2010 United Kingdom Interview Thread

[Hokie97 5]

8 weeks? That's shocking. The UK is one of the slowest. The irony of that is enough to finish me off, if the pernicious effects of the wait just to be logged, the wait for packet 3, the wait for interview then the wait for the actual visa itself doesn't finish me off first. Funny how other embassies, with higher numbers of applicants, in high visa fraud countries, where most applicants are then put into AP, all seem to get it all done in a quarter of the time, including AP time. Would love to know why that is deemed acceptable.

What's the most frustrating, is that another couple, who mailed their Packet 3 three days before me according to their timeline have an interview date 4 weeks from now. What happened in that three days that pushed me back to 8 weeks? There is so much to do, and while I am not concerned that we will be denied, I can't finalize things until we've got the visas in our hands.

Then there is the added frustration and anger at myself, because when I mailed my Packet 3 I left out a document, so it took 30 days for them to write to me to tell me that I needed to file it, then 30 days to tell me that my interview was in 8 weeks. If I hadn't screwed up, we could've (in theory) already had our interview or be about to. My husband has been my rock, and he says getting the interview date is good enough, but I just can't believe I missed something. It's pretty much all I've been focusing on for months.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Hokie97

[Rito 28]

Im getting so ichy to keep things moving.

You know, even though we've done long distance for five years now, I think these last few months are the hardest. Go go embassy go!

[SunDrop 59]

Is it really neccessary to wait for "packet 3" to arrive before sending off the forms..?

...

Come on London, get those letters moving out and lets get our interview sorted. Even if the date is 6 weeks away at least we will know.

COME ON!!!!!!!!

Hiya - when did you send your P3? Please update your timeline, thanks

January 2010 Graduates of the US Embassy, London

Jewel-8, Claire and Troy, lirwin2000, laura00412, beatlesrebel, Kimmy and PJ, NotworkSte, xSweeTiex, FrostyMist, viol8torUK, TeamMoran

D_G, Andrew + Bethany, RUSSandRACHEL, david'sgirl/Scotinmass, Nikki-UK, earlgreygirl, jonoger1984, jenanddan2010, amykathleen2005

February 2010 Graduates of the US Embassy, London

Hindocha, munkeynuts, yorkshirerose22, .Jay'n'Terri, ajbe1986, brit la, Think~Pink, h1a1, karenista

March 2010 Graduates of the US Embassy, London

April 2010 Graduates of the US Embassy, London

May 2010 Graduates of the US Embassy

March Interviews (* days between (K1) returning P3/ (CR1) returning DS-3032 and Interview)

K-1..........kjrrem....................2 Mar 2010 (49 days)

K-1..........MattHeartCass.........4 Mar 2010 (123 days)

K-1..........jkminney................5 Mar 2010 (40 days)

CR-1........pwac......................5 Mar 2010 (41 days)

CR-1........ruth_a....................9 Mar 2010 (62 days)

K-1..........Justine+David........10 Mar 2010 (98 days)

K-1..........moss.....................16 Mar 2010 (51 days)

K-1..........david b..................18 Mar 2010 (please fill in your timeline!)

April Interviews (* days between (K1) returning P3/ (CR1) returning DS-3032 and Interview)

DCF........ohlpomr....................6 Apr 2010 (please fill in your timeline!)

K-1.........Rito..........................6 Apr 2010 (59 days)

IR-1........Hellojulie..................6 Apr 2010

K-1.........Ricky+Vanessa.........19 Apr 2010 (109 days)

K-1.........JMR..........................30 Apr 2010 (74 days)

May Interviews

= APPROVED

Waiting for interview date:

Adrian+Mike (K1) P3 sent 21 Jan

sveta & jeff (IR-1) P3 sent 6 March

Between NOA2 and P3

visacat - NOA2: 16 Feb

doghandler - NOA2: 23 Feb

Amy and Michael - NOA2: 25 Feb

ztaylor - NOA2: 25 Feb

Miss Jess - NOA2: 1 Mar

Y&E - NOA2: 3 Mar

nickm - NOA2: 26 Feb

[Y&E 12]

You know, even though we've done long distance for five years now, I think these last few months are the hardest. Go go embassy go!

