bobLobLaw

My appointment was scheduled for 9am but I arrived outside the embassy at 7am, where it seemed the first 2 or 3 people were already starting to queue. I decided to wait for the queue to build up a little first as I didn't want to be turned away for being so early. So I joined around 7.40, and went straight through to security and then to the reception where I was given my ticket number and told to sit and wait for it to be called.

They started calling numbers at 8am, and the 'I' numbers were called about 1 every 10-15 mins. Whereas the 'N' were called seemingly every 10 seconds! Anyway, I was called up around 9am (my scheduled time) and basically gave her my passport and she took my fingerprints, and was told to pay the fee at the cashier desk and come back to her, then I had to hand all my forms and paperwork, which was harmless enough. Though when asked for the I-864, I tried to explain my wife hadn't had an income for a few years but had recently filed her tax returns and so showed her the proof of filling (as she's not got the tax return back yet). Then I gave her my mother-in-laws' I-864 and explained she is also supporting me and also gave her tax return for last year.. then the scary bit was she said, 'so you don't have any proof of income for your mother-in-law? no pay slips or anything?'. I just replied saying just the tax return, (which as far as I know is proof of income and thought that's all I needed). However, I saw her write on the form 'no proof of income', so I was kinda panicking at this point but was given a pink form to fill in for the courier and told to sit back down and wait for my number to be called. This whole process took a good 25 minutes.

So I sat back down and waited around another 45minutes where I was greeted by a more friendly slightly elderly gentleman who asked for my fingerprints to be taken again, and then to raise my right hand and swear I was telling the truth. He then made some quip about my current job, which I didn't get at first, as I thought he was being serious Then all he asked me was how I met my wife, I answered and then he just said 'right your visa will be with you in a few days and gave me back my birth/marriage certs and told me to take my pink form to the DX place to pay for the delivery proceeded to walk away'. I was kinda blown away he never asked me any more questions and because he never actually the words 'you are approved' I was starting to doubt I actually was I just said, do I need to do anything else and he just said, nope you're free to just go home after I've paid the courier.

So all in all, I'm pretty sure I'm approved

guitarmaan

Wow. Sounds like a dream scenario to me. Congrats

S Folinsky

I've mentioned this before, the first person one sees inside the consular section is a local employee -- they are there to take the papers, make sure it is in order, etc etc. This is what is called "ministerial" functions. The second person who administers the oath and asks substantive questions is the actual "Consular Officer."

jeffreyhy

Your mother-in-laws tax return shows that she had income last year, it doesn't show that she still has income today. Unfortunately, a lot of people who were employed last year are no longer employed today.

Your wife is not going to get her tax returns back. She can get either a tax transcript or copies of them from the IRS, but she's going to have to submit a request for them.

So you did not submit an I-864 from your wife? It's required, so I fear that although the consular officer told you you're good to go, on further review the consulate is going to ask for that I-864. Or, if the consulate issues the visa without it, on entry the CBP officer who inspects you may want to know where it is.

Regards, JEff

Michael

Normally they want current pay stubs for several months to prove that there is continuing income.

bobLobLaw

She also did an I-864 that I handed in (sorry, I should have been more clear in my original post), and I gave proof of her tax return filing along with it. I just told the women that she'd not had an income which was why the mother in law was also providing an I-864.

The CO did say the visa should be here in a few days, and I had a text from the DX saying that it should be here today. So I'm assuming that it's all fine

jeffreyhy

If your wife's I-864 is there then I think you're OK. Thanks for clarifying that point.

Regards, JEff

bobLobLaw

Yup. It did arrive yesterday and looks like everything is in order, got my nice big visa stamp in my passport and the massive do not open envelope, which, by the way is white and not brown as some people have said.

jeffreyhy

Interesting about the envelope. If the change from manilla to white is permanent, I wonder how long it will take for people to stop calling it the "Mysterious Brown Envelope". (They called I-551 the "green card" for decades after it wasn't, right up until it was, somewhat, again!)

Regards, JEff