This was probably the single most excruciatingly frustrating day of the entire process. As Eric, one of the US citizen fiances I'd befriended on the day of my interview, put it, "I'm used to dealing with (US) government agencies on a regular basis because of my business, but this is a whole new level!"
Welcome to the US Embassy, Philippine style. Joke of the day: There were a few empty photo frames hung up inside the embassy, and I asked Eric what he thought they were for. At first, he shrugged. Then a few minutes later he says, "I know! They're for employee of the month!"
My mom had a friend who had her immigrant visa interview just last year, so we called her and asked for advice. She said she and her family arrived at the Embassy at 6am, and weren't interviewed till 5:30pm. I parked across the street, in front of the Chow King restaurant, and as soon as I got out of my car someone was offering me his place in line (for a price, of course). All the appointment letters say 7 or 10am, the time is irrelevant. People start lining up outside the Embassy as early as 2am for nonimmigrant visa interviews or to get numbers for the immigrant visa information desk that is open in the afternoon. Fiance(e)s pay a $45 MRV fee, while immigrants pay over $300. Mike Kolman, whose wife Bing was a K1er interviewed last August 1998, told me that fiancees used to pay their fees at the Embassy cashier like the rest of the immigrants. However, while I fell in line at 4am outside Gate 2 of the Embassy, I saw a flashing electronic scrolling message inside that announced: "Fiance(e)s scheduled for interview must pay at the following Bank of the Philippine Island branches: T.M. Kalaw, Roxas Boulevard, or Ermita." Considering that the bank wasn't open till 9am, that made me extremely unhappy.
I was already 20th in line for Gate 2, but they don't start letting people in till around 6:30am. You come through a metal detector while your belongings are inspected, you slip your letter into the slot under Window X, then sit down to wait. Each person is called to different windows to submit the required documents, but you find out that, as a fiancee, they won't even take your papers till you present a receipt of payment. During this time, I befriended Eric and his fiancee Marichelle, who had had a much more terrible ordeal up to this point since Marichelle had never received her letters from the US Embassy and Eric had flown over to help her out. He came to Manila in the first week of December and intended to stay two weeks, but it was already the first week of March and he hadn't been able to leave because everything was just getting lost. Anyway, at 8:30am someone at one of the windows said "All fiancees who have paid may now fall in line at window 42," and about five people did, the rest of us hadn't yet. Before 9am, Eric, Don, my yaya and others went to the nearest BPI on T.M. Kalaw, only to find out it was offline. They went to Roxas Boulevard, also offline, finally they went to the one on Ermita. My yaya had to come back and get my OF-156 from me because the people at the bank wanted it before they would even let her pay. Don and Eric came back earlier, so their fiancees were able to submit their documents an hour ahead of me. (Btw, the fiancee packet has two blank OF-156's, the list of required documents doesn't say you need to fill out two, but you will need two. I left one of mine at home, but fortunately they gave me an extra one at window 42.) I gave mine in at 10:30. The man at the window, a Filipino, asked me a lot of questions about where I met Brian, and looked over our pictures together, we got a little chatty and he maybe asked more questions than the consular officer did later.
Then you sit down and wait, the room is a large air-conditioned one and sometimes it gets a little cold, so bring a light sweater or wear a shirt with long sleeves. You can't eat in there but once you've given in your appointment letter, the line outside disappears and you can come in and out, as long as you submit to the security check each time. There is a lunch break from 12-1pm, everyone has to leave.
I had lunch with Eric, Don, and their fiancees. When we returned, first Marichelle, then Wilma, were called for their interviews. When they finished (both were approved), they all waited for me. I wasn't called till 3:30pm. I actually hadn't heard which cubicle I was supposed to go into, but this was the one where the other fiancees had gotten interviewed, so I peeked inside and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear which room I was supposed to go to," and the consular officer asked, "Are you Annette?" Each cubicle is a little separate room with glass separating you from your interviewer, there are four comfortable seats (enough to accomodate families who are being interviewed) on the interviewee's side while the consular officer is seated at his desk. You pass documents back and forth through a slot at the bottom.
The consular officer was a pleasant young man in a shirt and tie, with his ID on a chain hanging from his neck, but the card was tucked into his pocket. He looked over the documents I had submitted earlier, my passport, birth certificate, the I-129F Brian had sent me, pictures of both of us, and asked how I met Brian. I told him we'd become friends on the Internet in 1996, and after a couple of months Brian had come over to attend my graduation in April of 1997. Then he had visited me on two more occasions, and last May 1998 we had gotten engaged. He asked if I knew Brian's address and phone number, and I gave him both. "You call him often?" he asked, and I answered yes. Then he asked to see pictures of us together, and if I had letters from Brian, and I showed him both, he looked over the pictures and I told him when each was taken and where. He commented on the pictures taken at my graduation (I was in my toga), when Brian joined my family on a trip to Tagaytay, and said the pictures taken at our engagement party were very nice (I told him my uncle's hobby was photography). I brought out a very large stack of letters and he asked me to just slip him a couple, so I took some early ones and he scanned them over. He did return everything and then asked, "Tell me something about Brian," which caught me a little at a loss--where was I supposed to start?--then he said, "What kind of car does he have?" This was a good question, since I knew Brian had just gotten a new car which he intended for me to use when I arrived in the US. (Other questions he asked the other girls earlier: about their fiance's families, pets, favorite color, if you had plane tickets or had made wedding plans already.) So I seemed to be doing fine, then he started flipping back and forth over and over Brian's affidavit of support, the letter from his employer and his 1997 ITR, which he'd enclosed. I thought, uh-oh. "You know what I'd really like, just to see if this is all true," he says, "is Brian's 1998 ITR and his W-2. You said he just started working last October 1997?" Brian had started his present job in October 1997 but before that he'd been in college and worked part-time. "He'll have had the entire year of 1998 to work, ask him to fax those two things to you and come back with them as soon as you can." He gave me a slip of paper enumerating the things he wanted, and printed "WI" in large letters on the upper right hand corner.
Aaagh, I didn't want to go through everything again, but it wasn't like I had a choice. I returned three days later, at around 6am on a Thursday. The line for "recall interviewees" was separate and I was already 15th in line, they started letting the first-time interviewees in at 6:30am, then the line for "recalls" disintegrated and formed again inside. Those with set appointments were let in first and called individually, walk-ins were let in later. We fell in line at Window X and submitted the the additional things required--it was around 8:30am by then--and sat down to wait.
I was called back to the same cubicle at around 10am. The same consular officer looked over what I had just brought in, then gave me the slip of paper to go to the cashier. As a fiancee I didn't have to pay anything additional, just had it stamped. Then I returned the slip to him, and he gave me a claim ticket. "If you come to Window 1 at 2pm on Monday, your visa should be ready."
The claim ticket said 1pm, so I was there by 1pm. You don't need to line up to claim your visa, they call people individually. Well, they called fiancees as a group. The guy at the window explains that a big envelope is stapled to your passport and you must not, under any circumstances, allow it to be detached until you get to your port of entry, or else you'd be sent back. Check all the information on your visa before you leave, name spelling, birthdate, etc.
That's it! I'm finally free of the US Embassy! Aside from your passport with the visa and envelope stapled to it, you're also given information about the IRS and the seminar at the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, which is required by the Philippine government before you can finally leave.