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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on May 14, 2019: |
Frobert
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I had my interview appointment at 10am and as I'm based in Belfast flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Plus Vauxhall. It's a perfectly serviceable hotel which is modern, clean, in a quiet residential area and exactly what you would expect from one of these chain places. Rooms are tiny but that didn't bother me in the slightest. They do what looks to be a small continental breakfast but I didn't partake, I was too nervous to eat! there's a Co-op which is a 5min walk along S Lambeth Rd if you need things and a couple of 24/7 shops too. also a lot of food places.
I spoke to the receptionist when i was checking out and they had no problem keeping my overnight bag for a couple of hours while i was at my interview, they have a locked cloakroom so that was very helpful.
I left my hotel at 9:15 and walked the 10mins back to Vauxhall station so I could get a coffee and then walked over towards the river so I could stroll along the river to help me relax my nerves while walking toward the embassy!
Got to the embassy at 9:40 and joined the queue for visa services, there were about 20 in this queue ahead of me, the lady at the kiosk checked my appointment letter and passport and i proceeded to security where the guy on the door will check you ID again and let you in to standard airport bag scan type thing.
After security you walk up to the front of the embassy where there are two doors...DON'T JOIN THE QUEUE!! when i arrived there must have been 50-60 people lined up at the right hand side door for visas (marked RED). I stood in the queue for a second because i was feeling nervous and weird about skipping people, but i gathered myself and got over it! :-D go to the door on the left hand side (marked BLUE) which says U.S Citizen Services (or something like that!) Walk straight up to the desk, the lady manning the desk looked up at me and said "immigrant visa?'' so i said "yes" and passed her my appointment letter and passport and she scoured a list and checked my name off it, put a sticker with my appointment number on my appointment letter and told me to take the lift to the first floor, turn left and left again.
I feel like they could be clearer on the instructions here on this previous part, I mean I definitely felt weird skipping all these other people and i was definitely getting eyeballed by all the people I was passing but I had to keep in mind that I had an appointment time to keep.
The lift opens up on the first floor to a big white room with over 100 people all applying for visas, I was a little taken aback lol I thought 'this is gonna take forever!' before i remembered to 'turn left and left again'. You end up in a quieter, sectioned off part of the hall with some seats and five or six windows where I waited maybe 5 mins for my number to appear on the screen above the window.
Here I was asked for my appointment letter/Courier info, Ds-160 confirmation, birth certificate (original), police report (original), passport photo and affidavit of support. with the affidavit he kept the form and a confirmation letter of employment but gave me back copies of wage stumps and tax return which he said weren't needed.
He also asked me if my middle name was James on my british passport, which i only found curious because i haven't had a british passport in 13 years ( irish passport holder now) and travelled to the states on it once in 2002 (just shows what they've got on file for you!). I wasn't asked for any photocopies of anything, which i brought but turns out you don't need! I then took a seat and waited for my number to be called again at a separate window.
Here I waited almost 40 mins to be called again then went up to the second window where I was asked "where did you meet?" "how often do you see each other?" "when did you last spend time together?" She then asked me (and i was dreading this part...) "have you ever been denied entry on the esta program?" which I was back in October of last year at dublin pre-clearance, and it's the one thing that been giving me the most trepidation about this whole process. but I just replied honestly and said "yes, back in October" she then asked "have you ever overstayed on the esta program?" to which I replied "No, we've always been very careful not to." then she flipped through my application and typed stuff on her computer for like another minute and then said "congratulations, I'm pleased to say we can approve you today, Your visa should be with you in 7-10 days"...i almost collapsed in relief! :-D
I looked at my watch on the way out the door and was surprised that the 2nd part of the interview took less than ten mins lol
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #26171