K1 approved! Interview experience and timeline until issuance.

[aikowo 4]

I'm posting this in the hopes it gives someone a little reassurance about the interview process.

 

I arrived at the London embassy at 8am for my 8:30am appointment, I'd recommend if you have an early interview and need to travel far to go over the day before and book a hotel so you can be there with plenty of time in the morning. There was a looong line of people outside despite it being so early, however since I had read that K1 applicants should be queuing on the left (it was hard to tell where was "left" from outside), I walked up to the lady checking everyone's interview letters and showed her that mine was K1. She marked my paper and sent me straight to the front of the line where there was a man checking people for laptops and asking each person to pull out their phone and open an app on it before they went inside. Once inside there was a little security area and metal detector, then a few doors and signs later there was a desk with another lady taking interview letters and giving people stickers with their interview number. She told me to go up to floor 1 and go left and left again and take a seat to wait for my number to be called.

 

The area where I sat was much less busy than where you walk past to get to it, and it didn't take long to be called up to submit each document one by one and answer a few brief questions like "have you been married before", "have you served in the military", etc. I'd brought two i134 forms each with their own evidence, though I don't think that ended up being necessary since they took both but only one piece of evidence for each (I took tax returns, employer letters and w2). They also didn't need the copies of the birth certificates for the two sponsors. They took my fingerprints and asked if I had the medical exam, and I told them yes on the Monday of that week, and they wrote a little note at the bottom of their form saying "medical pending" as they hadn't received it yet.

 

List of documents that they took from me:

 

Passport

One US sized passport photo (which was cut, scanned and returned)

Birth certificate

Deed poll (name change)

Police certificate

DS160 confirmation

i134 + one evidence

 

I was then sent back to sit and wait to be called again. After a while of waiting (there was only one booth open for this second part and there was a whole family called up before me), the lady called me and asked me to put my hand on the scanner to check my fingerprints, this time only one hand as opposed to doing both at the previous booth. She then told me to raise my right hand and had me agree to an oath to tell the truth. She asked a couple basic questions about my fiance, like to confirm his name and the city he lives, and asked how we met and how he proposed. She also asked how many times we met and for how long, and then typed for a bit on her computer before saying that she was happy and had no doubts about our relationship. She said that if everything was good I should receive my visa within two weeks and that was it! I was handed a green form with "additional evidence required" and "medical examination" checked off, and they returned the originals of all of my documents but kept my passport.

 

After the interview I checked the CEAC tracker almost everyday, and for the first few days it was marked "refused". On the 28th (interview was the 23rd right before the weekend) the case changed to "application received" then later that day "approved". From there it took two days before it was changed to "issued" (30th) and today I received my tracking number from the courier with information that I should receive my package with my passport on monday. So all in all it took a week from interview to issuance and visa printed and in passport, despite the embassy not having received my medical until at least the day after! Though the weekend will delay me actually having passport in hand, the big portion of the stress is over. I hope this helped anyone who either didn't have their medical at the time of interview or is just trying to prepare their best to have a smooth interview. Good luck everyone! 

[hplusj 135]

Congratulations!  Be sure to submit a consulate review as this information will be extremely valuable to those using the same embassy on future appointments.

[aikowo 4]

14 hours ago, hplusj said:

Congratulations!  Be sure to submit a consulate review as this information will be extremely valuable to those using the same embassy on future appointments.

 thankyou! for sure, i was originally going to post as a review but i was having a bit of trouble figuring out the "country" and "consulate" options, i'll look again though

[Joseph Underwood 5]

21 hours ago, aikowo said:

I'd brought two i134 forms each with their own evidence, though I don't think that ended up being necessary since they took both but only one piece of evidence for each (I took tax returns, employer letters and w2). They also didn't need the copies of the birth certificates for the two sponsors. 

 

List of documents that they took from me:

 

Passport

One US sized passport photo (which was cut, scanned and returned)

Birth certificate

Deed poll (name change)

Police certificate

DS160 confirmation

i134 + one evidence

 

Hey thank you so much for this post! With the affidavit of support I have been trying to find out how much evidence my fiancee needs to show for the UK embassy as I thought I had read before they just take one piece. So she is okay to just show her most recent tax returns as evidence with the i134? 

 

One other thing we only need our own birth certificate (the beneficiary) and they don't need my fiancee's birth certificate? 

[aikowo 4]

1 minute ago, Joseph Underwood said:

Hey thank you so much for this post! With the affidavit of support I have been trying to find out how much evidence my fiancee needs to show for the UK embassy as I thought I had read before they just take one piece. So she is okay to just show her most recent tax returns as evidence with the i134? 

 

One other thing we only need our own birth certificate (the beneficiary) and they don't need my fiancee's birth certificate? 

 

I took a signed employer letter stating position and salary and that it's a permanent job and the most recent tax returns! They only seemed to care about the tax returns though and just took those for both the i134s I had, though if the employer letter is easy enough for her to get it's better to play it safe I think. As far as birth certificate, they ONLY took my (beneficiary's) birth certificate and didn't need to see the birth certificate or any form of identification for either of the sponsors. I feel like in other embassies they may be more strict about this stuff but from what I read/experienced London is fairly easy for the interview.

[Joseph Underwood 5]

Okay great thank you! I'll say that to her as well, just a little different as she's a server I feel like the bulk of her salary actually comes from tips so unless maybe the wording could be like salary then plus tips. But I thought I had read previously that the London embassy only care about the tax returns and are pretty relaxed with it all, but then could not find it again anywhere so appreciated seeing this post! And all sounded reassuring and nothing to get too nervous about

[Joseph Underwood 5]

Oh sorry one more thing, for assets owned can she just get a bank statement as proof as well? Or does it have to be signed from bank etc? 

[aikowo 4]

No problem! Tax returns should be good enough, and if she's using assets I believe the bank letter needs to be from an officer of the bank and state date opened, amount deposited over the last year and current balance, though I might be wrong about that! If her tax returns show she made more than enough though over the past year I don't think she should worry too much about any assets.

[Joseph Underwood 5]

22 hours ago, aikowo said:

No problem! Tax returns should be good enough, and if she's using assets I believe the bank letter needs to be from an officer of the bank and state date opened, amount deposited over the last year and current balance, though I might be wrong about that! If her tax returns show she made more than enough though over the past year I don't think she should worry too much about any assets.

Okay great thank you. I think we might take both still just to be safe, if she can get the bank statement stuff sorted in time that is before my interview. But if not sounds like we'll be fine still with the tax returns 

[xkl 1]

Hi! what app did they ask you to open?