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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on December 3, 2009: |
Jay&Jo
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My appointment was for 9.30, but i arrived at the embassy at like 8.30, sort of naivly thinking they'd slot me if i got there early... it doesnt work like that i dont think! haha.... i ended up sitting in the waiting room for that first hour being unnecessarily nervous!
being in that waiting room is sort of like being in an Argos nightmare (british people will get that link!) you have to wait for your number to be called then proceed to the specified window. it was 9.40 when my number was called... so i went to like window 14 or something, and oh my gosh, i was so nervous! so first the man asked for my passport and appointment letter. then i had to scan in my fingerprints, and my hands were so shakey, i thought he wouldnt be able to get an accurate read of them! so then i was asked to go and pay for the visa... $131, which i thought was odd seeing as they hadnt even properly approved me yet. hmmmm... so then i went back to window 14, and this was the bit i was most nervous about... handing in all my documents!! so i handed over my birth certificate (+ copy), police certificate (+ copy), 2 passport photos, the I134, tax transcript, letter from employer and one of Jay's most recent pay stubs. i actually bought a bunch of other supporting evidence for Jay's I134 which wasnt needed. ah well... so i was given a pink courier slip to fill out while i was waiting, and i went and sat down. by that time it was 10am.
so i sat and waited... i tried reading my book... i bought a quite nice starbucks coffee for £1.50, which ran straight through me and i had to go to the loo like 3 times in the space of an hour... seriously. i chatted with a nice man about his his visa process... but eventually just got more and more nervous... at 11.20 my number was finally called again. i was praying my heart out they hadnt found any mistakes on our forms or with our documents! but i went up to another window and it was the quickest "interview" ever. i had to sign a form, declare that all the information i'd given was true, explain how i first met jay.. and that was it!! i was slightly disappointed i didnt get to talk more about jay really... haha.. im missing him, and was prepared to talk about how great he is, and how excited i am to be his wife!
so then came the hard bit... i had this loudspeaker in my ear blaring out which number needs to go to which window, and i couldnt really hear what the CO was telling me right at the end. something about "holding on to my passport... 3-5 days... dont open the file...." that was the part that worried me after and i wish i'd asked him to repeat himself. but i've been reassured (by other VJers) that my file and passport gets courriered back to me, and that the file is to be kept sealed for POE. so i paid the courrier and sort of wondered what to do next... no one told me i could leave, so i sort of aimlessly wandered out and assumed i was allowed to go.
overall.... its a lot of panic over nothing!!!!! my experience is that it doesnt matter how many times you hear someone say "its not a big deal" its only when you go through it yourself that you really believe it! i overprepared big time but that made me feel more confident going into it, because i was pretty sure i had all bases covered 
so thats that... *yaaaaaaaay* i can get married now
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #5349