2010 United Kingdom Interview Thread

[ohlpomr 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....

That other member was me ;-)

I followed the advice from this thread. It cost a £20 phone call to the extortion line and saved 3 months in waiting time, definitely give it a shot

[Hokie97 5]

That other member was me ;-)

I followed the advice from this thread. It cost a £20 phone call to the extortion line and saved 3 months in waiting time, definitely give it a shot

£20 is worth it to maintain my sanity. What did you say to them when you called? Do you need to have a "valid" reason for moving it, or is piece of mind enough?

I'll let you know how it goes.

[ohlpomr 0]

Do you need to have a "valid" reason for moving it, or is piece of mind enough?

Well my valid reason was that on my DS-2001 I thought I had indicated I needed a visa valid UNTIL august (i.e. August should fall into the 6 month validity, so an interview date in or after February), but in fact it was read as actually needing to enter IN August.

If you don't actually need an earlier date I'd suggest not abusing the system by calling, but definitely if you need to enter sooner then its worth giving them a call/email.

[Hokie97 5]

Well my valid reason was that on my DS-2001 I thought I had indicated I needed a visa valid UNTIL august (i.e. August should fall into the 6 month validity, so an interview date in or after February), but in fact it was read as actually needing to enter IN August.

If you don't actually need an earlier date I'd suggest not abusing the system by calling, but definitely if you need to enter sooner then its worth giving them a call/email.

Well, in my opinion, moving in June is enough reason to want a date earlier than May 17. The kids are out of school May 29-June 6 and we were hoping that they could visit the grandparents one last time that week and then we'd move right after, since the end . The reason that I used the word "valid" was because they (the Embassy) may have thought that 3-4 weeks was enough time to finalize moving, but as far as notifying our landlord of our exact date and arranging a shipping company, which said they need a few weeks advance notice, I feel that it is cutting it awfully close. So to me, it is completely valid, our request.

[ohlpomr 0]

So to me, it is completely valid, our request.

Go for it, give them a call. They're pretty understanding. I think if they have a free space they'll bump you without any problems, because its no difference to them, but if they're fully booked until May there won't be much they can do.

Just cross your fingers

[ohlpomr 0]

@SunDrop I added my timeline for you ;-)

[Justine+David 218]

I am so annoyed...

So, nobody asked David to pay for his visa fee, just the courier one and his grandma just died a couple of days ago, so I decided to just call up the USE myself and get it all sorted out.

Call them up, get the message about being charged an exorbitant amount of money and the guy starts asking all kinds of information. I have David's LND case number memorized by heart, but I don't know what his zipcode is and the guy tells me to call back. UGH! Didn't David send you 5 sheets of paper stating what his address is, don't you have it in the computer somewhere?! I'm at work so I can't find his zipcode and will have to wait until I get home to try again.

On the flip side, they never charged me, didn't ask for a credit card or anything. Do I get charged later??

[SunDrop 59]

I am so annoyed...

So, nobody asked David to pay for his visa fee, just the courier one and his grandma just died a couple of days ago, so I decided to just call up the USE myself and get it all sorted out.

Call them up, get the message about being charged an exorbitant amount of money and the guy starts asking all kinds of information. I have David's LND case number memorized by heart, but I don't know what his zipcode is and the guy tells me to call back. UGH! Didn't David send you 5 sheets of paper stating what his address is, don't you have it in the computer somewhere?! I'm at work so I can't find his zipcode and will have to wait until I get home to try again.

On the flip side, they never charged me, didn't ask for a credit card or anything. Do I get charged later??

Sorry to hear about David's grandma

It gets billed to your phone bill, it's a premium rate number. If you have his address, you can get the postcode on www.royalmail.com - they have a postcode finder

@SunDrop I added my timeline for you ;-)

Thank you I'll update it with the next interview outcome/ date allocation.

[h1a1 5]

My POE was yesterday in Orlando. Oh my goodness the officer in secondary spoke to me as if I had an IQ of 60... he mentioned the 90 days to get married at least 10 times. But hey... everyone was nice so could have been worse.

[woki1986 1]

<!--quoteo(post=3794702:date=Mar 13 2010, 03:29 PM:name=SunDrop)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SunDrop @ Mar 13 2010, 03:29 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=3794702"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hiya - when did you send your P3? Please update your timeline, thanks <img src="http://www.visajourney.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

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

We already pay through the nose as it is. The visa is only the first stage, which makes it worse... then there's AOS on top.

We sent out packet 3 back in December and it took until Feb to find out when my interview was... it was an absolute killer. Still... I'm fortunate that I can look ahead to the future.

The advice that I would give is that you must double, double, double (treble) check Everything. Everything. Over and over to make sure that you can cross everything off the list of things you need.

[woki1986 1]

SunDrop, I've updated my timeline so it matches that of Cass_Errol, so mine's now up to date.

I had a look at the timeline database earlier on and wow, there's a lot of people on that list. It makes me wonder where they all are now. When we started this process I wondered just how many people go through it and allowing for the fact that not every couple signs on to VisaJourney... there must be so many people that do emigrate.

[Ricky+Vanessa 43]

My POE was yesterday in Orlando. Oh my goodness the officer in secondary spoke to me as if I had an IQ of 60... he mentioned the 90 days to get married at least 10 times. But hey... everyone was nice so could have been worse.

Aawww glad you go through ok

[thatbritishlass 2]

My POE was yesterday in Orlando. Oh my goodness the officer in secondary spoke to me as if I had an IQ of 60... he mentioned the 90 days to get married at least 10 times. But hey... everyone was nice so could have been worse.

I'd be interested to hear you're review, as Orlando is probably going to be my POE too - generally when I visit they are very nice but sometimes you get one who was clearly off sick when everyone else had the customer service training from Disney...

[Kristin&David 0]

So we haven't physically received our packet 3 letter yet, but two different people at the DOS have assured me that the embassy sent it on March 8. Seems like a long time to be in the mail since my fiance lives in London only about 5 miles from the embassy! Anyway, I don't think there's much point waiting for it so we sent off our packet 3 today!! (everything but the checklist as we haven't gotten our police certificate back yet, hopefully no more than another week or two for that)

SunDrop, will you add us to your list. Thanks!

[SunDrop 59]

SunDrop, I've updated my timeline so it matches that of Cass_Errol, so mine's now up to date.

I had a look at the timeline database earlier on and wow, there's a lot of people on that list. It makes me wonder where they all are now. When we started this process I wondered just how many people go through it and allowing for the fact that not every couple signs on to VisaJourney... there must be so many people that do emigrate.

Yeah, I ended up looking at some processing stats for K-1s at both centers yesterday and there are 1000s. But K-1s are one of the lowest petition groups percentage-wise, so I'm not surprised anymore that it takes them as long to process as it does!

I knew you were Cass_Errol's other half, so I lifted your stats from her profile. But thanks