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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #2923

London, United Kingdom Review on May 28, 2008:

Eli the Barrowboy




Rating:
Review Topic: K1 Visa

You know the story about the young man who arrives in London, it's raining so he goes for one pint in a great pub with great music and company, decent beer, a log fire? Well, gather round and I'll tell thee. The young man in question, his fiance, his sister and her fiancee go to the pub at 4pm, promising to leave by 6pm. Or rather, they say they're going to leave at 6pm but time slips away and they find it's 1am, they are all pretty drunk and have to get up at 6am for a rather important interview. Well, folks, that foolish young man was me.

And so it was, Mercedes and I arrived for the 9am interview at around 8.30am, took our place in the line, hung-over and on about 4 hours of sleep .... which is something I don't recommend. At 9.01am we made it into the embassy, got our ticket (Mercedes came into the Embassy with me) ... Welcome Ticket 5018. And we waited. And waited. And waited.

The waiting room was awash with people and while they were flying through the 1000's, only Windows 1 and 13 were dealing with immigrant visa - the 5000's. I thought I'd get Window 13 for sure but my luck held and, two hours later, I got called to Window 1, huge grin across my face.

The Homeland Security lady was an Asian woman and the more I spoke with her the more I thought she was the Asian doctor from Bentnick mansion's mother. You all know what I mean. She spoke quietly and abruptly through glass, not at you but into the table, and the PA is blasting "Could Ticket number ..." in the background. It doesn't make for a relaxing chat ...

She looked over my documents in the following order ... divorce certificate, police record, birth certificate, finances. She looked at Mercedes' Affidavit of Support and said it was below poverty level (she is full-time student) so I showed her Mercedes' mom's additional support and then my own - house deeds, estate agents letter, letter from bank, etc. After some confusion about where the bank deeds were ("They are there ... in your hand"), she asked if I wanted to self-sponsor and I said "Sure". She said the dates that I gotten wrong on previous visits didn't matter and actually said I had a very interesting education and career ... which she thought was admirable.

Then she brought up the issue of my previous green-card - gulp. She had my original visa application - 13 years later I was shocked to see that - in my file and asked my why I didn't just stay then. I told her the reasons - first she smiled (kindly) when I told her about deaths in the family, then she seemed to get a bit peeved (the glass and noise makes it hard to read emotions) and said "just forget about it". She really did get annoyed that the finger print machine wouldn't read my prints, told me to go get my visa receipt and bring it back to her, gave me my chest x-ray and then sent me back to wait, grin wiped off my face.

By now I was worried. I didn't think it had gone well and seeing the old green-card made me suddenly aware that this wasn't just a formality - this could all go horribly wrong.

It about 15 minutes later I got called to Window 16 (only 16 and 15 were doing 5000s) and I was expecting the worse, as you do ... or as I do anyway. The second interview was conducted by a cool American guy who, shock horror, apologised that I had to wait for so long which instantly relaxed me.

He made me swear I was telling the truth in my submission and I duly obliged. He then asked me how I met Mercedes and that was the end of the interrogation. We talked a little about my work (but not in an official capacity, just out of interest really I guess) and then he said that, pending security checks, the visa would be issued in 3-5 working days and that we were already on day 1. I told him that he had just made two people very happy and he said that that was good to hear. With that I went and paid the courier service and we were out of there at 11.42. Job done.

For those of you still in the process, the approval comes so fast it's like you're jumping of a fair ride. You go from 150 RPM to 0 in a split second ... it's all over so quick that it leaves your head reeling and 24 hours later it still hasn't sunk in ... I guess I'll believe it when I get my passport back.

So there you have it. 8 months of worry, 3 hours to conclude. If I never see a DS-230-Part 1 again it will be too soon. Until AOS that is, then the whole crazy ride begins again. Now, on AOS form I-864 Question Six, do I leave that blank or what? Lol.

R






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