Booking travel in advance?

[Mikiek 0]

Hi All,

We have our interview date set for 6th June 2008.

We are looking to leave the UK on 24th June 2008.

We have looked at flights over the past few weeks and the prices are starting to rise (over £100 each ) so we are thinking about booking the flights this weekend... They will be non-refundable as refundable tickets cost twice as much!

Can you please let me know your thoughts on this and how long it took from interview to obtaining the visa (especially if you had any small problems)?

Thanks so much

[Nutty 2]

Don't book a flight until after you get a visa...Even if you are approved at the interview, there is still something called Administrative Processing that comes after the interview. It is when your case gets sent back to Department of State in USA to run a gamut of security checks/name checks (for terrorists and criminals). This can take days, weeks or months to finish.

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

You should easily be safe enough booking a flight for 24th June. Even allowing for delays because they ask you for extra paperwork, you would still have plenty of time. If you want to see how fast people are recieving their visa's over in the UK forum, in the Interview thread.

By the way -

AP is NOT standard procedure. I know of only 2 or 3 case's in London in the last year. Two of those was over in a week or two.

AP happens primarily in cases where the name of the applicant is a very common name, and so has to go through extra check. It is an unfortunate truth that AP most commonly happens to those with Middle Eastern, North African or south Asian heritage. If this is not the case in your fiance's case, then I would be shocked to find that you have to undergo AP.

[CarolineM 0]

I think it 's risky to get your tickets in advance - USCIS was very clear in ALL of our paperwork not to do it! You just never EVER know what could happen. There was a couple in front of us when we did DCF that seemed a clear cut case - they had been married for like 10 years and living in Australia - had three kids - and had plane tickets! They forgot something at their interview ... and they were out of luck! I think it's a risk...and again, they're very clear on NOT booking travel plans ahead of time.

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

I needed to provide additional information following on from my interview for DCF in London. It set me back a week at the most.

Don't sweat it Mikiek

[OfWolfAndMan 0]

I wouldn't risk it. Book after your visa has been granted and you actually have it in your hands. Well, the brown envelope that is.

[Mikiek 0]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts...

We have booked our flight so lets all keep our fingers crossed it goes though ok!!!

[MarkandLada 0]

I am also in the same boat. However, I am finding that tickets purchased over 2 weeks in advance are about the same as booking them for next week (just an example...Delta..1460.00 for June 4-11; and 1429.00 for Jul 9-17). I am going to book mine as soon as I get the SMS from my sweetheart that she passed her interview.