My US Tourist Visa Interview Experience at the US Embassy in Seoul

This post will focus on what happened during my US Tourist Visa Interview at the US Embassy in Seoul. I will not be covering the procedures (i.e. filling the DS-160 form, paying the visa fee and scheduling the interview) prior to the interview as there are already many resources on the internet that will be able to help in that regard.

However, I would like to mention a little bit about my experience while trying to schedule a visa interview in Seoul. Before I even finished my DS-160, I was already searching for information online about visa interview times. I really prefer to go to Seoul in the late morning or early afternoon to avoid staying there overnight since I will be coming from Daegu. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any information regarding the interview times.

I paid the visa fee on the morning of October 02 through Citibank (there is one branch in Daegu near Daegu Bank station in Line 2) and in the evening, I scheduled my visa interview. I remembered making an account at this website (https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/) and answering questions before I was able to see the availability calendar. I also saw a notice flashing on the side saying that the earliest available date for an interview was October 18. However, when I actually got to the calendar, the earliest one available was October 24 and there were only two time choices: 8:15AM or 8:30AM. Beside each time was the number of slots available (e.g., 8:30 (7)). Finding 8:15AM too early, I chose 8:30AM. I looked at the other dates in November and December to check for interview times and they were mostly between 8:15AM to 10AM (in intervals of 15 minutes). Since I am still hoping to get an earlier date, I checked the website again on October 11 and saw that there was one available slot for October 18 at 1PM. I hurriedly booked that time and got a new appointment confirmation. I checked the availability calendar again after a few days (out of curiosity) and saw a note that says if I re-schedule my current appointment, I would have exceeded the number of times allowed to change and that I would be asked to pay for a new visa fee.

On October 18, I took the train from Dongdaegu station to Seoul. Since electronics and big bags are not allowed inside the embassy (only one cellphone is allowed), I left my bags in a small locker (2,000 won) at Seoul station and only carried a purse, containing my wallet and passports, and a clear sleeve folder, containing my supporting documents. I then rode the subway from Seoul station (Line 1) and got off at Gwanghamun Station (Line 5). It just so happened that a massive rally was happening at the same time in that area so it was really busy. I first went to the front of the embassy but was informed by a security personnel that the entrance for visa applicants was on the side. I have provided a picture below to serve as a visual guide to the location of the side entrance.

Applicants are advised to arrive 15 minutes before their appointed time but when I got to the side entrance at 12:45PM, there was already a long line for the non-immigrant visa applicants. They were in line under the blue or green (can’t remember the exact color now) awning of the side entrance. There is a separate line for applicants of American Citizen Services. A pre-screening was conducted before applicants were allowed inside the embassy. Cellphones should be turned-off at this point. There is a window where a staff checked my appointment confirmation form and passport. He asked for my name and looked at the picture in the passport to confirm that it was me. He instructed me to go to the second floor. I stood outside the door a bit and waited for a clicking sound before entering (it seems to be magnetically locked). Once inside, the staff took my phone, gave me an ID number for it and placed my belongings in the x-ray scanner.

I immediately proceeded to the second floor by taking the stairs (there seems to be no elevator) and a staff, standing by the entrance of the room, asked me about my visa purpose. I said that it was for tourism and she instructed me to go first to the desk. I asked the staff at the desk what documents she needed and she requested for my passport and DS-160 confirmation page. She placed two barcode stickers at the back of my passport. I then fell in line for fingerprint scanning. When it was my turn, I gave the staff my passport and DS-160 confirmation. She asked for my alien registration card and inquired if I had been refused a visa before. I told her that it was my first time applying for a visa. She scanned my fingerprints, returned my passport and alien card and told me to fall in line again. It was easy to figure out where to go since I was following those who were in front of me. This part was the actual visa interview. I immediately noticed that there were only two consuls doing the interviews. The interviews are done in booths (similar to the Philippines) so you can hear the questions being asked as well as the answers of the applicants.

South Korea is part of the US Visa Waiver Program so for short-term tourism and business purposes, they do not need to apply for a visa. I noticed that most of the people in line with me during the visa interview were either students who were accepted in a US university, professors attending a conference or businessmen attending an exhibition or doing business-related work in the US. I think that some of the businessmen who needed to apply for a visa were those who had travelled to Iran or Iraq in the past (because they were asked about it by the consul). I also noticed that some visas were not immediately approved as they were asked to provide more documents or undergo an evaluation (by a doctor I think). There was a guy who seemed to have been arrested before and had to provide the case files to the consul.

When I got in line for the interview around 1:30PM, there were more than 25 people ahead of me. We were all just waiting quietly and nobody even tried to talk to anyone. Some of the interviews took 5 minutes and some took around 10 minutes. The two consuls did not really seem hurried. They can both speak Korean but when it got more complicated, the female consul asked somebody else for help. The male consul is a Korean who might be an American citizen now or he might have been born in the US. My turn came and I got interviewed around 2:40PM by the male consul. Just a little bit of background about my situation: I hold a Philippine passport and I am currently a housewife. My husband is British and I have been to the UK twice now. These are the questions he asked during the interview (these are not in order because I cannot remember clearly now and not exactly verbatim as well):

- What is your purpose in going to the US?

- How long have you been living in Korea?

- What is your job (or what do you do)?

- Is your husband Korean?

- How did you meet?

- How long have you been married?

- When did you get married?

- What does your husband do?

- Do you have kids?

- Have you been to other countries besides Korea?

- You went to the UK to visit family?

The consul did not ask to see any supporting documents. I also noticed that he was typing a lot while I was giving my answers. This made me a little worried because I do not know what he was taking note of.

He then asked me to put 4 fingers of my left hand in the scanner. When that was done, he said that my visa has been approved and that I will get it next week. The female consul, on the other hand, was telling applicants that they will get their visa in 3 to 5 days.

This post is really long but I hope that it will give applicants an idea of what to expect when going for their US visa interview in Seoul. My experience is based on an afternoon appointment so things might be a bit different for those with a morning appointment. Since it seems that there are a lot more applicants in the morning, I think that there would also be more consuls doing the interview that time. I actually thought that the whole process will not take long so I decided not to eat lunch before going to the embassy. From the time I fell in line outside to the time I finished the interview, it took around two hours. I would suggest eating first before heading to the embassy.