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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on June 16, 2007: |
Jon&Becky
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
After a nerve racking early morning drive down to London I finally managed to beat the traffic and arrive at the embassy approximately 15 minutes before my scheduled 10:30am appointment. I walked around the side of the building following the VISA signs and found the right entrance. I showed my passport and appointment letter to the lady in the bright yellow jacket and was told to go and stand in Line D. I had geared my self up for a long wait at this point and due to the fact that the weather on the way down had been terrible I fully expected to get a soaking. I was however pleasantly surprised to find that there were only 2 or 3 people in front of me in the line and maybe 20-30 in the line next to me. I was at the front in a matter of minutes where the man mountain of a security guard checked my passport made a joke about the picture and told me to stand in the line for the security check. This took a little longer but within 10 minutes I’d had by bag scanned, handed over my mobile phone and was following the signs around the side of the building to the entrance. I’m not sure if I’d dropped lucky or that day was a particularly quiet one but I was in side the embassy with in 20 minutes of joining the line and was very happy that I didn’t have to spend hours standing in the street. The signs around the side of the embassy lead me up to a set of stairs and through a big set of doors.
Once through the doors I showed my letter to the guy at the desk who gave me a numbered ticket and told me to go up some more stairs, take a seat, and wait for my number to be called. So off I went up the stairs and in to the waiting room to await my fait. I took a seat and looked up at the Argos style information screens in the middle of the room to try and work out what was going on. The number on my ticket was 18 and looking at the board I could see that there were only 3 Immigrant numbers to be dealt with before mine. So I sat and waited for approximately 30 minutes and then it was my turn to be called. I walked over to window one and was greeted by a very friendly oriental lady who took my finger prints and started to collect my passport, forms and letters etc. She was very jovial and everything seamed to be going well until she said “I don’t seem to have a copy of your DS-157 here” Now I was absolutely sure that I sent it in with my Packet 3 so they must have had it but the lady said she didn’t have one in the pack she had in front of her. She said maybe it had been misplaced somewhere and she would have to go and get an other one for me to fill in again. Luckily I had a copy of all of my forms with me and was able to give her one there and then. I don’t think it would have been a problem if I’d have had to fill out the sheet again but as words of advice take a copy of all your submitted forms to the interview just in case they mess up like they did with me. Once the missing form problem had been sorted the lady said everything was in order and gave me a yellow sheet to take to the cashier, a pink sheet to fill in for the courier and my chest X-RAY in a comedy sized brown envelope. I went and paid the $100 Visa and took the receipt back to the lady at window one who then told me to take a seat again and wait for my number to be called.
I sat waiting for about another 35 minutes and then my number as called. Until this point I hadn’t been nervous but as I walked up to window 14 I could feel my heart beating as 5 ½ months of waiting was about to be over. The guy who dealt with me was an American in his early 30’s and was very friendly and easy going. He took my finger prints again then asked raise my right hand and made me swear that the information I was about to give was the truth. After this he started to look through my files stopping to type stuff in the computer every few seconds or so. He then passed me the DS-156K form and asked me to write Becky’s name on it and sign to say I would get married to her within 90 days of entering the country. He then asked me how we met and what I intended to do for work once in the states. I told him that I was a Network Administrator and he said I shouldn’t have any problems getting a job in that field. After some more form flicking and computer tapping he said “Well everything is in order your visa should be issued in the next 2-3 working days congratulations” The guy then spent some time telling me what I needed to do to adjust status after marriage and how if I leave the US before my Green Card is issued or I have Advanced Parole I will not be allowed back in again. This was stuff I already knew but I was nice to hear it from the horse’s mouth. I was then asked if I had any questions and I asked about the Pre Clearance point at Shannon as I’ve been looking at flights and some of the cheapest are out of Ireland. He said that going through there should not be any different from going through POE in America. However while he was telling me his boss, who was stood behind him at the time, butted in to say that the immigration at Shannon were “Bitches”. She was laughing while she said it and did say that this was just her opinion but it did make me think again about going through there when I leave the UK. All told I was at the desk for about 5 minutes and wasn’t asked to show any supporting evidence of any kind. I must look trust worthy I suppose. I then went to pay the courier fee at the desk walked around the building to the exit and collected my mobile. By the time I was on the street it was around 12:10 so all in all the whole process had taken just under 2 hours which I didn’t think was too bad. I called Becky gave her the good news and went for a celebration beer before starting the long journey back up North.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #1712