not only the US but also
the globe and our staff as well is global and throughout the US so we have lots of experience
handling and navigating the US immigration process and we really try to holistically serve our
clients and assist in that manner to make sure that we take on the stress of navigating that
process for them. Today I'd like to talk a little bit about what to expect at my consular interview.
For us, we solely deal with couples-based immigration so this is spousal visas and
fiancé visas usually at a consular post. The consular interview process that I'm going to
discuss is for those types of cases. The consular can have interviews for all sorts of other visas
and visa processes and if you've been a frequent flyer at a consular post for visitor visas or J
visas or student visas, they do have the ability to waive the consular interview so just know that
that's out there. But for our intensive purposes with regard to spousal visas and fiancé visas,
you will likely have to attend an interview at the consulate. In this process, we'll back up
just a little bit, we've already submitted our petition with USCIS and that petition has been
approved. We've gone through the NVC phase of that processing and that could be either
submitting all of our documents via the CEAC website for the NVC or just their application
process if it's a fiancé visa and then that case file is then moved on to the consular post
where they will evaluate the case and then set it for an interview. Sometimes that interview is
set by the NVC and the consular post. In the case of fiancé visas, we set that via the US
Visa website and some of those timelines are all different for all different consulates.
Let's talk a little bit about the interview itself. When you schedule your interview,
you will have already completed a medical exam, you will have all of your documents in a row,
and you're ready to arrive. You're going to arrive early for that interview process
and the first thing that you're going to do is you're going to see the clerk. If you have not
yet paid your visa fees, which in some cases you may not have, most cases the the visa fees are
paid before you can even schedule that interview but sometimes not and if there's for some other
reason we're expediting or we're filing at a consular post individually, then you'll need
to first pay those visa fees to that clerk. The clerk will go through your documents and see if
you have everything that is needed. Everyone who is named on that interview notice will
have to attend the interview. Sometimes children under the age of 14 do not have to attend. Again,
this is something you would want to look on the consular's website and find out for sure. Each
consular post has again a different guideline as to what they expect. We certainly hope people walk
through and navigate all of that to ensure that you have the most accurate information
up front. If, as in our case, we have a spouse or a US citizen fiancé, a lot of times they want
to travel to that country and be there for their spouse or fiancé during their interview process.
Many times they can attend the consular post but they won't be able to go back for the interview
and honestly that's kind of the similar process as to what happens here when you're filing for
an adjustment of status. Many times, they will separate the couple just to further evaluate
the Bona fides of that marriage and we'll get there in a second but once you get called back
and you've satisfied everything for the clerk and you're getting called back for that interview,
the first thing they will do is put you under oath and that is just to be sure that you are
stating that you are going to tell the truth and nothing but the truth and of course we advocate
for that because there are ways for them to find out everything so we want to deal with everything
upfront and your legal team would assist with them. The officer will then review all of your
documents, they will question you over your application, many times they will actually ask
the questions that you've already answered in your application. They'll go through all of those again
and they might even read them to you so know that that is normal they aren't necessarily calling you
out or red flags or anything for that. Following that, they will go move on to some eligibility
questions. For our purposes because of the line of work that we do helping couples navigate
these questions usually stem from the bona fides of marriage questions.
Those can be very quick and they can be in depth it really depends on the adjudicator that you get
the officer that you get. In some countries I've had them ask two questions and in other countries
I've had them really grill that person about dates of birth, how do you guys celebrate holidays,
when was the last time you saw each other, what did you do when you were together did
you go to dinner, what did you have for dinner, what about this these pictures this looks like
a ceremony what kind of ceremony was it so all trying to establish that the marriage is based
on love and not for immigration benefit, not to just be able to immigrate to the US.
They will go through those lists of eligibility questions and then usually make a preliminary
determination so a lot of times they will tell our clients because we walk through and
make sure that all of the packet is ready. Our clients have a very specific list of things to
do and to get and to bring and we provide all of that for them. We've checked the consular post
for what specific things that they want as far as documents because honestly each counselor post is
a little bit different there are some guidelines of things that you definitely will need to bring
such as your DS confirmation letter, your approval letter for the I-129 or the I-130,
or whatever the USCIS petition was, your passport you will need an original passport
birth certificate as well as a copy. Some of those things, the medical exam those are pretty standard
but each consulate has usually some nuance so we always make sure that we are very thoroughly
looking over those documents and we provide all of that to our clients for ease during their process.
Once all of those things are gone through and the adjudicator makes a determination, "Yes,
I am preliminarily approving this visa." Then you would actually leave your passport
at the consular post. They will put the visa in the passport itself and then however you determine
your document delivery on when you set your interview so sometimes you can go pick it up
other times it's delivered to you and those things are you know based on the preference
usually of the client. If the visa is issued and it's approved then within a few days you'll
be able to start making travel plans and get that visa. Occasionally, there are a couple
other processes that could happen. They might require an additional document say for instance,
your police clearance letter from another country that you lived for a year during college was not
translated or something like that and they need that follow-up, they will hold that process open
generally for you to supply that documentation so pay very good attention to what they tell you to
do and then other times a case can be submitted to what's called administrative processing. This
is just like a second level of security type of clearance that some cases go through and
sometimes there's no real rhyme or reason as to why that would happen. There are certain red flags
that might come up during a process or a review of an application but in general, there may not
be a rhyme or reason. They just kind of pull every so many just like going through TSA where you're
pulled aside just by nature of a number and that can take up to 60 days to review but hopefully
that would work out fine and it would eventually be approved and you will get that visa and then
you can start making travel plans to the US to be with your spouse or fiancé. I hope that this
video was helpful a little bit about that consular interview process and what to expect. If you are
watching this on replay, like comment share um if you feel that others might find this valuable
we certainly make sure that we try to review those and if there's any comments or questions
um either make contact with that person via the comment feature or have another live video just
like this because other people might need to know that as well. Thanks so much. Have a great day!