London Embassy Graduates Thread

[blspicer 0]

Since Pete is officially a London Grad I made him write his experience out so I could post it on here so the upcoming interviewers can read and maybe learn something from.

"Fellow VJ’ers,

Okie dokie everyone, I’m gonna tell you all how my day went for my interview in London today. My interview time was 9:30am. Caught the train to London in Eastbourne and arrived in London at around 8:30am. I wanted to be in the line at the embassy for 9:00am to get a good start but I was unaware of the strike with the Underground workers today so that made my mission a lot more interesting. I walked from London Victoria and managed to hail a taxi to take me the rest of the way, and got to the embassy at about 9:15am.

I saw a very long queue outside with police officers carrying guns at their sides. I had to show my passport and appointment letter to one of the people in charge of the lines and there were 3 lines, each line corresponding to the time of your interview. I waited in the 9:30 line and was freezing my ####### off, saw that everyone else in my line wore suits and there was little me wearing jeans and an Appalachian State polo that Brandi had bought for me, lol. I found out that it’s fine to dress however, just be respectable.

Anyway, after about an hour and a half I finally got inside the embassy and walked up the reception desk, told the lady what I was there for and she gave me a ticket with a number on it and told me to just go upstairs and to the left. I did just that and there were a lot of people sitting the waiting room talking to each other; the perfect way to describe it is like the departure lounge at the airport.

I was called to the kiosk 15 after about 20 minutes and had my finger prints taken and passed my birth certificate and criminal record through the little window. The bloke who spoke to me was a very nice chap and I had to find something in my folder which took me about 5 minutes, which I apoligised for and he said to not worry it’s no problem. He came across as a very pleasant fellow indeed. He gave me my x-rays from my medical and told me to give them to the customs officer when I get to the States, he then told me to take a seat and an interviewer would call me out.

Fifteen minutes later I was called but I didn’t hear what kiosk to take so I walked around where I saw the first guy and there was an American lady waving her arms in a jokingly gesture of “here I am”, so that made me feel a little more at ease. We started off with her asking me questions about how we met and I gave her all the answers as well as I could, we had quite a laugh really. We were talking about the wedding and honeymoon and she asked about how I proposed to Brandi. I told her I had a picture of the proposal and showed her all the pictures I brought because they were in a photo album. She laughed at my very English hair style at that time, but she said we looked very happy.

We talked for another 5 minutes or so about the formalities of having to get married within 90 days of my arrival and the importance of the adjusting of status after the wedding. Then her exact words were, “Okay Mr. Bowles, I don’t see any reason to deny you your visa, you and your girlfriend look very happy and I wish you all the best of luck and congrats”. I kept saying Thank You, and then told her if there wasn’t a pane of glass in the way I’d kiss her, haha…her response was “that’s exactly why it’s there my dear”. So that was it, and I proceeded to go to the courier desk to arrange delivery of the visa (I paid the 25 quid to have it shipped quicker because I’m flying out on Monday) and collect my things from the desk downstairs.. I was very lucky in that I had a good experience, and everyone was just lovely to me. As long as you… don’t come across as a completely dodgy character, have all your paperwork and evidence, and be polite you should be fine. I hope this is helpful. All the best to everyone, and thank you for all your help. Good Luck."

Pete

[ola08 0]

Hi all,pls would appreciate if anyone can give me the best info and how to handle vaccination with respect to AOS.

I did my medicals in Uk and the vaccines i had were MMR and TD.I had chickenpox in the past and the doctor noted it.I have been going through various post in the AOS forum and i am not very clear on how i should handle the vaccination issue.

I never had the TB skin test though had Chest x-ray and have noticed a few making reference to TB skin test.I also was not given Hepatitis B vaccine even though i had the complete dose some years back but no document to show that.I also noticed that some did not contact any civil surgeon,they only submitted the vaccination sheet from the panel physician.

So based on the vaccines i had --mmr & Td. What would be my best line of action?

Thanks for your help.