US Embassy K1 Visa London Review

[Adam&Allison 128]

Hey all,

 

So I figured I'd add a review of my experiences attending a K1 interview at the US embassy in London the Friday the 20th January. 

 

I woke up pretty early, early than I wanted to. My appointment was at 10:30am and I was awake by 7am, out of the hotel by 9am. The hotel I stayed in was the Marble Arch Inn on Upper Berkley Street, about a ten minute walk from the Embassy. The hotel wasn't great, the beds weren't comfortable and the room was tiny. But my only criteria for searching for a hotel were that it had to be within walking distance of the embassy, which it was, so happy days. The guys at the hotel were saying that they get a lot of business from the US embassy, so when the embassy moves to it's new location this year - they're gonna be in trouble! 

 

So I awoke at 7am, showered, got dressed and left my hotel by 9am - I grabbed a coffee and a quick bite to eat at Costa Coffee on the way to the Embassy and got to the Embassy at exactly 9:24am. At this point, realising I was slightly too early I had a wander around Grosvenor Square and snapped pictures of the FDR, Reagan and Eisenhower statues - I'm big into US history, so I was keen on seeing these statues. I joined the queue for the embassy at around 9:40am. This for me, was the bit that was the most unorganised. There is two lines, though which line you join for K1 visas - I have no idea. I joined the shortest queue, and from what I can gather - the way they separate immigrant visas from non immigrant visas (K1 is classed as immigrant) is that they have an employee walk up and down the queue and pull out the people attending immigrant interviews and send them to the front of the queue. This happened to me, I was pulled out of the queue and told to go see the womans colleague at the desk - so I did, and when I approached the woman at the desk - she said to me she didn't understand why I'd been pulled out of the queue and sent to the front, and told me to go rejoin the queue. A little annoying but it wasn't gonna ruin my mood so I simply rejoined the queue.

 

Ten minutes later I got to the woman again, she apologised for sending me to the back - took my DS-160 confirmation sheet and signed me in. I then went though security, which is pretty much like airport security. You have to put everything in your pockets in a clear plastic bag, put it in a tray and send it through a scanner. I had a messenger bag with me so that went through too. In my messenger bag was my iPad, the book Hamilton, and all my documents - attached to my iPad was a bluetooth detachable keyboard, which they wouldn't allow me to take in. So I thought right, I need a new case anyways - I'll just bin it! So I binned it, and off I went into the embassy. Walking through the embassy doors, I went right up to the front desk - handed my DS-160 over, and she assigned me a case number - I902 - then to the left of the desk, I headed up the stairs and into the waiting room. I was sat for maybe 10 minutes before my number pinged and I was told to attend window 13. When I got to window 13, the person in front of me was just wrapping up so I waited several minutes before being called forward. The woman wasn't the friendliest and I found it a little difficult to hear her through the glass, but all you basically need for this bit are your courier and visa fee receipts, passport, passport photos, birth certificate, police certificate and affidavit of support. For the affidavit of support, she specifically asked for a letter of employment - which I had, so I handed it over and she accepted it. Because our I-129F petition had expired I was told that I needed an updated letter of intent to marry for my fiance, which I had, so I handed it over. All my documents were taken no problem, and she told me to go take a seat and wait for the CO. 

 

So I took a seat again, waited maybe 15 minutes this time - and my number was pinged again to attend window 14, at the window was an American guy who quickly made me feel very at ease. He asked how Allison and I met, and found it ironic that we met during the Obama - Romney election cycle, and now here we were at the inauguration day of Donald Trump - so we had a laugh about that, discussed Trump very briefly. He then asked how many times I'd visited Allison - and my reply was, literally, 'Oh man, I'm not sure. Countless' - and he accepted that. He was also very impressed that my family had met Allison's several times. He then said to me 'I'm gonna go ahead and issue your visa, so you can go wake Allison up and tell her - I guess it's almost 6am in Pennsylvania now?' - I was gobsmacked. I said to him 'Is that it?' and looked confused, as he had to say 'Yep - thats it!'. I was at the interview window for maybe sixty seconds. So he handed my my birth certificate back, told me my documents would be with me within X amount of working days (I forget the exact number, I was still in shock at how easy the whole thing was lol) 

 

After that I packed up my stuff and I left with the answer I wanted! My appointment was scheduled for 10:30am and I was out of the embassy by 10:45am, but I think I probably got into the embassy at 10am.

 

I'm not gonna say to everyone 'don't worry, theres nothing to worry about' because I always found that advice to be not very good, but what I will say is this. I was panicking for months about this interview, and the actual interview was over in 60 seconds. If you're in a genuine relationship, you're gonna be fine. They're lovely people who aren't out to trip you up in the slightest. Hope this review has helped some of you!

[keizynjohn2015 1]

Thank you for sharing! What do you mean I290f had expired? 

[Adam&Allison 128]

Your I-129F expires after four months after receiving the NOA2, but don't worry about it. I can only speak for London here, but London extends it automatically - and you need an updated letter of intent from your fiance to say they still wanna marry you. It's not seen as a big deal though, expiration of an I-129F 

[keizynjohn2015 1]

Oh thank you, i didn't know it expires in four months. Does intent to marry requires original signature. Or scan file is fine?

[Adam&Allison 128]

We had the original signature, but they did take a scanned signature for other documents. But again, this is just for London - I'm not sure how it would work for other countries. 

[aubie17 0]

Great review Adam! 

[Kat&Jon 86]

Congratulations!!! I am glad to hear it went well! Also glad to hear you didn't have to wait too long!