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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

It’s been a week since we made the trek more than halfway across the country to Auckland for our interviews, so it’s about time I updated!

We left on a 6.30am flight last Tuesday morning, arriving at our hotel at 12pm. We basically had time just to dump our bags and try and find the medical clinic, which thankfully was just a couple of blocks away. We were poked, prodded, full histories taken (any surgery reports sent the doctor hunting for scars) and we all had to have a chunk of injections. I came out of it the easiest, only having to have MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) and tetanus, while poor Jesse got pretty much the works. 4 1/2 hours and $1281 later, we went back to the hotel and collapsed for a while before going in search of food.

I’d like to say we got to see some of Auckland night life - I’d planned to walk the boys up to K Road to show them just how different Auckland is to our sleepy little hollow - but we were all too exhausted after such a long day. We booked a movie and it was lights out by 9.30pm.

The next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, showering, getting dressed and in my case, making sure our paperwork was in order.

I had more than enough to prove that our 9 year marriage was legitimate, including copies of J’s insurance paperwork listing the boys and I as beneficiaries, joint bills from when he was living in New Zealand, letters from family members, photos and all that jazz, as well as the required paperwork.

At 8.10am, we walked out of the hotel and walked across the road to the Consulate. I’m not sure what I expected the place to be like but it certainly wasn’t what we got! The Consulate takes up two floors in a commercial building, and there was not a military uniform to be seen. Instead, we stepped out of the elevator to be greeted by a rather large Samoan in a uniform akin to a security guard’s. We waited in line (we were the second lot to arrive), handed over our appointment letter and were told to take cellphones, lighters, and in my sons case, spray on deoderant, out of our bags and leave them at the desk. Then we trotted one by one through a metal detector and were ushered in to the next room, told to go to window 1, push the buzzer and wait.

The next room was long and narrow, with the waiting area probably the width of a small commercial plane. There was an aisle of probably 2 feet, a row of chairs, then another narrow aisle and the windows on the other side, 9 in total, each with a small gap in the bottom and a microphone and speaker system. We pushed the buzzer and were greeted very quickly (each of us by name) by a charming American woman whose first task was to explain a few things to the boys about what was going to happen, what getting our visa’s meant and what they could do once they had their green cards. She also explained about SS numbers, getting US Citizenship and how Dual Citizenship worked (which somewhat surprised me). After that, she had the boys fill out some paperwork which needed to be signed in front of the Officer, snatched away our passports and took our fingerprints (electronically, of course).

Finally, we were told to sit and wait for our interview. So we sat. And we waited. And we waited some more. Well over an hour later, a blind at another window was pulled up and a voice came across announcing our names. I thought it was odd. I’d expected our interview to be conducted in a separate room, not in the main waiting area through a small window conducted via microphone and speakers. I figured that the Officer was just going to grab some other paperwork from us and then lead us off. That wasn’t the case. He introduced himself and said “This is your visa interview”.

Not that it was much of one. We were sworn in and he asked a grand total of 2 questions - how long had J lived in New Zealand and did I intend to work in the US. He didn’t ask for anything to prove our marriage was bona fide and declined to look at any of the evidence I’d painstakingly gathered when I offered it.

The rest of the time was spent with him tapping information in to the computer (which crashed. LOL), getting fingerprints that hadn’t come out clearly and having us sign the paperwork. I only had to sign the DS-230 Part II, but both boys also had to sign a form stating that they would not get married prior to leaving the country and Jesse also had to sign up for the draft. He again explained to us all what getting our greencard meant, what we could do with it and also encouraged US Citizenship, informing us of the benefits of Dual Citizenship (I’m still surprised by that).

In total, the actual interview took probably 10-15 minutes and a good chunk of that was because the computer crashed, so the total time at the Consulate was 2 hours, most of it waiting. We weren’t approved at the time, as our medicals hadn’t come in yet, but that was the only thing they were waiting on. If I haven’t heard by next Wednesday, I’ll be calling.

Don’t uncross your fingers just yet!

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