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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on May 20, 2008: |
Saffyre
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
After trying desperately to get some sleep on Sunday night, I eventually gave it up at 3am and got out of bed. I felt awful, I had a lousy sore throat and blocked nose and felt so tired that walking was an effort, but despite all that, I was still sort of excited. I mean this was what i'd been waiting for!!
I chatted to Toby on the phone for an hour while I got dressed and ready and left my house a little after 5am to be at the train station and on my train by 6am. I was early! I got there at 5.30am and sat around as a guy who must have been around 60 years old decided to chat me up. It was so funny, he used the line 'Do you come here often?' He backed off when I told him exactly why I was going to London -but not until after he'd moved up three seats to sit right beside me and breach my personal space. He was close enough for me to see that he had hairs growing out of his ears! YUCK!
Anyway - I had a first class ticket on the train (not because i'm loaded but because it was all they had left when I booked)and I settled down with my trusty iPod and lots of free coffee and biscuits.
When I arrived at Kings Cross and headed for the Victoria line tube station I was expecting chaos, but it really wasn't bad at that time in the morning (7.30am)
Anyway....I am rambling. I got to the embassy at 8am and a nice lady directed me to stand in the line for people with 9am appointments. There were only two people ahead of me at this time. There were about 15 in the 8am/8.30am line and it was moving fast. They handed me a bag for my electrical items and by 8.30am i'd already passed through security and was walking into the Embassy building. The security men were all really friendly and even cracked jokes about my funky coloured socks when I had to roll up my jeans to show them my ankles!
When I got inside a woman gave me a ticket that said '5011' and told me to go and take a seat. There were SO many people in therer i was shocked.
Windows 1-11 were for the first part of the interview and then around the corner window 12 was for payments and then windows 13 - 25 were for the consular official interviews.
At around 9.15 I was called to window 1 where a lady asked me for my passport, and my passport photo's. She stuck them onto the DS 156 and then passed me my xray in a huge envelope. Then she asked for my birth certificate (plus one copy and my police certificate(Plus a copy)and my I-134. The ONLY other thing she asked for was a letter from Toby's employer which I handed over. No pay stubs, no tax returns, nothing! She then told me to go and pay for my visa and come back. When I got back she handed me a form for the courier and told me to fill it out ready for when I had my second interview. She then took my finger prints and got very mardy when she struggled to get a print because my hands were cold so the reader wasn't getting a good print!
I went and sat back down and at 10.10am I was called for my second interview. The lovely lady behind the counter was smiling from the start and asked me how I was doing - I told her I was nervous, and she said there was no need to be, she just wanted to ask me a couple of things.
She asked me to raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth. She took my prints again just from one hand and then asked me the following:
How did we meet? Internet initially, but in person one week later
What we both do for a living? I am a recruitment consultant, and he is a computer network engineer. I joked that he calls himself a computer geek and she laughed and said 'aren't most guys?'
Then she asked how he proposed - New years eve just before I came back to the UK
Then she smiled and told me that she was delighted to tell me I had been approved, and then said 'Welcome to America'
I skipped out of there and called and texted everyone I knew.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #2889