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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on June 30, 2021: |
MarieJames
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I arrived in London yesterday at 9:45 for my 11:30 appointment. I was feeling nervous and decided to go straight to the embassy, so I arrived at 10:00 and sat nearby since I was extremely early. I waited outside for about 45 minutes, and at 10:45 I asked if I would be allowed inside. He asked to see my printed email confirmation and my passport to sign me in, but told me to wait outside until 11:00.
At 11:00 I went to the door to go through security. The door is locked, so you have to wait and stand there until they come to get you. They made me unlock my phone and open an app before I was allowed inside. Then I emptied my pockets and put my bag in a basket to be scanned. Then I walked through the metal detectors. They asked me to take a sip out of my drink, and a pen in my bag must have looked suspicious on the scanner because they made me take it out of my bag to show them.
Then I left security and went inside the main building. I went straight to the 2nd desk and told them I was there for a K1 visa interview. She asked to see my email confirmation again, put a sticker with a number on it, and then told me to go to floor 1 and take two lefts.
I went into the lift, pressed floor one, and it opened into an open room with seats everywhere. I walked to the left to the end of the room and then took another left. The waiting area is at the end of the corridor. It had several booths that you go up to once your number is called on the screens. There were only a few other people inside. A couple people were sitting down waiting and two more were already at the booths.
I sat there for about 7 minutes before being called up to booth 22. The man at the counter asked for my passport, my birth certificate, my police certificate, my partner's updated letter of intent to marry (he didn’t need to see mine), the affidavit of support and supporting documents, and one passport photo. Then he took all of my fingerprints on a scanner. He also gave me my medical info that was on a disk in an envelope. We brought three years of tax returns and a contract providing evidence of my fiancé's current income, but he only took the 2020 tax returns. He then asked when I was planning on traveling to America and he told me that I had until the 9th of December (exactly 6 months after my medical). I was also given a piece of paper titled "Legal Rights Available to Immigrant Victims of Domestic Violence in the United States and Facts About Immigrating on a Marriage-Based Visa" and asked me to read through it.
I was told to sit back down and wait for my number to be called again for my interview. I waited for about 30 minutes before I was called up again to booth 20. I walked up to the counter and was asked to hold up my right hand so I could take an oath. The whole interview portion was very casual, and it felt more like a conversation or small talk. I explained that we first met through an online game, and then met up in person for the first time as friends when she came to visit family in the UK. She asked a couple follow up questions and wanted to know whether or not we were dating when we first met in person. We weren't yet, but we started dating soon after and then went on to visit each other many times after that. She also asked a couple follow up questions about what my fiancé does for work since she is self-employed, and made some jokes that she was "in the wrong field". The interviewer seemed to only want yes/no answers to most of these questions. I felt like I would need to explain in much more detail, but just "yes" was a sufficient answer to "Have you gone to visit?"
The interview questions:
1. How did you meet?
2. Where did you meet in person?
3. Were we a couple when we first met?
4. Has your fiancé visited you in the UK?
5. Have you visited her in the US?
6. Where does your fiancé live?
7. Does she live with her parents?
8. What does she do for work?
9. What do you do for work?
10. How do you plan to get married?
11. When did you decide to get married?
After asking those questions she told me I was approved and that I'd receive my passport back with the visa in 1-2 weeks. They gave me back some of the documents that they didn't need to keep and also a piece of paper that resembled a business card with the information about what I'll be sent and where to track it. They will mail me my passport containing the visa and also a paper envelope that I am not allowed to open. The whole process inside the embassy took less than an hour. It was very simple and easy.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #29795