looking for advice regarding US embassy in London

[Evident Weasel 0]

Hi All,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with some questions regarding the Interview process for immigration, specifically at the US Embassy in London.

Firstly, though, I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who are here giving advice and helping people through this process. I've been lurking on this board for a fair while before this. my first post, and I've noticed a lot of people who stay on well after their visa process is complete, often for years and give people advice and the benefit of their experience. It's a really really nice thing to do and I just wanted to say thanks!

I'm British, my Wife is American and she has been living and working with me in London for the last two years on an 'entry as a spouse' visa. She was offered a transfer with her office to work in New York which we've decided to accept. No visa needed for her, she's an American citizen but it's the start of my visa journey!

As we're already married I am filing for entry as a spouse and so far we have completed the following tasks:

Nov 5th I-130 filed

dec 15th(ish) notified that our petition was accepted, case number granted.

medical examination Jan 12th

ds-230, ds-2001 both sent in Jan 16th

All of our bits & pieces have gone through the Embassy rather than one of the NVOs. We've got our package ready for the interview, police certificates, original birth certificates, I-864 for my wife and all the other bits & pieces but we're still unclear how long the next step takes

I've been looking through old threads on here and have seen some people who have breezed through from sending the 'notification of readiness' form in to their interview to getting their visa in less than a month, however the official US embassy site says that it takes a month before they even get back to us with an interview date. somewhere deep in the website i remember it saying that there was a backlog and it can take up to 3 months! but I can't find that information now. The website does tell me, however, that once I have sent my DS-2001 & DS-230 in they are unable to answer any queries about the application, not even to tell me if the documentation has been recieved!

Basically, the questions I hope you guys can help with are as follows:

Has anyone gone through this process recently who can advise of a realistic time frame for when they give the interview date? My wife flies out to her new job on April 10th, am I likely to be flying with her?

Are they seriously not able to tell me anything about my application? for up to 3 months?

Is there anything else I should be/could be doing to help the application before the interview?

Anyway,

All the best to you guys, thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

Edited February 9, 2010 by Evident Weasel

[Damian&Kelly 16]

I've heard they only schedule interviews the first week or 2 of the month and they usually schedule interviews for about a month later. So as it's looking you sent the checklist saying you're ready for you're interview. So if everything is in order, you should be one of the ones that gets scheduled for an interview in a week or so and should be scheduled for March. '

Now this is just the trend, they usually follow.

Best of luck on a quick interview date, and a flawless interview!!

[Evident Weasel 0]

Thanks for that, I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next fortnight and hope I hear from them soon!

[SunDrop 59]

Thanks for that, I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next fortnight and hope I hear from them soon!

Can't advise on the questions, but just an FYI. The process you're going through is called 'DCF' or Direct Consular Filing. It would be very helpful and be giving back to the community statistically, if you could amend your profile and update your timeline to show this. Then all future DCF applicants - or current ones - can advise you accordingly.

Moving thread to DCF forum, for more targetted responses.

[jhphi 0]

Check out some timelines that have been filled out from DCF'ers who have filed through London here: http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list...;op5=&cfl=0

(hope that link works-- if not, click on Immigration Timelines at the top of the page, then View IR1-CR1 Visas Advanced View on the left of the new page, then select for the UK and to show DCF only)

That will show you some history, and show you the general gaps between the different stages for those who have posted timelines on VJ.

VJ user NC73 sent the forms in about four weeks ago, and found out today (I think) that the interview is Feb 18th.