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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on January 13, 2008: |
walkies_a
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
We applied for an IR1/CR1 Visa by DCF. My wife is the USC and I am a UKC. My interview was on Jan 4th 2008, scheduled at 8am.
We arrived a little before 7.30am, where there were only 4 people ahead of us in the queue. After a short wait, an embassy official came to the front of the queue and cheerfully said good morning and called the first person forward. Bearing in mind how cold, how early and how soon after new year  it was, I was impressed by the cheer! She looked at mine and my wifes passports and the appt letter and told us which line to go down. We were immediately called into the security hut, where they scanned our bags. Again they were very cheery. We then walked in through the main doors and showed our letter to the reception desk. I was given a ticket with the number 5001 on it and was told to look out for the number on the display. We went in and took a seat. After about 20min, we were called to a window, where again we were greeted by another cheery person. He went through all of my documents. We filed a joint sponsor and there were no problems with this. At this point he gave me my chest XR. He also took my finger prints. He gave us a receipt to take to the cashier desk to pay the visa fee, but warned us they were having some problems with their card machine. At the cashiers desk they tried my card, but the machine did not work. So instead they gave me a form to write my card details down and to sign. We then were told to go take a seat, fill out the courier form (SMS mail)and wait for our number to be called again. After 10mins (enough for a toilet break!) we were called and we saw an immigration officer. Again very cheery, he asked some questions about our relationship; how we met, when we met, how long had we been married. He then took my finger prints. This machine was playing up a bit too, and he appologised for this! I joked that nothing was working today and he laughed! He then got us to raise our right hands and swear an oath that all we were saying was true. Once this was complete, he told us to take our form to the SMS mail desk. Here, we chose to pay extra for the before 10am delivery and we then left the embassy a little before 9.30am!
In summary, the staff were all cheerful and our experience was a quick seamless one. Perhaps this was due to having an early appointment; we were either first or second in the immigrant visa line.
We took all those extra things, like photos and other proofs of relationship etc, but were not asked for it. Seriously, all we were asked for were the things on the checklist. I guess we all worry about being the one who is asked for something not on the checklist, so if it makes you happy and more confident lie it did for us, take extra proof!
All in all, this was the easiest part of the process. The most tricky was all the stuff (i.e. paperwork) leading up to getting an interview.
Hope this is of help to people. Good luck! 
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #2345