5 years long distance?! You two are amazing and my idols. It's been 1 year for us and it's so hard - so many times when I thought that we wouldn't get through it. I bow down to you and I wish you a quick approval of visa process

[doghandler 2]

What's the most frustrating, is that another couple, who mailed their Packet 3 three days before me according to their timeline have an interview date 4 weeks from now. What happened in that three days that pushed me back to 8 weeks? There is so much to do, and while I am not concerned that we will be denied, I can't finalize things until we've got the visas in our hands.

Then there is the added frustration and anger at myself, because when I mailed my Packet 3 I left out a document, so it took 30 days for them to write to me to tell me that I needed to file it, then 30 days to tell me that my interview was in 8 weeks. If I hadn't screwed up, we could've (in theory) already had our interview or be about to. My husband has been my rock, and he says getting the interview date is good enough, but I just can't believe I missed something. It's pretty much all I've been focusing on for months.

I hear you. I'm on the same page as you about all you are saying. If there's one thing this process certainly isn't, is FAIR. Not when it comes to processing in date order. Some of us know that from our VSC days. Oh what a can of worms that turned out to be.

You wouldn't be angry at yourself for such a basic and most probably inconsequential oversight if you weren't punished so severely by an administration system which is at best, not performing nearly as efficiently time-wise in comparison with other embassies. In my opinion, it remains unacceptable that people processed through the UK embassy receive an inferior service to others.

A VJ member on another thread said the Hungarian embassy gives the option for beneficiarys to "pop in" before they submit packet 3 to offer help in ensuring the beneficiary has all the required documents! Can you believe that? London, are you listening?

[Lansbury 19]

You seem to be under the impression that you are entitled to a visa or that the process is for your benefit. Neither is the case. While London may not be the best Embassy to use it has long been recognized for being one of the best and certainly for DCF one of the quickest. Wonder how many visas of all kinds the Hungarian Embassy processes compared to the London one. Certainly you can have any level of service you want as long as you are prepared to pay for it. The administration of visas has to be fully paid for by the fees collected, and yes the Consular Officers in London do read this board.

[h1a1 5]

I'm with you on that one. We just got our interview letter. It's in 8 weeks. We were hoping to move in 13 weeks. I hope you hear something soon. I just didn't think back in October when we started this process that we'd still be this far from the end. It's such a strain, the not knowing.

What date did you put on your forms for moving? I heard that those who put early dates for moving on the forms tend to get earlier appointment dates.

[nickm 1]

Hiya - when did you send your P3? Please update your timeline, thanks

I havent sent it yet, i am waiting for the embassy to contact me first. But, I am just wondering if it is neccessary to wait for this contact, the embassy website says forms without a case number will be discarded, i do have my case number so i cant see why they wouldnt accept them.

I am contemlpating sending the forms before hearing from them, i mean if they discard them, well i have plenty of copies which i can send again.

I will just have to call the expensive hotline a week or so later to check that they were accepted for my application, i think spending 10quid on a phone call will be worth it if it means i can get back to the States quicker.

Seriously if i could expedite this process with money, I would.

[doghandler 2]

You seem to be under the impression that you are entitled to a visa or that the process is for your benefit. Neither is the case. While London may not be the best Embassy to use it has long been recognized for being one of the best and certainly for DCF one of the quickest. Wonder how many visas of all kinds the Hungarian Embassy processes compared to the London one. Certainly you can have any level of service you want as long as you are prepared to pay for it. The administration of visas has to be fully paid for by the fees collected, and yes the Consular Officers in London do read this board.

I'm not under any such impression. I am painfully aware that the process is for anything but my benefit.

But I am entitled to voice an informed opinion of any administrative process I am on the receiving end of. I am heartened the Consular Offices in London do read this board, as it is a good source of customer feedback for them and all government agencies claim to be interested in hearing the voices of their "users" in order to improve.

