K1 interview London experience

[Sweetdreaming 397]

Arrived at 10am, for 10.30, walked up to the small kiosk outside where they check your email of booking confirmation which takes about 30 seconds, they send you through to the security screening area which is basically the same as an airport security, but at least you can leave your shoes on.

 

You are sent through to the main reception, here I found issues. When I got through the door there were 2 lines of maybe 8-10 people in each waiting I see people with DS160s in hand, so felt they must be in there for similar reasons to me. There were 2 people working reception, the problem is the reception werent doing anything, or talking to anyone and everyone was just standing in line waiting like idiots (me included). One person eventually found the initiative to walk up from about 5th position in his queue and he got dealt with straight away and he was off on his way. As soon as he was dealt with myself and another guy walked from near the back of our queues, walked up past the other people and we were dealt with, they put stickers on DS160 which will have the number that is on the screen upstairs telling you which window to go to (its basically like waiting for your order at Argos  ) and then you are sent up to the 1st floor. Me and the other guy both got into the lift at the same time and were like "what the heck was going on there at reception??!?" The staff seemed to not be interested in giving any help or direction to people who likely have never been to the Embassy before. So to put it simply, if you are in the queue, and nothing is happening, just walk up to reception and get dealt with !!

 

Everything else was relatively straight forward, was called to 1st window and handed over email of confirmation - (I think they are checking that you have paid already, some had not and there was a separate cashier window where people were paying their fees), Passport, photos, birth certificate, ACRO, Affidavit of support plus evidence - I had W-2 and a tax return, he gave me back most of the tax return and kept the W-2. Got asked a few questions here -  have i ever held a US visa before, do i have a police record or had i ever served in military and had i ever lived in another country, had i ever been married before, then my fingerprints were scanned, he handed me back my x-ray cd from Knightsbridge and that was it, probably 5 minutes at this window.

Then I went back to the seating area, and waited over an hour before getting called to the 2nd window. Not sure why it took so long, but it clearly wasnt just me there were others waiting as long, so maybe somebody the officer got tied up in a tough case or something, idk...

 

Once I got to the 2nd window I was give my birth certificate back, but not my ACRO - i know some people have been given theirs back, and others not, no idea the reason for this is, fwiw mine is "no trace". I was asked had i ever over stayed on a US waiver, how did fiance and I meet, how often do we see each other, the lady typed up something, and then told me i was approved for visa and should receive it in 7-10 days ! I was given a little generic card which tells you where you can track your visa progress. approx window time here 3-4 minutes.

 

That was about it, the only negatives I could say were the reception and the waiting time, but if thats the only negatives from an important day like this I`ll take it every time ! Once at the windows, it was very smooth and really no reason to worry as others have stated.

Edited April 24, 2019 by skjourney

[mangomochi 21]

Ooo, great write up! Amazing how fast that last window is! I think I'll get round to writing my medical and embassy review soon. They're so helpful!

[Sweetdreaming 397]

 

6 minutes ago, mangomochi said:

Ooo, great write up! Amazing how fast that last window is! I think I'll get round to writing my medical and embassy review soon. They're so helpful!

 

yeah that would be great, I know these have helped me, you can read 3 or 4 experiences and still learn something else from the 5th or at least confirm the other 4 ! I think being so prepared from others experiences helped reduce any anxiety every step of the way, and the "newer" the report the more it feels like itll be applicable to you.

Edited April 24, 2019 by skjourney

[Amadia 711]

Thank you for sharing! It can definitely help others who have to interview there.  

[VanillaCats 12]

Congrats! My interview is tomorrow at 10:30. My fiancé organised the affidavit and evidence attached together, all in one place. Everything including affidavit, W2, bank statements, employer's letter, tax returns are in there. Is this going to be a problem and will they get me to remove the one they want or will it be ok to just hand over the whole document to them?? 

[Sweetdreaming 397]

Oh Im sure they wont care, he just handed me some of the pages back as I think they dont want unnecessary paper cluttering up my file and just kept the helpful parts. I just looked over specifically what he handed me back vs what he kept. Of the 10 pages of tax return, he kept all the forms which are part of Form 1040, they all had (in our case at least) "COPY ONLY DO NOT FILE" printed over them, including Form 8889 which was a supplemental document for Form 1040. The ones he gave back were from H&R Block which consisted of 5 pages. He wasnt annoyed about it or anything, just put them back through the slot for me to keep. 

So to be clear, he kept W-2 AND the tax return.

If I were you id take everything as planned in case its needed, nothing to lose by bringing more than is required as evidence.

Thanks and Good luck for your interview !

[VanillaCats 12]

3 minutes ago, skjourney said:

Oh Im sure they wont care, he just handed me some of the pages back as I think they dont want unnecessary paper cluttering up my file and just kept the helpful parts. I just looked over specifically what he handed me back vs what he kept. Of the 10 pages of tax return, he kept all the forms which are part of Form 1040, they all had (in our case at least) "COPY ONLY DO NOT FILE" printed over them, including Form 8889 which was a supplemental document for Form 1040. The ones he gave back were from H&R Block which consisted of 5 pages. He wasnt annoyed about it or anything, just put them back through the slot for me to keep. 

So to be clear, he kept W-2 AND the tax return.

If I were you id take everything as planned in case its needed, nothing to lose by bringing more than is required as evidence.

Thanks and Good luck for your interview !

Thank you  really nervous  hope it's as quick and easy as everyone else's.

[Sweetdreaming 397]

update: 

CEAC status this morning was : Administrative Processing

Just checked again and : Issued 😊

Edited April 25, 2019 by skjourney

[ConnorS 85]

8 minutes ago, skjourney said:

update: 

CEAC status this morning was : Administrative Processing

Just checked again and : Issued 😊

That's fantastic news, congratulations 🎉

[Kdunn 16]

@skjourney when was the interview? That was a quick turnaround if i remember seeing that your interview was Tuesday, congrats! 

[Sweetdreaming 397]

Yeah interview was Tuesday, so just 2 days, very fast!

[Sweetdreaming 397]

Can confirm I got my  original ACRO back with my visa + package not to be opened.

[brackpool13 19]

On 4/29/2019 at 5:37 PM, skjourney said:

Can confirm I got my  original ACRO back with my visa + package not to be opened.

 Congratulations! Did it take long for your passport to come back, or have you still not received that yet? 

[Sweetdreaming 397]

7 minutes ago, brackpool13 said:

 Congratulations! Did it take long for your passport to come back, or have you still not received that yet? 

Thanks! The Visa is a card stuck onto a page in your passport so yes I got the passport back. It took less than a week from the interview for it to be processed and in my hands.

Edited May 1, 2019 by skjourney

[Frobert 27]

On 4/25/2019 at 2:43 PM, skjourney said:

update: 

CEAC status this morning was : Administrative Processing

Just checked again and : Issued 😊

Hi Sk,

I had my interview yesterday and was appoved, Can I ask what you're tracking on CEAC? I got the little piece of paper where the address is the ais.usvisa-info.com address, which has been next to useless so far! Is there a better way to track your Visa??! 😯