K1 Visa In Warsaw May 13...very easy

[Todd]

Hi All,

Kate and I got our K1 visa on Friday.  Process was incredibly easy.  Arrived around 7:30, was let into the embassy around 8:00, was assigned a number, and then sat back and waited.  (The embassy had chairs so we didn't have to stand.)  An electronic display somewhat akin to the butcher shop in an American grocery store, kept track of who was being interviewed at each window.  We waited for our number to be called.  The first time was around 8:45 to confirm that all the paperwork was in order.  The second time was 15 minutes later to pay our $100 fee.  The third time was for the interview, which took about 5 minutes.  We exited the embassy around 10 a.m..  We came back around 3:30 and picked up the completed visa.

Incidentally, a funny thing about the visa.  At the bottom, it listed Pet=Todd Anderson.  What sort of message are we sending these young and impressionable RW's.  I'm sooo much more than a pet!  ...well, on most days anyway....

 

(Pet stands for petitioner I found out later.)

[Vaughn]

Way to go, Todd. Same day visas are a nice touch!

[Son of Clyde]

Best of  luck to you.

How did you book her plane ticket?

I have heard not to purchase the ticket until you are sure the visa has been approved.

Can a flight be booked the same or the next day if necessary?

 

[Turboguy]

You can buy your ticket for travel the next day or same day but your are taking a chance that there are seats and may pay through the nose.   Just for the fun of it I plugged Baltimore to Kiev into a travel site.  I checked prices for tomorrow, for 5 days out and for August.   I really expected the next day travel to be thousands of dollars.   There were actually two flights for $ 1100 and after that it jumped to $ 3300.  For 5 days out I was hitting $ 1600 with lots of flights.   for August I was hitting $ 1200. 

I am buying my tickets for Luda and I as soon as I get back from my trip to Russia that I am leaving on Thursday.    I am getting our return for right around 6 days after the interview.  I am going a couple of days before the interview. 

This is the way I look at it Son of Clyde.   As near as I can tell the chance of same day  approval on a K-1 visa is right around 85%  There is probably another 8% that requires some additional info that was forgotten.   There is probably about a 7% chance of refusal.   Usually that 7% are people who have some problem such as really not knowing each other or not being prepared.  

I plan to make totally sure that everything is exceptionally well documented, that I have missed nothing, that Luda has reviewed every possible question and can answer anything.  I just don't plan to leave any room for errors.   I am just going to make sure that there is next to no chance of a refusal.   

A few years ago we had a local cop whose wife was divorcing him.  He would go at night to the local park with a 15 mph speed limit and pull people over doing 16.  He wasn't trying to make the park safe.  He wanted people to hurt like he was.  You can always get an examiner in that frame of mind.  Anything else I will try to be very careful and leave no room for errors.  

 

[Todd]

I'm not sure about the 7%, but, actually, being there with Kate seemed to make the whole matter very perfunctory.  The interviewer was very polite, didn't really ask any probing questions, and wished us the best of luck.  As I understand things, the two biggest reasons for further review involve children and past divorce as the paperwork goes up.

As for flight plans, I wish that I had that problem.  Kate's visa is complete; however, she hasn't been able to schedule her final thesis defense.  This inability is quite frustrating as it is finished and she could defend tomorrow.  However, due to changes in Belarusian law, the earliest date looks like early September.  Ugh...  So, I will worry about flights at that time, but I'm expecting them to be much cheaper once the travel season is over.

[wxman]

On the web site the embassy in Kiev says:  

If an interview is a successful one, the visa will be delivered by the FedEx within two business days.

So I would not buy ticket for next day departure.