I have never received anything in life for free and I am always prepared to pay. I would happily pay whatever price they wanted for a faster level of service from the London Consulate, to prevent serious hardship for my dependents, but sadly, there is no option available for that.

[Lansbury 19]

I am heartened the Consular Offices in London do read this board, as it is a good source of customer feedback for them

My point, we are not their customers, the US government is. They are there to keep people out of the US, not help them to get in. Same with any visa and immigration service of any country. The fact we are inconvenienced is not a concern to them

I would happily pay whatever price they wanted for a faster level of service from the London Consulate, to prevent serious hardship for my dependents, but sadly, there is no option available for that.

Which is a pity as certainly for some business employment visas expedited processing is available at quite a considerable extra fee. Of course those buying a place near the front of the queue means others who applied before get pushed to the back, but the US way is money talks so why not provide it for people prepared to pay for a quicker immigrant visa.

[visacat 1]

I havent sent it yet, i am waiting for the embassy to contact me first. But, I am just wondering if it is neccessary to wait for this contact, the embassy website says forms without a case number will be discarded, i do have my case number so i cant see why they wouldnt accept them.

I am contemlpating sending the forms before hearing from them, i mean if they discard them, well i have plenty of copies which i can send again.

I will just have to call the expensive hotline a week or so later to check that they were accepted for my application, i think spending 10quid on a phone call will be worth it if it means i can get back to the States quicker.

Seriously if i could expedite this process with money, I would.

Even though you have received a case number from NVC it can still take a few weeks for the embassy to process the case onto their systems. So if you send in the forms and they havent got you logged onto their system then as stated they will discard your packet 3.

You dont actually have to call the UK embassy to see if your packet 3 has been sent it is much cheaper to call the DOS number and they can give you this information. (202-663-1225)

Edited March 13, 2010 by visacat

[nickm 1]

My finace called the DOS last week and she was told that the paperwork was on its way to the London Embassy, and that they had sent an elctronic version already, do they log the application only when they have the physical paperwork?

So they will tell you that the package has been sent from there, thats good to know, Thanks. I will get her to call them everyday then :-)

[jhphi 0]

Hokie97:

Hey Jenny, did you possibly put that you wanted to move in June on your DS-2001 form? Another VJer had put that he/she wanted a visa valid through August on the DS-2001, and was assigned a July interview date in Packet4. The member called/emailed the embassy, and they moved the interview date forward to the beginnning of April. It may be worth calling/emailing on Monday and asking for an April interview date, just to see if they have any available. If not, maybe they can move it to an earlier date in May? We put "ASAP (ideally before May 1st)" as our Date of Travel on the DS-2001, and got the April 22nd date.

If you're not planning on moving until mid-June, will a May 17th interview date not give you enough time to finish preparations? I know we're packing up and selling furniture/etc already, as we don't want to wait till after our interview date. I'm tempted to book flights now, but I'm holding off a bit and just monitoring prices.

[ohlpomr 0]

In reply to Lansbury's comments, I have to say that the DCF process at London was completely painless and I'm very happy we happen to be in London now and not at another embassy. We even got RFEd for affidavits, but it was simple enough to resolve.

[Hokie97 5]

jhphi,

Thank you so much for your advice (and the other info on my profile as well). I had found an email on the board here, but the thread was from 2007 so I didn't want to rely solely on that. I did put a move date of June on my forms, and I suppose that technically it's enough time to move, but I really feel that is rushing it. I've already contacted a moving company, but I don't want to finalize things until I know for sure. We've started getting rid of things as well, as we are only taking one piece of furniture with us.

I would love to be able to pick a date and book flights as well. It's so hard to keep putting people off when they ask when we are moving. People don't understand that we just don't know. Though, being the second time we've done it, with me just arriving here last year, they are a little more understanding.

I'm going to call tomorrow and see what they say. If they can't, then at least I know we tried. And hey, while the plane tickets may cost more closer to the move date, at least the train tickets to London will be a bit cheaper this far in advance. That's as positive as I can be right now.

Thanks again for your advice, and good luck with the rest of your process!