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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on April 21, 2023: |
mbaldwin27
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
My appointment was at 8:30am and as this was the culmination of a long visa journey I made sure to get there early. At 7:30am I was outside and there was no queue so I went off to find a coffee, took me quite a walk to find one but turns out there is a cafe in the opposite direction, whoops.
I get back at 8:15am and wow there is a queue almost around the block. I understand from reviews here that as you have an appointment you are entitled to jump the queue (painful to any Englishmen) so went to someone who worked there who did not get it and said I need to go back of the line. This is something I've read a few times here and yes it still happens. I wasn't out of politeness miss my appointment so asked someone else and got moved to the front, my tip is to stand slightly to the side of the desk and catch their eye.
You get herded in groups of 5 to the security desk and its just like an airport. Shoes and belts off and to be honest the security staff (G4S contractors I think) are pretty surly and shouty if you dawdle. Once you are through though everyone is sweet as pie. I checked in again at a desk and followed instructions to take the lift to a particular floor, turn left, go around the corner and sit down. You get a number and you just wait for it to be called up. It's me and two other people waiting in a room that could hold maybe 30.
I wait 5 minutes and my number is called. I go up to a kiosk with a window between us, she asks for some documents (bearing in mind I had 120 pages with me) out of my packet. Wedding certificate, birth certificate and some other items I'm trying to recall. Slight panic as I had uploaded my shortform birth certificate but brought instead my longform one, she says its fine. She motions me to sit down so I do. Another 5 minutes later I'm called to a different window and a man now asks me some questions. "When did you get married?", "Where will you live?", "When were you last in the US?" It was a blur, might have been 3 minutes or so of questions. Clearly he knows the answers but checking I remember them! Then he says "OK Sir your visa is approved."
There it is folks, the culmination of 2 1/2 years of forms.
Overall the Americans at the embassy are very sweet and understand its a stressful time and that you'll be nervous. The British security staff yeah not so much. It's a lovely building too.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #32013