J-1/J-2 in London

[ScotsinAZ 0]

Morning All,

We had our appointment and interview on Friday at the Embassy in London. There are dozens of scare stories online about how aggressive and uncooperative the staff are at the Embassy. Our experience couldn't have been further away from those.

We had a 9am appointment. There were a couple of girls managing the queues and fast-tracking people with earlier appointments which worked well. Security was straightforward and the initial sorting window was a 2-minute exercise to sort the DS160s, DS-2019s, passports and photos as necessary.

We then went into the interview holding section where row after row were taken into the interview queue. Again, there was a girl managing that and directing people to specific interviews.

The interviewer was perfectly pleasant. She did ask about teaching in Arizona and the low pay but didn't need to see our bank statements we had brought to show it isn't an issue. We had a bit of confusion where my wife was talking high school education lingo in American terms, the interviewer was talking secondary education in English terms and neither related particularly well to my wife's experience as a secondary teacher in Scotland. We were done in five minutes whereupon we were confirmed and she wished us every success in Phoenix.

For anyone going, as long as you're prepared and have the correct paperwork (always better to take a packet with too much evidence of ties to the UK, bank statements, qualifications etc (though we didn't need any of it in the end up), it's more straightforward than we thought. In our two hours, we didn't see anyone have any issues at all.

[Damilolly 1]

Thanks for this!

I just got an email today from NVC that I'm in the queue for interview date. Is that case complete?

About how long did it take for the date to be scheduled, how far in advance was the interview and what about the medicals?

So sorry, I have so many questions as I'm just trying to find my way.

I'm going via F1 via my dad so I don't have any info.

Were there any UK threads you found particularly helpful?

[ScotsinAZ 0]

Thanks for this!

I just got an email today from NVC that I'm in the queue for interview date. Is that case complete?

About how long did it take for the date to be scheduled, how far in advance was the interview and what about the medicals?

So sorry, I have so many questions as I'm just trying to find my way.

I'm going via F1 via my dad so I don't have any info.

Were there any UK threads you found particularly helpful?

Hi Damilolly,

Sorry I can't be of more help. We had everything handled by a specialist immigration attorney in London. He booked our visa appointment (we had options as early as two weeks away and as far as 3 months when booking). We don't require any medicals, I think that may be for more permanent emigrants. No-one yet has asked about our health as far as I can recall.

This site is full of knowledgeable and helpful folk. I'm sure anything you need clarified, you'll get here in one forum section or another. There is precious little about the processes, the requirements or the necessary steps from what I've found. That's why we chose to spend a bit more cash and go with a specialist lawyer. On reflection, I think we could well have done the whole thing ourselves but better safe than sorry.

[Damilolly 1]

Hi Damilolly,

Sorry I can't be of more help. We had everything handled by a specialist immigration attorney in London. He booked our visa appointment (we had options as early as two weeks away and as far as 3 months when booking). We don't require any medicals, I think that may be for more permanent emigrants. No-one yet has asked about our health as far as I can recall.

This site is full of knowledgeable and helpful folk. I'm sure anything you need clarified, you'll get here in one forum section or another. There is precious little about the processes, the requirements or the necessary steps from what I've found. That's why we chose to spend a bit more cash and go with a specialist lawyer. On reflection, I think we could well have done the whole thing ourselves but better safe than sorry.

Thanks Scotsman!

I've found answers to my questions.